Before and After 0670

7/29/2019 Before and After 0670

1/13

Continued

Before&After XiBAmagazine.com U

Design talk 0670

FiveDesignIdeas

DesignTalk14

VisualOxymoron

Functional Beauty

PortfolioCard SneakPeek

Background Selection


2/13

Before&After

2of8 Design talk 0670

XiBAmagazine.com U

Logo The visual oxymoron

What happens when your words say one thing, but your graphics say some-

thing else? Have a look at this sign above our dentists ofce. Its a nice name,

but pay attention to how its set. The sharp, needlelike typeace, industrial

colors and that bloody tooth are enough to make a nervous patient turn and

run! Its a design mistake you dont want to make. Heres a better way:

To say gentle, you need a typeface with round, pillowy shapesthink

circles and soft, cuddly things. Use light tones, which are chiffony and

undemanding. Add fresh, watery colors like aqua greens and blues, a

dreamy little curve, and youre done. Words and graphics now say thesame thing. If you add a tooth, make it sparkling white.

Hard edges are aggressive and agitating. Low-contrast edges are soft, undemanding,

calming. This edge whispers.

Gentle Dental is an inviting name, and the lowercase handwriting was the

designers effort to make it look that way. But yikes! That typeface is all

needles, barbed wire and razor blades, with hard edges and sharp points

even in the negative spaces. Red is not a good color for a toothfor obviousreasonsand paired with blue makes it aggressive and agitating, too.

gentledentalBefore After

Design talk 2of8


3/13

Before&After


XiBAmagazine.com UDesign talk 3of8

Business Card Functional beauty

Heres a brilliant bit of marketing designa business card thats an envelope of grass seeds!

What we especially like are that the colors, textures and graphics werent dreamed up, but rather taken

from the world of landscaping, letterpressed by hand and printed on earthy, recycled paper.

Landscaping colors Leaf green and earth brown set an organic

tone. The typography is simple and unusualeverythings in upper-

case except the name. Old-fashioned, letterpress printing adds

texture by literally pressing the type into the paper.

Textured paperSlick, shiny surfaces would

not be appropriate here; the paper is uncoated,

grainy, earthytactile qualities that arejust as

important as the graphics.

The surprise Open the envelope, and out fall

enough grass seeds to get a tiny lawn growing. This

makes a delightful, physical connection to the ven-

dor. Memorable and fun!

Repetitive graphic The leaf on the

logo is carried over from front to back.

This small drop of color is enough to

tie both sides together.

www.struckcreative.com


4/13

Before&After



Divide a sheet o card stock into thirds.

Mail. Fits a #10 envelope.

Fold.

Your design portfolio is bulging with work.

How do you show it all to clients? Short answer:

You dont. Instead of cramming everything in,

do what the Langton Cherubino Group does

choose just one piece, and create a mailer around

it. To show more pieces, make more mailers. Its

easy on the eyes and easy to understand, too.

Portfolio Card Show one piece at a time

Front

Back

Inside

www.langtoncherubino.com

Less is more

Logo and tiny headline are

centered in bold red and

white felds. Plenty o open

space gives the viewer

room to breathe. The white

panel opens . . .

. . . to reveal a careully dis-

played portolio piece and

very importanta paragraph

that tells its story. On the

back (let) is the name and

contact ino in a single, mini-

mal line. Note that every ele-

ment is centered, sustaining

the continuity.


5/13

Before&After



She calls her work animal-assisted therapy. Never heard of that? When one has an unfamiliar story

like Alicia Burchams, it helps to explain it right up front. Her Kindred Spirits site does this simply

it borrows the opening lines from three articles and starts the stories on the home page.

www.kindredspiritstn.org

Web Page Sneak peek

1 32

The opening lines from three pages deeper in the

site are added to photos and dropped into uniform

containers on the home page. A single, opening

sentence above the stories clearly states what the

sites about. Carefully chosen headlines add clarity.

Simple, peaceful, nice.


6/13

Before&After



Color Background selection

White is clean, fresh, inexpensive and always easy. Make sure its pure white,

not something off, which merely looks ordinary and not designed. White photo

edges (A) blend in. Black is bold and sophisticated and onscreen will brighten

your photos! Black edges (B) blend in. Gray is most versatile, accommodating

light and dark edges. Against gray (right) you can add a shadow, border or both.

White Black Gray

Youre making a photo gallery and need a suitable background. What color to use? Neutrals

are best. White is clean, black is dramatic, and gray has the most depth. Like this:

A

B


7/13

Before&After



Typefaces

1 Helvetica Rounded Black

Images

Images: iStockphoto

2 (2881844)

3 (5373514)

4 (5365380)

5 Rubberball.com

Article resources

Colors

C55 M0 Y47 K0

C52 M0 Y18 K0

6

76

7

2

1

gentledental

3 4 5


8/13

Before&After

8of8 | Printing formats

Design talk 0670

XiBAmagazine.com U

Before & After magazine

Before & After has been sharing its practical approach

to graphic design since 1990. Because our modern world

has made designers of us all (ready or not), Before &

After is dedicated to making graphic design understand-

able, useful and even fun for everyone.

