During the relatively short course of this subject, I have been asked several times about how you take your photoshop-design and actually implement it. Back when I started designing websites I remember this was one of the things that caused me the most trouble. This was probably due to the design-oriented approach I came with – I was more interested in creating the designs themselves than learning how to code proper html.

I tried lots of poor solutions such as photoshop’s “export as html”-function and Microsoft’s Frontpage. But first when I learned how to (more or less) properly code and structure through HTML I was able to integrate the photoshop layouts properly.

In the following article I will show you, how I undergo the process of taking my photoshop image and creating a functional website out of it.

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The hybrid chart, is a slightly more structured way to think creatively. As many (if not all) other techniques for creative thought processing and innovation this technique provokes you to think in extremes, that will then eventually affect your design. The thought is that an extremum will merely pull your general design a bit in its direction, thus keeping your design within an element of reason whilst forcing it to go new directions.

This technique was introduced to me during a lecture at ITU, and proceeds as follows. First of all you create a chart consisting of 5 rows and columns. In each of the middle 3 upper cells you write 1 word, which you wish to have associated with your subject. In each of the 3 middle cells to the right you find a random image. There are no restrictions nor requirements for these images, just that they are more or less random. In each of the 3 central bottom cells you now write 1 random word, and last of you write 1 word in each of the central left cells, that you think describes your person.

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I was introduced to this exercise by lector John Paulin at ITU. The goal of this exercise is to draw out the essential elements of a design you’re working on, this is done by cognitive process of transferring information from a particular source (in this case your design, the source) to another particular subject (the target).

The idea is that through this process of transferring information you will naturally and subconsciously emphasize the elements that are most central to the subject, thus clarifying your essentials for future development.

So, how does it work practice? We were to take our blog design, and imagine how it would be designed if it were a magazine cover instead. A magazine cover has a rather limited space in which it needs to represent the entirety of the magazines content. Therefore it is essential which elements you want to lay emphasis whilst still give a broad enough representation of the entire content to capture the interest of as many viewers as possible.

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