far east culture was ahead of the western world's modern tastes by about 3000 years, give or take a week. if you imitate their design concepts, you are bound for success. the most important of these, above all else, is simplicity. if your are building a page, or manipulating an image, most likely it will not be your last, so there is no need to use every color or fill every pixel.

when designing a page, the most helpful thing is to make a rough sketch on paper of your layout ideas, then work from there. you don't need to adhere to your sketch, but it's a great place to start. after you build a page, be prepared to make several revisions, but save them all. this way you can view each one to see what appeals most to you. a common mistake is to accept your first draft, usually it is never your best.

when manipulating images, no sketch is needed. the few options available to us allow for hit and miss experimentation, and the 'back' button is your best friend. remember that design is evolutionary, you can turn mistakes and accidents into opportunities. even the old masters of painting could never predict the outcome of their work.