1. FOUR DESKTOP PUBLISHING DESIGN ELEMENTS THAT EVERYONE NEEDS TO KNOW Presented by Jerry Smith

2. Where We’re Going  Focus on four basic design elements  Contrast  Repetition  Alignment  Proximity  Examples of Each  Simple changes make a HUGE difference

3. The Big Four  C ontrast  R epetition  A lignment  P roximity There is no clever acronymn: You’ll have to figure that one out on your own…

4. Before I Begin…  Framework by Robin Williams  Buy this Book: Non-Designer’s Design Book  ISBN: 0321193857

5. Subjectivity  Yep, most of this is quite subjective  These elements provide structured options  Even if you don’t get it right the first shot, you’ll know some things you can change to create an entirely different look  Eliminates poke-and-hope mentality of design

6. Framework is to English…  True or False: The English language is always consistent?  These rules can (and should be) broken sometimes  It’s a framework, not a set of laws

7. Something is wrong… but you can’t put your finger on it.  In many cases, the thing that’s wrong is one of these elements  By having a name for the broken elements, you’ll find that it is much easier to fix  The four elements overlap quite a bit  This is a very good thing. It leads to near infinite possibilities.

8. Contrast (the king element)  By definition, refers to the degree of noticeable differences in something  There are lots of ways to provide contrast  Color  Alignment  Typography (fonts)  Size  Shape

9. Color Contrast A simple logo with no contrast

10. Color Contrast Same simple logo with color contrast

11. A little contrast goes a long way BeforeAfter

12. Alignment Contrast  For years, most of us have been conditioned to believe that centering everything is the way to go:

13. Alignment Contrast  But centering everything is overly formal and boring! With a little alignment contrast:

14. A Tale of Two Alignments BeforeAfter

15. A Tale of Two (More) Alignments BeforeAfter

16. Typography Contrast  Choose fonts that differ greatly!  Bad: Times New Roman and Garamond  Good: Times New Roman and Comic Sans MS  Most common typography contrast involves serif vs. sans-serif

17. How NOT to do type contrast

18. Proper Type Contrast

19. One Small Change of Font BeforeAfter

20. Put It All Together

21. A pinch of font, a dash of color! BeforeAfter

22. Size Contrast  Just as with fonts, if you’re going to do size contrasts, make it count!!!  Two basic reasons to use size contrast:  Emphasis  Shock Value (Stress)

23. Yawn!

24. A Little Size Makes a Big Difference

25. Yawn to Yay! BeforeAfter

26. Change the Size, Change the Message

28. Shape Contrast  Angular vs. Rounded

29. Contrast Review  Differences stand out  Emphasis  Stress  Color is easy  Be really different with  Fonts  Sizes

30. Repetition  By definition, to repeat  The antithesis of Contrast  Humans like patterns  Makes things very comfortable  The thing you see the most without realizing it  The silent design element!

31. Things to Repeat  Colors  Fonts  Shapes  Sizes  Humans are very good at intrinsically associating a repeated element with its function

32. Page 4 of a very long book

33. …and 690 pages later

34. What’s repeated?  The page number formatting  The heading font, size, and weight  The body text font and size  The weight of emphasized text

35. Repeatable Elements with Distinct Function

37. Repetition Review  Create patterns where patterns are important  Headings  Body  Other stuff  Main Menu and Navigational Elements should be repeated  Be careful not to overdo!

38. Proximity  By definition, the spatial relationship between items  Human beings naturally make associations between proximate objects  The closer things are to one another, the more they must be related  Good designs exploit this intrinsic trait

39. Same example, different context

40. One tiny adjustment…

41. Bye-bye extra box! BeforeAfter

42. You saw it but didn’t know it!

43. What about Alignment?  What about it!  Think about the other three elements we’ve discussed…  Alignment can be  Contrasted  Repeated  Used to create proximation

44. How Do We Teach This Stuff  As with everything else: Patiently  Tackle individually at first  Don’t go over all in one day  Possibly a week long unit??  One element per day with examples and practice  Tie them together on Friday

45. Pavlov’s Children  Give specific praise for using the elements  “I really like your use of contrast there, Sally”  “Nice proximity with your grouping of information, George!”  The framework is great for constructive criticism  “Think about what kind of contrast you could use here.”  “Is there something you could do to make this information seem more related?”

46. In Review…  Focus on four basic design elements  Contrast  Repetition  Alignment  Proximity  It’s all subjective  Simple changes make a HUGE difference

47. In Review…  The framework is a tool, not a crutch  Teach it slowly and consistently  Don’t become a slave to it: HAVE FUN!

48. Thanks for playing along!  Any questions or comments?