Effective design is all about relationships between form and content. Paul Rand

Transcription

1 Effective design is all about relationships between form and content. Paul Rand Principles and Elements of Art/Design Brooklyn Friends TWT Conference, 24 April 2010 Design Your Information To Get Noticed subject: TWTconference Type makes words as well as art. Toddroth.com CleanCutMedia.com Audience Age, gender, ethnicity, format [web, print, published] Audience reading skills

2 Chris Ashworth Organizing Elements = line, direction, shape, size, color, value, texture Organizational principles, in any art, are based on control of the intervals between elements. For the visual artist, such as the graphic designer, intervals exist in a spatial dimension: between shapes, sizes, colors, etc. Three of the most basic organizing principles for intervals are,

3 Repetition: Uses a one-dimensional arrangement of identical intervals between elements to create predictable, reassuring patterns. Harmony: Uses rhythm to emphasize a particular "beat" within an arrangement of intervals. Discord: Uses large, contrasting intervals between elements to maximize tensions and heighten recognition. Source; The Layout [composition, placement, arrangement] Visual weight Directional flow, movement, rhythm Emphasis and balance Andy Goldsworthy, 1993

4 Graphicdesign blog Page organizers [divisions of space grid, rules, borders, columns, blocks of information]

5 Real Simple Magazine, Time, Inc., May 2008 Negative or white space emphasizes and facilitates comprehension. It's often better to have more negative space than positive space.

6 [opensource]

7 Typography the art of type [not copy, not text] Type Anatomy Balance [Unity] - can be achieved even if the elements are unequal, but careful positioning [arrangement or composition]. Visual balance can be achieved even if the elements are unequal if

8 they are positioned [arranged, composed] mindfully. Often a grounding element like a vertical line next to text is used. Kathryn Hinton, Squforked Alignment Justification [both sides, last line left] and alignment [left, right & center] and spacing to organize text [orphans and widows]

9 Legibility and organization line, shape, direction, size, texture, value, color text wrap, subheads break-up body text into understandable chunks shoutouts or pullout quotes and sidebars also break up body text

10 Bonnie Mclean, 1967

11 Text on gray and color General rules about body copy by using a minimum of 9 point type and a maximum of 14 point type (depending on age and reading skills of the audience and physical size of the piece). Leading should be 2 points more than the point size of the type (e.g., 9 point type, 11 point leading).

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13 Images For impact, reinforcement keep it simple, creative and preferably home-made, aka, student made 72 DPI for web, 300DPI for print publishing, 200DPI for local posters Visual weight and balance, symmetry and asymmetry Color Color should support the content not override it The wheel - primary, secondary, tertiary

14 Analogous, complimentary [+hue lowers intensity]

15 Monochrome Split complimentary Tint [+white] Tone [+30% gray], not shown

16 shade [+black], Warm colors Lautrec, The Kiss, 1892 And cool

17 Monet, Water-Lilies, 1914 Single color and tints of that color are the cheapest to print. It s the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine.

18 CMYK = printer colors, RGB = monitor color Beware of individual color idiosyncrasies

19 Chroma is strongest against a color of the same hue, weakest against a color of complementary hue. Strong value contrasts tend to overpower and weaken differences in chroma, so that a dark color looks stronger in chroma against black than against white; and a light color behaves in just the opposite way. Duke.edu

20 Simple line art, black/white or single color can also be very effective Weebe.ro All printers print color differently, paper affects color. Two-dimensional design has a long and wonderful history that can provide you with countless ideas and resources.

21 Limbourg brothers, Ink, tempera, and gold leaf on vellum, /9, Met Museum, NYC.

22 El Lissitzky, Kurt Schwitters, Merz Magazine cover, 1924

23 Alfred Choubrac, late 19 th century

24 Stenberg brothers, Sources: Graphic design principle index Duke University Thinking With Type, Ellen Luptin