Play.

I am sick of people saying that there is a lack of design innovation on the web. I hear it a lot more than you would think. The web is still young and constantly evolving. When something special does happen, it’s not always easy to pick it out and see the potential.

Jason Santa Maria and Ryan Sims are two designers that are using art direction to create a unique layout around every piece they publish. This has forced them to think about their message and choose the best way to present it rather than build a generic layout that treats all content the same. This conceptual shiﬅ could be revolutionary if applied to a major online publication like The New York Times.

Progression like this doesn’t come from client or feature requests, but from the desire to to experiment, explore, and to play. These sites won’t change the world, but their ideas will. Evolution will happen when other designers spot the potential, transform it, and apply it in new ways.

My turn

I’ve never taken enough time to play with my design. I’m hoping that by applying concepts like regular art direction and the exploration of other mediums to this site, something good will happen. I don’t care about the results; it’s the journey that interests me.

So, let’s play.

The rules…

At least one post per month for one year.
Each post has a new design based around the content.
Content can be anything.
Each concept must be different than the last.
It does not need to look the same in all modern browsers.
Adherence to web standards is not required.
Experiments are encouraged.