📖The Non-Designer’s Design Book

authors
Williams, Robin
year
2015

General:

  • Don’t be a wimp.

  • Rule about Breaking Rules: You must know what the rule is before you can break it.

Layout principles:

  • Proximity---move related items close together.

    • When grouping items together, some changes might be needed to sizes, weight, and placement, contrast of images.

  • Alignment---“Nothing should be placed on the page arbitrary. Every item should have a visual connection with something else on the page.”

    • “Centered” is a legitimate alignment but it is usually weak as it creates soft sides. Use left or right alignment to create strict edge.

    • if you center text, at least make it obvious that it is centered.

    • the professional typographic indent is 1 em.

    • find a strong line and use it (for alignment)

    • avoid using more than one text alignment on the page.

  • Repetition (being consistent)---“Repeat some aspect of the design throughout the entire piece.”

    • repetitive element doesn’t have to be the same element. it could be variations or related items.

    • Avoid repeating an element so much that it becomes annoying.

  • overlapping pulling outside of the border helps unify

  • ”Contrast various element of the piece to draw a reader’s eye into the page.”

    • make contrast really different. don’t be a wimp

Colors:

  • YRB are primary colors

  • Green Purple Orange are secondary

  • next are tertiary

  • you get secondary/tertiary colors by mixing equal amount of neighbor colors

  • color relationship

    • opposite colors are complementary

    • triads harmonize well

      • YRB---primary triad. Green Purple Orange---secondary triad.

    • split complement triads---choose opposite color, but use two adjacent ones instead

    • analogous colors---two or three adjacent colors

  • hue/shade/tint

    • hue = pure color

    • shade = hue + black

    • tint = hue + white

    • monochromatic = one hue + any number of its tints and shades

  • warm/cool

    • warm colors (have red or yellow)---come forward

    • cool colors (have blue)---recede into the background

§ Typography:

  • If more than one paragraph is quoted, the double quotation mark is set at the beginning of each paragraph, but at the end of the last only.

  • kerning---adjust spaces around letters

  • widow = <~7 chars on last line

  • orphan = last line of paragraph on next page

  • the style of punctuation should match the style of the preceding word

Fonts:

  • Relationships:

    • Concordant---only one type family with little or not variant.

      • harmonious, sedate/formal

    • Conflicting---similar type faces but not much different.

      • the lack of contrast results in conflict

      • should be avoided

    • Contrasting---different typefaces (clearly)

      • visually appealing and exciting

  • font categories:

    • oldstyle---for text

    • modern---good for titles, big text

    • slab serif---no thick/thin transition, thicker. Clean and straightforward, good legibility.

      • can be used in the body but looks darker/heavier

    • sans serif---no serif, monoweight (usually)

      • if not monoweight, might be hard to combine

    • script---sparingly, very large, never all caps

    • decorative---go beyond your first impression: they can give different impression in different context.

  • Type contrast:

    • size

    • weight

    • structure

    • form

      • uppercase/lowercase

      • roman/italic

    • direction

    • color

The process:

  • start with focal point

  • group information (proximity)

  • align

  • repetition

  • contrast