Layout and Text

Reading Summary

In chapters 6-8 of White Space is Not Your Enemy, it discusses how to create a layout for articles or advertisements on different mediums and how to choose the appropriate text for the information that is being conveyed. When formatting the layout it is good to use a grid that fits the size, or aspect ratio, of the medium in which the final product will be displayed. Columns of text should be comfortably readable and should not interrupt reading flow. Text should be from the same family of fonts and the same typeface. Bold and Italics should be used sparingly and should come from the family of fonts and not through a shortcut. Letterfonts can be used as the focal point, and colorful subheadings or column guides chould be used to make a lot of text seem more readable.

Reading Example

While reading this article, it made me think of logos or advertisements that people take pictures of because they have an unintentional second meaning that takes away from the original message. Some of these are logos for companies that look like something else. Others are advertisements with poor word choice or poorly chosen visuals. Sometimes a company or organization will try to use a unique way to display a phrase but lay it out so poorly that it is hard to understand or is just completely unreadable. Often times people will collect pictures of these bad logos or advertisement designes and compile them online to make fun of them.

Reading Connection

These logos for companies that have unintentual visuals in them and advertisements that are hard to read are examples of how to not use text or layout. These companies were too caught up in making it look unique that they did not think about the readability or the overall look. The image above is confusing because it interrupts reading flow making it difficult to initally understand what is trying to be said. Not taking into consideration how the font looks can also cause complications with how words look like they may be spelled rather than what they are actually saying.