Digital Design I

WHAT IS GRAPHIC DESIGN?

Purpose of Design

Graphic Design in Communication

  • Massage > graphics

    • not Graphic first, but Message first

  • One solution doesn’t always work for another

Graphic Design as a Service

  • Your responsibility to your client

  • What is it:

    • Understand your client’s needs

      • stand out or blend in?

      • brand competition

    • Add value to your client

      • change how you think about design

      • learn to utilize principles beyond templates

Graphic Design as a Responsibility

What to do to be a good designer:

  • Stay in the know

    • trends

    • tools

  • Be adaptable

  • Portfolio opportunity

  • fill in from canvas

How to Design Effectively for Communication

  • Be open to learn different ways to do things


PRINCIPLES

4 Basic Principles

Contrast - the use of opposing elements to create visual distiction and draw attention to

Repetition - involves the intentional reuse of visual elements through

AlignmentAlignment

Proximity

*First Section Quiz1 Was Over.


Contrast

  • The use of opposing elements creates visual distinction and draws attention to

  • Directs the viewer’s attention by creating the hierarchy of the design

  • Intended differences must be obvious

How to achieve contrast:

  • Shape

  • Size

  • Style

  • Space

  • Value - how bright or dark a color is

  • Hue - the name of the color

  • Saturation - how intense the color is

  • Grouping

  • Alignment

Repetition

  • The intentional reuse o visual elements throughout a design to establish a pattern of consistency

  • Repitition can give unity between elements

DIGITAL DESIGN

What is Photoshop?

  • An adobe program designed for working with raster images

    • Raster image - created with pixels

  • Key aspects of vector graphics:

    • resolution dependent

    • pixel based

    • limited scalability

  • Most commonly used for editing, manipulating and arranging photos, and digital paintings

  • Not used for type or graphic images

Nested Tools

  • A tool located under/within another tool

Anchor Points

  • Individual points created by certain tools and make up the “joints” of an object

ALIGNMENT

  • the precise positioning of elements along invisible lines or grids

  • every element should be anchored to something else so it doesn’t appear floating

  • it helps keep your design looking professional and polished

Left Alignment

  • Align elements to the left

  • Most often with larger bodies of text

  • Considered the most legible for readability

Right Alignments

  • Align elements to the right

  • most often used for shorter text blocks

  • Bad with long lines/paragraphs as eyes cannot travel quickly to the next line

Justified Alignment

  • Align elements to the right and left

  • Most often used for books

  • Can create large spaces between words making it hard to read

  • Note: this can also cause problems for people with dyslexia because its not clear where aline of text ends

Rivers - visual spaces that line up between multiple rows of text

Center Alignment

  • Align elements to the center

  • most often used for shorter text blocks

  • bad with long lines/paragraphs as the starting point for each line changes

    • Rule of Thumb - under 4 lines of text, you can use Center Alignment; over 4 lines, use Left Alignment

Proximity

  • objects close to each other are perceived to be a grouping or related in some way

  • make sure you provide ample space around your groups so the relationship is clear


COMPOSITION AND BALANCE

Composition - the assembly of all the elements of your design that communicates your message

  • a good Composition has visual appeal and good implementation of balance

Balance - how we attract the viewer

  • Good Balance does not allow an element to overpower the design

  • Perfect Balance allows a design to be interesting without being confusing

    • Too balanced = boring, predictable

    • Too little balance = confusion, chaos

4 Types of Balance:

  • Symmetrical

  • Asymmetrical

  • Radial

  • Crystallographic

  1. Symmetrical Balance - elements of a design have equal importance on either side of a center line (vertical, horizontal, or diagonal)

  • Elements generally carry same weight/size

  • Symmetrical balance can be achieved by

    • Mirrored objects

    • Repetition

  1. Asymmetrical Balance - elements use different weight, size, shape, contrast and are arragned to look balanced

  • Provides more interest yet maintains balance and communicates well

  1. Radial Balance - balance created by rotating patterns/elements around a focal point

  • A common design found in nature

  • Can be used to quickly focus in on the main object

  1. Crystallographic Balance - random placement of elements that visually still achieve a sense of balance

  • Also known as “mosaic” balance

  • Difficult to achieve as it tends to be more “feeling” based


Unite - combines all shapes together

Minus Front - subtracts all selected shapes from back-most shape

Divide - divides all pieces of selected shapes where they overlap