The classicwfl.com redesign: motivations and themes in web design

So, the Classicwfl.com redesign has been up for a little while now (and the blog finally matches the rest of the site - I hate editing templates for CMSes I didn't originally code), and I would like to talk about the themes and motivations behind the redesign, especially considering how much exposure it has gotten recently.

Recently, as an artist, I have been preparing myself to do more photo manipulation pieces. My current inspiration is a concept usually approached by younger artists, because it can be relatively easy to express themes and interpret; blending artificial and organic. You can see one of my first pieces utilizing this theme here. I won't go into details regarding MY motivations for this form of expression, however; I'll let my work speak for itself once the new pieces and series manifest themselves in my portfolio. As far as this website design is concerned, I chose it because of a barrier I have found myself being all too aware of; designing websites that look, read, and function within the common nature of websites.

When I say that, I'm referring to a stereotypical structure, such as a basic header, menu, content, and copyright. While this design does stick to that theme to an extent, there are certain aesthetic choices that not only create a unique look and feel, but also make it more interesting to work with on the layout and usability end (while not being completely unapproachable to the novice surfer). I wanted the website to be as much an aesthetic presence as an informational presence.

Another problem I frequently found myself encountering was a lack of energy once I got to the point of doing content page layouts. I'd spend hours, or days coming up with the core themes for the splash/index page, only to slack off on the content layout because I was tired of thinking about it and just wanted to get it done. This time I didn't allow myself to shirk my responsibility as a presenter of content, and made a concerted effort to create an aesthetic content layout that is functional, too.

I guess now I'll touch on some of the numbers and technical details designers may be interested in. First, the typefaces.

Adobe Caslon is a beautiful serif typeface, and I've always enjoyed using it for all-caps headlines. I opted to use it for my main headings (now that I finally have it, thanks to Illustrator CS2 coming with the OpenType version) in a raster image format. I considered making use of sIFR, but chose not to for potential performance/stability reasons (I have a number of fans who use Linux, including myself, and sometimes Flash can cause stability issues). Since I rarely get visitors using anything other than Firefox, IE, Safari, or Opera, and am not focusing on mobile users, raster images will work fine for the headings.

The subhead typeface is Rosewood (another OpenType font - I'm using the filled sub-type). I recently fell in love with this typeface when I saw it used beautifully in US Cellular's recent print advertising (reminder: I work at a newspaper during the day as a print and web artist/developer). Tighten up the tracking and it really stands out for headlines. I'd never use it for body type or extended reading, however.

For the standard body type I went with the best serif typeface commonly available for web usage: Georgia. It is well readable and has enough strength to it that makes it well suited for extended readings without being uncomfortable, for the most part. I would like to also note that, were I going to go with a sans-serif body type, I would choose either Trebuchet or Tahoma. Trebuchet has a bit of love/hate amongst designers, but it is among the best available to web artists for extended text (and I HATE Arial).

Anybody familiar with print media will recognize the accent and link colors. I've loved utilizing magenta for links considering how well it stands out on both dark and light backgrounds, and cyan works equally well. This is a great lead in to something I'm sure a number of people are curious about: the boxes next to all links.

I wanted to avoid using standard underline conventions for links and mouseovers, but also wanted to ensure that the links didn't get lost and that the convention used would be easily recognizable. The result is something that makes it a LOT easier to scan a page hunting down links. I implemented the visual effect using simple css borders.

Code wise, I switched to XHTML 1.0 Strict, since I will need to get a little more motivated towards XML usage here in the near future for some web 2.0 (oops, I just used a buzzword) products I have in mind. I'm a little late in the game, but thankfully it was a simple transition from HTML 4 Strict. The best part? The site won't even render if there are errors - forced me to be really paranoid about my code. While I'm normally a standards nazi, I do make mistakes; this helps eliminate them.

Site was mocked up visually in photoshop, hand coded using Geany and HTML-Kit, and made manageable thanks to CSS and a little PHP.

-WFL

072108: Call for models

Looking for a model again for a new piece.

Once again, this one has some requirements that might make some uncomfortable.

I need a woman between the ages of 21 and 27 (unless you look young) willing to pose nude or in underwear. Your breasts and other naughty bits will be covered in the final piece (this is a photo manipulation). If posing in underwear, you will be wearing a strapless bra and thong panties that won't cover too much of your hips (you will be providing said wardrobe).

