May 26, 2006
Web Design
The cost of curiosity
You can make great discoveries by following good designs to their sources but the process can be costly. For example, in my recent search for Christmas gifts I happened across...
fanciullafoods.com (on the Wayback Machine)
a Brooklyn, New York-based bakery. Look pretty good don't they? The perfect holiday gift for a client, yes? Well I never found out. I was so struck by the simplicity of the site's design and the effective use of photography that I abandoned my shopping and followed a link to the site's designer: Steven Gross.
http://www.ssgphoto.com/botanic_P07.html
http://www.ssgphoto.com/industrial_p06.html
Nice stuff, “What else has this guy designed?” So I took a look at his list of links and found his brother, illustrator, artist Alex Gross...
Any question who designed Alex's site? Looks and feels a little like Fanciulla's doesn't it? Then I started looking at Alex's illustrations and decided to buy a print (this is the costly part. I was looking for gifts and ended up spending $50 on myself).
http://www.alexgross.com/prints/Print_shokei.html
By the way, if you appreciate Alex's unusual illustrations, the print I received is exquisite. It is printed in Ultrachrome archival inks on fine matte paper using an Epson 2200 printer. The colors are stunning—color that could not be produced by a printing press.
From baker to artist? As I found out from Alex, Fanciulla is his sister-in-law's bakery (perhaps some grand conspiracy of creativity).