What’s the deal with web desingers and their messy desks? We all know that most designers aren’t exactly the neatest desk keepers around, but apparently this environment has started to manifest itself in their websites. In honor of this unusual turn of events, I have compiled a gallery for your viewing pleasure.
One quick note: As fun as these sites are, I think it’s safe to assume this is a trend. Messy desks are the new gradient backgrounds, basically. If you want your site design to last more than a year or so, this is probably not the direction to go.
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- Not Your Average Joe
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- Home Design Find
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- Viget
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- Ernest Hemingway Collection
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- Puneet Sakhuja
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- Kinoz
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- Point of Entry
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- Moderno Prometeo
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- New Jersey Rebel
2 comments so far.
Yeah. I don’t think it’s even a trend yet. It’s more at the level of abomination. My primary thought though is that it is a way to deal with a very real design and layout problem. For example, the Hemmingway example above is actually a nice layout, just surrounded by messy desktop. This is something that has been of interest to me lately: how to make better use of a wide-format monitor, where the sides are going to usually go simple gray, yet not alienate people with standard format monitors (tiny 17″ CRTs, how did we live back then?) In this case, there is a nice narrow layout to scroll down, and people with wide monitors have to look at coffee and spare change on the margins. I’m considering ideas for dealing with this.
I have to disagree with you on a couple points -
First, I think this is an interesting new development in web design, for two reasons:
1) All user interface is, at some level, visual metaphor. This trend is clearly an attempt, however subconsciously, to strengthen the bond between electronic and real space, and to create a comfort level that we are not used to in web design.
2) Even if you disagree with the aesthetic, this kind of design pushes forward what is acceptable in functional web layouts, which is good for the industry.
Second, in regards to the Hemingway layout (definitely the best of the bunch), there actually seems to be a pretty clear logic behind the design - the romanticized idea of the early-20th-century author is fairly powerful, and it is being masterfully invoked by the layout, for commercial purposes. I think that entire design has succeeded in reaching its target audience in a way that is rarely seen in web design.
All that said, I still think this is going to get old in a few months.