Texture and Typography

I wasn’t sure I’d ever used texture in web design, and I think it may be one of the missing pieces in my designs. Whenever I’ve created a design, I’ve always felt there was something missing to make the design compelling and interesting, different than other personal sites out there. That might be texture.

After reading just the first page of this chapter, I had an idea about how to incorporate texture into my final project design. As I said, I want to create a design that evokes the environmental aspect of my profession/interests. I thought I would do that by using colors like green and brown, but perhaps I can use other colors (like vermilion!) and then incorporate a texture (leaf veins, I was thinking) to evoke nature.

The rest of the chapter had helpful bits of information about rounding rectangle edges and how to place background images. The lines section was also good because it helped me understand that I do use texture in my current online portfolio layout, in the form of these swirly lines at the top of the design. I think I may use them in my new portfolio layout as well, because a) I like them, and b) they do add the texture a good design needs.

The typography chapter gave good definitions of terms used in typography. I've never studied typography, but have always been really interested in different fonts. This chapter was great in bridging my knowledge gap between what I've observed and the actual principles behind choosing and using fonts in design.