Distressed Design Part 2
2nd edition — by Patrick McNeil — Jul. 3, 2006
The Design Element
I find this collection of sites remarkable for one key reason. They seem to stand in opposition to all the glossy, bubbly, gradient, color popping goodness that has come to be connected with this whole web 2.0 movement. Considering this two ends of the spectrum and knowing that both camps have some absolutely stunning designs I am reminded of something I feel like I say over and over. It is all about the meaning layered inside of the design. What it says is so fundamentally important that you can't design in opposition to what the style speaks.
Distressed design is decidedly urban and grass roots and it is hard to over come this. In fact I would dare say that if you find yourself trying to over come this you might step back and wonder if you are forcing the style into a place where it is unneeded . I must admit creating distressed stuff is fun, and for a period of time everything I did was battered and worn! I suppose we all have our design phases, but looking back I realize I was just trying to work out ideas I wanted to use instead of finding the fresh new ideas that fit my current needs.
This set of distressed sites is absolutely wonderful. I am blown away at the ways people have worked this element into their design.
Connotations of texture: Worn, used, free, expressive,
physical, tangible, artistic, creative, raw, hip, aged, historic, rough,
grass roots, urban, and rebellious.
Sample Usage
Massive Texture Collections
Mayang Textures (1000's
of free high res textures)
Texture
Warehouse
Amazing
Textures (registration and contribution required)
Mega-Tex
Texture King
Morgue File
Small Texture Collections
afflict.net
Higgins,
The House Painter (free)
Trex-Tures (More
of what you should learn to do yourself, but very nice indeed)
Links
That Wicked Worn
Look (tutorial series)
Mister Retro (Photoshop filters)
CSS based worn type tutorial
Worn
rubber stamp tutorial (Photoshop)
