글쓰기 and 디자인 have always been two passions of mine. When someone first approached me with a 글쓰기 opportunity for their blog, I was shocked. It hadn’t crossed my mind for a moment that the two could be brought together harmoniously. I still remember 글쓰기 that 기사 and building my first brainstorm of topics. I found myself asking, "What makes a good article?"
But, to hell with good articles. Anyone can write a good article. I wanted something that would floor everyone–that would make everyone say, "Who the heck is this guy, and why haven’t I read his stuff before?"
I’m always trying to take things to the 다음 level, so I asked, "What makes an amazing article?"
Content is King
That’s right. We’ve heard it time and time again. As designers, it can be something that frustrates us. We make superior aesthetic creations for our clients, but we don’t have much say in what they do with it afterwards. Generally speaking, it isn’t our job to write the content, even though the content is what can make 또는 break the website.
Users will check out a site once and bask in its beauty, but the content is what will make them come back.
Know your readers
It’s very helpful to pick a subject for your writing. Know what your users like to read, and pay attention to trending topics in the industry to know what your readers are going to be interested in reading.
Original content
It can be frustrating to come up with a topic, only to 검색 it in 구글 and find a similar 기사 already written. Since everyone and their pet retriever is blogging, we find topics that have been "rehashed" over and over. As a reader, I find myself hitting my head wondering what some people are thinking when they write 기사 that have clearly been written before (sometimes even with the same title).
Suffice to say that since so many people are blogging now (especially in such a large community as design), it is very difficult to find topics that haven’t been talked about.
But this is our job as writers – we need to find topics that our readers will be interested in, and write about them in a creative way. Sure, our style of 글쓰기 will greatly affect an article’s originality, but we need to attack points from different angles.
This doesn’t mean taking an 기사 about "How To Get a Ketchup Stain Out of Your White Shirt" and changing it to "How NOT To Get a Ketchup Stain Out of Your White Shirt", but figuring out different ways to get that stain out, and elaborating on content and points 당신 thought weren’t emphasized enough in 이전 articles.
Style and Flow
Style is something very personal to writers. I find myself 읽기 content of several writers not based on what they’re writing, but based on their style.
As a writer, the first thing 당신 need to create is your style and the personality that comes through your writing. This should often come easy as 당신 write, and it will build over time, but the style 당신 create will greatly determine who will come back.
There are a lot of well thought-out 기사 out there, but some of them are too all over the place for me. Make sure that in your 글쓰기 you’re moving from point to point smoothly. Keep on topic, and make every 기사 a story.
Be ready for criticism
Know what you’re talking about, and edit, edit, edit. I like to think of every 기사 I put out as important as a legal document. 디자인 is such a broad topic that not everyone knows everything, and everyone has different experiences. So don’t be surprised when someone leaves a 코멘트 that leaves 당신 baffled as to how 당신 should respond.
After my final round of edits and before publishing, I like to look over my 기사 in a different way. Back in high school, I was a key debater on my school’s team. Our coach had always taught us to look over our speeches as a competitor, and to find holes in what we were saying. If we find holes, we patched them up. If something we said was debatable, we made sure we knew how to refute points. This way, we wouldn’t be (as) baffled when they picked at one of our points.
Every blogger who has been around a while has had this comment, but we all learn from it. 당신 find that your audience has a voice and opinions as well, and 당신 need to make sure that what you’re saying is politically correct in every way. Not only this, but 당신 have to be ready to 토론 the points in your article. Be ready to know what you’re talking about so 당신 don’t look like an idiot.
디자인 is the Shiny 옷, 가운 and Crown
I can’t take credit for this headline – DesignBump wrote a nice little 기사 on what 디자인 is in relation to content that I think 당신 should read as well. If you’re proud of your content, make sure that it’s looking how 당신 did when 당신 went to your high school prom.
Typography
I find myself moving through different fetishes in design, and I’ve been stuck for the past few months on typography. So much so, that I’ll go into a website’s CSS just to find out what line-height and letter-spacing people are using to make their content 더 많이 readable. There are a few principles we should meet when dealing with typography for the web:
Maintain a hierarchy
We should all know the difference between serif and sans-serif fonts. Sans-serif fonts should be used for titles, and serif fonts should only be used for body text. Make sure that 당신 create a hierarchy of titles that uses the proper font and also visually breaks down the content. No one likes big blocks of content. Having contrasting typefaces will help clearly distinguish a hierarchy.
Maintain structure
Make sure that your typefaces are legible and your content is readable. Generally speaking, a measure (or line of text) should be contained within 2-3 alphabets (or the equivalent to 52-78 characters including spaces). When you’re designing, using grid systems can help heaps with making sure that everything is readable.
