Year round learning for product, design and engineering professionals

Video Ristretto: Wayne Thompson – Beyond Helvetica

With the full program for Respond 17 now out, this week’s Video Ristretto reprises the talk given by Wayne Thompson at our Direction conference in November last year, as he is again on the schedule for Respond. Once you see this talk, you’ll quickly see why we wanted to get Wayne back, this time in […]

Simon Pascal Klein – Setting standards-friendly web type

Simon Pascal Klein PortraitWeb typography has in the past two years seen a resurgence in interest and many would agree only rightly so, with most of the content on the web still textual. However the range of technical options available for setting type on the web is quite broad—not to mention the range of stylistic choices available—and often confusing. This session aims to demystify the current techniques available to set type on the web by comparing and contrasting the various options at hand while offering a set of good defaults and safe advice for not only making it accessible but also pleasurable to read.

Mark Boulton – Designing grid systems

Mark Boulton PortraitGrid systems have been used in print design, architecture and interior design for generations. Now, on the web, the same rules of grid system composition and usage no longer apply. Content is viewed in many ways; from RSS feeds to email. Content is viewed on many devices; from mobile phones to laptops. Users can manipulate the browser, they can remove content, resize the canvas, resize the typefaces. A designer is no longer in control of this presentation. So where do grid systems fit in to all that?

Jeff Croft – Elegant web typography

Web Directions South 2008, Sydney Convention Centre, September 25 2.40pm.

Jeff Croft PortraitEven in our day of web videos and podcasts, text is still the king of content on the web. Great typographic sensitivity is one of the hallmarks of sites that exude a professional confidence. From type sizing and coloring to leading, kerning, and measures to proper usage of quotes, dashes, and bullets, to choosing appropriate typefaces, this session will demonstrate using CSS and other modern web technologies to display type on screen with elegance and impact.

Kimberly Elam – Five Essential Composition Tools for Web Typography

A presentation given at Web Directions North, Vancouver Canada, January 30 2008.

Kimberley Elam PortraitHave you ever seen a web site so clear, logical, and exquisitely composed it made you stop in your tracks? Have you wondered how the designer achieved such a stunning and cohesive design?

In this presentation, Kimberly Elam, designer and author of the best-selling “Geometry of Design” and “Typographic Systems” will reveal the mysterious relationships between proportion, visual systems, composition and aesthetics.

Too often excellent conceptual ideas suffer during the process of realization, in large part because the designer did not understand the essential visual principles. This presentation explores these elements and how they work by examining how the use of visual principles informs, even creates, beauty in typographic design, but, more importantly, how you can use these techniques to create cohesiveness in your own design. The wide range of visual examples are both informative and insightful, and any designer can benefit from learning or revisiting the rules governing the basics of typographic design.

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Three days of talks, two of them in the engineering room. Web Directions you have broken my brain.

Cheryl Gledhill Product Manager, BlueChilli