Design Getting Your Message Across

DIY – Design It Yourself Getting your message across"Right and wrong do not exist in graphic design.

There is only effective and non-effective communication."

An overview of Design

Design Awareness and the Elements of Design – colour, typography, layout

Maintaining your identity

Putting a brief together – text and illustration

Creative thinking

Computers and design

Designing for Housing Associations

Colour theory

Design Awareness and the Elements of Design – colour and typography

Colour theory

Design Awareness and the Elements of Design – colour and typography

Colour theory

Design Awareness and the Elements of Design – colour and typography

Colour theory

Design Awareness and the Elements of Design – colour and typography

Colour theory

Design Awareness and the Elements of Design – colour and typography

Colour theory

Design Awareness and the Elements of Design – colour and typography

Colour theory

Design Awareness and the Elements of Design – colour and typography

Colour theory

Design Awareness and the Elements of Design – colour and typography

Colour theory

Design Awareness and the Elements of Design – colour and typography

Colour Theory – colour changes

Design Awareness and the Elements of Design – colour and typography

Fonts and Typography

What’s a Serif?• A serif is the little extra stroke found at the end of

main vertical and horizontal strokes of some letterforms. Can be subtle or quite obvious.

In some cases serifs may aid in the readability of a typeface.

Formal.• Fonts without serifs are called sans serif.

Modern, easier to read on PC screens• Script faces are informal

Design Awareness and the Elements of Design – colour and typography

Serif, Sans Serif, Script?

• Castle T• Times New Roman

• Arial• Courier New

•Perpetua• Porky’s

• Century• Garamond

• Trebuchet• Copperplate

•Matisse• Lucida

Design Awareness and the Elements of Design – colour and typography

Headlines• Match headline fonts to tone of document

• Use contrasting font styles for headlines

• Use bold headline fonts to add contrast

• Make headlines a different color than other text

• Make headlines larger than body copy

• Limit use of decorative headline fonts

• Set all caps headlines in sans serif fonts

Design Awareness and the Elements of Design – colour and typography

EXTRAORDINARY LOGOS

Design Awareness and the Elements of Design – colour and typography

Layout

• White Space

• Grids

• Alignment

• Align photos and text elements to column edges

• Emphasise by breaking across the columns.

• More columns, more flexibilityDesign Awareness and the Elements of Design – Layout

Maintaining your identity

Corporate identity is often viewed as being composed of three parts:

• Corporate design (logos, uniforms, corporate colours etc.)

• Corporate communication (advertising, public relations, information, etc.)

• Corporate behavior (internal values, norms, etc.)

Maintaining your identity

Restrictions:

• Colour Palette limiting choice

• Typefaces distinctions

• Placement of elements

• Design Manuals

Maintaining your identity

Maintaining your identity

Putting a brief together

Text - Writing it yourself?

• Establish the aims of your project or service• Grammar, syntax and flow are logical, your purpose

is to guide the reader through the issues• Reinforce key messages to ensure they are

understood• Include contact information • Short and sweet everytime

Putting your brief together - text

Putting a brief together• Photos

Photo libraries inc free onesOR your own resources

• IllustratorsAOI/SIADYou pay for: Use, Duration, Client’s Profile, Expenses, & Budget available.Ask to look at portfolio and/or sample illustration/visual first

• Clip Art

Putting your brief together - images

Creative Thinking• Create a list• Stimulate all the senses• Surround yourself with positive and

inspiring words• Take yourself away from your PC/desk- go

for a walk/swim/sport• Try the color yellow (apparently) • Let others inspire you,

books/internet/colleagues• Do something else creative: cook, garden• Thumbnails

Creative thinking – sparking it off

Creative thinking – looking again

Creative Thinking

• Think about your own logo – how can it be given some Christmas spirit?

• To get you started here’s a some samples:

Colour Theory 2Using printers– CMYK and RGB

Computers and design – more colour

Colour Theory 2 – Using printers & digital mediaCMYK and RGB

For printing - halftones For website, digital

Computers and design – more colour

Computers and Design• Images are Bitmap or Vector• Fonts are particular to each machine• Keep it simple, • Bitmap resolutions are important, you

can reduce an image but enlarging will make things grainy

• Save your work regularly, graphics files can be huge

• Talk to your printer about what files they need for your job

Computers and design – basic

Design for Housing Associations• Leaflets

• Adverts

• Signs

• Colour schemes

• Websites

• Photos people

• Photos buildings

Designing for Housing Associations – what’s entailed

• Annual Reports • Handbooks • Clothing• Promotional items• Forms• Stationery• You name it!

. . . and that’s it

• Don’t Panic

• Be happy, enjoy

• Have fun

• Keep it simple, less is so much more

• If you don’t know, ask . . . Maggie McTurk

Coastal Housing Group, Swansea