As I browse the web looking for innovative web design from random portfolio sites, lots of sites, although effective in communicating the visual idea, look the same. A lot of creative companies, in order to create designs that are easy to use and effective, use template systems and stick to it. As an artist and innovator, straying away from these types of template systems, unless its e commerce, is a standard in thinking. Part of the challenge as designers is to encapsulate the feeling, aesthetic and vision of a company into an online presence. Using a template created for “insert company name” is a cop out in my opinion.

The ability to take a brand and create a unique user experience is essential to creating the best solution possible for a company. Don’t get me wrong, I am a big fan of wire frames showing the customer the idea behind the design and inherent flow that goes along with the creative idea…Yet some websites fall into the cookie cutter aesthetic all too often. The sites we create look different, have a certain theme and institute some type of feel with their audience. This is the idea that continues to reflect positive results.

So where do we draw the line, good design takes time, but some companies want speed and perfection… How do we accomplish such innovation under such tight time constraints? The key is keeping your creative team as well as your clients happy with constant updates on progress and feedback. Estimate a time frame for a project before starting, this allows the time needed to create a winning design that will be both give your team the time needed to have fun with the project as well as not have you pulling your hair out when the client wants to see something faster than the original plan, rushing the creative.

Surprises within a project are only good if they involve shorter estimated time frames than originally estimated. All in all, its about creating something different than the average. There are so many new web technologies at our fingertips. The essential idea is to use what you need, don’t over power and create with the user in mind.

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The web has become a very interesting place with a multitude of different media flying around. Online games create a community of players to interact with and create a whole new digital life, while websites captivate their audiences with enhanced media usage and a creative flare. But as we sit, play, watch or interact, many fail to realize the depth of the media that they are enjoying.

Time and time again I run into the issue of having to explain my creative process to my clients. The creative mind works in such a way that people who are not creative or don’t think creatively, are not prone to understand the scope of a project or the detail involved in producing a creative project that is unique and successful.

As I sit in my office and take a break from the usual, playing world of warcraft as my 65 druid, yes I’m a geek, I can’t help but think about the depth of detail that is involved in producing such a game. WOW is one of the most unique online experiences I have ever well… experienced… the detail and vastness of the environments captivate me into believing that I am part of the world they have created.

We can take a cue from such games as web designers. Blizzard has successfully encapsulated a major audience which continues to grow every day. Countless people are poking around the world that they have created for the user and raking in a cool approximate 1.6 Billion a year. Now that signifies a success. So what are the cues we can take as designers, well we try to create the same type of feeling with our websites, flash animations or what have you… Bottom line captivate your audience. Take the time to add that extra detail, that small innuendo or reference to your creative vision.

Also don’t hesitate to enjoy the creativity that you create… I get this feeling everytime I create something that I love. I sit back, look into what I created and smile knowing that my mind came up with something that is so pleasing to the eye. Remember your professional titles of “Creative Professional” or “Graphic Designer” only mask the fact that your an artist at heart…but businesses don’t hire artists… So sit back relax, create and enjoy.

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I was writing in my sketch book last night and fell into the thought of how my brain comes up with creative ideas. Since I’m not a psychologist, I can only make claims as to how my ideas come to light, but feel that there are some essential ideas that I live by that help in stimulating my or creative thinking in general. One of the most important things is the love for what you do and always thinking about how to do better. Positivity is important idea to always have which stimulates fun loving ideas that excite the subject matter.

With regard to web creativity, it’s about setting a theme…a mood…each page on successful and captivating websites are visual experiences, challenging the reader to learn more about the content or company the site was created for. We hear this more and more that websites are no longer pages to display content, but rather a portal into the workings of a company, business, product or whatever the content might be. The mood that is set should encapsulate the mentality and focus of the company or content, a visual representation of their essential essence. Lets call it Essential Design Infusion.

In literal terms, fun, visually stimulating designs suggests a fun loving company not afraid to set a casual theme. Serious, structured, corporate themes suggest power and years of success. But where do these ideas stem from? We start with a logo, brand idea, a curve, a piece of clip art the client loves, any type of visual cue and run with it. This is our challenge as designers, to excite the brand or idea and interpret it into a visual experience that stimulates a presence.

Where does this visual interpretation come from…what is the mentality of the creative individual? Although each of our creative processes are different, most never tackle the subject, being very literal in their interpretations of design. Art Directors and Brand Stuarts set a structured idea and method to the madness in order to guide the creative minds working toward their goal. Although very important to developing innovative ideas, this is where we loose the spiritual aspect of design, art becomes business. Don’t get me wrong, as a Creative Director myself I am constantly changing, reviewing and setting structure to design, but at the heart of this thinking is a visual idea which is guided by a structured voice.

We learn the fundamentals of design in our schooling, content, form and layout principals, then set free to interpret any design or a idea into what we feel is the best visual representation. A line is drawn between artists and designers, yet designers are artists at the base of our being. No one sat back and told Pablo Picaso or Jackson Polick how to paint their works. Yet there are many important rules that go along with creative production and design that give way to structured designs that produce results. Polick was not trying to drive a business model, Graphic and Web Design is a product of a consumerist society. We artists have adapted to the changing times in order to survive in todays world. Artists become designers, creative professionals, creative machines making products come to life, creating movies that captivate their audiences, envisioning robust interactive experiences that leave a stamp in the mind of their viewers. This is our creative outlet, a new media in which to excite viewers and reclaim the infusion of art with society.

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Today designers are expected to be the jack of all trades. Knowing all of the most popular design programs is not enough. In an agency type atmosphere we are expected to shine with creative ideas with rapid execution of these ideas. In a corporate atmosphere designers are sometimes exploited for every skill they have. Getting pulled in all these different directions sometime hinders the art of our profession. We all do the best to meet all the standard set forth by our employers and succeed with new concepts and ideas on a day to day basis.

As web designers, we design for purpose, usability, the experiance that each page brings enhances the successfulness of our work. The ultimate goal is function and usability. Art meets technology with the consumer as our critics. Make it clickable… create with purpose and style.

-Matthew Cassella

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