Effective Layout for Illustration Product Design Sketching

Characteristics of Product Presentation Not very stylistic when compared to other design disciplines Allowance of certain level of vagueness and uncertainties during earlier stages of the product design process Increasing level of realistic sense towards the later stage of the projects, especially at the pitching stage Use of limited graphical instruments, which only serve to organize but seldom dominate the presentation Great focus on how the product is used

Major Considerations Focus of Interest Prominence of an object (due to size, tone or color) may attract first attention and thereby determine how the viewer looks at an illustration Common Conventions and Notations There may be certain common conventions that guide the viewer in reading the illustration Reading Sequence Sufficient visual hints should be given to suggest a visual path, and thereby prompt the viewer your intended reading sequence

Guiding Principles Visuals in a verbal design presentation should Support your communication objective Enhance your verbal message, not distract from it Set tone and emotional contents of verbal message with the use of colors and images Be succinct but adequate to convey the necessary information

Use of Text Avoid too much textual information Use different font sizes to suggest hierarchy of importance Headings or title texts should be legible from a distance Check you spelling before outputting your boards!

Universal Convention: From the Upper Left Where no explicit hint is given, it is natural for a viewer to start reading a series of illustrations from the upper left But then, it would become uncertain as to which direction to proceed ? ? start

Gestalt Principle: Proximity One way to make the reading sequence obvious is to apply the proximity principle start

Gestalt Principle: Proximity Another example of applying the proximity principle start

Human Intuition: Clockwise Notation When drawings are organized in a circular manner, it is by intuition that the viewer will look at them in a clockwise direction starting from the 12 o’clock position start

Beyond Intuition If however it is intended to be read with a different starting point or in different direction, visual hint(s) may be added to prompt the viewer start Instructions

Human Intuition: From Big to Small Sometimes a larger drawing is used to portrait the overall outlook of the product (e.g. an exploded rendered view). Its larger size may have dominating effect on the reading sequence start

Cultural Factor Some language systems adopt a right to left and top to bottom reading convention Special attention should be given to using such layout for international readers, who may find this sequence confusing ?

Equivocal Layout As a rule-of-thumb, avoid using layout that lacks visual hint or that is against human intuition for graphical illustration of event sequence ?

Two-board Presentation