gonyea |complicated doesn’t make it good *from A Book About Design by Mark Gonyea DESIGN IS ALL ABOUT THE PERCEPTION OF SIZE, SHAPE AND COLOR.

gonyea |chapter 1 ALL OR NOTHING

gonyea |Take the two shapes below. They relate to each other in every way.

gonyea |Change the size of one and you lessen the impact of the other.

gonyea |Unless… you do something to draw attention to it again.

gonyea |And so on…

gonyea |…and so on…

gonyea |…and so on. It’s all or nothing. You can’t change one piece without affecting all the other pieces.

gonyea |chapter 2 THE BOX

gonyea |Take a look at the square below. Imagine drawing two straight lines that intersect only once inside the square.

gonyea |Did your lines look something like this?

gonyea |Or this?

gonyea |Straight lines can indicate strength and structure.

gonyea |Diagonal lines can indicate speed and movement.

gonyea |chapter 3 1:3:9

gonyea |1:3:9 is a ratio. It can also be a strong graphic tool.

gonyea |The largest square is about 3 times as big as the second largest square, which is about 3 times as big as the smallest square.

gonyea |This makes the largest square the most important piece on the page.

gonyea |Apply this idea to a whole page and it might look something like this…

gonyea |…and so on…

gonyea |…and so on.

gonyea |chapter 4 CAN YOU SEE ME NOW?

gonyea |What is contrast? I’m thinking of a number between 1 and 10. Can you tell what it is?

gonyea |No? How about now?

3

gonyea |That’s contrast!

gonyea |chapter 5 LETTERS ARE SHAPES TOO

gonyea |The letter A. A is for Angles.

gonyea |The letter H. H is for Horizontal (and vertical) lines.

gonyea |The letter T. T is for Three (as in 1:3:9).

gonyea |The letter S. S is for curves. (I know, C should be for Curves but S looks better!)

S

gonyea |chapter 6 COLOR SCHMOLOR

gonyea |There are warm colors.

gonyea |There are cool colors.

gonyea |Warm colors are aggressive and advance.

gonyea |Cool colors are passive and retreat.

gonyea |chapter 7 DO I LOOK FAT ON THIS SIDE?

gonyea |The next page is unbalanced. The green square gets all the attention because it’s the only piece there…

gonyea |…until it is balanced with an equally strong presence.

gonyea |Now it isn’t balanced…

gonyea |…now it is.

gonyea |Now it isn’t…

gonyea |…now it is.

gonyea |Isn’t…

gonyea |…is.

gonyea |This could take a while. Why don’t you go on and I’ll catch up later.

gonyea |chapter 8 HEY, LOOK AT ME!

gonyea |The space between objects can tell you what’s important and what’s not.

gonyea |The shape of an object can tell you what’s important too.

gonyea |So can the color.

gonyea |I wouldn’t use all three at once if I were you.

gonyea |chapter 9 COMPLICATED DOESN’T MAKE IT GOOD

gonyea |Nice and simple.

gonyea |Still simple.

gonyea |Uh-oh.

gonyea |Hmmmm…

gonyea |Just because something is complicated doesn’t mean it’s good.

gonyea |chapter 10 PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER

gonyea |1:3:9 (about)

gonyea |Cool colors retreat.

gonyea |The letter A.

A

gonyea |Warm colors advance.

A

gonyea |Balance.

gonyea |Changing one thing affects everything.

gonyea |And so on…

gonyea |the end or the beginning DESIGN IS ALL ABOUT THE PERCEPTION OF SIZE, SHAPE AND COLOR.