VISUAL COMMUNICATION DESIGN

Hello folks, trust you have been following my write-ups on different learnings per time. I would like to share with you tonight the additional learnings I got from my Management Communication class today courtesy of Mr Seun Olatunji. We looked at the elements that form good communication in design.

When we were asked what comes to mind when we hear the words “graphics” or “design”, the popular response was “aesthetics, creativity, art, etc.”. it is not wrong to have thought in that direction because they are all part of the designing process in one way or the other.

The first is to understand the building block to deliver a good design. We are made to understand the 3 (three) basic rules that guide the execution of a good visual communication design.

1. Keep it simple: This is important so that your viewers can get the message immediately.
2. Keep it consistent. This speaks to the aspect of colours, fonts, and structure. We shall look deeper into these as we proceed.
3. Add contrast: This is to draw your viewer’s eyes to what is important in the content of the design

Let us look at the elements and principles of design, the design forms, and the reason for choosing certain colours in the design.

Elements that make a good visual communication design include the following:

1. Tone: communicating the essence of design by relevant and consistent images or text, it could be beauty related, restaurant related, agro, or anything that forms the objective of the design.
2.  Texture:  this concentrates on the look of the design
3. Framing: Framing is the presentation of visual elements in an image
4. Type: Simply refers to the typography in a design

Principles of Design

1. Balance: This means stability in design. Put your text and image in a way that catches your audience. To put it differently, it is weight shared evenly on canvas. Canvas represents the plain surface on which you are designing. There are two types of Balance to mention here. Symmetrical and Asymmetrical

1a. Symmetrical Balance is when one half of the canvas mirrors the other. Here, weight is equally distributed on both ends. Image/design at the center of the canvas with the same measurement of space by the left and right.

1b. Asymmetrical Balance, for instance, could have a heavy designed image on the right side of the canvas while the other equal half side(left) is designed in graphics. Both are evenly distributed but have different weights.

• Proximity: Proximity creates a relationship between elements on a canvas
• Alignment: Alignment is to maintain balance by the right, left, up or down part of the canvas. In Microsoft PowerPoint, there is a ruler that indicates the alignment.
• Repetition: a repeated element that reflects on all the design pages. This could be a logo, a seal, an address, or anything that a designer needs to emphasize.
• Contrast: when two aspects of an image are strikingly different from one another, like dark and light.
• Space: To make your viewer’s eyes rest and not strained, it is advisable to leave space by the edges of the canvas so as to give a clear cut to the start and finish of the design.

In the next episode, we shall look at the use of fonts and other useful elements in visual communication design.

Stay tuned till the next blog

Motunrayo Awomolo

(M.A.)