Well, we are back and for this little
video I will just be a voice recording
with me showing some some images, and
today we're gonna be talking about just
some basic tips when working with
graphic design. And today we're going to
emphasize how to work with text and how
to work with different types. And so just
going to look at a few quick things. And
I know we've talked about this before
but when it comes to design I think
there is such thing as "good design" and
"bad design." I think we can all recognize
when things look easier on our eyes and
when things look more streamlined and
more visually appealing. And we would
call the type of designs as being "good"
whereas designs that are confusing-- that
make us take longer to take in
information and designs that are not as
visually appealing...
sometimes we call those "bad" designs.
And so let me give you an example--
you actually have here at two different
designs for for the bus stop. And on the left,
you can see this original design.
There's so much visual information to
take in, and it's hard to kind of keep up
with-- "ok, so that's when you leave that's
when you arrive..." And so there's a lot of
times to go through and to figure out.
Whereas design of the right you can
see it's much more streamlined, and it's
just easier on our eyes, and there's not
as much information to take in that you
have to try to follow. I'm actually going
to show a clip from this Netflix series
called "Abstract" which is a great little
series about artists and talks about
different types of artists. And this clip
comes from the graphic designer Paula Scher
who talks about how graphic design
actually made a difference in a
presidential election and how the way
that ballot was was designed--
she believes cost the whole election. And I'm
gonna show this minute-and-a-half clip,
and then we'll continue on our
discussion with with how to actually
work with text, and different tips for
you to keep in mind when you work with
text. An example of terrible design would
be the Palm Beach ballad of 2001. I
actually did an article in the op-ed page
of the New York Times where I made a
little diagram that showed why the
ballot design was wrong. For the woman
who designed Palm Beach County Florida's
election ballot, life has changed. I keep
thinking "it's a nightmare I'm going to wake
up one day and it's all gonna be gone." It was a
butterfly ballot. The list of the names
broken into two columns. The designer
could not make one long vertical list
because the names would be too small and
then the area Palm Beach county there
are a lot of elderly people and they
wouldn't be able to read the small texts so
she thought she was doing a service.
In the first column, George Bush was first,
and Al Gore was second. And then on the
other side was Pat Buchanan. She had the
hole that you punched in the center,
except that the holes weren't where you
thought they were going to be. You assume
that if the first hole belonged to
George Bush, that the second hole right
below it would belong to Al Gore. But, in
fact, it belonged to pat Buchanon because
the holes for staggered. So in Palm Beach
county, one of the biggest Jewish
residences of the world, a big part of
the population voted for an anti-Semite.
And I can't go back and say, "Well, you
know if I would have done something else,
different maybe the election would have
been different because you don't know."
Absolutely graphic design threw an
election.
Alright so now we've kind of established
that idea that text makes a difference
and that design can can make a big
difference in many ways. Ways that you may
not even be aware of. And so I wanted to
just go ahead and jump into some
principles that you can
be aware of
when you're trying to create effective
designs if you're putting together the
Powerpoint, or a presentation for for any
class or business proposal...
here are some things that that will help
you make a better design and allow it to
be more visually appealing. So the first
thing I wanted to talk about was the
incorporation of text and imagery. We are
constantly using text and incorporating
text and imagery-- whether that be through
sending a Snapchat or where we're
creating some type of an image to put on
Facebook or social media of some sort. But
we're asked to do this a lot, even when
we're making presentations and things
like that. And so just real quickly,
one of the first things to be aware of
when you are incorporating text into an
image is to be aware of the relationship
between the image and the caption
edge. You can see in this picture here
that you've got this man on the left and
then you've got the text on the right,
but notice how the text on the right-- the
left side of the text--that caption
edge-- is is not straight,
it follows this kind of curve, whereas
the caption edge on the right is is nice
and straight. And you see how the use of
that kind of curved edge mimics the
curved edge of the man's face on the
left and notice how all also the
straight edge of the caption box on the
right mimics the straight edge of the
the image. And so being aware of the
relationship between the image and the
caption edge is important with graphic
design.
Here's another example. I think it would
be typical when, if we were to try to add
text to this image, we just automatically
think of just doing straight text all
across like you see on this image right
here. But graphic designers realize that
there are these kind of lines that
exist in imagery and so using text to
harmonize with those lines. And so, as you
can see here, the text-- the caption
edge of the texts
harmonizes with the flow of the clouds.
And so as a graphic designer, you have to
be aware of these types of things and be
aware with how your text relates and
communicate and harmonizes with the
imagery that you're incorporating.
Alright, another little tip here: Place the
text where the lines of the image go. And
so as we've talked about in this class,
there are all kinds of lines and leading
lines that exist in imagery and so
whenever you're trying to incorporate
text into an image, you need to think
about: "Okay, well first of all where the
lines that exists in this image and
where are they going?"
