📖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