Jay (MiB): You know what the difference is between you and me? I make this look good.

Think about that quote for a second. The Men in Black agents are interesting. They all look essentially the same. Even their names are bland (Jay/J, K, Zed/Z).

Let’s be honest here: it’s hard to be unique. Whether you’re a high school senior finishing up your college applications or a recent college graduate updating that resume to a web hosting company in a saturated market. It’s hard. Here’s one way you can stand out: make it look good.

What looks good?

The following image is the login page for Dash (a dashboard for Isomerous clients). Does it look good? Let’s look at the details…

• Subtle background
• Distinct container element with a subtle shadow
• Rounded login button with a subtle gradient and border
• Lots of white-space
• Interesting typefaces

I think it looks good, but what do I know? I never went to art school. I never took an art class in high school. I believe the last time I took an art class was in 6th grade. Given my experience (or lack thereof), I think my design skills are above average simply because I’m observant.

Typography

I’m a typophile. I’m always looking at typefaces and fonts. I doubt anyone can spend a few hours with me without hearing me mention the usage of Helvetica at least once. That’s what I mean by observant. I can’t help it. I honestly get annoyed when I see bad typography. Ever notice an ‘f’ collide with an ‘i’? Well I do. All the time.

I was walking around in Georgetown the other day and I saw the following nonsense:

Why is Helvetica being used right next to Arial? That makes no sense. They’re meant to be replacements. Would you drink Coke and Pepsi at the same time? Probably not…? Also, I don’t think the use of Garamond helps at all.

You might be thinking: who cares? I’ll say that while you might not even notice anything, your subconscious does.

Words

I stumbled onto this post on Low End Talk a few weeks ago and thought it was hilarious:

Media Temple, or (mt), and iWeb are big companies / brands. Much bigger than Bitcable. They have the potential to hire marketing firms and spend lots of money trying to come up with words that sell. On the other hand, I probably came up with that tagline while drinking a Coke and listening to Satriani. So why are my words up there on that list? I guess they just look good…

Final thoughts

Make things look good. Look at examples of good design. Pay attention to the details. This post isn’t about web design or marketing. It’s about getting yourself to a higher level. Heck, make yourself look good. In my opinion, people judge books by their covers whether they want to or not.

Don’t misframe. No one cares unless it looks good.