IntroductionWelcome| 00:00 |
(music playing)
| | 00:07 |
I'm John McWade, Publisher and Creative
| | 00:10 |
Director of Before & After Magazine.
Graphic design techniques is a collection
| | 00:16 |
of very short lessons about making your
words and images work better.
| | 00:22 |
It's not about point and click, but about
beauty, clarity and function.
| | 00:28 |
You may have heard me say this before,
but most people have no idea how
| | 00:32 |
influenced they are by how things look.
The look of something, whether it's as
| | 00:38 |
prosaic as a white paper.
Or as dramatic as a concert poster has a
| | 00:44 |
huge effect on how people perceive it,
and receive it, or don't.
| | 00:51 |
This course focuses on the three key
areas of design, type, image and layout,
| | 00:57 |
plus logo design.
Its purpose is to bring practicality and
| | 01:02 |
beauty to real everyday designs.
For example, you'll see how to design
| | 01:07 |
around a weak photo.
How to use empty space as a storytelling device.
| | 01:14 |
And how to make a beautiful business card
in minutes.
| | 01:18 |
You'll learn the secret of designing a
text only document without graphics.
| | 01:24 |
You'll see why changing type size often
requires a change in spacing.
| | 01:30 |
And how simply realigning your type will
change its message.
| | 01:34 |
I'll show you how to type set an ordinary
list of names beautifully.
| | 01:41 |
How to design a simple logo, fast, and
help you learn if you really need a logo,
| | 01:47 |
or if you need a second logo.
And there's more.
| | 01:51 |
This title is for everyone who has design
to make but no time for study, and must
| | 01:56 |
learn on the go.
So, let's get going.
| | 01:59 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
TypeHow to typeset a list of names: Part one| 00:04 |
Today I have everyone's favorite project,
(LAUGH), just kidding.
| | 00:08 |
And that's to typeset a list of names and
titles.
| | 00:11 |
We're going to tackle this in 2 parts.
We're working on a tall, narrow card, so
| | 00:17 |
we'll design the decorative top of the
card first.
| | 00:21 |
Then add the names to the bottom.
This card is for a museum staff.
| | 00:28 |
We have a list of names, and along a list
with that list we've been given one piece
| | 00:33 |
of artwork from the museum collection.
You know, a list of names is just not the
| | 00:40 |
most exciting thing in the world.
And so when you have a really nice piece
| | 00:45 |
of art like this it's tempting to focus
on the art and minimize the list.
| | 00:52 |
Which can take us down a road that looks
like this.
| | 00:57 |
Nice big image, just really show it off,
a headline across, big clear caption.
| | 01:04 |
To make the image and the headline big,
we need to have a horizontal bar
| | 01:09 |
translucent to not obscure the image too
much.
| | 01:14 |
Because we've created an overlap, plus
some outlines to add definition.
| | 01:22 |
And what happens when we do this, is we
really start down a slippery slope,
| | 01:28 |
because this design isn't based on
anything substantial.
| | 01:32 |
I mean there's not a guiding style.
We've just made an arrangement to please
| | 01:37 |
our own eye.
And, we won't be able to transfer the
| | 01:41 |
look to other things.
The other thing happening here is that
| | 01:47 |
the image and words are being smothered
by rectangles.
| | 01:53 |
You have the dark rectangle containing
the artwork.
| | 01:57 |
The horizontal headline rectangle.
The strong L-shape created by their interaction.
| | 02:05 |
And the rectangles do nothing except get
in the way.
| | 02:08 |
You have an intense, dark rectangle
against a very light rectangle.
| | 02:15 |
A rectangular caption that's clear but
just floating, rectangles in the white
| | 02:20 |
spaces, a typeface, this is times roman
but has it been chosen with any purpose?
| | 02:26 |
Or just because it was, just because.
That's the problem with designing like this.
| | 02:32 |
So what we will look at is how to go
about this in a more disciplined, lower
| | 02:40 |
key way.
And to do that, because it really is a
| | 02:46 |
list of names and titles.
We're going to focus on fine typeography.
| | 02:53 |
So, we'll erase everything and start over
just by putting a header bar across the top.
| | 02:59 |
Simple bar, single line, edge to edge
divides the page into 2 pieces.
| | 03:05 |
And we'll set our headline at the head of
the cart.
| | 03:09 |
This type phase is Adobe Jenson Pro Bold,
it's a classic old style typeface.
| | 03:15 |
Well suited for the organic nature of a
museum.
| | 03:19 |
Finally rendered Serif's in very detail.
It's a very sturdy looking type, like it
| | 03:24 |
will last.
It has modern contrast between the
| | 03:28 |
boldest and thinnest strokes.
It's all organic, I mean, there are no
| | 03:33 |
straight lines.
Nothing mechanical, nothing repetitive.
| | 03:36 |
It's what you see in things made by a
human hand.
| | 03:42 |
Below it is Adobe Jensen Pro Lite in
lower case.
| | 03:46 |
And when it's lower case in this small,
all the detail is concentrated.
| | 03:52 |
You know it's busier and there's a
different texture to this line and to the
| | 03:57 |
one above it.
And it forms kind of a cool contrast
| | 04:00 |
using just a single type phase.
You know a single type family.
| | 04:05 |
It's a contrast of texture.
Next step is to add some panorama to the title.
| | 04:13 |
What we've done is added white space
between the letters which creates a
| | 04:17 |
panoramic look.
