Over the last year or so I’ve grown to be a big fan of the writings of smashLAB’s Eric Karjaluoto.
His most recent piece, provocatively titled Fuck Style, is the latest in a list of very insightful commentary on design, the business of design and the role design plays in the world around us. Among other interesting topics. If you’re interested in design, I suggest giving his work a peek.
His latest also really, really got me thinking. Mainly because I’m in the midst of a pretty major redesign of the blueflavor.com site. A redesign that many will view as very personal and highly stylized—something that Eric seems very much against.
Where does style fit into strategic design?
If you were to skim Fuck Style or pull some of its more tasty sound-bites out of context, you might get the impression that Eric thinks there is very little room for style in good, usable, functional and strategically thought out design.
However, upon a deeper, more reflective read, you might get the sense, as I did, that style can be an important tool in achieving your goals. It just depends on what those goals are.
Eric talks quite a bit about separating “the personal” from your designs. This is something we generally try, and often struggle, to get our clients to understand. Weeding out personal reactions to style is especially difficult. I love how Eric describes the use of the word “like”:
“Like”, as in “I like using Pantone 021” should be scrubbed from our collective vocabularies. “Like” is in the realm of the subjective; it is the designer’s enemy. It clouds the situation, becoming an obstacle in pin-pointing requirements and uncovering potential solutions. We have to elevate our language to better incorporate the accuracy and objective nature that’s so present in business and marketing.
I tell most of our clients something along these lines every time I ask for feedback on my designs. We want to push them away from the personal.
However, when it comes to design decisions themselves, there are times when getting personal is part of the plan.
The new blueflavor.com is in some ways similar to the old blueflavor.com, in that it puts a strong highlight on the people behind the brand. In fact, we purposefully scale back some of our brand attributes in favor of personal style and an attempt to encourage our audiences to make a personal connection with the people behind Blue Flavor.
Much like Eric’s article, the casual glance may give the impression that what I’ve done with the site is deeply personal, maybe even too personal. I’ve always recognized this as a risk. My hope is that the style (and some other small tricks I’ve got up my sleeve) will actually draw people in to look at our work and learn about our people in ways the current site does not.
But high style, even when carefully thought out, presents risks. In my case I hope it pans out; however, I do have a back up plan.
I initially designed the new blueflavor.com without any real style. The layout, much of the typography, and all the decisions that went into the basic form of the site were all made mostly independently of the stylistic decisions. Of course, this is not completely true, as I did have a pretty solid idea of the style I wanted to apply and I needed something that would carry that well. But overall I had an eye on a design that would function well and meet our goals in the absence of that style.
Much of the design of the new site is centered on some serious thinking about how people perceive our work, what kinds of information they want from us and how they view Blue Flavor as a company. We really wanted to focus on telling our clients stories and relaying what we can do for them. Screenshots don’t cut it for this purpose.
We also made the site a bit more onion-like. The deep information is there, but we encourage potential clients to explore a bit or just contact us early, as we usually need to talk to them to get a true sense of whether or not we’re a good fit. We’re an honest company and we do great work, but our services are not a fit for every situation. We want to reach those folks who “get us” and appreciate what we have to offer.
Having said all that, I think the style works—and not just on a personal, “I like it” level. There are some aesthetic choices I’ve made specifically to differentiate what I’m doing from what I’m seeing all over the web (at least at this moment in time). Will that style hold up over the long run? I’m not sure. In fact, my guess is no, to be quite honest. But I’m fairly confident that the underlying design and decisions that went into it will stand the test of time.
I can’t wait to show y’all. The style itself should take a back seat to what I’m really excited about: the way we’re going to try to show our work going forward. We’ll be revealing that a little bit at a time, but we’ve got some interesting ideas about how web work is shown on the web.
Thanks to the hard work of Tom, Kevin and Jeff. The site’s coming along really well. My goal is to have it up next month. Until then….
I have read the fuck-style article and must say, that I would rather tend to agree with you. Even though I think design has to be function-oriented and is inventing solutions to problems.
However style or aesthetics also serve a function. For the user to have a certain feeling, association and so forth.
Both are functions, and both need to be considered when designing anything.
By the way, looking forward to the new site :)
Very well said.
From the sounds of it, I love the direction this site will be taking. Telling stories and building your brand by featuring the personal style and talents of the people who make up your company.
It’s refreshing, and I can’t wait to see what you guys have come up with.
Blue Flavor and Airbag should re-launch their websites on the same day. C’mon, pull some strings.
Geof: We wouldn’t want to make Airbag look bad like that.
(COMPLETELY joking, of course. I love the guys at Airbag, and they do really, really terrific work).
Definitely excited to see the new design! Gosh guys, the anticipation! :)
Didn’t know Airbag was going through one also, that’s cool.
Yeah, some good commentary here Keith about how style interacts with design (and vice versa)…this is something I was thinking about only the other day - but I didn’t articulate it in to a blog article! (Well done!) ;)
My reaction to the news of a potential new re-design of the blue flavor site is very similar to Philip’s reaction: anticipation!
And I’m looking forward to seeing this stylin’ that you think might be too personal because, much as I like the design for blueflavor.com just now, I don’t think it emotes the personality of the team in a way that I’ve come to associate with you guys. The new design might address that - so I’m looking forward to seeing it.
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