Adjust your CSS accordingly
당신 should always adjust your font size (using relative sizes like ems and percentages) accordingly, paying close attention to your line-height and the color you’re using. Since most websites have blocks of unindented text, 당신 should create extra padding at the bottom of your paragraphs to compensate for this.
Line-heights should generally be set to 1.5em including the approximate pixel-value to the bottom of paragraphs to maintain consistency.
Using font styling appropriately
As we’ll discuss in the 다음 section, large blocks of text are very boring. Use font styling such as bold and italic/oblique to emphasize points in your content.
Graphics
읽기 blocks of text are boring. We’re designers, so we have the ability to go into Photoshop and throw something even simple together to break up our blocks of text. Generally speaking, readers of online magazines like to skim content. Having interesting content using the above along with interesting 이미지 will interest them in 읽기 what you’ve written. If you’re good with graphs, use graphs as well to layout statistical information.
What do 당신 think makes an web content?
The 디자인 community is a very tough community to write for and hold an audience with so many other great blogs out there. I don’t know about some of you, but I sometimes come across 기사 from the other side of the Internet that is still stuck in a 1990′s-style 디자인 with amazing content, and I can’t read it. However, for some reason I’ll read garbage 게시됨 on some nicer-designed websites just because I think the typography is pretty. Therefore, the right balance of content and 디자인 is what will create a truly amazing article.
Here are some 기사 to get 당신 started on improving your web content:
The Death of the Boring Blog Post (via Smashing Magazine)
글쓰기 User Friendly Content (via UX Booth)
A Guide To 글쓰기 Effectively About 디자인 (via Tripping Words)
But, to hell with good articles. Anyone can write a good article. I wanted something that would floor everyone–that would make everyone say, "Who the heck is this guy, and why haven’t I read his stuff before?"
I’m always trying to take things to the 다음 level, so I asked, "What makes an amazing article?"
Content is King
That’s right. We’ve heard it time and time again. As designers, it can be something that frustrates us. We make superior aesthetic creations for our clients, but we don’t have much say in what they do with it afterwards. Generally speaking, it isn’t our job to write the content, even though the content is what can make 또는 break the website.
Users will check out a site once and bask in its beauty, but the content is what will make them come back.
Know your readers
It’s very helpful to pick a subject for your writing. Know what your users like to read, and pay attention to trending topics in the industry to know what your readers are going to be interested in reading.
Original content
It can be frustrating to come up with a topic, only to 검색 it in 구글 and find a similar 기사 already written. Since everyone and their pet retriever is blogging, we find topics that have been "rehashed" over and over. As a reader, I find myself hitting my head wondering what some people are thinking when they write 기사 that have clearly been written before (sometimes even with the same title).
Suffice to say that since so many people are blogging now (especially in such a large community as design), it is very difficult to find topics that haven’t been talked about.
But this is our job as writers – we need to find topics that our readers will be interested in, and write about them in a creative way. Sure, our style of 글쓰기 will greatly affect an article’s originality, but we need to attack points from different angles.
This doesn’t mean taking an 기사 about "How To Get a Ketchup Stain Out of Your White Shirt" and changing it to "How NOT To Get a Ketchup Stain Out of Your White Shirt", but figuring out different ways to get that stain out, and elaborating on content and points 당신 thought weren’t emphasized enough in 이전 articles.
Style and Flow
Style is something very personal to writers. I find myself 읽기 content of several writers not based on what they’re writing, but based on their style.
As a writer, the first thing 당신 need to create is your style and the personality that comes through your writing. This should often come easy as 당신 write, and it will build over time, but the style 당신 create will greatly determine who will come back.
There are a lot of well thought-out 기사 out there, but some of them are too all over the place for me. Make sure that in your 글쓰기 you’re moving from point to point smoothly. Keep on topic, and make every 기사 a story.
Be ready for criticism
Know what you’re talking about, and edit, edit, edit. I like to think of every 기사 I put out as important as a legal document. 디자인 is such a broad topic that not everyone knows everything, and everyone has different experiences. So don’t be surprised when someone leaves a 코멘트 that leaves 당신 baffled as to how 당신 should respond.
After my final round of edits and before publishing, I like to look over my 기사 in a different way. Back in high school, I was a key debater on my school’s team. Our coach had always taught us to look over our speeches as a competitor, and to find holes in what we were saying. If we find holes, we patched them up. If something we said was debatable, we made sure we knew how to refute points. This way, we wouldn’t be (as) baffled when they picked at one of our points.
Every blogger who has been around a while has had this comment, but we all learn from it. 당신 find that your audience has a voice and opinions as well, and 당신 need to make sure that what you’re saying is politically correct in every way. Not only this, but 당신 have to be ready to 토론 the points in your article. Be ready to know what you’re talking about so 당신 don’t look like an idiot.
