Topic 1: Dude, this is the coolest~

Daydream Graphics

Visual design pulls me into any website I where I spend more than 30 seconds of browsing. There may be amazing information on it, but a flat white background gets a little tiring on the eyes. And the lack of properly composed images tends to make me feel like the author of the site I have just visited didn't really care what their information looks like. So why should I?

I am an artist, first ad foremost, so an over appreciation of design [and functionality] is very important to me, and almost impossible for me to ignore. I appreciate detail, right down to the last pixel.

Daydream Graphics isn't necessarily a single website that I find 'cutting edge'. It is, to me, digital barrel-full of inspiring eye candy. Daydream Graphics is about anime-inspired website design templates, created by a plethora of freelance and just-for-fun designers who are part of a movement of very specific web designers.

These designers are about colors, form, and composition.

At least most of them. Since anyone who creates a web template can submit to this site, sometimes you get some really shoddy stuff. This is not the eye-candy I have previously referred to.

What inspires me the most about the website designs I see when browsing around Daydream Graphics, is a strong grasp of composition. Presentation is such a huge driving force in almost all of the designs I can find in here.

So for example[those of you with WordPress accounts can login to view this sample], Whisper by artist Starfire, starts off by presenting the viewer with a beautiful piece of illustration. This acts almost like a splash page without actually having to create a separate page to introduce the site. This has become its face. [And a cute and pretty one too, I might add!] Graphic design embellishments surround it and an organic dip in the image near the bottom leads the viewer's eye lower, to where the content begins.

In the content section, there is no simple background, as opposed to the clean white look of the rest of the page. The content looks almost like girly, pink lined notebook paper, and each line of text aligns exactly on top of those lines. The navigation on the left is long, and as the User scrolls down, appears quite accessible as they browse over the content of this page, which is presented in a simple and clean way.

This overall composition inspires me because of the simple and clean feel of the white background with a line of colorful content down the center, the swirl brushes around the anime girl at the top, the linear yet organic feel of the page, the warmth I feel when looking at the shades of pink strung neatly from top to bottom. It is just a solid piece of work, visually.

CSS is the main engine that drives this pretty-in-pink page, and it is easy to read when viewing the source. Which just goes to show how flexible the power of CSS can be.

Another example of an artistic website design can be seen here in What I've become by artist ShadowFire.

The strong design of a website is just as important as the content, and just as important as the code that powers it. It's like the success of any project; Strong advertisement to promote it + A sincerely strong product = Success of said product. Both are needed to make a rewarding site.