Graphic design

Getting started

Learning to recognize good design

• It's often easy to distinguish between good and bad design at first glance

• Try viewing things in black and white to see contrast and form more clearly

• Characteristics of good design

  • Clear message

  • Dominant feel/theme

  • Balance

  • Organization

  • Obvious target (what will you look at first?)

  • Polish

  • Confidence

Seeking inspiration in inspiring places

• Take inspiration from unexpected places

• Consider looking at ideas from things that are less directly related to your medium

  • This reduces your risk of producing something that looks like everything else

  • Examples

    • Muddy Waters slideshow inspired by Rolling Stone magazine rather than other slideshows

    • Flyer inspired by film posters

    • Malware poster inspired by Chinese propaganda posters rather than computer safety posters ("because [computer safety posters] all look kind of the same")

  • Key theme: Your design should depend on the message, not just the platform

The blank canvas

Organizing the workplace

• Consider the grid formed by your elements

  • Most things should be aligned

• The visual centre is often higher than the actual centre

  • Put the most important content in the top half of the image

  • If you centre the title on the page then it will probably look too close to the bottom

• Rule of thirds

  • Try placing things on the intersections of the gridlines of a regular 3x3 grid

  • Horizontal and vertical elements can be aligned with the corresponding lines

  • This is more interesting than centering elements

• Think about the negative (empty) space

• Gutters: The spaces between columns

• When creating templates (for slides, pages, etc.), try starting with the most difficult pages (usually those with the most content) first

The palette

• Typeface: The design of the letterforms

• Font: The actual implementation (size, weight, bold, italics, etc.)

• Choose type according to the message, not your personal taste

• Some technical terms:

  • Weight: Black/Bold/Regular/Light/Ultralight

  • Baseline: The line that the letters sit on

  • Overshoot: Round/pointed letters extend slightly below the baseline in order to appear aligned with flat letters

  • Counter: The inside of a hollow letter

  • Bowl: The area around the counter

  • Axis/stress: The angle of a letter to the baseline

  • Thicks/thins: The thicker and thinner parts of a letter

  • Ascenders/descenders: The parts of letters like g and h that extend above/below the rest of the letter

  • X-height: Letter height excluding ascenders and descenders

• Type families

  • Oldstyle: Warm and traditional

  • Modern: Good for money and high fashion

  • Slab serif: Feels mechanical and precise

  • Sans serif: Clean and uncluttered

  • Script: Often clumsy and hard to read, but sometimes suitable

  • Decorative: Use sparingly

• If using multiple typefaces, there should be a clear contrast between them

  • Commonly done by choosing one serif and one sans serif

• Try limiting yourself to two typefaces in any particular project

• Type formatting terms:

  • Kerning: Adjusting the space between specific pairs of letters

    • May need to consider this for titles

  • Tracking: Adjusting the spacing between all letters

  • Leading: The vertical space between lines of text

    • Named after lead strips, so pronounced like the metal

  • Rivers: Unintended white spaces that appear to flow vertically through text

    • Can be distracting

    • Common in double-justified text with narrow columns

• Upper-case text is hard to read, so use sparingly

• Left-justified text (flush left, ragged right) is easiest to read

• Right-justified text is usually awkward, but can work well if associated with an image immediately to its right

• Drop shadow

  • Darkened offset duplicate behind an element

  • Can be useful for text overlaid on an image as it prevents the text from blending in with the background

• Consider the message sent by colour choices

  • Green: Fertility, growth, safety, harmony

  • Red: Energy, power, danger, passion

  • Orange: Creativity, joy

  • Yellow: Happiness, intellect, youth

  • Blue: Wisdom, faith, safety, tranquillity

• Try taking colours from real photos

  • Often less saturated than you might expect

  • Particularly useful for text overlaying/associated with images

• Try cropping images to add an element of mystery

  • For example, a background image of a musician could be cut-off just above their mouth

• Design, don't decorate (less is more)

Tricks of the trade

• Consider how you can use contrast, white space, and repetition to make things more interesting

• Sublimation

  • The gradual transition of one element into another

  • A translucent overlay on an image can help if you want to overlay text or hide imperfections

• Try interlocking elements such as overlapping forms

• Strategic use of tension

  • Try using proximity to draw attention to specific aspects of the image

  • Consider pushing elements to the edge of the image (though make sure to move them all the way, or even slightly beyond)

  • Try tilting elements (usually anti-clockwise) or positioning them off centre

  • Sharp angles (e.g., pointy text) can also work

• Remember to frame the target (main point/piece of information)

Revision and distance

• Review and revise your work

• Look at things with fresh eyes

• Seek outside feedback