Tag Archives: Graphic Design
Better Design: Conclusion
Posted on 05. Jan, 2010 by Kenny.
Well, this wrapped up my little series on better design. In case you missed any of the posts, you can catch them all here:
Better Design: Introduction
Better Design: Why you should care
Better Design: Four Rules
Better Design: Contrast
Better Design: Repetition
Better Design: Alignment
Better Design: Proximity
Remember, we communicators by what we do. Unfortunately, we communicate in more ways than one, sometimes in ways we’re not strong. Bushing up on these simple design rules will help you become a better communicator in other mediums than just the spoken word.
Oh, I almost forgot to mention. The main resource I used in telling the four rules was the the book, “The Non-Designer Design Book” by Robin Williams. I highly recommend this book. You can pick up your own copy here.
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Better Design: Proximity
Posted on 04. Jan, 2010 by Kenny.
Although good design is an art, this rule really appeals to the logical side of my brain. The rule of proximity is really about organization.
The rule can be boiled down to this statement: related items should be grouped together. Grouping similar items together while separating items that are not similar create visual cues. When someone is scanning that flyer or postcard advertising a future event, arranging the details into similar groupings help the reader understand what is being communicated. Sometimes we have pieces that are information heavy. Don’t make it a chore to look at.
So the next time you are designing something, keep this in mind. The closer you place items on a page the more you communicate a relationship between those items.
Here’s a spectacular example of proximity at work. First of all, let me say that I’m not a fan of the script font on either examples. In addition, I think the “before” example is really bad… probably worse that what you’d really find out there, but maybe not. I’ve seen some bad stuff.
Although this piece illustrates proximity, notice how the other rules are at work as well. Contrast is used to distinguish headings from the rest of the content. Alignment to the left side makes the overall design look 1000% better. Grouping the information together (proximity) makes it readable. The first one makes me really nervous for some reason.
Take a look around. You’ll see alignment in nearly all well designed work.
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Better Design: Alignment
Posted on 31. Dec, 2009 by Kenny.
At time I find this rule for design to be the hardest. You might as well. A good designer pays very close attention to alignment.
Boiled down, alignment means that nothing is arranged on the page without thought and every single item needs to be visually connected with something else on the page. Good design is intentional and alignment is the one area where designer have to pay careful attention.
Here’s where most people miss it. This was the hardest thing for me to overcome and is still sometimes a challenge. I’ll say it gently. RESIST THE URGE TO CENTER! You know what I’m talking about. We design that flyer or program insert and what do we do with the title? We center it. DON’T. NEVER AGAIN!
Sorry I had to yell, but it really is one of the hardest habits to break. There is a place for aligning in the center, but usually reserved for pieces that are more formal, like wedding announcements or things of that nature. Most of the time what you’re designing for isn’t that formal, so don’t design that way.
When item on a page are aligned, even if they are far away, it brings the page together as one cohesive piece. Text aligned either on the right or the left creates a strong vertical edge, and invisible line that connects the elements. I’ve included a few examples below, but just look around you. Open up a magazine and see how alignment is used by professional designers.
Here’s a great illustration of alignment and contrast working together. The designer aligned both the right and left ends of the text, but the company name is only aligned on the right causing it to really pop, which is what they want you to notice.
If you’re not used to it, it feels uncomfortable aligning to the right, but see how nice it looks on this business card.
Here’s a whole brand set of stationary, business cards and such. In the red business card, see how even though the “change is good” phrase is well separated from the contact information, the left alignments pulls it all together.
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Better Design: Repetition
Posted on 30. Dec, 2009 by Kenny.
So this rule is easy. Repetition is finding certain elements that naturally repeat and strengthening them. The idea of repetition is to unify your overall design. Although this is really important on multi-page designs, it is true too of postcards, banners, flyers or other one page pieces. Repetition has the power to add visual interest. Perhaps your flyer has a paragraph of information. See if you can’t divide the content into 3-5 one or two sentence bullet pints. Not only does it make it easier to read, but it makes it more interesting to look at. Maybe you’re refining your resume. Incorporate repetition into your headings and sub-headings. Don’t use 5 different fonts, just use one (two at the most) and stay consistent through your piece. Consistent and repetitive elements guide the viewer to see and read what you want him to see and read.
Here are some good examples of repetition.
This is more of a multi-piece design, but you can even seen the repetition on single pieces, specifically with the yellow color as well as the repetition of the logo as a watermark both on the stationary and the business card.
This web page uses repetition mostly in color. I don’t think it’s accident that they chose that color green leaf in the first picture box. You see the green and gray colors repeated throughout the page which unifies the design. Event he little rss feed icon at the top of the page, which is usually naturally an orange color, was changed to green to repeat the color scheme.
Circles. They’re in the logo ad they’re in the brochure. I can’t see close enough, but it looks like the bullet points are not just your typical bullet points, but tied into the circle theme.
It’s a very crowded card, but the use of repetition helps unify this two sided card. You see it especially on the back with the bold red font above each section.
The repetition of color and shapes/sizes of pictures tie all the elements of this two sided postcard together well.
So, there isn’t much to repetition. See where in your design repetition is happening naturally and see if you can strengthen it so it’s even more obvious. The repetition element isn’t especially noticed when you have this in your design as much as it is noticed when it’s absent.
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Better design
Posted on 28. Dec, 2009 by Kenny.
I’ve had a little series tucked away in the back of my head (and several drafts written already) for the past 6-7 months. I decided that I would actually post/write these during the week between Christmas and New Year. It’s a holiday and so many people are on vacation. Since this is a Children’s Ministry blog, this series isn’t core to the topic (although I do believe it relates… which I’ll explain later), so I’ll plant to post these when most of my readers aren’t all reading. This way the content is here if you’re looking for it but not annoying the readers who are just looking for ministry related content.
So, here’s a little series on design.
I’m by no means a professional graphic designer. I did teach myself photoshop about 8 years ago (and continuing to learn) and I’ve dabbled in design both or fun and work ever since. When I was between ministry jobs, I actually made a little income from design work as well. So, I know enough to be dangerous, but not enough to design something without getting a lot of input from trusted sources (many of those are you!).
When working on my masters (Masters in Curriculum and Instruction) a few years back, one of the classes I took was a design class. I’ll explain why I had to take this class as a part of an education masters in my next post. Although I didn’t learn all that much from the course, the book required for the course transformed me as a designer. It confronted all the ways I designed in the past and helped me learn a few basic design rules I didn’t really know about. In this series, I’m going to share the four rules of design I learned from this book. At the end of the series, I’ll link to the book so you can pick up your own copy, which I suggest you should.
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D.J. Inkers? You gotta be kidding me!
Posted on 22. Apr, 2009 by Kenny.
My friend who sent along the article on Comic Sans yesterday also sent me this and this. She mentioned D.J. Inkers and I was clueless.
If seeing these pages at all inspired you for new font ideas, you may have bigger issues. Resist the urge! PLEASE!
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