John McWade Publisher and creative director

Gaye McWade Associate publisher

Dexter Mark Abellera Staff designer

Before & After magazine

323 Lincoln Street, Roseville, CA 95678

Telephone 916-784-3880

Fax 916-784-3995

E-mail [email protected]

www http://www.bamagazine.com

Copyright 2008 Before & After magazine

ISSN 1049-0035. All rights reservedYou may pass along a free copy of this article to others

by clicking here.You may not alter this article, and you

may not charge for it. You may quote brief sections

for review; please credit Before & After magazine, and

let us know. To link Before & After magazine to your

Web site, use this URL: http://www.bamagazine.com.

For all other permissions, please contact us.

Subscribe to Before & After

Subscribe to Beore & Ater, and become a

more capable, confdent designer or pennies

per article. To learn more, go to

http://www.bamagazine.com/Subscribe

E-mail this articleTo pass along a ree copy o this article to

others, click here.

Join our e-list

To be notifed by e-mail o new articles as

they become available, go to

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Design talk 8of 8


9/13

XiBAmagazine.com UBeore&Ater

Back | Paper-saver format

For paper-saver ormatPrint: (Specify pages 1013)

For presentation ormatPrint: (Specify pages 18)

Beore & Ater is made to ft your binder

Before & After articles are intended for permanent reference. All are titled and numbered.

For the current table of contents, click here. To save time and paper, a paper-saver format of this article,

suitable for one- or two-sided printing, is provided on the following pages.

Print

Format: Landscape

Page Size: Fit to Page

Save

Presentation format or

Paper-saver format


10/13

Before&After|www.b

amagazine.com

1

of4

DesignTalk14:FiveDesignIdeas

0670

0670

DesignTalk14:

FiveDesignIdeas

Logo

Thevisualoxymoron

Whathappenswhenyou

rwordssayonething,buty

ourgraphicssay

somethingelse?Havealookatthissignaboveourdentistsofce.Itsa

nicename,butpayatten

tiontohowitsset.Thesharp,needleliketypeace,

industrialcolorsandtha

tbloodytoothareenoughtomakeanervouspatient

turnandrun!Itsadesignmistakeyoudontwantto

make.Heresabetterway:

Tosaygentle,youneedatypefacewithround,pillowyshapesthink

circlesandsoft,cuddlythings.Uselighttones,whicharechiffon

yand

undemanding.Addfresh,waterycolorslikeaquagreensandblu

es,a

dreamylittlecurve,andyoure

done.Wordsandgraphicsnowsaythe

samething.Ifyouaddatooth,makeitsparklingwhite.

Low-contra

stedgesaresoft,undemanding,

calming.Th

isedgewhispers.

GentleDenta

lisaninvitingname,andthelowe

rcasehandwritingwasthe

designersef

forttomakeitlookthatway.Buty

ikes!Thattypefaceisall

needles,barbedwireandrazorblades,withhardedgesandsharppoints

eveninthen

egativespaces.Redisnotagood

colorforatoothforobvious

reasonsandpairedwithbluemakesitaggres

siveandagitating,too.

gentl

edenta

l

Before

After

Hardedgesareaggres

siveandagitating.

Five

Design

Ideas

D

esignT

alk14

VisualOxymo

ron

F

unctionalB

eauty

PortolioC

ard

SneakPeek

BackgroundSe

lection


11/13

Divideashe

eto

card

stockin

tothird

s.

Mail.Fits

a#

10envelo

pe.

Fold.

Portfolio

Card

S

howonepieceata

time

Front

Back

Inside

www.lan

gton

c

herubin

o.c

om

Lessismore

Logoan

dtinyh

ea

dlineare

cen

tere

din

boldr

edan

d

whitef

eld

s.Plen

tyo

open

spacegiv

esthevi

ewer

room

tobre

athe.

Thewhite

pan

el

open

s...

.

.

.toreve

al

acareully

dis-

pla

yedportolio

p

iecean

d

veryim

portan

tapara

gra

ph

thattellsits

story.

Onthe

back

(let)is

then

amean

d

con

tactinoin

asingle

,mini-

mallin

e.N

otetha

tevery

ele-

men

tis

cen

tere

d,sustainin

g

thecon

tinuity.

