I would first like to apologise if the espresso posts threw a few people. I was asked by more than one person if it was ’spam’ or a mistake. I think in light of this espresso is going to not be just a quote and I will be expanding a bit more or linking to things in that as a shot rather than a simple quote. I am sorry if anyone got a bit ‘eh?’ about those. In light of this I’m bringing back my weekly summaries on this blog from around the web. Here I will be putting those quotes I found that interested me and other bits I’ve found. This is I think going to be a better way to not confuse and deal with.

Quotes of the week

Pitch process, not code
In recent months, I’ve been relearning how to sell standards. I still touch on the exciting bits (the lighter pages, the lower maintenance costs, and so on), but I don’t shy away from selling validation’s role in unlocking the real savings of web standards. And it’s been an easier sell than I’ve thought: once you’ve shown a client how standards can improve their sites’ accessibility, keep it future-proof and device independent, and lower maintenance costs, they’re usually ready to listen.

- Ethan Marcotte @ A list apart

… even a year ago, people were saying that fluid design was dead, and now you actually have people reconsidering it, especially when they look at Liquid Designs… I like to think that I actually played a part in making fluid design more popular! It gives me a good feeling just to say it… fluid designs are all the rage nowadays.

- Christian Montoya @ The Montoya Herald

9rules design this week

I’ve been doing a summary over on the 9rules notes for a few weeks now - last week slacked due to the past few weeks madness catching up. I am going to throw a link in here to let you all get a taster of what is going on over there. I also have started posting about designs done on 9rules blogs and by 9rules members every month.

Design thoughts of the week

I want to jot down a few things that have come up through working this week. Some of these I am going to write posts about, it’s really a ‘what’s been going on in my mind’ this week from a design point of view. These are what I like to call ‘brain splurts’ as they are not thought out and just random things I am thinking about design. Feel free to add comments as it’s all things I’ve been pondering this week.

• Is design nature of nurture?
• What inspires people to do what they do? Is the need to design like addiction?
• Is the creative urge something that drives every designer?
• Is it wrong to love the job you do?
• If content is king why is it the last thing we often treat in design?
• Can you better your design process? If you can how should you do this?
• Is the natural form of web design blocks and why do so many trends lately go against this? Is blocky web design really so bad or is it just the myth of execution?
• When is something just a wow factor? I’ve been thinking a lot about the core of design in the sense of what is needed and what isn’t in design. Far too much that you end up doing as design for extra effect (wow factors) and in the end it just distracts from the purity of the design.
• What are the building blocks of web design? Typography? Colour? Format? Are there some simple blocks that should be in all designs online?