Blog - Flixic

Should a Designer Have His Own Signature Style?

Some designers have their own very unique “signature style” and stick to it. Whether it’s grunge, minimalism or colorful, they don’t deviate from it. Their portfolios have a clear message — “that’s my style, if you want something like that, contact me”. Their clients are aesthetic-driven and their work is aesthetic-focused. Their skill is in visual craft that they perfected over years. Their work is shared and they are seen by many.

Others try no to have one style. They might do something minimalist for one project and something very cute for another. That’s because their work is goal-focused and their clients are experience-driven or previous-clients-driven. Their portfolios doesn’t have a very clear visual message, but they are able to explain why particular choices there made to better suit client’s goal. Their skill is in communicating the message, however they do not try to perfect their design skills in only one style. Their work is sometimes invisible, and at times only other designers are able to truly appreciate it.

It can’t be said that one things is better than other — some might say that latter keeps the promise of design, however former designers manage client’s expectations better.

So I would like you to express your own opinion: should a designer have his own style and try to stick to it, or is it better to be only goal-focused and treat visual style as only part of the message? And to what extent? In which camp do you see yourself and what is your experience? Advantages / disadvantages?

I would really like to hear from you.

Changing Colors on Lekevicius.com

1 comment

My webcard at lekevicius.com got quite popular and was featured on number of web design galleries. Primary element on the page is huge open area with changing colors. In this post I will explain how to make similar effect yourself. Here’s demo of how it will look like.

Step 1: Get needed JavaScript Libraries

I used jQuery javascript framework and two plugins: Color animation and Timers. Timers are not necessary if you are real JavaScript ninja, because it’s quite simple to do same thing with native javascript timeout function. However, for the sake of simplicity, I will use timers plugin.

Step 2: Put these things in your <head>

Create new file where you will write your custom JavaScript. Then, put something like that in your <head>:

<script src="scripts/jquery.js" type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8"></script>
<script src="scripts/jquery.color.js" type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8"></script>
<script src="scripts/jquery.timers.js" type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8"></script>
<script src="scripts/main.js" type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8"></script>

Step 3: Define colors that will change

We will not generate random color values, as that would likely result in some ugly looking colors. For this example we can take six very distinct colors, however you should pick nicer ones for real website. Also, you can enter as many colors as you want — more, the better, however, if they are too similar users might not notice that they are changing right away.

var color = new Array("#ff0000", "#00ff00", "#0000ff", "#ffff00", "#ff00ff", "#00ffff");

Step 4: Putting that in jQuery

$(document).ready(function() {
	var color = new Array("#ff0000", "#00ff00", "#0000ff", "#ffff00", "#ff00ff", "#00ffff");
	function changeColor() {
		$("body").stop().animate({backgroundColor: color[Math.floor(Math.random() * color.length)]}, 2900);
	}
	$("body").everyTime(3000, function () { changeColor(); });
	$("body").css("background-color","#ffffff");
	changeColor();
});

Here, we started with standard jQuery ready() function and entered our colors. Then we defined function that will change our colors: that function takes body element, makes a random number from 0 to the length of color Array, and animates it’s background over 2900 milliseconds. Finally, we make this function execute every 3 seconds, set initial background color (this can be done in CSS) and execute it for the first time (so page starts with a random color background every time).

It is very simple but nice technique. You can animate any background color without Flash.

If you want to see how it looks, check out the demo. And if you use this effect on your website, please leave link in the comments.

Grow: a sunny wallpaper

1 comment

I’ve been messing with Cinema 4D’s hair functions and came up with this one. Sunny and happy spring for everyone (:

Download 1920 x 1200
Download 1280 x 800

Stop Using Macbooks for Website Screenshots

2 comments

Making screenshot of a website look good is always difficult — websites are very flat thing, you can’t play with optics as if it were physical object. Some ways of making it appear more physical are very unpractical and just too superficial. One of these is slapping your design onto an image of a Macbook.

Some time ago it was very popular to use tilt-shift focus and perspective on screenshots. Many were inspired by print-like look on Dave Shea’s portfolio (now he uses regular screenshots). However, such effects just obfuscates the actual content of the image.

Now it is very popular to put screenshot onto image of a computer. Laptop, preferably. Macbook, even more preferably. It’s getting so common I really feel the need to point it out. Why is it so bad? For the same reason as before — it just obfuscates the content! Instead of showing a website screenshot, you are showing a Macbook. That’s great for Apple, and it makes your design look better thanks to Apple’s great design, but it doesn’t benefit any need of the user.

Have a look at this size comparison. Original image from Daniel Mora tumblog (also note the gloss and not matching reflection*):

In this image I took actual website screenshot’s area are and put it to on overall image size:

Website’s actual screenshot takes less than half of the image area! Turns out you are showcasing Macbook more than your own creation. This is just simply wrong — if you let your design be sweetened by Apple’s design in such an unhealthy proportion, you are also sending a message to your visitor that says “Look at this Macbook and also my own design on it!”

Stop using Macbooks (and other laptops) for your website screenshots and don’t put gloss over it. Showcase your design, not Apple’s.

* — Worth mentioning is the fact that Daniel did use a standard screenshot below macbook. Many who use Macbook-technique doesn’t. And yet, alternative screenshot is not quite an excuse for using this unnecessary Macbook image.

One Button Games

1 comment

Simplicity of controls can dramatically increase addictiveness of the game. Being game creator I love to see what makes other games greatly addictive. Most of the time, it’s controls. Simpler, the better. And there is nothing more simple than just one button. I call this type of controls “one-dimensional”, since user’s actions can be seen as just one line — the button is either pressed or not. There is no pointing device, no multiple keys, just — One Button.

Challenge here is to actually come up with idea — how can you make a game that is fully controled by just one input. User character’s interactions are strictly limited to just single action, usually jump, hit or choose something. Environment should bring some obstacles that are entirely focused on that single action user can actually take.

Such games are very simple to make and play, but number of ideas you can think of is somehow inherently limited. So in this post I would like to show some examples of such games. You will see for yourself that simplicity is deceiving, therefor I am not responsible if you spend a lot of time playing these (:

Canabalt

One of the most inspiring examples done beautifully by Adam Atomic. I bought this game for my iPhone and still can’t stop playing it whenever I have to wait more than a minute (: Everything is controlled by one button (X or C on computer, tap on iPhone), press to jump, when you fail — press to restart. It’s fast, mechanics are simple, there is no story, purely minimalist gameplay. Insanely good and addictive. By the way, I got 6280.

Helicopter

Another great example is classical helicopter game. Hold button to go up, release to go down, don’t hit walls. This has been done by many, and it’s difficult to make it wrong.

Rat on Scooter

Rat on Scooter (link is to demo video on YouTube, it’s iPhone game) is a mixture between Canabalt and Helicopter because while gravity applies more or less normally, it’s easy to adjust jump height. Once again, controls are one-dimensional. Tap to jump, and that’s all. Developed by Donut Games, I really enjoyed it.

Catapult games

Also, pretty much every catapult game is one-dimensional: click to start, release to launch, wait and watch, repeat. Very simple, only one button needed. Screenshot is from Crush the Castle by Armor Games, and while it is not this simple (you can choose type/weight of stones), it demonstrates the concept nicely.

Do you know any other games that can be controlled mostly by one button? I would appreciate ideas in the comments (: