Wes Ellis./ a personal notebook
Technology. Stories. Side projects.
A few things worth writing down.

A thread · 4 notes · Web Design

The design notebook.

Where the look comes from: '90s computer ads, Vignelli's rules, borrowed palettes and Kaybl.

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    Web Design5 min read

    The '90s Computer-Ad Look, Without Faking an Operating System

    How this site borrows the warmth of early-'90s Apple ads (editorial type, cream paper, slate ink) and why the fake menu bars and little beige Mac didn't make the cut.

  2. 2
    Web Design4 min read

    Designing with Vignelli's Rules

    Massimo Vignelli spent sixty years proving you need a grid, a handful of typefaces and a lot of discipline. What that looks like when the page is a browser window.

  3. 3
    Web Design5 min read

    Borrowing a Palette from a Reading App

    Six colors sampled from a screenshot of a dark RSS reader, the rules that keep amber from turning into a Halloween theme, and what the contrast math actually says.

  4. 4
    Web Design4 min read

    Kaybl: One Cable Guide, Three Screens

    Kaybl turns a Plex or Jellyfin library into something that feels like flipping channels. The hard part isn't the channels. It's drawing one guide that works on a TV, a phone and a desktop.