The piece isn't fully conceptualized yet, but if you are seriously interested, I will share details to you (I won't make you sign an NDA, but I do ask that you keep it hush hush until the piece is released). This piece will be sold in print form as well as be available on DeviantArt and my other art promotion resources. It may or may not be displayed in a brick & mortar gallery. The face will be pixelated, so if the model wishes to remain anonymous, that would be fine.

Models who wish to do some portfolio/headshots whom are applying will get such services free of charge (aside from printing costs if prints are requested).

If you are interested, e-mail me at wfl@classicwfl.com. Must be a resident of the Hannibal/Quincy area or be able to get here on a weekend before the end of August. Please send reference shots (you can be clothed, but bathing suit shots would be preferred).

Thanks.

-WFL

Spaghetti design: How to do graphic design in the newspaper industry

The world of graphic design isn't always glamorous, doesn't always include wild parties with rich clients, and certainly doesn't guarantee much money. This couldn't be more true for the newspaper industry.

The goal of this post is to help you get comfortable with flying by the wire, designing using your first instinct, and getting effective designs cranked out in 15 minutes or less.

Some of you may be coming from a background of college-educated design, which is perfectly fine. You'll have a leg up on some people, because odds are, you'll have done promotional design and some layout/cover designs for mock printed media. If you don't have that experience, though, fear not; you don't need it.

I myself am completely self taught, and spent my time focused on art before I took the burden upon myself to become an artist for a newspaper.

The key thing to know with designing for a newspaper is you rarely have the luxury of time; you've got to go with your first idea quick (assuming you are given any creative freedom - in my experience, sales reps like to think they are designers, as do the clients), whether it is perfect or not. The question you probably have on your mind right now is probably something along the lines of, "but what if I don't HAVE an idea?" No problem.

The best way to build good ideas is to grab a national newspaper, a local/semi local newspaper, and a few magazines (not too industry specific; Women's gossip magazines are great, or even Playboys). Skim through those, look at the typefaces, colors, and layout; this will be what you build from. Go over it again later, but look at the ads you found most striking with a little more attention, studying the content. Pay special attention to the header, and how the body text/information is cut down to fit in the ad space. Do the same for cover designs.

You'll need a little experience in logo design, too, so if you don't have any, just hit a site like Brands of the World and start looking at what is going on there (this will also be a great resource for vector logos for big-name products advertisers may be selling). Once again, study the branding style vs. product and the overall image.

Now that you've built a little background for yourself, you can start building ads quickly - but you aren't ready yet. First, you need to prepare a core set of typefaces to use. I myself have 3 sans-serif fonts I use regularly (Univers, Grotesque, and Helvetica for good measure), plus a few others. Always have at least one of the following; a Didone (Bodoni or Didot), a serif font that you like the all caps/small caps variations on, a good light sans-serif, a script font, and a heavy/black serif (slab or otherwise). Of course, you'll want a few good serif fonts, too - you could always go with the standards (Garamond, Sabon, Minion, Poynter), but don't be afraid to look elsewhere. Another decision you'll need to make is for the people who want a "Comic Sans" style font. There are a few out there - Chalkboard is used regularly in my office (I hate it, personally). To be honest, I'd recommend you instead choose a nice rounded font. VAG Rounded would be my recommendation, in that instance. Most people won't notice the difference between a rounded and a comic-style typeface.

Finally, if you've seen a typeface you like but aren't sure what it is, there is hope: WhatTheFont. I've made liberal use of this site, personally, and will attest to it's usefulness. You'll also want this for advertisers who want you to run something from a slick that you'd rather reset rather than scan and print (when you have the time).

Lastly, you'll need a good stock photo/art resource. If you've got the scratch, I seriously recommend StockXpert, but Jupiter Images has a number of lower-budget (or free) resources, too.

Now, you're set. Go forth and design as quickly as you possibly can, because while the newspaper industry is in this state, it can't afford to waste money on you spending hours on a single quarter-page ad that is only running once.

Fanning the flames: the death of the printed newspaper

Why, oh why, can't the industry itself quit lamenting over layoffs and job cuts, the role of blogs and online news, dwindling circulation, and start moving foward in the industry?

I want to fan the flames as much as possible. Of course, being someone who will still have a job (as opposed to sales reps, press crewpeople, and delivery staff), maybe even a better one after the changes happen, the sooner the better.

