today's video is a compilation of the absolute best before and after design examples across
2021 on my channel so follow along and see if you agree with the design changes and what you might
do differently and later in today's video learn how you can get access to skillshare premium now
skillshare is an online learning community with thousands of different courses across a wide range
of creative areas these are things like logo designing just graphic design in general web
design photography and so much more so yeah stay tuned to the very end today's video to learn more
so here is the first design and it's trying to raise awareness of plastic pollution in our oceans
it's a great cause but it's a bad design unfortunately and we're soon going to see
why but firstly what does the design do correctly i'm going to be frank the pros for this design are
quite few before i start i really like the concept if you couldn't tell we actually have an image of
plastic or rubbish made to look like sushi rolls this design is a classic example of an amazing
design concept which has been carried out with poor execution i absolutely love love love this
concept and soon we're gonna build a design around it together but yeah i guess we could also say the
design is quite minimal with lots of negative space or shall i say it's kind of minimal but
anyway let's build a new design from the ground up we essentially have a blank canvas and i've kept
the original design off to the right as a kind of reference point thinking about this design where
would you personally start now i think i want to make a focal point and a good choice here would be
the concept that being the image of the pollution or rubbish sushi rolls down below the next step
is going to dictate the entire design and so the choices you make need to be grounded firmly
looking at the image of that sushi roll pollution what feelings do you get is it a dainty kind of
comforting image no it's not it's a very dirty a very harsh and a blunt impacting kind of image
with that in mind the typography in the original design simply doesn't match the original design
uses playful kind of informal non-impacting fonts and this is a clear mismatch or disconnect within
the message we want to create typography that is blunt and hard hitting so here are my choices and
for now let's just disregard color i've gone for yes you've guessed it a bold sans-serif font for
the upper two lines and then a more rugged looking font for the goes into you section now i've made
sure to keep the sizing pretty much equal to the image below just for visual harmony's sake
the first color i'm going to add is blue and this can be seen in the middle of those
plastic sushi rolls connecting color like this throughout the design is a great hack and more
about that later in today's video the typeface i chose here was han cf that's h h-a-n-s-i-e-f
and that typeface does come with a normal choice of font but also as you can see here
a textured font i feel like this textured option really adds to that kind of rugged and polluted
scents you get from the sushi rolls and i think it just complements it
you always want to be thinking in this kind of way when designing something you want to try
and grasp the message or the tone of the message and then make design choices around that notion
so i've then gone ahead and made the now section red so it really stands out from the design
notice how i haven't used dark gray or black for the other areas of typography this was done on
purpose and i did try to use a darker choice for the typography but it kind of overpowered the
blue type and also it tried to compete with the focal point below being that main image
i then finally went ahead and added their logo in the bottom corner and this is just a minor
addition that's not really that important but yeah side by side here is the before and after design
and i'm pretty happy with how this message and the concept was delivered in the revision but let's
move on to the next one so the third design in today's video is a landing page for a vr headset
and right off the bat you should be considering just that the vr headset it's a tech niche and
so you want to base your decisions around that niche sector and also the kind of people who
are in that niche but what does this design do wrong well it's not a terrible design at all
but there are some things i personally would change for starts this by now section isn't
attention grabbing considering the main point of this design is to get somebody to buy the product
this design choice is pretty bad the next point is more subjective and i don't like how far apart
the leading has been set on the main text the leading is the spacing between each line of text
in case you didn't know the layout is good enough because it has balance on two sides with the focal
point image dividing them down the middle but i personally want to change things up a tiny bit
so i'm just going to fast forward and show you the changes for this one
now you can see i've tightened the leading on the main text i have really made the buy now option
visually attention seeking again my tried and tested method of linking colors has been used
and that's by grabbing that deep vibrant pink and making use of it in different areas of the design
the design now has balance in a different way because i've enlarged the focal point
and then i've shifted all text content onto one side but yeah again this is subjective and for me
it personally looks better this way and you might or you might not agree when seeing both
designs side by side lastly the typeface i chose for the main typography is more
futuristic and more modern looking and i think that appeals to the niche viewer of this design
a whole lot more so i want you to take a look at this poster design and all of the knowledge that
you've soaked up and absorbed from my channel or other channels on the internet or just anywhere
in terms of educational graphic design content think about what is wrong with this poster when
we're making changes to a design we want to first identify the problems that need to be resolved and
let's be honest with this design here there are quite a few problems going on so the first thing
that i identified as a big problem in this design was clutter there are too many things going on
which makes it too convoluted too complicated and too busy when somebody views a design especially
a sale poster that viewer needs to access the information as quickly and as easily as possible
and there are so many different ways that this design is cluttered and too busy for the first
step here i have removed some of the background imagery as you can see and also the dots because
i thought they were just insignificant and they're just creating confusion but there are still a lot
of things that i would change about this poster and i'm going to do that as well but i want you
to think what would you do and what kind of steps would you take to refine and improve this design
so i've made quite a few changes on this third step and it's still not finished
but as you can see i've put that fashion sale title actually reading in a horizontal format
instead of going vertically which i think is too convoluted you know
also i've really cleaned up the poster in general and it's really refined down to a simplistic form
i've put most of the key information in the top left and i put the main focal
point of the woman in the bottom right again this creates a kind of division and some balance
and also you can think in terms of proximity now the information that suggests the 30
discounts i've put this in a circle so it stands out and is really easily recognizable
but yeah the main problem in this design well actually there were two main problems in my
opinion one of them was things were just way too busy and too hectic and the second was that the
information was displayed in a very poor manner we have dates and we have you know websites and
textures all over the place and it's just it's just crazy and this actually was how it was
downloaded the only thing i had to change was that on freepik it didn't come with the female model