디자인 is the Shiny 옷, 가운 and Crown
I can’t take credit for this headline – DesignBump wrote a nice little 기사 on what 디자인 is in relation to content that I think 당신 should read as well. If you’re proud of your content, make sure that it’s looking how 당신 did when 당신 went to your high school prom.
Typography
I find myself moving through different fetishes in design, and I’ve been stuck for the past few months on typography. So much so, that I’ll go into a website’s CSS just to find out what line-height and letter-spacing people are using to make their content 더 많이 readable. There are a few principles we should meet when dealing with typography for the web:
Maintain a hierarchy
We should all know the difference between serif and sans-serif fonts. Sans-serif fonts should be used for titles, and serif fonts should only be used for body text. Make sure that 당신 create a hierarchy of titles that uses the proper font and also visually breaks down the content. No one likes big blocks of content. Having contrasting typefaces will help clearly distinguish a hierarchy.
Maintain structure
Make sure that your typefaces are legible and your content is readable. Generally speaking, a measure (or line of text) should be contained within 2-3 alphabets (or the equivalent to 52-78 characters including spaces). When you’re designing, using grid systems can help heaps with making sure that everything is readable.
Adjust your CSS accordingly
당신 should always adjust your font size (using relative sizes like ems and percentages) accordingly, paying close attention to your line-height and the color you’re using. Since most websites have blocks of unindented text, 당신 should create extra padding at the bottom of your paragraphs to compensate for this.
Line-heights should generally be set to 1.5em including the approximate pixel-value to the bottom of paragraphs to maintain consistency.
Using font styling appropriately
As we’ll discuss in the 다음 section, large blocks of text are very boring. Use font styling such as bold and italic/oblique to emphasize points in your content.
Graphics
읽기 blocks of text are boring. We’re designers, so we have the ability to go into Photoshop and throw something even simple together to break up our blocks of text. Generally speaking, readers of online magazines like to skim content. Having interesting content using the above along with interesting 이미지 will interest them in 읽기 what you’ve written. If you’re good with graphs, use graphs as well to layout statistical information.
What do 당신 think makes an web content?
The 디자인 community is a very tough community to write for and hold an audience with so many other great blogs out there. I don’t know about some of you, but I sometimes come across 기사 from the other side of the Internet that is still stuck in a 1990′s-style 디자인 with amazing content, and I can’t read it. However, for some reason I’ll read garbage 게시됨 on some nicer-designed websites just because I think the typography is pretty. Therefore, the right balance of content and 디자인 is what will create a truly amazing article.
Here are some 기사 to get 당신 started on improving your web content:
The Death of the Boring Blog Post (via Smashing Magazine)
글쓰기 User Friendly Content (via UX Booth)
A Guide To 글쓰기 Effectively About 디자인 (via Tripping Words)
Alone!
There once was a girl who biked and ran
with her best friend who had a bright 주황색, 오렌지 tan
But then one 일 she when biking alone
and thats when she fell along way from home.
She lay still on the ground
not makeing a sound,and thats when she found
that she could not talk
let alone walk
As she slowly made her way home
she wished that she had a phone
so she could call for help
insted of put up with the pain that made her yelp.
She pushed her bike down the dusty track
with a sore haed and an acking back
Then she came to the place where her and her best friend met
just as the sun was begining to set
The 다음 일 at school she was no where in sight
which gave her best frined a very big fright
but she was a 집 tucked up in bed
with a sore leg and an acking head
Thats when she remebered what her best friend had said
about not going out bikeing alone
along way from home.
What do 당신 think?(I think it is very bad) and sorry of the spelling.
There once was a girl who biked and ran
with her best friend who had a bright 주황색, 오렌지 tan
But then one 일 she when biking alone
and thats when she fell along way from home.
She lay still on the ground
not makeing a sound,and thats when she found
that she could not talk
let alone walk
As she slowly made her way home
she wished that she had a phone
so she could call for help
insted of put up with the pain that made her yelp.
She pushed her bike down the dusty track
with a sore haed and an acking back
Then she came to the place where her and her best friend met
just as the sun was begining to set
The 다음 일 at school she was no where in sight
which gave her best frined a very big fright
but she was a 집 tucked up in bed
with a sore leg and an acking head
Thats when she remebered what her best friend had said
about not going out bikeing alone
along way from home.
What do 당신 think?(I think it is very bad) and sorry of the spelling.
You
It's the middle of the night,
And I can't sleep
Your face, planted with a smile
Are the only things I see
Your voice calling my name
Is the only thing I hear
I can feel your hand rubbing my back
Hearing 당신 whisper ''good night''
I jump and look around,
And soon realize 당신 are not there
I sob, tightly holding the gift 당신 once gave me
It's right here, on my bed, in perfect condition.
