SMAD201 Final Exam
Chapter 3
I Need to Design This Today
Tags
If applicable, place logo and taglines in the corner: lower right for most print projects and upper left for Web pages
If tags are required, as in advertising, be sure to include
logo and URL
When the design requires multiple pages...
maintain visual unity, make body copy visually inviting and provide navigational signs to keep readers from getting lost
Greek text
dummy copy you can set and style to look like the real copy. This enables you to make typography and design decisions before the real copy is available.
Paper decisions hinge on...
function as well as appearance and hand. You can't make a pocket folder out of copy paper
bar charts
stick with horizontal bars unless you're dealing with time, then revert to vertical bars with time running horizontally left to right
Sin #13
Avoid unsightly rivers of negative space flowing through legs of justified type
basic rules for setting up and positioning body copy
- Choose an easy-to-read font (a "transparent" font). - Set body copy somewhere between 9 and 11 points. - Keep the headline and lead together. - Never indent the lead paragraph. - Lay body copy into columns wide enough to accommodate 6-12 words per line. - Keep columns of type, called legs, taller than 2 inches but shorter than 10-12 inches. - Size automatic paragraph indents proportionately to point size and line length.
Tips for designing infographics
- Design them to stand alone as freestanding content. - Don't skimp on research. - Use a grid. - Group things together (i.e. think clustering and proximity). - If you can't use color, then make sure your grays contrast by at least 20 percent. - Attribute everything. - Minimize ornamentation. - Write tightly.
The 5 steps to visual success are
- Establish a clear focal point. - Minimize the number of groupings the eye must scan. - Guide the eye with visual sightlines. - Set type properly. - Use simplicity and restraint
Types of printing and printers include
- Printing in-house. - Quick printers. - Commercial/offset. - Web offset. - Digital printing
Consider using an infographic if:
- You need to communicate quickly. - A verbal or written account is too complicated. - Your audience will have difficulty comprehending a written or oral account.
WET layout
- works because of the order in which Westerners learn to read - We are taught to "enter" a page in the upper left-hand corner and to "exit" the page in the lower right-hand corner - This reading pattern or eye flow dictates the placement of visuals and type on a WET layout: Visual first at the top, headline next under—not over—the visual, body copy last under the headline
sidebars
Add a sidebar of information related to the main content to give a screen or page visual variety and interest.
Step 4: Headline
After visuals, headlines have the greatest impact on your layout. Research shows that readers scan before choosing to read. Big bold headlines provide content information at a glance, and when executed well encourage readers to dive in. Bold headings and subheadings provide eye entry points to your content. They also help break long copy into bite-sized pieces, which you already know are reader-friendly. In Web design, the reader's eye may search for navigation and headline before it goes to the visual. That's why it's especially important to make Web headlines visually significant.
Sin #1
Avoid centered layouts
Sin #12
Avoid inelegant breaks at the bottoms and tops of legs of type
Sin #5
Be generous with margins, including inset and offset for text and picture boxes
In a WET layout, pairing two different fonts that play well together is best
Choose an interesting font for the headline and an easy-to-read font for the body copy. Then use one or the other font in the caption/cutline and/or tags
Sin #7
Clutter: Bad. Clustering: Good
Caption/cutline option.
Depending on the purpose of your layout, your visuals may not need captions. For advertising, if you have to explain your visual with a caption, then your visual probably is not the best choice. For most editorial visuals, including those for print news, broadcast news, magazines, and some websites, a caption, or "cutline," is required. If you do need a cutline, set it directly underneath the visual. Make your cutline span the width of your visual, and style it flush left, ragged right. Now that you have some text in place, it's time to set type. For a cutline, use the same font you choose for either your headline or your body copy. (Hint: If you plan to use a fancy font for headlines, use a version of your body copy for cutlines.) Set the cutline somewhere between 9 and 11 points. Eight points is getting a little hard to read, and 12 points is getting a bit too big or horsey, as some designers might say.
Sin #9
Design backgrounds as negative space. Save tiling for the bathroom
Columns
Establish column guides. The number of columns depends on the size and type of your layout
Step 1: Outer boundaries & margins
First, set up your layout in the desired size. This creates your outer boundaries. Next, before you do anything else, lay margins inside those boundaries—on all four sides. Think of your margins as a frame that ensures the important content inside is both readable and visible. Be generous with your margins. Use a minimum of half-inch margins on a small ad or flyer, for example. In print layouts, the size of your margins should grow in proportion to the size of your layout
Chapter 14
Fit to Print
aspect ratio
For screen media, the ratio of screen width to height. You can't design a square and expect it to fill well into a horizontal rectangle, whether screen or page.
Chapter 10
Infographics
Sin #6
Keep headlines in a straight line
Sin #2
Keep photographs proportionate, and use hairline rules to border photos that have ambiguous edges
Chapter 6
Layout
Chapter 4
Layout Sins
timelines
Limit timelines to about 10-20 items, and keep your timeline to scale/proportional
Step 3: Visual + optional caption
Next, position the visual. The visual is your tool for capturing the audience's attention. On the works-every-time layout, the visual goes at the top of the layout. The visual becomes the eye entry point into your layout and is the starting point of a viewing flow that takes the audience from top to bottom. In Web layouts, the upper left corner of the screen is an important visual hotspot, and your logo or site name should fill this spot. Position your key visual below the logo. If your layout is for print, hang your visual from the top of the page, the top margin or the top of your story.
