A Quick Look at Graphic Design: Or everything you need to know in a lecture to make your documents look great! Jennifer Bowie, for Business Writing

Overview w Typography and Type Elements w Document Design __________________________________ Jennifer Bowie, for BW

Typography and Type Elements Typography exisits to honor content #1 one thing to remember:

Typography and Type Elements: There are four basic font classifications: Serif: the oldest type, has serifs on the end of letter to guide reader’s eye, also has thick and thin strokes, considered more “readable” than sans serif. Gives a more formal and traditional feel to documents. Good body text or contrast text. Includes: Times, Garmond, Georgia, Goudy, Book Antiqua, and many more. Sans Serif: “without serif,” only about 100 years old, has stokes that have little to no variation in width, looks more modern and technical, used a body text in Europe. Makes a good body text or contrast text. Includes: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Tahoma, Century Gothic (and other Gothics), and many more. Font Classifications

Typography and Type Elements: Script: fonts that look they they are hand lettered, can connect or not. Should be used in small amounts for fancy documents (invitations), occasionally for headings, titles, logos, and drop caps. Most should never be set in long bodies of text. Use as a display font, or rarely a contrast. Includes: Comic Sans, Gigi, Brush Script (and other scripts), Fine Hand, and more Decorative: fun, distinctive fonts. Should never be used in long bodies of text. Best used as display fonts. Very powerful so use sparingly. Includes: Goudy Stout, Impact, Algerian, Matisse, Minstral, and many more. Font Classifications con.

Typography and Type Elements: w Type is used for different things. General categories are: body text- readable in long blocks of text and smaller sizes (print 9-12 pts, online points). Can be Sans Serif or Serif fonts display text- less readable and not designed to be read in long blocks. Used in advertising, for title or logo, and other display uses. Can be Script or Decorative fonts contrast text- meant to contrast with your body text. Good for headings, subheadings, titles, and smaller blocks of text. Normally will be Serif or Sans Serif (opposite of body font) but can more more legible Script or Display fonts General Categories

Typography and Type Elements: w Leading: (space between lines) should be at least 120% for serifed fonts, and % for sans serif. greater is better than lesser for body text display fonts can handle little or even negative leading typefaces with small x-heights do not need greater leading, but those with large may leading should increase proportionally as line length increases Type Setting

Typography and Type Elements: w Justified left: flushed left and jagged right, this is the most readable for long segments of body text w Justified right: flush right, jagged left, highly unreadable, use rarely. w Justified: flush left and right so the text forms a box. Can cause rivers in the text. w Centered: ragged both sides. Use rarely and in small amounts, very unreadable. Justification

Rivers? Suscipit exerci typicus praesent, tego feugiat amet. Iusto feugiat elit aliquip aliquip loquor modo lobortis dolore interdico lucidus. Facilisis vel ulciscor laoreet abdo metuo velit dolus obruo luptatum, capto uxor. Luptatum tincidunt vel gravis suscipit appellatio. Velit illum in si, persto proprius tincidunt nulla conventio haero, saluto. Os augue sagaciter vel in, fatua. An Example

w Italic: consider using for emphasis. Italics are the right slant letters of a typestyle, based on cursive handwriting. Used to emphasize words and for titles of books referenced in text. Does not interrupt flow like bold so it can be used in body text. Not very legible online, but fine in print. Works better with a serif font. w ALL CAPS: avoid at all costs. All caps takes up a lot of room and are much harder to read than normal upper and lower case words, due to the way we read. It also is used for yelling online. There are much nicer ways to differentiate between type. Use only for small amounts of text (display or contrast) if using. w Bold: use to add emphasis, but use sparing and not in the body text (without consideration) since it interrupts reading w Underline: Impedes readability. Never use online as it looks like a link. Considered “out dated”. Typography and Type Elements: Type Styles

Document Design w Design should always be used to communicate, and not to (just) decorate Communicate, not decorate

Document Design w Color adds splash and interest to documents, while helping readers locate information use the same color for the same type of information throughout the document use color with other devices (white space, …) use color to communicate, not as decoration consider readers when selecting colors use color to unify series of documents ColorColor

Document Design w Chunking: elements that are related (like a heading with its paragraph) are grouped and look like they belong together. w White space is the empty space on a page. Use it to: frame elements in the page that belong together, add emphasis to tiles and headings, and separate items that do not belong together help with chunking Chunking & White Space

Document Design w Headings: Most common device to “chunk” with use no more than 4 headings use more space above your headings than below have at least 2 lines of text below a heading before a page break use differences (size, color, style, font) to indicate levels of headings Headings

International connotations of Color w Green: Positive (US): growth, clean, fresh, environmental, “go” Negative (US): mold, nausea, and jealousy Historic Europe: fertility (wedding gown color in 15 th century) Has political connotations in Ireland (Republic of Ireland) Egypt and Saudi Arabia (and middle east?): Islam and scared China: infertility or adultery Countries with dense green jungles: disease (Hoft) France, Netherlands, Sweden: cosmetics (Hoft) Thailand: least favorite color (Hoft) w Blue: Positive (US): serenity, the sky, infinity Negative (US): sadness (feeling blue) “Safe” in almost every culture (Morton) Hopi Indians: sacred (Hoft) Egypt: truth (Hoft) Iran: negative consequences (Hoft)

International connotations of Color w Black: West: mourning, death France: the unknown, death, night, work East: bad luck Malaysia Indian population: evil (Hoft) Malaysia Malay population: courage (Hoft) w White: East: mourning, death India: “Inviting widowhood” if a woman wears (Kolin178) West: purity (color of bridal gowns) France: monarchy, royalty Christianity: purity, faith, innocence (Hoft) Hinduism & Muslim: purity, peace (Hoft) Black

International connotations of Color w Red: West: courage and love China: happiness and good fortune (preferred for wedding gowns) France: masculinity (Hoft) Africa: blasphemy or death (Hoft) US flag: blood Traffic signal color “stop” w Yellow: China: imperial color, revered US: people’s least favorite color but a happy color France: jealousy Many countries: femininity (Hoft) Australia, Europe, Canada, New Zealand: positive, happy (Hoft)

International connotations of Color w Purple: Historical West: royalty, mourning France: religion, sacredness US: magic, lavishness, homosexuality Catholic Europe: death and crucifixion Middle East: prostitution (Morton) Latin America: bad luck, death, and funerals China: barbarity (Hoft) Culturally “unsafe” color w Pink: East India: feminine color (Morton) US: baby girls get pink, innocence, sweetness, soft, gentleness Japan: pastels are neither masculine nor feminine (Morton) France: homosexuality

Have fun and Design well Information from Sims 10, Guark & Lannon 8, Web Typography, Morton, & Kolin Cool Websites: Great Color PDF: Jennifer Bowie, for Business Writing The End