Graphic design I.

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Art or design?

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Art or design?

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Art or design?

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Art or design?

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Art or design?

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Basic differences?

• Art pleases the artist

• Graphic design pleases the audience

• Art aims to transfer emotions

• Graphic design aims to transfer information

Sources

• Samara - Design Elements:

A Graphic Style Manual

• Ambrose, Harris - The Layout Book

• Boulton - A Practical Guide to

Designing for the Web

• Vinh, Boulton – Grids Are Good

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http://www.subtraction.com/2007/03/18/oh-yeeaahh

Page design

What is a “page” ?

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What page design does

• Attract attention

• Guide the audience

– Direct the tour of the page

• Structure information

– 1st level, 2nd level …

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Visual anatomy

• Layout

– Where

• Skin

– How

• Content

– What

• Separate, independent parts

• work together

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Layout

Why layout?

• Layout creates structure

– Content requires structure

– Content without structure demands more effort

• Structure supports understanding

– Organize the knowledge in the best way

• Existing structure helps to focus on content

rather than form

– Easy navigation when looking for information

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Why layout?

• Helps designer guide

viewer’s attention

– Emphasize important

parts of content

– Tell stories, organize

content perception

– Create hierarchies

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Directing the eye

• Entry point

– Winner of the attraction game

• Secondary (tertiary) design elements

• Downward, rightward movement

– (or leftward, depends on text orientation)

• Eyes and looks in picture

• Rhythm

– series of repeated elements = movement

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Visual prominence

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Direction: entry point

• Visual prominence

– Size, color, content

• Faces (eyes, breasts,…)

• Big or isolated objects

• Color contrast

• There can only be one

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Direction: secondary elem.

• Order the elements by

visual prominence

• The attention usually

follows this order

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1. Face

2. Title

3. Dates

Direction: secondary elem.

• How to create secondary

levels:

– Object size

– Color & Contrast

• Especially text contrast

• Why create secondary

levels?

– When too much information

– Create priorities

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Direction: down and right

• If no other attractor wins,

the usual movement is

down and/or right

• Picture captions are

placed below, not above

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Survey

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Direction: rhythm&movement

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No movement

Disorderly chaos

LTR movement

through increasing

height

Direction: eyes and looks

• This is my message.

• People looking out

of your page will:

– Distract the viewer

– Destroy the flow

– Direct your viewers to

your competitors

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Direction: eyes and looks

• This is my message.

• People looking into

your page will:

– Navigate the viewer to

the content

– Give the page a

consistent look&feel

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Levels of prominence

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Entry point

= Step 1

Step 2

Step(s) 3

Leading the way: union.sk

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Losing the way: allianz.sk

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Good shop

Bad shop

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Extreme: thechemicalbrothers.com

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Discuss: kpmg.sk

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Creating a layout

Define constraints

• Adapt the defined information architecture

and navigation design

– Know WHAT elements should be displayed, not

where. (At least for the moment.)

– E.g. 1 title, 1 article, 3 previews, etc…

• Establish mandatory elements and their size

– E.g. advertisement banners, device resolution

– First know the constraints, then be creative

• It’s design, not art!

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Bring order to chaos

• Form vs. content

• Unstructured vs. structured design

• Unstructured = anything goes

• Structured = aligned lines and hierarchies

• Lines are born from grids

• Hierarchies by visual prominence

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Grid layout

• Way to organize layout

• Lines for free, without any additional effort

• Merge cells to create modules

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Grid types

• Grid should not restrict the creativity

• → Number of columns can support many

combinations → support creativity

• E.g. 58 column grid with a gutter,

– 2x28 (+1x2column space)

– 3x18 (+2x2), 4x13(+3x2), 5x10(+4x2), 6x8(+5x2)

– Karl Gerstner, 1960s, Capital magazine

• E.g. 12 columns without a gutter

– 2x6, 3x4, 4x3, 6x2

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Finalize the grid

• Create variations for sibling pages

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www.subtraction.com/pics/0703/grids_are_good.pdf

Mind the visual balance

• What does balance mean in graphic design?

– Remember stability vs. drama in logo design

• Balance by:

– Symmetry, anti-symmetry, asymmetry

– Leverage, eye-direction, texture, color, spahe

• Vertical balance – fixing on a vert.line

• A short tour into aesthetics...

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Balance by symmetry

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James Abbott McNeill Whistler – Autoportrait

Balance by anti-symmetry

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James Abbott McNeill Whistler – At the piano

Balance by asymmetry

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James Abbott McNeill Whistler – Autoportrait

Other types of balance

• Balance by color

– Small area of strong color vs. large area of weak

color

• Balance by shape

– Small complicated shape vs. larger simple

shapes

• Balance by leverage

– Small off-center objects vs. large object close to

center

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Balance vs. entry points

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All elements have the same weight

= no entry point

= confusion

Homework

• Find examples of graphic design from

different eras

– (early 20th century, 50’s, 60’s, 70’s, 80’s, 90’s …)

Or

• Show & Tell – piece of graphic design that

you find interesting

– Poster, ad, magazine cover, CD, billboard, …

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