30 분 later, I wipe my face and go back to sleep…
I wake up once again
And the cycle starts all over again…
It's the middle of the night,
And I can't sleep
Your face, planted with a smile
Are the only things I see
Your voice calling my name
Is the only thing I hear
I can feel your hand rubbing my back
Hearing 당신 whisper ''good night''
I jump and look around,
And soon realize 당신 are not there
I sob, tightly holding the gift 당신 once gave me
It's right here, on my bed, in perfect condition.
30 분 later, I wipe my face and go back to sleep…
I wake up once again
And the cycle starts all over again…
your mistakes don't define you, now. they don't tell 당신 who you're not, 또는 who 당신 can never be. what's it take to get 당신 to say you'll try? you've got to live this life like it's the only one you've got. what would 당신 say, what would 당신 do, if this was your last day? so, 당신 found out today that life's not the same. not quite as good as yesterday.
and, yes, i know it hurts & i know your pain, but u never gave up this easily befor. such a beautiful thing to just throw away. i think 당신 need to know that, of all the 색깔 that 당신 shine, this is surely not your best, it's really not your style. 당신 should think about what 당신 do, befor 당신 do it, over and over again. i know 당신 feel alone, that know one can figure 당신 out, but 당신 sould know that we just 사랑 to see 당신 smile.i know 당신 feel like you're lost, feel like you've drifted way to far away, but we can help 당신 come back.
and, yes, i know it hurts & i know your pain, but u never gave up this easily befor. such a beautiful thing to just throw away. i think 당신 need to know that, of all the 색깔 that 당신 shine, this is surely not your best, it's really not your style. 당신 should think about what 당신 do, befor 당신 do it, over and over again. i know 당신 feel alone, that know one can figure 당신 out, but 당신 sould know that we just 사랑 to see 당신 smile.i know 당신 feel like you're lost, feel like you've drifted way to far away, but we can help 당신 come back.
I wrote this yesterday when me and my boyfriend had a big fight and it's a fight that may go on for a long time. I know I am young to write something like this but, I guess it helps. Plus If 당신 don't like it just tell me, ok?
The Power of Words
당신 and I had this big long fight,
It felt like the storm during the night.
It was verry sad and cold,
My 프렌즈 had to like 당신 a lot
and 당신 felt like I forgot,
forgot about you.
But I had a prodject due.
당신 think you're mr. I'm so cool
but 당신 used to act like a ghool.
Not to the people 당신 love,
to the sensetive people like a dove.
How we spoke with eachother,
made 당신 feel much better.
But the fight we had,
당신 said was nothing but it was bad.
See ya pal we're ova,
take the cell 당신 gave me and do me a fava.
Just don't ever,
Never...
Talk to me again!
The Power of Words
당신 and I had this big long fight,
It felt like the storm during the night.
It was verry sad and cold,
My 프렌즈 had to like 당신 a lot
and 당신 felt like I forgot,
forgot about you.
But I had a prodject due.
당신 think you're mr. I'm so cool
but 당신 used to act like a ghool.
Not to the people 당신 love,
to the sensetive people like a dove.
How we spoke with eachother,
made 당신 feel much better.
But the fight we had,
당신 said was nothing but it was bad.
See ya pal we're ova,
take the cell 당신 gave me and do me a fava.
Just don't ever,
Never...
Talk to me again!
The Man With No Eyes Collection (1): The Actor
Sundown, sunrise.
Big smile!
(Tired eyes.)
I vanish into thin air.
An actor never fails.
(Lies.)
To give the world a rousing show
(While begging to be recognized.)
To shine as brightly as the sun
Upon the 왕좌, 왕위 that we’ve devised.
A patchwork-quilt protagonist
A villain from the shadow realm
The work of the illusionist
When I, the actor, take the helm.
“Hey, wouldn’t it be cool to see…”
The whisper marks my story’s birth.
The audience will gather ‘round.
(The jury to decide my worth.)
"The Man With No Eyes" is a series of poems, all of which are unfolding from one character's point of view. They are meant to represent an ongoing journey. So if 당신 liked this one, stay tuned for more. :)
Sundown, sunrise.
Big smile!
(Tired eyes.)
I vanish into thin air.
An actor never fails.
(Lies.)
To give the world a rousing show
(While begging to be recognized.)
To shine as brightly as the sun
Upon the 왕좌, 왕위 that we’ve devised.
A patchwork-quilt protagonist
A villain from the shadow realm
The work of the illusionist
When I, the actor, take the helm.
“Hey, wouldn’t it be cool to see…”
The whisper marks my story’s birth.
The audience will gather ‘round.
(The jury to decide my worth.)
"The Man With No Eyes" is a series of poems, all of which are unfolding from one character's point of view. They are meant to represent an ongoing journey. So if 당신 liked this one, stay tuned for more. :)