So today I start the live redesign of this site

As promised, I am going to keep all my processes documented in this blog. The basic premise for the new site in my head is a strongly character based style with part animated, part static, all fun content! Starting out with a fresh sketch book and a head of ideas, I have already made some decisions way before starting anything about certain design restrictions that I am self imposing.

Firstly, I am designing for 960px screen width – that is 960 pixels maximum width – with a permanently visible section of 800px.

Secondly, for proportional prosperity, I will be using the classic 16 : 9 ratio for balancing whitespace.

Thirdly, and as ever, all guides, sections and margins are based on the golden section and Phi – this allows harmonious  subsections to fit anywhere on the site.

From these restrictions, it’s time to get the pen to paper

More like this brain-on-paper|design|designerzen|ideas|sketch.