One project, many designs

Welcome to Langfeld's DesignConnect. I'll be commenting on a variety of topics, hopefully interesting to both designers and clients.

To kick off this blog, let's look at how one project can be designed an infinite number of ways. The best example of this I've ever seen is a website called CSS Zen Garden.

The site has a slightly different purpose than mine in this post. It exists to excite designers about using CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) to separate design styles from content (in html). So, designers are invited to add their own CSS files (and images) to the base html text file.

It is amazing to see how many ways the content of the page can be styled. Of course, some of the designs are closer to the theme of the page than others.

That's to be expected... unless the client gives (or develops with) the designer a written brief describing the intended audience(s), communnication objectives, strategies and tactics before beginning a new project. The brief gives the designer guidelines against which to test concepts and designs. It also helps the client to clarify the project aims. It may also bring up questions that need to be answered before beginning the project.

So, the point I'd like to leave you with is this: work with your designer to define design objectives, or you may be surprised at the designs presented, since there is an infinite number of designs possible for any one project.