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Elegance in Web Design

Elegance in Web Design – and Graphic Design in particular – is another important attribute we really want to pay attention to, meaning to not only consider elegance as a sort of decoration but rather integrate it as an essential part of our online communication. We need websites and blogs that ‘talk’ , that ‘attract’ and ‘captivate’ – especially when it comes to images, ads and web graphics. So let’s look into how we can achieve exactly this.

Living that close to Nature and considering it my most graceful teacher, I am often stunned by the aesthetic beauty of apparently simple things. Actually, I have come to the conclusion that Elegance has a lot to do with Balance and Harmony.

I thought of this today when watching these beautiful, extremely long-tailed sunbirds – considering their tiny size – hovering in perfect balance over sumptuous red flowering gums in my garden – high up in the wind! What a perfect example – and luckily I had my Coolpix P90 for some great digital photos. These pictures inspired me to write an article on “Elegance” which I had foreseen for my Web Design Consulting Publication.

Elegance in Web Design

When thinking of Elegance in Web Design, we want to first define what it actually means – so we get a clear understanding.

Wiki describes it as “… the attribute of being unusually effective and simple. It is frequently used as a standard of tastefulness, particularly in the areas of visual design and decoration. Elegant things exhibit refined grace and dignified propriety.

Some westerners associate elegance with simplicity and consistency of design, focusing on the main or basic features of an object, its dignified gracefulness, or restrained beauty of style.

Others understand the word in an opulent light as in tasteful richness of design or ornamentation “the sumptuous elegance of the furnishings.”

The proof of a mathematical theorem is considered to have mathematical elegance if it is surprisingly simple yet effective and constructive; similarly, a computer program or algorithm is elegant if it uses a small amount of intuitive code to great effect^.

In engineering, a solution may be considered elegant if it uses a non-obvious method to produce a solution which is highly effective and simple. An elegant solution may solve multiple problems at once, especially problems not thought to be inter-related.

In chemistry, chemists always look for elegance in formulations as well as effectiveness in dosage form design.

Visual stimuli are frequently considered elegant if a small number of colors and stimuli are used, emphasizing the remainder.”

Now here we have some significant keywords pertaining to Elegance that all point us into a clearly defined direction when approaching our Web Design or Graphic Design:

Simplicity
Effectiveness
Tastefulness
Grace
Restrained beauty of style.

And coming back to our little feathery friend – it’s all there… and this is where Nature surprises and astonishes us all the time, it’s what makes it serene and what resonates with us as deep inside where we know that all is ONE.

If we manage to express these feelings with our Artwork, we touch, we communicate and we captivate; then our goal as graphic designers is attained.

Learn Adobe Photoshop at Weekly Ycademy Trainings

If you wish to learn Adobe Photoshop join our weekly Ycademy Trainings where we teach basic principles and techniques and where we also show you how to integrate important elements into your Web Design – like Elegance.

Ycademy Trainings are hands-on with step-by-step guidance to allow all participants to advance and produce web graphics they can be proud of. The results after just a few sessions were astonishing! There’s nothing like getting a grip on something that seemed so far away – if not impossible – and then producing one’s “own stuff”! Yes! You can!

The next Ycademy Training is on Thursday at 7 pm London time.

Author: Bianca Gubalke, Art, Media, Publishing.Co-Founder of YORGOO, YCADEMY and Semiomantics.If you enjoyed reading the above, please consider following future tips and strategies by RSS reader, Email delivery, or Kindle subscription.