Blog Post #3 Mini Art School

From everything that I’ve read this week, this is a good design.

In the Slide presentation, I found these rules:

Rule 1: Graphic Design Basics presentation: Easy to distinguish header from the headline, byline, subheaders and body copy” (slide 10).   The headline is clearly distinguishable from the rest of the text.  It is the largest font and it is right at the top of the ad.  The cutline is in a different font right under the photo and last the tag is at the very bottom of the ad in the same font as the headline but it is much smaller.

Rule 2: The Balance is symmetrical as defned by Nikole Tabaee on slide 21 of her presentation meaning “almost identical or have nearly the same visual mass”.   This rule is followed because everything is centered and about the same size.

Rule 3:  White Space is effectively used in this ad.  Tabaee defines it as “the art of nothing” (slide 36).  Using the white space helps make a very appealing centered visual.

In 10 Web Design Rules That You Can Break, I found the following rules:

Rule 4: In 10 Web Design Rules That You Can Break  even though this is a regular print ad The designer chose to Use Different colors for the Text and Background (Rule 6).  In this case it makes more sense because white on white is harder to see.  Black on white makes a very nice clean contrast.

Rule 5: Stick to safe fonts was followed because only two different fonts were used (Rule 8).  They are both fairly easy to read

In White space is not  your enemy, I found the following rules:

Rule 6: Sin No 6: Centering Everything. Everything in this ad is centered but it works because it is an effective use of empty space (p. 36).  The empty space either adds to the scenery or the white draws your focus to the bottle.

Rule 7: Sin No 2 Warped Photos aren’t used (p. 34).  They are clear crisp photos that depict and illicit the emotion of romance.

Rule 8:  Sin No 9: Busy backgrounds aren’t used (p.38).  This nice simple background adds to the whole theme. In the picture with the grass there is nothing to focus on but the couple and as I mentioned before, in the picture with the perfume bottle the focus is simply the bottle not the background.

Rule 9: Ch 3 This design has generous margins (p. 22).  Apparently, this works every time so I guess there is no way to go wrong if you follow this.

Rule 10: In the same chapter it said that the Tags should go on the bottom right hand corner (p. 26).  The Tag here is across the whole bottom.  The rule is only partially broken because the Tag is at the bottom, but it is too large to only be in the right hand corner.

 Select something you have previously designed and make revisions.

I had to do a screen shot but this was a handout for a pathfinder I created for the Women's History Research Project.  I think I was guilty of always centering pictures and not always resizing them.  Sometimes pictures got blurry as the were enlarged so I just figured that I would use the two but the second picture has nothing to do with the font.  I also always bolded the font for emphasis but I am going to try to use a different font to stand out.

In the revision, I used the title feature on the top to change the size of the Headline.  It automatically put the line under there and I liked it so I left it there.  I found a new picture which actually speaks more to the project and can be a talking point for the kids.  For the subheadings, I used Heading !, which automatically changed the color and the font.  Again, I liked the change so I left it that way.  I think the new layout is a lot simpler and more user friendly.  With the other pathfinder a lot of my students used to get distracted by the colors or ask me questions about the pictures.  In this case, the picture will definitely keep them on topic.

Page 58 Repetition Exercercise

Here is an example of three different objects I found.  I think because what attracted me to my original ad was simplicity, I tried to re-create that idea in my layouts.

 

 

In the first ad, I wanted to play with the size of the object but create a visually appealing foreground.  The background was kept simple as was the font.  I created a pattern where the size of the rings are all almost the same.

The second ad is a bit more playful but there is still a simplicity.  There is a pattern to the layout of the rings, but all the objects are exactly the same size.  This ad started with the headline and ended with one.  I played with the idea of making the word on the bottom smaller than the top but I liked this look.  I'm not sure if it is a design mistake, but I think in this instance, it works.

In this third ad design I tried to start small and end smaller.  I wanted the visual to be in the middle of the page.  I wasn't very adventurous, because I did keep things centered, but it works.  The fonts are used over and over again, only the size varies.  I also noticed that it is in all caps but once I chose the heading button, it automatically did that.  This is my favorite ad.  I think it is the most visually appealing.