Marcel Müller blog • Something with purpose

13/02/2010

Something with purpose

Reading this post in Carsonified’s blog remembered me of the power of graphic elements within everything that comes to our senses. Kat Neville points out – not with these words – that sometimes we do something that looks good but has no life. In websites, web designers rely on the sense of trending elements to make the viewer think it looks good, and end up making replicas of what’s seen on the huge load of roundup sites. The result is a soulless work.

I’m not saying that we shouldn’t use gradients or grained textures anymore, nor that we shouldn’t put our navigation links on the top right anymore. My point is: use it if you know what you are doing and what’s the purpose of it. Put thought into your work. Otherwise you’ll end up with a good-looking but – as said before – soulless result. It makes the all the difference – even in the serious-approach companies websites, where you have a more strict guideline to follow.

Jumping from websites to games, I’ve spotted a nice game that made me think about how details and thought are important. The name is Little Red Riding Hood, and it’s a classic find-the-differences game. As you find the differences, you help the little girl – thus moving on with the story. What caught my attention is that the game has no dialogs nor narration, just nice illustrations. The nature of the game makes you pay attention to details, and consequently get immersed into its atmosphere.

This is only possible because of the thought put into the illustrations. The main objects of each image have their own reason to be there, and most of the little ones too. And they tell the story by themselves with the collaboration of the player.

It’s as the greatly talented David Lanham says: My artwork is made to be fun and enjoyable as well as a bit open-ended to invite the viewer to add their own story to the imagery.