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Graphic Design for Non-Designers Dave Underwood •˚Digital Media Services •˚CU Boulder [email protected] •˚303 492 2672 What does good design do? • Makes you look • Makes you believe • Makes you understand Making you look; pet tricks • Contrast • White space • Rhythm • Playfulness • Cropping • Sublimation • Broken borders • Cool palettes • Tension Contrast Look for elements in the design that can played against one another, either in theme or in form. Don't be afraid to radically scale or color individual elements in order to command the viewer's attention. White space doesn't have to be white. We use the term to describe regions of the design that are purposely left uncluttered. Nothing calls attention to your target quite like a surrounding field of undeveloped space. Resist the urge to use all of your available design real estate. There’s a coffeeshop in Boulder with a bulletin board near the front door that is covered with customers’ business cards. The ones that feature lots of white space literally jump out at you.

Graphic Design for Non-Designers

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What to do when you're faced with text, pictures, and a blank slate

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Page 1: Graphic Design for Non-Designers

Graphic Design for Non-Designers

Dave Underwood • Digital Media Services • CU [email protected] • 303 492 2672

What does good design do?• Makes you look• Makes you believe• Makes you understand

Making you look; pet tricks • Contrast • White space • Rhythm • Playfulness • Cropping • Sublimation • Broken borders • Cool palettes • Tension

ContrastLook for elements in the design that can playedagainst one another, either in theme or in form.Don't be afraid to radically scale or colorindividual elements in order to command theviewer's attention.

White spacedoesn't have to be white. We use the term todescribe regions of the design that are purposelyleft uncluttered. Nothing calls attention to yourtarget quite like a surrounding field ofundeveloped space. Resist the urge to use all of youravailable design real estate.There’s a coffeeshop in Boulder with a bulletinboard near the front door that is covered withcustomers’ business cards. The ones that featurelots of white space literally jump out at you.

Page 2: Graphic Design for Non-Designers

RhythmWhen in doubt, repeat. This is probably theeasiest design trick. By rubber stamping any oneof the elements or forms in your design, youachieve a quick effect that at once is interestingto the eye and implies a sense of chronology orstorytelling.

PlayfulnessLook for different modes and platforms withwhich to deliver your message. Handwrite a titleand scan it. Superimpose text onto real-worldobjects. Show consequences. Juxtapose oppositeideas. Break the rules.

Creative croppingYou can easily create mystery and visual interestby cropping photos in unusual ways. Look forthe dynamic changes that can occur when youoffer vignettes rather than the whole image.Film-makers often use this trick to frame theaction and to heighten our curiosity.

SublimationBy diluting an image and sending it to the veryback of your layout you can establish a themethat supports and brands your message withoutcompeting with the content. This is also a greatway to enlist otherwise unacceptable low-resolution images. An interesting technique forhomogenizing a PowerPoint presentation, itrequires a little Photoshop work (I’m happy tohelp you with that if you’d like).

Page 3: Graphic Design for Non-Designers

Broken bordersJust as a bricklayer strengthens a wall byoverlapping each successive course of bricks,you can strengthen your design by allowingindividual elements to interact with one another.

“Cool” palettesColor is great, but raw, heavily-saturated coloroften assaults the viewer. A safe strategy forusing color is to hew your work toward theearthier, more subdued end of the spectrum. Ilike to use colors “sampled” from content photosfor text and other graphic elements in the layout.

Tensioncan be a good thing in design. It draws the viewerin and holds on tight. Tension can be achievedby the use of sharp angles, clustered elements,off-centered content, color, and rotation. There’sa reason “BIG SALE!!” is usually stamped at anangle on price tags.

Experiment with combinations of these tricks. As you can see from the samples, layeringdifferent techniques can add even more punch. The trick is staying focused and bold in whateverstyle you decide on... and knowing when to call it finished.

Page 4: Graphic Design for Non-Designers

Making you believe; looking like a proDesigning like a pro requires avoiding rookie mistakes... blunders like using everyfont at your disposal or jamming your design full of needless content. Very oftengood design comes from knowing what not to do.

Some general guidelines:

• Use a grid to avoid scattered design• Don’t use boxes, hairlines, borders, etc., unless absolutely necessary• Avoid trapped space• Don’t stack type and avoid using acronyms as design elements• Don’t use “cute” fonts unless you’re designing a cute product (I’ll bet you’re not)• Limit your font list to two typefaces and make sure they contrast obviously• Tame your palette• Condense, nest, prune, throw away. Fight with your client (do you really need this!!?)• Please, no needless animations, transitions, or other “hood ornaments”

Yikes!I didn’t have to look far on the Internet to findthis cornucopia of design mistakes. We’ll use itas a starting place for a little triage exercise.

Grid? What grid?If you draw lines along the edges of each of theelements in this web page, you’ll see that there’svirtually no sense of common axes being usedto lay out content. Nothing lines up. The firstand most important thing you can do inassembling your project is to give yourself a gridupon which to hang the text and images. Andthe simpler the grid the better.Using a grid not only makes the design moreattractive, but it also makes the artist’s job mucheasier, both to create initially, and to edit later,if required.