Before&After

|www.b

amagazin

e.c

om

2o4

DesignTalk14:FiveDesig

nIdeas0670

0670DesignTalk14:FiveDesignIdeas

BusinessCard

Functionalbeauty

LandscapingcolorsLe

a

green

an

dearth

brown

setan

org

anic

ton

e.Th

etypogra

ph

yis

sim

plean

dun

usual

every

thin

gsin

u

pper-

caseex

ceptthen

am

e.

Old-

ashion

ed,le

tterpre

ssprin

tingadd

s

tex

ture

byliterally

pre

ssing

thetypein

tothepaper.

Texturedpaper

Slick

,shin

ysura

cesw

o

uld

notbea

ppropria

teh

ere

;thepaperis

un

co

ated,

grain

y,e

arthy

tactilequalitie

sthatarejustas

importantasthegraphics.

ThesurpriseOpen

theenv

elo

pe,an

dou

tall

en

ough

grassseedstogetatinylawn

growin

g.This

mak

esadeligh

tul,

ph

ysical

conn

ection

to

thev

en-

dor.M

em

orable

an

dun!

RepetitivegraphicTh

ele

a

onthe

logois

carrie

dov

erromron

ttoback.

This

small

dro

po

coloris

en

o

ughto

tiebothsidestogether.

www.struckcre

ative.com

Yourdesig

nportfolioisbulgin

gwithw

ork.

Howdoyo

ushowitalltoclients?Shortanswer:

Youdont.

Insteadofcrammin

geveryt

hingin,

dowhatth

eLan

gtonCherubinoGroupdoes

choosejustonepiece,andcreateamaileraround

it.Toshow

more

pieces,makemorem

ailers.Its

easyonth

eeyesandeasytounderstand,too.

Heresabrilliantbitofmarketingdesignabusinesscardthatsanenvelo

peo

fgrassseeds!

Whatweespeciallylik

earethatthecolors,texture

sandgra

phicswerentdreamedup,butrathertaken

fromtheworldoflandscapin

g,letterpressedby

handandprintedonearth

y,recycled

paper.


12/13

Before&After|www.bamagazine.com

3of4


nIdeas0670


Shecallsherworkanimal-assistedtherapy.Neve

rheardofthat?Whenoneh

asanunfamiliarstory

likeAliciaBurchams,ithelpstoexplainitrightup

front.HerKindredSpiritssitedoesthissimply

itborrowstheopenin

glinesfromthreearticlesan

dstartsthestoriesontheho

mepage.

ColorBackgrou

ndselection

White

Black

Gray

Youremakin

gaphoto

galleryandneedasuitable

background.Whatcolortouse?Neutrals

arebest.Whiteisclean

,blackisdramatic,andgra

yhasthemostdepth.Liketh

is:

A

B

Whiteisclean,fresh,inexp

ensiveandalwayseasy.Makesureitspurewhite,

notsomethingoff,whichmerelylooksordinaryandnotdesigned.Whitephoto

edges(A)blendin.Blackis

boldandsophisticatedandonscr

eenwillbrighten

yourphotos!Blackedges(B

)blendin.Grayismostversatile,accommodating

lightanddarkedges.Agains

tgray(right)youcanaddashadow

,borderorboth.

www.kindredspiritstn.org

WebPageSneak

peek

1

3

2

Theopeninglinesfromthreepagesde

eperin

thesiteareaddedtophotosanddroppedinto

uniformcontainersonthehomepage.Asingle,

openingsentenceabovethestoriesclearlystates

wha

tthesitesabout.Carefullychosen

headlines

add

clarity.Simple,peaceful,nice.


13/13

Before&After|www.bamagazine.com

4of4


nIdeas0670


Typefaces

1HelveticaRoundedBlack

Images

Ima

ges:iStockphoto

2(2

881844)

3(5

373514)

4(5

365380)

5Rubberball.com

Articleresources

Colors

C55M0Y47K0

C52M0Y18K0

67

672 1

gentled

enta

l

3

4

5

Before&Aftermag

azine

Before&Afterhasbeensharingitspracticalapproach

tographicdesignsinc

e1990.Becauseourmodernwor

ld

hasmadedesignerso

fusall(readyornot),Before&

Afterisdedicatedtom

akinggraphicdesignunderstand

-

able,usefulandeven

funforeveryone.

JohnMcWadePublisherandcreativedirector

GayeMcWadeAssociatepublisher

DexterMarkAbelle

raStaffdesigner

Before&Aftermag

azine

323LincolnStreet,Ro

seville,CA95678

Telephone916-784-3

880

Fax916-784-3995

[email protected]

wwwhttp://www.bam

agazine.com

Copyright2008Before&Aftermagazine

ISSN1049-0035.All

rightsreserved

Youmaypassalonga

freecopyofthisarticletoothers

byclickinghere.Youm

aynotalterthisarticle,andyou

maynotchargeforit.

Youmayquotebriefsections

forreview;pleasecreditBefore&Aftermagazine,and

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&After

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Before and After 0670