Aiga.org Review

www.aiga.org

AIGA is a blog style design website. From first appearances you would definitely think the site is aimed at higher educated readers or professional designers. The calm colours seem make it seem more sophisticated and to the point, it also links with the tone of the site because it’s aimed to get you to read or participate in work or simply to get you to think much deeper about design. You wouldn’t want too many contrasting colours distracting you from the important body text.

One of it’s purposes it seems is for educational use, where from some posts they set case studies or get you to question certain design techniques. But again for more knowledgeable designers as they use a forward style and mention many designers you should know etc.

Other articles include interviews as well as a lot of other general and job advice within the design industry. Looking at one of the recent articles they’ve posted such as ‘Graphic Design Theory?’. It’s written from a first person perspective, so these posts even though are packed full of information also feel slightly biased but in a good way of questioning what’s going on around the world and done honestly. In terms of ease to read, for a quick answer this wouldn’t be the site to use. It’s a type of article where you would need to read the whole piece to get a sense of what’s going on. They’re pretty long and the site probably has a dedicated fan base who visit regularly and know about the style/type of person that’s posting as well. Really, it feels most of the people visiting are there to read something specific.

The design of the site could be better, when you first look at it the page feels too clustered in certain areas, full of too many links for you to click on, but then again you aren’t bombarded with adverts. There is also no easy archive shown of the actual blog’s posted unless you click on the name of the poster, which you would have to be a regular reader to know. You can tell though from first look that this site is more about informative content than flashy images and banners all over the place. It’s not there to grab your attention, you’re there for a reason. Most of the site feels tidy and fairly spaced out with what feels like suitable fonts in the appropriate places. Nothing too fancy or too bold. Just there for their correct purposes. You could maybe suggest that this also means there slightly feels a lack of life to the site as well, or just a little edge to them.

If a graphic student was to stumble across this site, it may be because they were looking for formal opinions on design and ways to broaden their ideas from what this site appears to offer, along with the educational section and competitions that a teacher may have suggested they check out. Although the site may not be attractive enough to draw back the younger students again and again.

7/10