Graphics

The graphics area has been working hard to get some content out to you, with this we have introduced 'Artistic News' with some information to back that up. The faking area has been growing, you can thank Easl for that development! We also have very different articles from graphics of the issue to a mysterious article about a street artist. The good thing is, you should definitely not be leaving disappointed! Have a good read!

Fatalysm

Artistic News and Information - Fatalysm

Artistic News Information

Artistic news is mixed information about art/design/graphics, the most interesting information is collected from all across the web. and served into one big article called 'Artistic News'. The artistic news will keep you updated and interested in all the latest goings on and happenings within art/design/graphics. The information inside the article can be completely mixed, from hand drawing to the latest news in pixel related art. To top off the article images will be available to really set an image up in your head.

Thank you for reading.

Artistic News

Digital Artist of the Year Competition - This competition is a simple way of celebrating the digital movement and it's artists. It's a brand new competition starting on April the 6th. It's probably going through your mind now that you can't enter, it is only going to be professionals. Well we were surprised to hear that it's open to anyone from those new people starting out or even those in the industry. The competition ends on the 31st of August and winners are announced in october! - Digital arts awards.

Barack Obama Design Posters! - The Obama campaign poster found here created by contemporary artist Shepard Fairey has been named as "Brit Insurance Design of the Year". He won over six others with his poster which became a huge assosciation with Barack Obama's campaign for United States president. Click here for some more information about Shepard Fairey and his advertising campaign poster.

Design Policies - Jan Stavik, the head of the Bureau of European Design Associations has said that European political focus of the company, should give more jobs to designers! This has been said after Jan Stavik replaced Michael Thomson as 'beda' president. More information on this can be found here.

Thanks for reading!

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Special Report: Function Follows Form? - By: Reavwe

In the age of the internet, there are two components to the eye of the consumer. The first is function, how the website actually works, and how easy is it to do what you need the site to do. The second, is form, the design of the page, how it appeals to your visual senses. Essentially it's a co-operative project, as in any industry. It's the graphic artists and the programmers. It's the engineers and the designers. It's the Architects and the builders. But what happens when this process is broken?

A principle that was brought into effect around the 20th century is that of "Form follows function". This principle simply states that the shape of a building or object should be built around the intended purpose of the building or object. Typically this is the case. When looking to design an object, the framework needed is first determined and following that, designers make it visually appealing. But, in this age of mass collaboration, these basic principals are all but forgotten.

The origins of the phrase itself came from an American Architect, Louis Sullivan, who once said:

"It is the pervading law of all things organic and inorganic,
Of all things physical and metaphysical,
Of all things human and all things super-human,
Of all true manifestations of the head,
Of the heart, of the soul,
That the life is recognizable in its expression,
That form ever follows function. This is the law.”

But, does this ideal apply to the mass-less, shape-less, touch-less medium that is the World Wide Web?

Without the physical constraints of gravity and man-power the impossible is possible in this virtual world. A good websites allow us the ability to integrate seamlessly with this online community of consumers and producers as a third party, partially a consumer and partially producers. This “prosumer” intersect is capable of so much more than either of its parts. Instead of a rigid "design, produce, consume" linear progression, we can live in a circular cycle. But as useful as this is for production, we can easily lose the basic principles of design, and this leads to problems.

A perfect example of this can be seen within the Zune Journey site. It would seem their original goal would be to take the visitor through a Beatles style music video. They fail miserably. The first thing you notice when you reach the page (If you even reach the page, many people don’t have the latest version of flash and wouldn’t be able to see the page – another example of form over function) is that the navigation opens to a colourful pull-out explodes from the Zune.

Click it once, hoping it will open into a page with some content. Nothing happens, after a few seconds, it disappears again. Now you’re starting to catch on. The Zune menu on the left side is the navigation! Opening the music page, you’re confronted with a click and hold button. Okay, kind of cool; you rush through a land of rainbows, humming birds and butterflies. All which have nothing to do with music. After about three seconds of flying though this world, you ended up in podcast world. Wait, what? Wasn’t I looking at music? Where was the content? If you weren’t aware of what a Zune is, I would be thinking right now that it’s some kind of mind altering narcotic... or maybe an advertisement for some kind of tropical soft drink. You head back to the music sections; sure there must be something there.

Accidentally in heading back to the music section, you stumble upon a pull up menu at the bottom. Okay, but then what was this psychedelic world for? Nothing? Okay, well we’re here now so we might as well explore. You want to learn about music, so you press it again. Nothing changes. Okay, so let’s try video. Am you’re back in video world. Now after 5 minutes, you know nothing about the product, and you’re generally annoyed at the page. So you exit, deciding to simply Google the device, and find more information then you’ll ever need.

This brings us to the point. While design is all well and good, but it is necessary to keep use in mind at every stage of web design. The most important part of a website, the navigation, always should be well defined, and easy to use. Design the layout and banners as much as you want, but from a consumer view, it is crucial to have function in mind.

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