Containers
Mike Swartz:
Designers package and present information. The content is nebulous until a designer forms it into a digestible package. Now I’m not just talking about just “capital D” design, but anything that interfaces between content and consumer. It could be an .txt file set in 10px Monaco, or it could be an illuminated manuscript. So the entire design profession as it exists today is about taking abstract information out of the heads of content producers (or ourselves if we do both) and getting it somewhere where people can read/see/hear/watch/whatever it.
I think by definition canvases must be involved. I’m not talking about break-points versus fluid. I’m talking about the fact that what designers do is make containers.
Sure, designers make containers in that we parse and present ideas. But as we make practical decisions about typesetting and layout on the web, “containers” is a problematic concept.
Containers have lids. Containers prevent spills. Containers can be half empty or too full. There are obvious advantages to a container labeled “nails” that has nails inside, but a coffee can and a warehouse can share that label — and on the web, the coffee can is the warehouse. They are one thing. And such a thing has very different spatial and behavioral properties than a container.
Web content isn’t a mess to be contained or a garage to be organized. It is an orchestrated collection of objects to be interpreted and forces to be felt. No wonder fluid layout – confounding as it may be – feels most natural.