The Tao of design

In February, this space reviewed a pair of sites related to the often overlooked world of Industrial Design - sites which reminded the reader that even a lowly railroad spike is the result of someone's vision being translated into reality. Of course, when we normally think of "Design," we're thinking of the graphic variety - the look of this website's layout, the logo on your computer, the colors and textures on that paper cup of take-out coffee. Which is to say, despite its ubiquity, we generally don't think much about graphic design either.

This week's offerings are guaranteed to raise that graphic design awareness level, at least temporarily. And though it might not be long after re-entering the real world before your senses are once again overwhelmed into desensitization, for a few moments at least, these sites might help you appreciate that even the look of a single letter can be a work of art.

Launched in March, the AIGA Design Archives spotlights winners from the American Institute of Graphic Art's annual selections of design excellence, along with the work of designers singled out for special recognition. Featured projects range from items as ubiquitous as multi-national corporate identities (FedEx being a particularly successful example) to design exercises that you would have never seen but for this site (unless you're a secret collector of Tupperware Annual Reports) - but all are considered by the Institute to be worth this online distinction.

On loading the home page, visitors are presented with a randomly selected collection of thumbnail images from the Archive, and the choice of exploring either the 2004 "Year in Design" selections (which represents work created in 2003), or the online archives of works from previous years. (I couldn't find official word on how far back these entries date, but in terms of volume, there are more than 1000 images in the latter option.)

To take the smaller collection (180 images) first, the 2004 Annual divides its winners into 11 categories (Book Design, Illustration, Brand and Identity Systems, etc.), and arranges them in a horizontally scrolling exhibit - reminiscent of a typical interactive timeline. While the entire collection is gathered into a single, very long, 'scroll,' surfers can move quickly from one location to another via a choice of Category links above the thumbnails, or coarse and fine scrolling tabs below.

Place your pointer over a thumbnail and the requisite popup box reveals a few basic facts. Click on a selection and a new page opens - with such items as credits, comments by the jurors and creators, and the ability to zoom in to the item all the way to life size. In addition, much of the information here is linked to the archives' database, so if you like a particular piece, you can click on the name of the artist, photographer, design firm, etc. to see more of their work.

The long-term Archives use a different navigational format to handle the greater volume of exhibits. In this case, the visitor can either browse the entire 1066-image collection through a series of 18-image grids, or jump from one cluster to another using a string of dashes situated below each new set.

The collection can also be filtered to only return results from one or more of twelve categories (the previous eleven plus "MotionGraphics"), or selectively view specific collections - including the last four annual anthologies. As before, a mouseover reveals an info box (and,in this case, an enlarged thumbnail) and clicking opens a feature page.

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