Allan's Advice About Learning Good Design

Some one sent us an email complimenting Allan on his design and asking for some pointers for a design noob. Allan's response was so simple and pointed that I wanted to post it here for everyone to enjoy:

Design is all about proximity and alignment. Being constant with spacing, styles and such is key. Having a visual hierarchy of what you want the user to see first is also very important. Being good at photoshop, thats just practice.

[Your site] is very clean and really good. I'd say that it's a good design. I like simple clean stuff.

My design journal: http://flickr.com/photos/ispypurdydesigns/