it did show a model but the ai file doesn't come with one so i added one myself but there
are still a few minor changes i would make to this design which we're gonna check out now
and so finally here we have the design on the left is the before and on the right is the after i have
chosen a kind of muted red which i do think works really well for a kind of sail design
but the kind of bluey green did work but i do think this is a good choice
let me know what you think about my design on the right compared to the one on the left
as soon as i saw this design i knew i had to include it in today's video yeah it's pretty
pixelated i know but that's simply how i find it on google and yeah there's a lot of things going
on in this design that don't work and i'm sure most of you can work out and see what's wrong here
but yet this design is a classic example of the overuse of fonts it's one of the most
basic rules of graphic design where you don't use more than three different fonts on a single design
when the viewer tries to read this design they will stumble get confused and they won't be able
to kind of obtain the information clearly graphic design is all about presenting information to
people for whatever reason it's just a visual language this design also lacks contrast
a solid focal point aside from the model who i might add kind of blends into the design because
she's wearing a white dress the typography is too tightly packed together which also adds
to the difficulty of reading it so from a blank canvas i right away use the h m logo in its true
color of reds and this is simply to have a strong focal point and an interjection of contrast
the white box behind it is also going to add more contrast and we will see that as we move on next
below that the main message is displayed in one single font and notice how the middle line of the
three lines of text breaks across past that white box for me that was important because i didn't
want to have this whole section in a neat square box so below that the finer print text is again
simply laid out with room to breathe and then the final text displayed in black for contrast below
it's nothing too crazy or fancy it's just methodical design layouts and then the price
tag for some reason says the dress is sold out which is pretty odd for a design like this but
maybe that's just how exclusive it is who knows so can you see by doing nothing to the image of the
background and just changing very small details on a design we can make a big difference so here is
our first design which is a kind of an old-school nike design a blast from the past so to speak
in today's video i'm making the least amount of changes possible just to show how effective they
can be but what would you do to this design and how would you change it to maybe solve
a problem or just to make it more effective as a graphic design now you might be thinking well the
typography needs changing but how would you change the typography and what style would you go with
you might be thinking that oh tom's just gonna slap on a sans-serif font well in this instance
you'd be wrong in thinking that because i've gone ahead and used a slab serif typeface instead of a
sans-serif so what is my logic here and how does this actually work well we can see that the design
is more traditional and it's more old-school and so the designer here has used a serif font
now i've decided to keep things more traditional more retro but i've gone with a slab serve as
i think it does keep in with the older style but it's kind of more trendy and more sporty
especially with the italics going on here if we can notice the lines of the model we have some
movement moving across from left to right and that's backed up with the nike logo right here
so that's why i chose italics and not just a static straight up kind of typeface for my design
also we have some hierarchy in size and also thickness which i do think works well
and better than this here now i want you to focus your attention on the left hand side in the blue
area what do you think might be a problem from a technical design a viewpoint when thinking about
space now you might look at the design and think well it's in fact okay there's not much wrong and
nothing really needs to be worked on however there is an issue and it's based around something called
micro white space now white space and negative space are different things and mainly in today's
video we are thinking in terms of white space and micro white space is the space between the small
elements like letters text lines paragraphs icons and buttons so if i make some small adjustments
while considering micro white space you can see how again small changes equate to a big
difference so the micro white space between each line of text and also the visual elements below
has been increased to bring a more harmonic and clean design a solution and all of this is while
making it easier for the reader to obtain the information but i couldn't help myself and i
had to add in some contrasting color for this call to action button but yeah side by side
it's pretty obvious to see how thinking about micro white space can really improve a design
the first question i have for you is this circled here is a call to action button
and basically that's just where designer wants the end user to click
but on my changes what two main reasons can you give as to why it's better than the first example
so we're looking for two main reasons why the second option on the right
is more effective than the design on the left just specifically the call to action button
okay so first of all two points to the first answer and that's obviously the color
having it in a bright pinky red makes it stand out compared to it being in black as before and thus
it's more visible and more clickable so if you guessed that right give yourself two points but
what about the second answer now if you notice the isometric design is very square and very straight
edged and that also the call to action and the original design is also a square shape then you're
on the right track and so on the revised design the call to action button is a circle and this
makes it stand out geometrically speaking from the rest of the design and in standing out we create
some contrast which again makes it more visible and more clickable so for those two correct
answers you can have four points in total or just two points if you have one correct do keep track
of your scores as we move through today's video and see how many you get at the very end so for
the next two point answer in today's video i want you to look at these areas circled in pink now
i've made some changes to the typography obviously but what graphic design principle has been used
in the new changes now if you do watch my videos often then this one should be pretty easy
so for two points the answer is of course hierarchy because we have some visual hierarchy
going on in color and size in this new change design though thinking about it some people
might also say contrast or even emphasis was used and so if you did guess these two instead
of hierarchy give yourself just one point but yeah i was looking for hierarchy for two points
okay so the next answer is worth three points so really get your thinking caps
on and try and figure this one out so there is a specific connection with the isometric design
the illustration section with the call-to-action button and it's something that ensures the viewer
sees the call-to-action button but can you work out what that might be
looking at the isometric illustration and then the call-to-action button
what ensures you finally do end up noticing that button
so yeah this one might be a bit tricky but the answer i'm looking for is
flow and in this instance notice how the direction of all the lines in the illustration lead to that
button those angled 45 degree whatever degree they are lines do drag you in that direction this is
a subtle but a very effective method designers use and it does work well but yeah that one was
worth three points if you got it correct and that was the last question on this first design see
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