Jason Santa Maria is an A-list web/graphic designer. One of his landmark blog posts is about how he begins a new site design — essentially his wireframing process! He starts with a sketchbook (“the way you should with any design work”) and ends with a Photoshop mockup. But the key thing is an additional step of grey boxes using Adobe Illustrator. This allows him to lay out design structure without getting distracted by technical limitations or the color and pixel-pushing details.
When I first read this article, I had no experience with Illustrator, so while I understood the design principles, I didn’t understand the flexibility that working with vector graphics provides. Last summer I took a graphic design course where we did get into learning Illustrator, and now I can definitely see how it’s easier to use Illustrator over Photoshop for this purpose. On the other hand, it’s the process, not the software, that really counts. Anyway, his description is much more interesting than my summary of his description. Be sure to check out the full-size versions of his sketchbook scans and screenshots, by clicking on the thumbnails.
Grey Box Methodology
1 comment:
I agree, Illustrator is great for playing around with shapes and structures. I do almost all my layouts in Illustrator and use Photoshop mainly for photos.
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