Before I even start with the blog on Nils Binder, I just want to state how fascinated I was with his work during the period that he taught us during CSS to the Rescue. He had a clever way of thinking about things, his designs are something I admire and I truly learned a lot from him and his workshops. That aside, just speaking to him was nice, too!
At 9elements, they work with different units which Nils tells us about briefly. Nils is head of the web development unit.
Three people wanted to form a company. "3 Elements" was taken, so they chose "9elements" as the next available URL.
Communication Design: Focuses on corporate identity and printwork such as logos. Non-coding designers collaborate closely with Nils. The team consists of 4 people.
Product Development: Manages projects like banking apps, photobook software for the LA County Museum of Arts, and data visualization. The unit is staffed by 30 people.
Web Development Unit: Responsible for small to medium-sized websites. The team comprises 7 people.
Cybersecurity: Mainly engaged in firmware development rather than cybersecurity.
Main Functions
Old School:
```css
.wrapper {
max-width: 75rem;
margin: 0 auto;
padding: 0 1.5rem;
}
.wrapper {
width: min(100% - 3rem, 75rem);
margin-inline: auto; /* (right to left) */
}
.wrapper {
margin-inline: max(
1.5rem,
((100% - 75rem) / 2)
); /* clever but not recommended */
}
:root {
--wrapper-max: 100% - 75rem;
}
```
Reasoning: Figma closely mimics CSS, offering control similar to coding. Sometimes, relinquishing control to the browser for decisions like element breaking or text wrapping may be beneficial.
Available Units in Figma: Mostly pixels, including fixed and viewport-based units. Additionally, container queries are available.
Grid Layout: Proposes transforming relationships between margins and paddings into a grid layout instead of specifying pixel values.
Nils is amazing at what he does, the way he thinks about containers is truly inspiring and thus it was nice to hear that he was going to be speaking about this. Speaking with him during his time at the AUAS changed my perspective of how we can utilize containers to our need and he opened my eyes to all that CSS is truly capable of. The scalability of the websites he builds is something I aspire to be able to do myself. I had no idea you could make layouts like this in code. Amazing!