I don't mind waiting, but the longer I wait, the more stress I have to deal with as sales reps push meaningless advertising in a product with little metrics other than coupon clippers. Perhaps that's why sales reps fail so miserably to maintain online advertising sales with local advertisers; the model used for so long in print doesn't exactly show itself to be effective online, when we see hundreds of thousands of impressions but can count the number of clickthroughs on two hands (maybe including a few toes, for the really obnoxious advertising that forces a user to click a skip button).

Lets rejoice at the evolution of the medium, rather than lament the shedding of well-worn skin.

I'd like to close by linking to a number of blogs and articles by my constituents, who have words more eloquent than my own on the topic.

-WFL

Tempted and Future Excess: Post-CP-Article

I was recently written about in our local newspaper, and wanted to follow the article up with (a little more) discussion on the new release.

Tempted and Future Excess was conceived not only to rekindle something believed to be psychologically important (a catharsis, perhaps), but to also try to generate revenue. The idea was to try out Tunecore, a great service for musicians to distribute their works, and see if it would be viable.

Honestly, all I really care about is getting the name out. I'm glad the new E.P. is up on eMusic and Amazon, but the big one I'm waiting for is iTunes (they are still processing it, as far as I know). I personally prefer Amazon's service, and eMusic is great as well (yes, I have used both), but iTunes has the market, and being able to tell people "Yes, I'm on iTunes," is a great boon in my opinion. The real question is how quickly people will notice - and buy - my music on such services.

I think my best crowd will be on eMusic, given that it seems to receive avantgarde artists such as myself well. Beyond that, it is a haven for great independently produced music.

Anyway, enough with the marketing. Lets do some responses to the article itself.

"Will Leffert moves to the beat of his own drummers. His favorite drummers just happen to be, as he put, 'angry Germans banging on things.'"

Of course, I'm refering to Einsturzende Neubauten, the grandfathers of Industrial music. While I've heard a number of people use the above quote in a condecending context, I firmly believe that their style has revolutionized Industrial music and created something truly unique within a genre that tends to draw a lot of stagnation in tone and musicality. I personally remember being #1 on Christianmp3.com - which used to be a great resource for artists to reach the niche market in Industrial/Goth music - but finding the artists mimicing a poorly conceived variation on Front 242 and Ministry using pirated software and doing covers without copyright permission were right on my tails.

That same artist I refer to also signed to a small label, if I understand correctly. I have no idea if they have managed to sustain the fanbase they had.. well, wait, lets check their MySpace.

Nope, they've fallen to quite a small number.

Anyway, it is somewhat depressing to me, as an artist who cares about his works, to see poor quality creations make it to such lengths.

Not that I actually want to sign to a label myself. I like my freedom, honestly.

I'm rambling, aren't I? Oh well, next quote..

"With influences like those, it may seem like a bit of a shock to discover Leffert also pulls from classic composers like Holst and Vivaldi."

My classical influences may not be 100% apparent. In all actuality, I pull from Korsakov more than Holst, and perhaps Sibelius more than Vivaldi (however, if you listen to Nine Inch Nails, you'll definitely catch a rhythmic similarity to Vivaldi). However, the two composers mentioned in the article are well known, and I chose that as a bridge to people who may not be deeply familiar (or interested) in classical music.

"..he actually encourages fans to pirate his works and share them.."

I've been singing that song for a while. Artists like myself should really consider more creative means of promotion, considering our limited budget. I myself have known people to search various P2P networks for a genre to check out new bands, and I myself have been turned onto a few through such methods, too. You may think you are losing money through it, but remember - most of those people won't buy your music otherwise. I found Juggernautz from a friend who handed me a burned copy of their sole album, and I went out and bought it immediately afterwards. I was that impressed.

"For all of the things that set him apart, however, Leffert said he finds enjoyment in getting back to the basics and jamming with other musicians off the cuff."

If you love music, and love to create, learn your scales on a portable instrument. I can't tell you how much fun it is to just sit with another musician and improvise. I usually play with a couple older Hannibal residents - while they play chord structures from known classic songs or their own works - and make it up as I go along. If I know the song, I'll usually try to tie in the chorus theme somewhere, but otherwise, I just let my heart and fingers do the talking. Don't knock it till you've tried it.

That's all I wanted to touch on. For those of you looking for more technically focused blogs, I'll come up with something soon enough. Patience is a virtue.

-WFL