Jason Beaird
Jason Beaird is a designer and front-end developer with over ten years of experience working on a wide range of award-winning web projects. With a background in graphic design and a passion for web standards, he’s always looking for accessible ways to make the Web a more beautiful place. When he’s not pushing pixels in Photoshop or tinkering with markup, Jason loves sharing his passion for the Web with others.
Jason Beaird
In comparison to the fixed-versus-fluid debate , the argument about designing for particular screen resolutions has been quite tame these past few years. When designers say that a site is designed,... Read More
Back when we were looking at layout blocks done with pencil and paper , I explained that the outer rectangle we were designing within was the containing block. In print design, the containing block... Read More
Many typographic decisions are based on spacing. This is something that has always been true with printed type, and became applicable to web type with the advent of CSS. Regardless of whether... Read More
If you’re feeling so overwhelmed by the many resources available that even to contemplate starting a morgue file for inspiration is beyond you, take a few minutes to browse through those sites.... Read More
Most of what we’ve talked about thus far has been design theory. Theory’s helpful, but it can only take us so far towards understanding why some ideas work—and others don’t—in a... Read More
When you type text into any reasonably modern word processing program, even though your keyboard key shows that ubiquitous ASCII double quote symbol, you see nice “curly” opening and closing... Read More
Closely related to the idea of unity is the concept of emphasis or dominance. Rather than focusing on the various elements of a design fitting together, emphasis is about making a particular feature... Read More
Design theory describes unity as the way in which the different elements of a composition interact with one another. A unified layout is one that works as a whole rather than being identified as... Read More
In a figurative sense, the concept of visual balance is similar to that of physical balance illustrated by a seesaw. Just as physical objects have weight, so do the elements of a layout. If the... Read More
When most people think about grids, they think about engineering and architecture. However, the grid is an essential tool for graphic design as well, and the use of grids in website design have... Read More
Even from a nondesigner’s standpoint, defining a design that satisfies all the requirements I outlined previously is a simple task. It’s similar to making a phrase on your refrigerator with... Read More
