Introducing Standout Stories: How Web Designers Shape Meaning Through Style
Introducing Standout Stories, an editorial series that highlights the richly detailed lives of web designers and developers inside our Standout Squarespace and Standout Shopify communities. We’re getting up close and personal on how their experiences and aspirations shape their signature style, if only to inspire you to craft your own.
Introducing Standout Stories: How Web Designers Shape Meaning Through Style
a.
Design
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Business
Each website has a story to tell. It’s a virtual space that shapes us as we shape it. When I enter a lovingly crafted site, my eyes linger on the lines, typefaces, colors, textures, and movements. What are they trying to tell me? All these elements draw from their founder’s memories or encounters. Like a home, a website builds a sanctuary for its visitors, and it’s the act of intentionality that will keep them coming back.
This entrusts an important role to the web designer-developer: a facilitator of meaning between brand and website.
As an educator, I tend to step back when it comes to matters of taste. I focus my efforts on teaching you the tools of the trade, because I know that nurturing your signature style is a deeply personal process. It takes careful introspection to know which parts of your experiences and preferences show up consistently in your body of work. I can help you build the skills to scaffold your style, but style you would have to realize within yourself over time. This distinct sense of artistry is what resonates with your ideal client.
Introducing Standout Stories
How, then, do we begin to shape our own style as web designers and developers? We must keep our eyes open, paying close attention to the details that escape the typical bystander. More importantly, we listen to prominent creatives and the effort that goes into their own website pieces. This is what I had in mind for my new multimedia series, Standout Stories, which is an intimate look into the designer-developer’s craft.
Our first feature is none other than Hello-World Studio, a boutique design agency co-founded by Standout students Joy Yiu and Reyna Dashefsky. Their website is a trip down the textboxes and trinkets of Y2K yesteryear, signifying a simple core philosophy—a return to the whimsy and sincerity of the early internet. It has been a delight for me to discover what has brought Reyna and Joy together for this virtual masterpiece.
ASCII art and kaomojis may not be your style, but this story could bring you closer to yours. And who knows? You might find your own words and work featured in this series soon enough.