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  C ontrast  R epetition  A lignment  P roximity 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:

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 (fonts)  Size  Shape

Color Contrast A simple logo with no contrast

Color Contrast Same simple logo with color contrast

A little contrast goes a long way BeforeAfter

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 BeforeAfter

A Tale of Two (More) Alignments BeforeAfter

Typography Contrast  Choose fonts that differ greatly!  Bad: Times New Roman and Garamond  Good: Times New Roman and Comic Sans MS  Most common typography contrast involves serif vs. sans-serif

How NOT to do type contrast

Proper Type Contrast

One Small Change of Font BeforeAfter

Put It All Together

A pinch of font, a dash of color! BeforeAfter

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! BeforeAfter

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

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! BeforeAfter

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?