[consulting] Drupal-friendly Graphic Design (new subject)

[Nicolas Borda]

On 10 Mar 2009, at 19:42, Eric Broder wrote:

> So far I detect one main idea coming through: advise the graphic  
> designer on what default "out of the box" implementations look  
> like, possibly by building a prototype first and then telling the  
> graphic designer to use it as an architectural outline.
>
> Are there other methods you might suggest? Is it helpful to give a  
> graphic designer a list of readily available variables to play  
> around with? Or to present a choice of basic layout structures that  
> are easy to implement in Drupal?


I would suggest reading this great article
by Young Hahn:

http://www.developmentseed.org/blog/2009/mar/01/limitations-drupal- 
theme-layer
(http://tinyurl.com/bvhwat)

In this article he point out three common
"mistakes" designers make when designing
Drupal themes:

1. Moving something out of its vertical stack.
2. Changing the formatting of a core element.
3. Expecting visual consistency across different modules.

I think he makes very valid point in this
article. I used to tell designers to make
any design they want and I would be able
to theme it, and use to design myself with
that principle. I have learned that although
most things can be done, like Young says
some things can be hard to do, hard to
maintain, and can be done with Drupal
friendly alternatives. Is it really in your client's
best interest having things in the design that
will be costly, when you can provide
alternatives that will look just as good and
be less expensive to theme. I guess it also
depend on the budget and the brief for the
project.