Step 2: Columns
Now, inside your margins, divide your layout into vertical columns. People will avoid reading long horizontal lines of type and big chunks of text. Because type presented in columns means shorter lines and narrower chunks, columns become a kind of trompe l'oeil (French for "trick of the eye") that says, "Come on, reading this won't take long." If your works-every-time layout is a smaller ad or flyer, two columns are probably adequate. You may need more columns if your layout is larger and you have more copy. Thread copy from one column to the next. Or use one column for copy and the other for images, tags or sidebar content. Columns are similarly used in Web layouts where it's common to place copy in one column and sidebar content (banner ads, widgets, etc.) in the other.
Copy
Position the body copy into columns under the headline
Headline
Position the headline under the cutline.
Visual + optional cutline
Position the visual at the top of the layout. Place the cutline, if necessary, under the visual.
Visuals
Position your visual at the top to give your audience an eye entry point at the start of your layout. In this example, the photo and logo work together as one large visual. In all types of columnar layouts, make sure the alley of negative space separating your columns isn't too small or too big. Your goal is enough space to keep columns visually separate but still cohesive. Bottom line, unless your layout is very narrow, don't make your copy span the full width of your layout.
Proof
Proof your document (then proof it again) before sending to the printer. Changes made once the document is in the hands of the printer are costly
Sin #8
Push extra negative space to the outside edges of your layout
trapped negative space
Remember to avoid trapped negative space
Outer boundaries and margins
Set your layout size, and lay in generous margins on all four sides.
The 6 steps of the WET layout are:
Step 1: Determine the outer boundaries of the design and lay in generous margins on all four sides of the layout. Step 2: Establish column guides. Step 3: Position the visual at the top of the page to function as the focal point that captures attention. If applicable, place the caption, known in news as a "cutline," under the visual. Step 4: Position the headline under the cutline. Step 5: Position the body copy into columns under the headline Step 6: If applicable, place tags in the bottom right corner, as the last thing the eye sees before exiting the page.
Sin #3
Stick to two fonts per layout
Sin #10
Think twice about reversing, stroking, using all caps or underlining
Typesetting copy.
This example demonstrates a few best practices for typesetting, including setting the copy in reader-friendly columns and keeping the headline visually connected to the lead.
Sin #4
Use negative space to group or separate things. If you must use a border or box, choose an understated one
Sin #11
Use real bullets for lists, and use hanging indents to align bulleted lists properly
Maps require
a grid, a scale, a legend and a compass
Give your printer...
a) a print-quality PDF b) a package including the native file, all visuals used in proper resolution, size and format and every font you used in the design
The visual at the top of the WET layout
acts as the eye's entry point and focal point into the layout. Make the visual a welcome sign to the layout
Graphics packages
bundle content into a packages of multiple informational images and visuals, although they take serious planning and coordination with a team of experts
hen the printer gives you a proof...
check for typos, text positioning, correct fonts, folios, photos/visuals/images, margins, spot colors and specialty items/requests
layout boundaries
including live/safe area, margins, headers, footers, etc. More complex layouts benefit from grid systems that include columns (perhaps horizontal as well as vertical columns) and alleys of negative space between columns.
visual hierarchy
increase the size of important items and position them toward the top of the layout. Conversely, decrease the size of less important items and place them toward the bottom of the layout.
focal point
key to effective layout. The focal point is the layout's eye entry point or visual "Welcome" sign
When possible take advantage of...
multimedia capabilities when concepting infographic designs
Decisions about paper and printing hinge on three things
objective, concept and budget
pie chart
represents a whole pie, that is 100 percent, and label what 100 percent represents
The ethics of infographics
require respecting copyrights, sticking with the facts and using statistical data responsibly
Using a grid and modular page design
simplifies the job of laying out multiple stories, ads, sets of content, etc., on the same screen or page
Margins
sometimes called thumb space, frame the design with negative space and buffer it from surrounding visual clutter
hen it comes to printing there are...
speed, quality and price. Pick any two
Headlines
the second most important visual component on a WET. Make the headline point size big so that it draws the eye down from the visual toward the body copy. Choose an interesting headline font to match the layout's tone. Let the headline's copy suggest where to break a long headline into multiple lines
fever charts
the y-axis rise going up represents what you're measuring, and the x-axis run represents time going left to right
Pictures
they're like arrows so be sure they're pointing in the right direction. Additionally, don't position visuals where they interrupt the flow of reading, and don't flip photos
When using multiple visuals...
think about whether you want to create a visual hierarchy of differing sizes or a rhythmic pattern of similar sizes. Either way, shoot for visual balance
designing with columns
tricks the eye into reading more than it might otherwise.
the caption or cutline
typically appears directly beneath its photo or visual. Set cutline type somewhere between 9 and 11 points. Position the cutline to sit flush left/ragged right, and match the width of the cutline to the width of the photo or visual
