November 1, 2013

Design Feast, redesigned for the second time


Homepage zoomed in

Design Feast underwent a redesign—the last one was in 2011. With the relaunch, you’ll see significant visual differences. The previous incarnation was dense, with prominent site-wide navigation as an organized row of lists and a homepage packed with information. The new version was designed to be more image-driven and spacious.

Both versions are proudly reliant on the same typographic grid. The latest redesign could be described as a pruned version of its predecessor, but the previous version felt and looked right at the time. Since the first redesign, a compressed navigation arrived into favor, which inspired other simplifying moves affecting the appearance of other areas of the site. This is particularly true for the Shop, imbued with a more direct and open presentation. This intent to subtract was based on my gradually sharpened focus that happened to gravitate toward furthering the current features of Design Feast Series.

A desire to bring attention to different parts comprising Design Feast Series influenced the redesign—the current line-up consists of Designer’s Quest(ionnaire)Blogger’s Quest(ionnaire)Interviews, and Creative Roles. Determining and crafting new entries for each respective series is a joy.


Wireframe digitized

In one of our Basecamp exchanges, I told my web builder, Megan Coleman: Only time can inform the nature of the redesign. Letting a design settle—considering it casually at times, at other times, formally—allows us to see things not always evident during the process. Only over time can a design reveal considerations, or with a redesign, reconsiderations. It provides particular moments to look at the design without analyzing it, to make decisions about ideas that feel appropriate in their arrival.


Wireframe sketched

Designing is a restless process. Redesigning is the same. Both relish time in order to reveal one design at a time.

Explore Design Feast—my long-term project dedicated to creative culture—thankfully redesigned for the second time.

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Lovingly written in Draft.

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Read about Design Feast’s first redesign.