One of the most important elements in design in my opinion is that it must get across a message to a user. You could create the most beautiful site or brochure but if the message is wrong or there is no structure to the information you may has well have produced it in Word with Comic Sans and a photocopier.
I do some design work for a charity, they insist that all brochure type must be a least 11 pt or more, there can be no background tints (unless very pale) and no white text reversed out of black. They insist on this, as one of the symptoms of the disease the charity represents, can be poor, blurred or double vision. So when I design, I hate the way the body copy looks on the page, but it doesn’t matter what I think does it, I am not the one who needs to be able to read it. While the design aesthetics may not appeal to most, it is appropriate for the market.
I see some of the most beautiful typography in books, where type is overlaid, distorted and distressed, but could this be applied to many live projects? It could work well for perhaps gig posters, CDs or work aimed towards young people, but to supplement it more legible type would be required to convey the detail. Typography like this works well as a graphic/illustration but not as a source of information. Work along these lines if used inappropriately edges towards art rather than functional design.
At one of the companies I worked for in the past we used to do a lot of work for a large mobile phone company. To be honest I used to hate the work as it was all following a style and so therefore was fairly rigid in its design. I used to nearly always get these jobs to do (much to my disgust) as I was told I was good at organising information (I think they thought that would make me feel better). With so much information to convey it was necessary for each brochure to have a definite structure and hierarchy to the information.
So maybe the key to good design, far above beautiful graphics, is the organisation of information and the conveying of a message.
What do you think?
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18 Comments
I LOVED the Comic Sans bit.
While a good graphic design should convey a message, the importance of conveying that message seems to decrease with the age of the audience you are designing for. Younger people tend to care less about what message is being conveyed and more about how flashy the design is than older people.
Just my personal opinion, I could be wrong…
Hi Tolumi, thanks for your comment. I think perhaps younger people are more open to new style design, so a more extreme design will grab their attention. Like I said I think design has to be appropriate to market.
It’s the designer’s quandary – effective design doesn’t require a refined aesthetic. But no one will hire you if your book is packed with effectively ugly work.
And if you must use a comic font – use Dave Gibbons.
Hi Nate, you raise a good point. I have work I have done for the Charity I mentioned that they are really pleased with but I wouldn’t show most of it in my portfolio because the type looks too large and the design quite plain (no tints, reverse outs etc)
I wasn’t planning on using Comic Sans but if ever I get the urge
I’ll check out Dave Gibbons
Similarly, one of my clients is a cancer charity with the average age of patients over 50, so all work for them is using large type sizes. Like you, Tara, I’d choose little of that work for my portfolio.
In the words of Bob Gill:
“There’s no such thing as ‘good design’ or ‘bad design’. The design is good if it does what you want it to do. It’s bad if it doesn’t.”
I agree with you Tara, that it must communicate a message. If it doesn’t then it’s more like art.
For public organisations in the UK it is actually a legal requirement to have all publicity material available for people with disabilities, for example people with poor vision. I think 11pt is the minimum you can go.
Where I work we have given work to some designers who have produced some great stuff but we have had to go back and tell them to change the font size etc. And as long as the client is happy, so should the designer.
Like it or not, we are doing commercial art and the objective is to sell the client’s product/services. If the design and copy cannot communicate and reach out to the target audience, it fails – no matter how good the aesthetic is. A good creative is one that sells, and meet the objective to which the creative stamps from
I’d also note that lorem ipsum is one of the deadly sins of design. If design is so strongly tied in with message, why do we use meaningless text in our designs, and only swap out the text at the last minute?
I’m as guilty of this as the next person, but more and more I’m using less text and getting more message across.
Using real text in your designs goes a long way to shaping your message, in my humble opinion.
Hi David, Aaron, Randa, Vivienne, Harvey, thank you for all your input and views.
Harvey, I would much rather use real text when I am starting a design, even if it is only draft copy. You get much more of a feel of the space you have to work with. The problem is usually when a designer uses Lorem ipsum its because the copy isn’t written yet and unfortunately usually deadlines dictate that the design has to start without it, it’s not ideal though.
There are already such good comments here. I agree with David (and I liked the quote! Perfect!) and Vivienne.
It’s difficult to exercise your creativity while keeping within the specifications of a project. I have to do a lot of flyers at my job and they all have to be black and white and have at least a 1/2 inch border all around because we print them on our large B&W printer. They also have to be in an interactive PDF format or else I have to use MS Publisher (people have to be able to edit the event info). It’s very frustrating! But I suppose that’s the mark of a good designer, make it look nice and communicate the message, even with strict requirements for style or form.
I feel people prefer more of Idea/Massage based designs/ads.
Have a look at the trend… Everything now a days in getting simpler, and carry a strong message…
Simplicity Rules…!
Design can get carried away, and I’ve seen it obscure the message in many advertisements. The graphic designer should be pushing for creative design, but ultimatly the buyer needs to keep them in check with the purpose of the ad.
Hi Lauren, I can imagine how frustrating it would be to do a job in publisher. I have occasionally been asked to quote to design something in Word, but I turn it down as I know I wouldn’t be happy with results.
Vail Valley marketing, you are right there needs to be a balance there, a good brief always goes a long way to ensure both client and designer are happy.
Santosh, simplicity definitely does rule
Hello Tara,
I am only an amateur, very amateur. I love Abram Games and I like his saying ‘Maximum Meaning, Minimum Means’.
Design is directed toward human beings. To design is to solve human problems.the most important thing is the information you are passing across.
Good to know I’m not alone with these kinds of thoughts:)
I never knew how boring graphic design could be before I started working, but it can be challenging enough even when it’s not all that creative. And as I get better I can get a more creative job within graphic design.