From the first APB presentation in class, I knew that I was poor with presentation or graphic design. After that class even though my team’s presentation was better, I felt bad because we were marked down because of our presentation style.
I decided to do touch-up my design skills and coincidentally, we had a design class also. This helped my design greatly, and below are a few points on graphic designing that have been lifesavers.
1. KEEP IT SIMPLE:
I’ve realised simple is best. My second design assignment taught me this. Really a white background would go best with that design you have in mind.
Sometimes, putting up pictures or designs on a presentation just makes it look too busy. We do not want our audience to be distracted from the message.
Therefore, don’t overcomplicate things, only use necessary layouts or elements, for example, try to use no more than two or three fonts or colours and every other design element should be directly related to your aim.
2. WHITE OR NEGATIVE SPACE:
This is the space between your elements. It is the portion of a page left unmarked: margins, gutters, and space between columns, lines of type, graphics, figures, or objects drawn or depicted.
Like I said previously, do not make your work looks too busy or clustered. It doesn’t have to be white, but basically, it should be empty.
Like this write-up, for example, you can see that there is a space around it. It helps readers concentrate on the message and helps to eliminate distractions.
Basically, let your work breathe.
3. VISUAL HIERARCHY:
Some sort of hierarchy must be established in your presentation. This is done to draw the audience’s attention to a particular item amongst others and it is usually done with font size and colours.
For example, in a Newspaper, you would see on the front page that the main headline is really bold, some others are bold but not as bold as the headline, while the texts are in small fonts.
That’s a visual hierarchy; weighting different elements by importance and using colour and size to help determine the order in which the information is to be read.
4. CONTRAST:
Colour is a powerful tool ¾ in the right hands that is. Contrast helps the audience make out what is the most important information in your design.
Colour is one of the best forms of contrast. But please use colours that complement each other. Using conflicting colours doesn’t help your message at all.
The colour combinations used in a design, are known as its colour scheme. A designer’s choice of colour scheme can create unity, harmony, rhythm, and balance within creation, but it can also create contrast and emphasis.
So, while you might want to use Red to draw the audience to a part of your work, please make sure that it complements the other colours in your presentation.
5. PROPORTIONAL SCALIN GOF GRAPHICS AND TEXTS:
Thankfully, whatever tools you use, there are some sort of gridlines that helps us arrange our elements proportionally, be it images or texts.
Aligning your elements is actually big, it helps create a sort of direction, flow, or order for your work. It also helps to create a sense of consistency in your work.
#MMBA3 #Lillybeth’scorner
A PERCEPTION OF LIFE