FOUR DESKTOP PUBLISHING DESIGN ELEMENTS THAT EVERYONE NEEDS TO KNOW Presented by Jerry Smith Where We’re Going  Focus on four basic design elements  Contrast  Repetition  Alignment  Proximity Examples of Each  Simple changes make a HUGE difference  The Big Four Contrast  Repetition  Alignment  Proximity  There is no clever acronymn: You’ll have to figure that one out on your own… Before I Begin… Framework by Robin Williams  Buy this Book:  Non-Designer’s Design Book  ISBN: 0321193857 Subjectivity Yep, most of this is quite subjective  These elements provide structured options   Even if you don’t get it right the first shot, you’ll know some things you can change to create an entirely different look  Eliminates poke-and-hope mentality of design Framework is to English… True or False: The English language is always consistent?  These rules can (and should be) broken sometimes  It’s a framework, not a set of laws  Something is wrong… but you can’t put your finger on it. In many cases, the thing that’s wrong is one of these elements  By having a name for the broken elements, you’ll find that it is much easier to fix  The four elements overlap quite a bit   This is a very good thing. It leads to near infinite possibilities. Contrast (the king element) By definition, refers to the degree of noticeable differences in something  There are lots of ways to provide contrast   Color  Alignment  Typography  Size  Shape (fonts) Color Contrast A simple logo with no contrast Color Contrast Same simple logo with color contrast A little contrast goes a long way Before After Alignment Contrast  For years, most of us have been conditioned to believe that centering everything is the way to go: Alignment Contrast  But centering everything is overly formal and boring! With a little alignment contrast: A Tale of Two Alignments Before After A Tale of Two (More) Alignments Before After Typography Contrast  Choose fonts that differ greatly! Times New Roman and Garamond  Good: Times New Roman and Comic Sans MS  Bad:  Most common typography contrast involves serif vs. sans-serif How NOT to do type contrast Proper Type Contrast One Small Change of Font Before After Put It All Together A pinch of font, a dash of color! Before After Size Contrast Just as with fonts, if you’re going to do size contrasts, make it count!!!  Two basic reasons to use size contrast:   Emphasis  Shock Value (Stress) Yawn! A Little Size Makes a Big Difference Yawn to Yay! Before After Change the Size, Change the Message Change the Size, Change the Message Shape Contrast  Angular vs. Rounded Contrast Review  Differences stand out  Emphasis  Stress Color is easy  Be really different with   Fonts  Sizes Repetition By definition, to repeat  The antithesis of Contrast   Humans like patterns  Makes things very comfortable  The thing you see the most without realizing it  The silent design element! Things to Repeat Colors  Fonts  Shapes  Sizes   Humans are very good at intrinsically associating a repeated element with its function Page 4 of a very long book …and 690 pages later What’s repeated? The page number formatting  The heading font, size, and weight  The body text font and size  The weight of emphasized text  Repeatable Elements with Distinct Function Repeatable Elements with Distinct Function Repetition Review  Create patterns where patterns are important  Headings  Body  Other stuff Main Menu and Navigational Elements should be repeated  Be careful not to overdo!  Proximity By definition, the spatial relationship between items  Human beings naturally make associations between proximate objects   The closer things are to one another, the more they must be related  Good designs exploit this intrinsic trait Same example, different context One tiny adjustment… Bye-bye extra box! Before After You saw it but didn’t know it! What about Alignment? What about it!   Think about the other three elements we’ve discussed…  Alignment can be   Contrasted  Repeated  Used to create proximation How Do We Teach This Stuff As with everything else: Patiently  Tackle individually at first   Don’t  go over all in one day Possibly a week long unit??  One element per day with examples and practice  Tie them together on Friday Pavlov’s Children  Give specific praise for using the elements  “I really like your use of contrast there, Sally”  “Nice proximity with your grouping of information, George!”  The framework is great for constructive criticism  “Think about what kind of contrast you could use here.”  “Is there something you could do to make this information seem more related?” In Review…  Focus on four basic design elements  Contrast  Repetition  Alignment  Proximity It’s all subjective  Simple changes make a HUGE difference  In Review… The framework is a tool, not a crutch  Teach it slowly and consistently  Don’t become a slave to it: HAVE FUN!  Thanks for playing along!  Any questions or comments?