Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Visual Organization

Not directing the audience through a design is misdirecting them.

Eye Movement: 
The typical eye moves left to right and top to bottom. 

Controlling eye movement within a composition is a matter of directing the natural scanning tendency of the viewer's eye. 

The eye tends to gravitate towards areas of complexity first. In pictures of people, the eye is always attracted to the face and particularly the eye. 

Light ares of a composition will attract the eye, especially when adjacent to a dark area.  

Diagonal lines or edges will guide eye movement. 

Optical Center:  the spot where the human eye tends to enter the page. Optical center is slightly above mathematical center just to the left. 

It takes a compelling element to pull your eyes away from this spot. 

Z pattern: Our visual pattern makes a sweep of the page, generally, in the shape of a "Z".

Effective page design maps a viewer's route through the information. The designer's objective is to lead the viewer's eye to the important elements or information.

Fonts

Use no more than 2 fonts on a single page.

Fonts should compliment each other.

Avoid all uppercase, unless you're trying to grab their attention on a certain point.

Choose the right font.

Don't overuse fancy/complicated fonts.

www.typography.com/email/2010_032010_03/index.htm

Visual Hierarchy: Will establish focal points based on importance to message being communicated.

A crucial part of the design process is to establish an order of elements, a visual structure, to help the viewer absorb the information provided by a design.

To establish a visual hierarchy, ask yourself the following:

What do I want my viewer to look at first? Second? Third?

The Grid:

A way of organizing content on a page, using any combination of margins, guide lines, rows and columns.

Instituted by Modernism

Can assist the audience by breaking info into manageable chunks and establishing relationships between text and images.

A grid consists of a distinct set of alignment-based relationships that act as guides for distributing elements across a format.

Every design is different; therefore every design will require a different gird structure...one that addresses the particular elements within the design.

A grid is used to clarify the message being communicated and to unify the elements.

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