And once you're aware of where these
lines are going--go ahead and use
those lines and incorporate the text
right there on those lines. Look at how
the image on the upper left how you've
got the man that snowmobile and how that
text just slices right across the
direction of where--
where he's going and how it goes right
along with the line of the snow. And it
just fills it with energy and we get
that kind of momentum. If you would have
put that text in the upper right, it
would have not existed at all with
imagery, and it would have been
completely isolated and separated. And so
by layering it right on top of the image,
and right in the direction of where the
lines were automatically going, you get a
stronger sense of energy and this
relationship. And here, just a few other
examples. You see how this text was
placed at the end of a line. I know it
seems kinda like an obvious thing-- with
that line leading straight to the text--
but it's amazing how I see people not
utilizing the lines that exists within
an image. And they'll place the text in a
completely unrelated spot. So, just-- main
idea here is: pay attention to where the
lines are leading in an image and
place your text in a place that
would go along with that. And last
example of this important concept-- look
at this image of this man who's
kind of doing something here with this
rope. And look at how his head is looking
directly down
at the rope and you get this kind of
invisible leading line from his head
down to the rope. And look at that just
wonderful placement of that text just
directly in line with that
directional glance there. And so that's
what I'm talking about that's graphic
designers using these effective ways of
of a kind of harmonizing the text with
the images. So now we're going to look at
more specifics of working with type and
type face. And you guys are probably
familiar with how fonts work and how you
can select different fonts. Maybe some of
you like to mess around with that
whenever you're making presentation. And
so we're going to go over some basic
guidelines for you to create more
effective designs when you are working
with text and type. And so the first
thing is that when you're selecting a
font, it's very important that you are
aware and you are considering the fonts'
personality. Everything has a different
personality, and you can see some of
these examples how different things
are communicated through the font.
And I think that's kind of--we're all
aware of that--but we're not, a lot of
times, people don't really stop
and really consider what they're
communicating. When you're selecting
fonts, especially with if you're
considering some kind of design, be aware
to avoid the default fones. Ok, so if
you're making some kind of big poster or
advertisement, stay away from Times
New Roman and Arial--like those types of
default fonts that automatically come
out. Those are not going to make your
your design be distinguished and stand
out, so try to be aware and avoid some
of those just basic default fonts.
But also, at the same time, in efforts to
avoid those default fonts, people go
crazy and they sometimes pick up on
these fonts that end up
becoming cliche and they're considered
"ugly" in the graphic design world. And so
maybe some of you are aware of this, but
there are certain fonts that pretty much hands-
down, all graphic designers are against
the use of because people have used them
and so much and you see amateurs
using these fonts so much, it's pretty
much hands-off in graphic design. So I
wanted you to be aware of that, and so
for example, Papyrus-- while, you know
maybe that font might work well with
certain things, because it has been
abused so much by amateurs, pretty
much graphic designers don't use
the Papyrus anymore.
The same goes with Comics Sans. That's
probably the most hated font in the
graphic design world. And that Curlz
kind of font--people are really kind
of trying to avoid that. But really,
the Comic Sans would have to be the
most hated. And they even have groups out
to petition its ban, and there's kind of
a funny history to some of that, so
if any of you are interested, you might
want to look up why people hate that
font so much. But it has been utilized so
much, it's become so cliche and people
have abused this kind of innocent comics
font. And so here are some
funny things you can read. And so
I would ask that when you're practicing
some of your graphic designs for this
class, avoid those types of cliche type
of fonts: Comic Sans, Papyrus, Curlz...
those types of things. Try to avoid that
at least for the work that you do in
my class.
Another thing that is recommended when
working with text and type is: you
might consider using two different fonts
and so if you choose to use two
different fonts, that will allow you
to have a design that kind of
pops. But when you choose two different
fonts, make sure they're not-- they don't
look at the exact same or that they're
so similar that it's hard to distinguish.
Like you see in this example and down
there. So make a use of of maybe one or
two different fonts-- three at the most.
You don't want to run into the problem
where you've got tons of fonts
all-in-one design. There's not a
lot of harmony and unity to that so
try to limit it to two or three at the
most.
When you're working with type and when
you are working with different fonts,
it's important to use fonts that
contrast. And so when you have fonts that
are clearly different, that's
where you can probably have the most
effective type of design. And some more
tips that people-- the
graphic designers try to push is: don't
use all caps.
We all know that we're using all caps
that's the equivalent of shouting,
and so when you're writing a long body
or a paragraph of text, don't be
using all caps. Try to reserve all-caps
for some kind of title or something like
that. Also, be aware of your
line spacin. There are ways to adjust
your line spacing so that the text is
closer together, and that sometimes makes
it easier on the eyes when reading
lengthy paragraphs and things like that.
Also, sometimes at default settings
include these line breaks where you get
these kind of words that are hyphenated.
Try to get rid of those and take this
out of your default settings if you're
seeing that come up-- because that's very
difficult for readability and to read
words when it's broken up like that. The last
thing I just wanted to go and over and
mention is: when you are working with
text, don't leave what they call "orphans"
--these one words that are hanging out by
themselves at the end. They're always try
to include all of the words within a
text, and you'll see that that makes
it easier on the eyes, as well. So I know
we kinda went through some of that
quickly but those are just some basic
things to think about when working with
text. Number one: you know be aware of how
the text relates to the imagery if you
are incorporating text and imagery. And
then number two, be aware of what type
you're using or what type of font you're
using and
if those have, you know, and what kind
of personalities those have and avoiding
those default, avoiding those clichéd
font types and fonts, and also being
aware of how your text looks when being
presented. So is it broken up?
Do you have some nice contrast there?
Do you have too many fonts all within one
design? Those are all just some basic
ideas and basic tips when you're working
with type and when you're working
digitally and considering
design when it comes to the graphic
world.
Alright so that's it with the tips! Happy
designing in the future!