Reflections on Design, Renewal, and the Use of Space
Posted on August 24, 2011 by: Craig
Back from the road, down a long tree-lined lane, sits my grandfather’s old house; handmade in every sense of the word. It is where I spent countless summers growing up, and where I’ve spent much of this summer doing renovations.
The home was originally built in the 1950s, and as time passed, and finances allowed, my grandfather built on. Over time the house tripled in size. Every ten years he was adding on. In the 1960s he lifted the house and added a basement, in the 1970s he raised up the roof and added three rooms, in the 1980s he added a large living room, and in the 1990s an extra bedroom and bathroom was put in downstairs. My grandmother was on the job too, always adding a fresh coat of paint, putting in new floors, new fixtures, or a new set of stairs coming to the front door.
It’s been about ten years since the last bit of work was done on the place, and here I am doing renovations; carrying on the family tradition of creative destruction. Always redesigning and renewing the space we live in.
One thing about manual labour is that it allows the mind to wander. I found, as I slapped on paint, or tore down a wall, that I had an overwhelming sense of familiarity. I kept thinking about how the work I was doing on the house was, in many ways, very similar to the work we do at Ginger Design; specifically web design.
Increasingly, we live our lives online, and, as we do in our homes, we reflect our personalities in our web presence. An individual’s Facebook profile, for example, can be much like their home or apartment: particular books clearly displayed, records placed in a manner in which to be seen, degree on the wall, etc. The same can be said about websites. Designing a website is very much like designing a living space.
Websites, like homes and office buildings, must first have curb appeal. Pulling up to the main page, one instantly receives information that will inform their first impression, and perhaps influence their entire visit: Is the location well landscaped or cluttered? Freshly painted or aged and poorly maintained? Is the address and appropriate signage clearly displayed? Much like your home or office building, you want your site to be inviting to your visitors – clean, bright, and intriguing. Once inside, you want to offer up a comfortable atmosphere. A website should make the visitors at ease – accessible, intuitive, interesting and interactive. In this sense, social media, along with blogging, has expanded upon a websites ability to create a fully live and interactive space; leaving your guests wanting to drop in again.
Like my grandfather’s old house, our websites must also always be evolving; however, unlike my grandparent’s ten year renovation cycle, rapid web developments necessitate frequent updates in site design. At Ginger we understand our clients want the best value, and as such we strive to provide a product that is ahead of the curve and will outlast that of our competitors.
Perhaps it was the fumes, but as I painted over the walls my grandmother had once painted, and I thought about the cycle of created space, I came to the final conclusion that the spaces we create online and offline are one and the same. We build, destroy, and re-build again. Creative destruction, the constant renewal of design, is at the heart of how we have approached all forms of created space throughout history; be it architecture, landscaping, road construction, or web design.
Web space, like all other created space, is space designed in which to live, and, perhaps, this helps us to understand why we have so seamlessly walked into life online.
Craig
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