Sabiduría Inconstante

Yazpik

I've never known a person who owned a hi-powered laser, until I got involved in a web page design project for Mexican sculptor Jorge Yazpik, who does, and uses a laser to cut through the materials in his sculptures.

Mr. Yazpik is a client who is not involved with computer technology at all, so this project presented that particular "handicap"...

He wanted a website with no text at all, with nothing else than his art being the focus point in his site... that meant that I couldn't do anything but animated transitions.

So I focused on the composition on the site. After my initial research, Yazpik's art seemed to be really powerful, with a strong bond to earth, to materials; manly strong art, you know.



The composition was solid. It had to be derived from solid figures, like squares. Squares that could also represent the hollowness that also appears frequently in those figures, in the contours of those bodies.

The form dictated that the composition of the site's structure had to be like this, solid. I also looked for a form that could reflect what the client desired: Simplicity. I intended that even with those handicaps, the site could have a nice composition to make it more dynamically, graphically speaking.

Less is More, like Mies van der Rohe said. That was my main goal with this project, because that same phrase was dictated not by me, but by the client himself.

Obtaining this appearance was the most important part of my development and personal growth in this project, since I always tend to be baroque in my work. I enjoy getting small details done and having a digital coloring box, like everyone does these days, makes it easy some times to be extra adventurous.


That last point is an important challenge for any designer or graphic artist in the present.


What do I think, now that the project is way long finished?

I think that the client could've got a way better site if he just followed to my advices. And boy, I made proposals and justified many times my posture in making a friendlier site. A website with no text makes an interesting perceptual experience, but it is in no way useful as a sales tool (even when the artist thought that his denial of info could be the best for his rich clients) or for sharing anything about your career or yourself (how are galleries or art lovers going to get to know you?). It is a hollow website in my experience. Rich ladies who buy these sculptures are, in most cases, not experienced in surfing the web, they don't have the slightest ideas about GUI's, they do not play video games, they do not relate to this languages.

A website with no info... Man! How is anyone going to find you in such a big universe of web pages?!



It has the setback also, that the artist did not want to use framing in his images, he wanted to preserve some photos just as they were taken... some way to dark for a display (which I fixed without the clients approval). Some others didn't fit in the squared area we had...

At the end, there were some changes made by the client that were contradicting... images that grow to fit a framing, animated buttons that flash (which needed to flash to attract attention and make people know what to do in a no text environment).

I enjoyed this challenge. It made me learn new things about the structure of a website, about design, clients, and about myself.

But most of all, I enjoyed finishing it, for all. :-)

Why did i wrote all this? Because, is what happens when the client takes the control of your project. And believe me it is a waste of time when someone hires you to do a job but has his own agenda.

Browse over at http://yazpik.org/ and watch it. It is not bad, but it looks unfinished, unprofessional... not happy with the final product at all.

Don't ever do that. Keep your structure as a designer firm. Build yourself without thinking in money. Money is no good, no matter how much it is, if you end up with something lousy that does not represent your vision as a designer, or in this particular case, as a communicator.

Labels: Design, English, Projects

posted by Mauricio Cosío @ 2:58 PM