23 articles by Andy Clarke.
CSS relative colour values are now widely supported. In this article, pioneering author and web designer [Andy Clarke](https://stuffandnonsense.co.uk/) shares practical techniques for using them to theme and animate SVG graphics.
In this article, pioneering author and web designer [Andy Clarke](https://stuffandnonsense.co.uk) shows his techniques for creating [Toon Text titles](https://stuffandnonsense.co.uk/toon-text/index.html) using modern CSS and SVG.
A good measure makes reading text comfortable, while a bad one makes it more difficult. So, rather than allowing layout to dictate the measure, doesn’t it make more sense for the measure to inform layout decisions?
SVG is one of those web technologies that’s both elegant and, at times, infuriating. In this article, pioneering author and web designer Andy Clarke explains his technique for animating SVG elements that are hidden in the Shadow DOM.
On mobile, people can lose their sense of context and can’t easily tell where a section begins or ends. Good small-screen design can help orient them using a variety of techniques.
Motion can be tricky: too much distracts, too little feels flat. Ambient animations sit in the middle. They’re subtle, slow-moving details that add atmosphere without stealing the show. In part two of his series, web design pioneer Andy Clarke shows how ambient animations can add personality to any website design.
SVGs, they scale, yes, but how else can you make them adapt even better to several screen sizes? Web design pioneer Andy Clarke explains how he builds what he calls “adaptive SVGs” using ``, ``, and CSS Media Queries.
Creating motion can be tricky. Too much and it’s distracting. Too little and a design feels flat. Ambient animations are the middle ground — subtle, slow-moving details that add atmosphere without stealing the show. In this article, web design pioneer Andy Clarke introduces the concept of ambient animations and explains how to implement them.
How do you design block quotes and pull quotes to reflect a brand’s visual identity and help tell its story? Here’s how I do it by styling the HTML blockquote element using borders, decorative quote marks, custom shapes, and a few unexpected properties.
What’s the best way to make your SVGs faster, simpler, and more manageable? In this article, pioneering author and web designer Andy Clarke explains the process he relies on *to* prepare, optimise, and structure SVGs for animation and beyond.
So, how can you take dialogue box design beyond the generic look of frameworks and templates? How can you style them to reflect a brand’s visual identity and help to tell its stories? Here’s how I do it in CSS using ::backdrop, backdrop-filter, and animations.
While there are plenty of ways that CSS animations can bring designs to life, adding simple SMIL (Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language) animations in SVG can help them do much more. Andy Clarke explains where SMIL animations in SVG take over where CSS leaves off.
What if you could take your CSS animations beyond simple fades and slides — adding an extra dimension and a bit of old-school animation magic? In this article, pioneering author and web designer [Andy Clarke](https://stuffandnonsense.co.uk) will show you how masking can unlock new creative possibilities for CSS animations, making them feel more fluid, layered, and cinematic.
Have you ever thought about how the limitations of early cartoon animations might relate to web design today? From looping backgrounds to minimal frame changes, these retro animation techniques have surprising parallels to modern CSS. In this article, pioneering author and web designer [Andy Clarke](https://stuffandnonsense.co.uk) shows how he applied these principles to Emmy-winning composer Mike
Let’s run through a quick refresher. Image maps date all the way back to HTML 3.2, where, first, server-side maps and then client-side maps defined clickable regions over an image using map and area elements.
I’ve used border-image regularly. Yet, it remains one of the most underused CSS tools, and I can’t, for the life of me, figure out why. Is it possible that people steer clear of border-image because its syntax is awkward and unintuitive? Perhaps it’s because most explanations don’t solve the type of creative implementation problems that most people need to solve. Most likely, it’s both.
After 12 inspiring articles, Andy Clarke draws his Inspired Design Decisions series to a close by explaining how studying the work of Bradbury Thompson — one of the masters of 20th Century graphic — will teach you how to combine graphic and typographical elements with innovative layouts to create stunning designs for the web. In this final article, Andy brings together lessons from all his previou
Emmett McBain was a Black American graphic designer whose work had a remarkable impact on the representation of Black Americans in advertising. He co-founded what became the biggest Black-owned agency in the USA. McBain designed almost 75 record covers by the time he was 24, and in the penultimate of his Inspired Design Decisions series, Andy Clarke will explain how his work can inspire what we de
In the tenth issue of Inspired Design Decisions, Andy Clarke will explain how Giovanni Pintori — the Italian graphic designer best known for his work with Olivetti — can inspire design for the web with his distinctive use of color and shape. Andy will teach you how to use color to attract attention and then to lead someone’s eye around a design. He’ll discuss how a minimal color palette can act as
These days, product companies seem more interested in refining interfaces and simplifying user experiences. In this ninth issue of Inspired Design Decisions, Andy Clarke will explain how studying the work of Max Huber — one of the less well known but most distinguished Swiss designers — will teach you how to turn mundane subjects into exciting visual communication.
In this eighth issue of Inspired Design Decisions, Andy Clarke will explain how learning about American graphic designer and typographer Herb Lubalin has transformed his approach to typography on the web. How can we combine elements to develop powerful headers and calls to action? How do we use pre-formatted HTML text, and the text element in SVG for precise control over type? How can we optimise
In this seventh instalment of Inspired Design Decisions, Andy Clarke will explore how American art director and graphic designer Otto Storch inspires his designs for the web. How do we use CSS Shapes to go beyond basic shapes to add energy to our designs? How do we use rotations on text for extra impact? How can we use mirroring and reflections to add interest to a design? In this article, we’ll e
In this sixth instalment of Inspired Design Decisions, Andy Clarke will explore how British art director Neville Brody and in particular his work on The Face Magazine inspires his designs for the web. How do we use blend modes to add depth to our designs? How do we use vertical text for impact? How can we use clipping paths to bring in character and energy to a design? In this article, Andrew Clar