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Sep
9
Meaningful design
Filed Under Creativity, Design Details, Design Refresher
Tuesday’s Design Tip for Graphic Designers
There’s something that has been bugging me for a while now. And something that I’ve been very passionate and vocal about.
Paul Rand once said “Design is the method of putting form and content together. Design, just as art, has multiple definitions, there is no single definition. Design can be art. Design can be aesthetics. Design is so simple, that’s why it is so complicated.”
He went on to say “A bad design is irrelevant. It is superficial, pretentious, … basically like all the stuff you see out there today.”
Begs the questions: is content as important as form? And is design all about aesthetics?
Some tricks of the trade for creating meaningful designs:
- Have you given some thought to the design? Are you starting your design without really analyzing what you are trying to do?
- Have you read the piece? Seems like a no-brainer but I’ve met many a designer that haven’t even read the content of what they are designing.
- Visual hierarchy: Have you established what is important and what is supporting in your piece and have established a visual hierarchy reflecting it?
- Fonts: Are you using fonts that are easily readable and appropriate for your intended audience? What about the size; is it suitable?
- Colors: Are you choosing colors with your audience on your mind? Are the colors you’ve chosen appropriate and don’t overwhelm your message? Have you selected type colors that are easy to read?
- When including photographs or illustrations: Are the visuals there as a decorative elements or to strengthen and complement the content? Can you see the relationship between your visuals and the content?
- Graphic elements should not be distractions: Have you added lines and bullets that don’t interrupt going through the design but are there to provide structure and flow?
- Don’t overdo it on filters and effects: Are your filters and/or effects really necessary? Does it enhance your message or are you just trying to show off?
- Are you wasting time? Are you spending an more time trying to pretty it up or adding filters and effects than you did on the actual concept for the design? As Roger C. Parker constantly tells me “are we rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic while it’s sinking?”
- Have you used elements of your brand: Have you included the logo, colors, typefaces that are seen in the rest of the promotional materials?
In my first newsletter, I spoke about how technology may not be such a good thing. When I see some designs that are out there, I see that they are become more reliant on the tools (ie. software) than on our actual creativity.
What does this lead to? Designs that are very similar and honestly a lack of creativity and of a concept. Many designs nowadays rely more on filters and effects than on classic design principles.
It’s a strange dichotomy: We can actually achieve whatever is in our heads, but are getting hung up with the tools used to achieve our visions. We spend more time fiddling with the tools than we do thinking through what we want to do — and what’s appropriate for our audience.
You can see this reflected also in many design schools’ curriculum. It’s now almost exclusively dedicated to learning the tools of the trade (Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, et al.) than it is with learning color theory and design principles
What happens? We don’t really think ahead of doing our design. We simply dive in. We itch to start clicking that mouse button. If you were to conduct a poll on how many designers actually do thumbnails, I bet most newbies don’t even know what a thumbnail is.
T A K E A W A Y :
So, back to Paul Rand. If you read his statement: design is the method of putting form and content together. That necessarily means that you must read the content. You must understand the content and plan out what you want to accomplish with your design.
And finally, you must choose graphic elements that are appropriate for the content. It’s the only way of getting more meaningful designs.
Make your designs more meaningful today!
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