Page 5: Graphic Design for Non-Designers

Can the boxesAvoid using boxes, hairlines, blocks, etc. asdesign elements. Removing these unwarrantedadd-ons almost always makes a layout appearcleaner and better organized.Leave the boxes to the guys designing IRS forms.

Trapped spaceWhite space is good, but trapped space is bad.It pulls the eye in, then has nothing to offer.Give space an uninterrupted exit off the page.

“Stacronyms”Two sins here, one potentially avoidable. Thefirst: stacking type was popular in the 50’s, andit looks it. You don’t need to do it and shouldn’t.The second, hewing an organization or event(or whatever) toward an initialed identity - inthis case “DPA” - doesn’t in the least help theaudience understand what your message is. Ifthe decision is made to use an acronym foridentification, it shouldn’t be made by thedesigner, heaven forbid.

Fonts matter!Apparently some folks feel obliged to use everyfont in the fonts folder in every design. Bad idea.While we could spend an entire semester ontypography, suffice it to say that, as in so manythings in life, simplicity in font selection ispreferred. Limit any one design to two fonts andbe certain that those fonts contrast strongly.A good bet:

ContrastLook for elements in the design that can playedagainst one another, either in theme or in form.Don't be afraid to radically scale or colorindividual elements in order to command theviewer's attention.

White spacedoesn't have to be white. We use the term todescribe regions of the design that are purposelyleft uncluttered. Nothing calls attention to yourtarget quite like a surrounding field ofundeveloped space. Resist the urge to use all of youravailable design real estate.There’s a coffeeshop in Boulder with a bulletinboard near the front door that is covered withcustomers’ business cards. The ones that featurelots of white space literally jump out at you.

acA serif font like Times

for body copyA san-serif font like Helvitica

for headlines and titles

Page 6: Graphic Design for Non-Designers

RhythmWhen in doubt, repeat. This is probably theeasiest design trick. By rubber stamping any oneof the elements or forms in your design, youachieve a quick effect that at once is interestingto the eye and implies a sense of chronology orstorytelling.

PlayfulnessLook for different modes and platforms withwhich to deliver your message. Handwrite a titleand scan it. Superimpose text onto real-worldobjects. Show consequences. Juxtapose oppositeideas. Break the rules.

Creative croppingYou can easily create mystery and visual interestby cropping photos in unusual ways. Look forthe dynamic changes that can occur when youoffer vignettes rather than the whole image.Film-makers often use this trick to frame theaction and to heighten our curiosity.

SublimationBy diluting an image and sending it to the veryback of your layout you can establish a themethat supports and brands your message withoutcompeting with the content. This is also a greatway to enlist otherwise unacceptable low-resolution images. An interesting technique forhomogenizing a PowerPoint presentation, itrequires a little Photoshop work (I’m happy tohelp you with that if you’d like).

Prune, nest, prioritize, organizeThis is where the designer sometimes buttsheads with the client over editorial decisions.But anytime you can advocate for simplicity, do.Also, one advantage of designing for the web isthat content can be nested into common linksto other pages. This is a very important differencebetween print and online design. Try to makefull use of it.

Calm that paletteRemembering that raw, fully saturated color (onthe left) can overwhelm, try to work in moresubdued tones. The end product will invariablyfeel more civilized.

Better?This is what we’ve done with the web-page-from-hell by simply following a few rules andavoiding some common mistakes. We’ve placedall the content on a very simple grid, we’vesublimated that unwelcoming photo and madeit into an abstract background element for ournew banner (our audience can still see the photoelsewhere on the site), and we’ve spelled out thedepartment name in a lovely Hoefler typeface.We’ve deleted anything we didn’t need, and wedeveloped a much quieter palette for the page.Piece of cake.

Design is like music...It’s all based on rules and conventions. But it’s perfectly fine to break the rules.Scratch that. It’s good to break the rules. But you should be aware of when you’re doing it andwhy. It’s not until you’ve learned your basic scales that you can start to really spread yourwings and lift off. Just ask John Coltrane.And if you’re in no mood to experiment and prefer simply getting through the next gig asquickly as possible, the rules are there to support you and to keep your life simple. Just askKenny G.

Thanks for attending today!Dave Underwood

Page 7: Graphic Design for Non-Designers

Broken bordersJust as a bricklayer strengthens a wall byoverlapping each successive course of bricks,you can strengthen your design by allowingindividual elements to interact with one another.

“Cool” palettesColor is great, but raw, heavily-saturated coloroften assaults the viewer. A safe strategy forusing color is to hew your work toward theearthier, more subdued end of the spectrum. Ilike to use colors “sampled” from content photosfor text and other graphic elements in the layout.

Tensioncan be a good thing in design. It draws the viewerin and holds on tight. Tension can be achievedby the use of sharp angles, clustered elements,off-centered content, color, and rotation. There’sa reason “BIG SALE!!” is usually stamped at anangle on price tags.