5 Web Design Tips from Michelangelo

By Joshua on February 11 2008

Since my previous post on 6 Web Design Tips from Leonardo Da Vinci was so popular, I decided to follow it up with another one, this time from Michelangelo. I'm considering making these posts into a regular feature. Let me know what you think!

1. Start young and study hard

By the time Michelangelo was fourteen years old, he was already apprenticed to a master. More unusual, though, is the fact that even at that age, Michelangelo's father was able to convince the master to pay his young apprentice. This was a very uncommon practice at the time, and may testify to Michelangelo's natural skills.

Michelangelo was apparently quite a good student, because two of his most famous masterpieces, the Pieta and the David were both completed before he was even thirty years old.

If you're young, in high school or junior high, it's not too early to start learning! In fact, it may be the best time that you ever have to get a good grasp on your future craft. Right now you don't have to worry about making a living, providing for kids, working a job that takes all your time. If you're interested in web design take the time that you have and spend it studying HTML and CSS, experimenting with Photoshop, and playing with Ruby on Rails. That in itself will put you ahead of most adults.

Now, that doesn't mean that you can't do well in web design if (like me) you're a bit older. It just means you'll have to work harder to stand out.

2. Continually practice the basics

Though Michelangelo was primarily a sculptor in his early career, he never stopped practicing his drawing. And he didn't just draw for his sculptures. He also drew just for the sake of it, recording what he'd seen, sketching an idea that occurred to him. Practicing this very basic skill over and over provided him with a foundation that he could build new skills on. (Think of the Sistine Chapel.)

Likewise, web designers should constantly be practicing their foundational skills. Depending on your focus, that might be CSS, or it might be Photoshop. But by continually practicing and improving these basic areas, we are also making it more likely that we'll be able to take on additional skills.

3. Don't be afraid to venture into a new area

While Michelangelo was in Rome sculpting the tomb of Pope Julius II, the pope commissioned him to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Michelangelo believed that the pope was persuaded to do this as a ploy by his rival Raphael, who hoped that Michelangelo's weaker skills in painting would lead others to the conclusion that Raphael was the superior artist. Rather than say, "I'm sorry, but that's not quite my field," Michelangelo took on the task, producing a monumental masterpiece.

So next time you're considering venturing into something new, whether that is programming, visual design or whatever, don't be afraid. Take the challenge and make it your own!

4. Use repeated motifs to unify your work

If you look at the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel for very long, you'll soon notice that despite the fact that it is composed of many disparate parts, it is also unified by certain repeated motifs to make a single work of art rather than several. First, there is the architectural aspect of the painting. Michelangelo painted columns and arches onto the ceiling in order to frame the various scenes. Second, there is the human figure. Rather than simply framing the scenes, Michelangelo painted deeply symbolic figures like the Cumaean Sybil and the Prophet Isaiah along the sides of the main scenes. These figures help to unify the architectural frame to the scenes, as well as unifying the various scenes with each other.

You can often use the same technique in web design. One common application is the header and navigation which remains constant throughout the site, providing a sense of continuity. But you can also take graphical elements and repeat them in appropriate places to highlight content. Repeated motifs don't just have to be graphical, though. They can also be structural, as in a grid layout. Or they can be textual, for example, when a blog references ideas from previous posts. Taking advantage of these techniques can help create a stronger, more engaging experience.

5. Vary your techniques

While Michelangelo's great early works, like the Pieta and David, were highly polished, as he grew older he began experimenting with different techniques. In particular, he began to create rough-hewn sculptures that look as if they are just emerging from within the rock. These later sculptures often capture a pathos that his earlier neo-classical tendencies did not.

My thought when I first realized this was that if even Michelangelo felt the need to experiment and use different techniques after his early triumphs, there's no excuse for me not doing so as well. Personally, I love clean and simple website designs, but in the future I'm going to try experimenting with a bit more ornamentalism to balance out my minimalist tendencies. I think that recognizing your own tendency to use certain techniques instead of others can be a great springboard into figuring out how to approach your work in new and interesting ways.

See any other lessons that Michelangelo can teach us about web design? Post them in the comments!

Think I should keep writing these posts? How about giving this one a stumble or a digg?