OUGD404: Design Principles - 10 Things you need to know about Graphic Design

Design Context Entry

Above, you can see a screen shot from e-studio of the task, this contains all the details and information we need to know to complete this task, which will all be undertaken, ongoing-ly, within this post. 

1. There are two colour modes
2. Colour is complex, using less is a safe solution.
3. Relevance of Pantone in Design.
4. The arrangement of type is important.
5. Less is best within typography
6. The contrasts of colours can lead to grand effects.
7. Always consider cost when printing, limiting colours can help lower the cost of printing
8. Type can be manipulated for effect
9. There are 4 types of fonts
10. There is a difference between legibility and Readability 

1. There are two colour modes, RGB (Red, Green and Blue) and CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Key (Also known as Black)) RGB colours are for screen use only, such as digital art, design for web or design for film. RGB is also an additive colour mode, additive colour mode means when the red green and blue are layered they create white. In contrast to this, CMYK is intended for print, as apposed to digital - traditionally, in any standard printer, there are 4 ink cartridges: Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Key. When these colours are applied together, they create black, rather than white, which means they are a subjective colour mode. 

2. Colour is complex, not only are there two colour modes which were previously mentioned, there are also different types of contrast which you need to take into consideration when selecting the colours you wish to use in your work. There is Contrast of Tone, Contrast of Hue, Contrast of Saturation, Contrast of Temperature, Complementary Contrast, Contrast of Extension, Simultaneous Contrast. These are all explained in detail in the blog post from the session, Design Principles, where we learnt about colour contrast. Because of the amount of contrasts you need to take into consideration, some designers opt to remove colour from their designs completely, as it makes life much easier. 

3. Pantone is a system used within Graphic Design to communicate a colour exactly to a colleague within the industry. It works be having a code for each number, this code can be used internationally. So you can have the exact colour you want printed. There are also pantone referencing charts and books which you can use to detect the colour on a piece of work.

4. The arrangement of type is important, as well as the typical font size which we use, there is also various other aspects to type which we need to consider when you're working with type. There's leading, which comes from the stripes of lead which were used to separate type vertically, and it means the space between the lines. There's also kerning, which means the space between each letter, which should be lower with a smaller point size, and larger with a larger point size. 

5. Less is best within typography, when using fonts within your work, you do not want to use a full set of fonts. Limiting the amount leads to a much more aesthetically pleasing piece. Also, as a rule of thumb, it would be wise to limit yourself to selecting the three fonts within a typeface, which is a selection of fonts. For example, the Helvetica typeface contrains many variations, such as Helvetica Black, Bold, Semi Bold, Regular and Italic. 

6. The contrasts of colours leads to obscure effects, the was the optics in the eye perceives colours next to each other allows one colour to manipulate the appearance of the next, in comparison. For example, using contrast of tone, you can visually make a colour look lighter by placing a darker toned colour next to it. You can then make that colour look darker by placing another darker colour next to the second colour wich subjectively makes the original colour much lighter. To make the original colour look darker you can place a lighter colour next it, which will subjectively make the colour darker. 

7. Printing is expensive, you should always consider the cost of printing when you're designing. The method to reduce the cost of print lies with colour. Colour is separated into 4 colour plates, Cyan, Magenta  Yellow and Key - typically. Logically, to use a combination of all these colours, you would have to use all the plates to print. However, by creating a colour which only uses 3/4 plates, you'll only be paying 3/4 of the price. This is explains why, when you see mass produced works, alot of them are in monocrome, which is just one colour, for example using pure magenta.

8. The manipulation of type can be used within your design work, type manipulation is often used in logos. To do this you need to understand the anatomy of type, a diagram can be found below which explains the names of the different proporties on letterforms. For example you could incorporate a shape into the counter of a letterform, or perhaps extend the ascenders or descenders. You could even remove some of the less distinct parts of the letterform, leaving only the pure character of the letterform, so it's still recognisable, for effect.

9. There are 4 types of type, there are Roman, Gothic, Script and Block. Roman fonts are typically fonts which look quite formal, they're characterised by their traditional serifs. Gothic fonts are typically very clean without serifs, following the moderns form following function. Script fonts often resemble handwriting, they're very stylised and can look effective in traditional style pieces. Block fonts are often extremely thick weighted fonts, which are mainly used in headers. However, after experimentation, you will find that

10. There is a difference between legibility and readability. Legibility is the degree which individual glyphs (letterforms) in text are understandable and recognisable based on appearance. Whereas readability is the ease which the text can be read. This is influenced by line height, primary and secondary leading, justification, type style, kerning, tracking and point size.