I absolutely love process threads. As an artist, there’s something very seductive about being able to peak inside someone else’s brain, breaking down their workflow and inspirations behind a specific piece. Some equate an artist revealing their processes to a magician giving away their secrets, and think it devalues the work. However I believe quite the opposite is true.
As anyone in the office will attest to, I am a stickler when it comes to typography. Poor typography can single handedly ruin a design, and is a tell-tell sign whether or not a designer is worth their weight. Ever since the advent of “web design” bringing good typography to the web has been a struggle for designers. There’s a constant battle between aesthetics and accessibility, and most of the time accessibility wins out. For good reason. With the introduction of CSS (cascading style sheets) our ability to manipulate and set type on the web has been greatly improved. However designers are still greatly restricted when selecting fonts for the web.
Perhaps one of the most surefire ways to simultaneously elicit emotions of rage and despair in your designer is to remark “I’ll know it when I see it.” To a designer, that roughly translates into, “I have no idea what I want, but I’ll expect you to produce revision after revision until we run out of time and money settling on something neither of us are that happy with.” Simply put, “I’ll know it when I see it” kills dialogue and puts the designer / client relationship on a fast track to Revision Hell, complete with micro-management and an endless sea of comps. Read more »
Perhaps one of potent tools a designer can possess, in addition to good typography of course, is a thorough understanding of the Gestalt Principles. Around 1900 German & Austrian scientists began to formulate concepts based on humans tendencies to seek patterns, and specifically how we organize and process graphic data through these patterns. The theory and data they derived is particularly important to those in the visual arts field and most notably Graphic Designers. The Gestalt Theory states: 1) The parts of a visual image may be considered analyzed and evaluated as distinct components. 2) The whole of a visual image is different from and greater than the sum of it’s parts. Read more »
As most anyone in the office will tell you, I am a stickler for good typography. Typography is the backbone of any design and is what separates illustrators and fine artists from designers. However, it seems as though more often than not I see designers blatantly committing typographic sins without remorse.
Fortunately there’s a wealth of information both online and in print for beginner typographers to advance their understanding of how type works. One such article that I’ve came across is 8 Simple Ways to Improve Your Typography over on Aisle One. The article provides excellent advice combined with clear concise examples and CSS for on the web. Definitely worth checking out whether you’re still a little wet behind the ears, or a seasoned type master.
In every piece we create, we must consider scale. Whether it’s a logo that needs to retain legibility and meaning when viewed at both very small and large sizes, or a billboard, which must make an immediate impact at a very large size, determining scale and designing appropriately is a critical step of the process. No matter what size the work is, it should define a sense of scale by contrasting and connecting the elements to real world experiences.
“I pay close attention to the variety of shapes and sizes, and place the objects so that the lines and edges create a rhythm that guides the viewer’s eye around the image and into the focal point.” - Sergei Forostovskii
In her book Graphic Design: The New Basics, Ellen Lupton writes, “In design, balance acts as a catalyst for form, anchoring and activating elements in space. If a design is static, it is usually a result of the proportion and placement of elements in relation to each other, and to the negative space - too big, too tight, too flat, misaligned, etc…” To achieve visual balance, one must evenly distribute the weight of objects evenly and/or proportionally in a given space. Large objects must counter-point small objects, dark objects must counter-point light objects, and so on. Read more »
Hello World is a common phrase used by programmers when first learning new types of code or when developing the first pages of a web site. Assembling code and websites can involve substantial amounts of work. For this reason, this simple statement is used to test efficacy of the work.
As we launch our new incarnation of the Flint website, I thought it appropriate begin our blog with our very own ‘Hello World’.
As we move into the future our posts on this page will include tricks and tips for a variety subjects within our discipline. Additionally we will post our musings thought and other sundry topics. We invite you to check back often.