No matter how much you love your work, whether you're a website builder or a creative director, it's good to have a side project to keep your creativity on its toes. We asked Diego Laredo de Mendoza about his meteorological side project.
Let's start with an easy one: who are you and what do you do?
I'm Diego Laredo de Mendoza, a graphic designer and developer. I actually work at Flarvet, a collective graphic design studio that I co-founded six years ago.
How did TypoWeather come about, and what are you looking to explore with the project?
TypoWeather was born as a joke. I just wanted to create a simple web page with a weather report for me and my friends – and when I started to draw some icons, I noticed that they were not as clear as the written descriptions. So I decided to use only words, while keeping the idea of having a single page to view the weather report at first sight.
Font size and weight – along with a precise description of conditions – were the solutions I found for replacing the visual impact of a traditional image. In the end, I went with big and bold text to represent good weather; light and small means bad weather. The final touch was 'multiweather': a function that enables you to visualise contemporarily the weather forecast of every stored city.
What technologies make TypoWeather run?
TypoWeather is a responsive website developed in HTML, CSS and JavaScript. The weather data it relies on comes in JSON format from an external free service.
What has reaction to the project been like?
A few months after the launch of the website, we have reached more than 1,000 likes on Facebook, along with a lot of tweets – and this interview, of course. My impression is that many people like this different approach to weather reports.
Why should an agency have a side project?
I think side projects are necessary. It's a good way to experiment with new technologies, have fun and add something different to the portfolio to find new kinds of clients.
This article originally appeared in net magazine issue 256.
