Digital Amour

In his article, “How to Create Your Best Layouts” (October issue of .Net Magazine), Eliot Jay Stocks hints that the growing presence of art direction in web design is a sign of maturation for the online community.  Stocks explains, “If there’s one area in web design I find exciting right now, it’s the concept of art direction being injected into the way we approach layout: something that, until recently, was sadly lacking in our online world.”  As evidence of the increasing role of art direction, Stocks highlights three designers and their sites — all enjoyable and worthy of passing along.  Jason Santa Maria, Dustin Curtis, and Greg Wood, all bring a visual uniqueness and stunning approach to each individual blog entry on their sites.  Their individual formulas of words and art combined in all three sites, tell stories much greater than either copy or art alone.  Eliot Jay Stocks adds, “Of course, art directing every single page isn’t something that can be applied to all websites…But it goes to show that layout on the web is finally growing up and we’re starting to achieve something that print design has enjoyed for years.”

Thank you, Eliot, for bringing these three designers to our attention — It sounds (and looks) like our little one is growing up nicely.