Chapters 4-5

Reading Summary

These two chapters outline the things to avoid and the techniques to remember for great designs. Chapter 4 focuses on the former, calling them the “layout sins”. In short, the chapter focuses on simplicity and to-the-point design work. This includes: fitted and bordered photos, clean margins, simple backgrounds, and overall uncluttered work. Additional sins of note are not relying on heavy animation, cliche centering, corner images, cluttering, and inappropriate breaks in text and design. The cleaner and more concise the information and design is, the more effective it is in drawing a reader’s attention and creating a captivating piece.

Chapter 5 discusses the contrary in the seven elements of design as well as their seven principles of good design. The elements include: spaces, lines, shapes, sizes, patterns, textures, and values. The first six are rather self-explanatory, but value focuses on the tones of light and dark, particularly the use of grayscale to create simple but eye-catching pieces. The seven rules of good design are: a focal point, contrast, balance, movement, rhythm, perspective, and unity. In short, the goal of good design is to create a well-organized, natural-looking, and even-flowing piece of work.

Outside Example

The example I thought of was a poster for the movie, “Vice”. Unlike most movie posters, this one simple focuses on color schemes and was very eye-catching to me. I saw this poster a few times over winter break when walking outside of the movie theatres by my hometown as well as a couple times on social media before the movie was released. Even though I was already interested in the movie, the design of this poster made me more interested and drew the attention of those around me who were less interested in the movie before seeing the poster.

Reading Connection

For starters, this poster hit none of the thirteen design sins laid out in chapter 4. Nothing is clustered together without a purpose, the use of negative space is minimal but not pushed out, and the background is a simple yellow. Furthermore, there are no odd pictures and cheated borders and margins, bad bullet points, or excessive text. The only emphasis is on the title of the movie, which is a short four-letter word with no tacky emphasis on it. Additionally, many of the seven rules are met with excellence. Their is a clear focal point, which is the character of the vice president character. This image as well as the text (being black and white) provides a solid contrast to the yellow background. There is balance and unity, as the title and character silhouette take a majority of the screen, as they should, but the rest of the text is relevant and related. From this, the perspective is there, as the significantly more important parts are given emphasis, allowing our eyes to move with flow through the poster from the title, to its main actors, to a short synopsis. Finally, its design as a graphically designed movie poster is very different from the norm, making it even more eye-catching. Most movie posters show the main character(s) as well as an important scene from the movie. This poster leaves more intrigue with its unique graphic design nature, ultimately completing its job as a captivating movie poster in a more effective way.