It's kind of grand, kind of titling style.
| | 04:22 |
You'll hear me say this often, in design
white space is visual silence.
| | 04:29 |
So in making it panoramic, we've made it
quieter than what it was before.
| | 04:34 |
Appropriate for a museum, look at it
again.
| | 04:38 |
When it's set normally, and then in
panorama.
| | 04:43 |
The art work is a handsome piece, but
this rectangle that it's in.
| | 04:49 |
Especially being so dark, creates a
massive block on the page that has
| | 04:55 |
nothing to do with the art, and in fact,
diminishes it.
| | 05:00 |
So, our first step will be to get rid of
the rectangle and just place the artwork
| | 05:04 |
on the card.
What a difference I mean it's like its
| | 05:08 |
became real, a real object.
What's cool about this is it looks like
| | 05:13 |
its sitting right on the card and so we
have some contrast between the 3D of the
| | 05:18 |
art and the flat surface of the card.
Next step it to move it up here, which
| | 05:26 |
interrupts and softens this edge.
What this gives us is a beautiful,
| | 05:32 |
organic shape that connects top and
bottom of the card in a simple, low key,
| | 05:37 |
rather elegant way.
And now the artwork is the focal point of
| | 05:44 |
the card without overpowering it, you
know, without dominating it.
| | 05:50 |
Now what we want is to color the bar to
correspond better to the artwork.
| | 05:57 |
To do that, we sample a color from the
artwork and apply it to the bar.
| | 06:01 |
This dark taupe is really an ideal color
for this, because there's contrast
| | 06:07 |
between the wood And the bar and the
background.
| | 06:12 |
There are a lot of tones in this artwork
that you could sample.
| | 06:15 |
If it were darker, it would tend to
compete with the art.
| | 06:20 |
If it were lighter, it would go kind of
flat and force us to make the type dark.
| | 06:27 |
They're both okay, not really the cool
look that we want.
| | 06:31 |
So we'll go back to that original taupey
color.
| | 06:35 |
The white type adds some dimension and
makes some nice, clear contrasts.
| | 06:42 |
Final step for the top of the card is to
set the caption beneath the picture, this
| | 06:47 |
is the same Adobe Jenson typeface which
ties it all together.
| | 06:52 |
A cool thing; we've picked color out of
the artwork to color the title of the
| | 06:56 |
piece, and left the location of our
museum in gray type.
| | 07:01 |
So we have some contrast and dimension
here too.
| | 07:06 |
And now when we take a look at the top of
the card we can see we're off to a very
| | 07:11 |
good start.
Tall, narrow card, tall artwork,
| | 07:16 |
everything centered.
It's quiet, it's dignified.
| | 07:22 |
Now we're ready to typeset the list of
names and titles that go on this card.
| | 07:26 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| How to typeset a list of names: Part two| 00:04 |
Last time we got off to a good start by
designing a low key museum worthy header
| | 00:09 |
using Adobe Jenson Pro as our typeface.
It's a tall, narrow card the elements are
| | 00:17 |
centered and quiet, the headline is in
panorama, meaning its letters are widely spaced.
| | 00:25 |
And the caption beneath the art piece has
two levels of dark light value, which
| | 00:31 |
adds a touch of dimension.
Now it's time to add the list of names.
| | 00:37 |
We have three goals.
We want the list to look good.
| | 00:41 |
To be clear and easy to read, and, to
compliment the look we've established on
| | 00:48 |
the card.
Begin by setting a name and title just
| | 00:53 |
how you'd type it.
The typeface is, again, Adobe Jensen Pro.
| | 00:58 |
So it ties to the top of the card.
Set name comma title.
| | 01:04 |
Now create some differentiation, first by
making the name in bold.
| | 01:09 |
Little bit of weight contrast, then add
value contrast and to do that, turn the
| | 01:14 |
tile gray.
This is about 70%, with this much
| | 01:20 |
differentiation between name and title,
we no longer need the comma.
| | 01:24 |
And when we set the whole list this way,
we have a handsome, pretty interesting
| | 01:29 |
bit of type setting.
Sharp left edge, cool weight and value
| | 01:35 |
contrast between the names and titles
Some contrast of shape, as the shape
| | 01:41 |
changes as we go down the page.
Same with the shape on the end.
| | 01:45 |
This is a good looking way to set a list,
and especially clean, because there are
| | 01:50 |
no commas.
But when we put it on the card, because
| | 01:56 |
it's flushed to the left.
And our card is built on a setter.
| | 02:00 |
You can see that everything is just too
far left.
| | 02:05 |
It's out of sync, and it's not going to
work.
| | 02:09 |
So an alternative to this is to set our
name and title using dot leaders.
| | 02:15 |
Dot leaders are probably the classic way
to do things like this.
| | 02:20 |
They're what you'll see on contents pages
and so on, name, leader, title.
| | 02:24 |
Gives you a flush left edge, a flush
right edge an interesting shape in the middle.
| | 02:31 |
And when we put this on the card, we
really have a handsome result.
| | 02:37 |
The aligned edges, mean the block is
symmetrical.
| | 02:41 |
Which compliments the centered header.
And we have a nice organic shape in the middle.
| | 02:48 |
There are two downsides to this
treatment.
| | 02:51 |
One is that the name and title really are
a long way apart, and unnecessarily long
| | 02:57 |
way apart.
The other, is that all the excess white
| | 03:02 |
space on the card, is right in the
middle.
| | 03:06 |
The center of a visual field is its
strongest point and you almost always
| | 03:11 |
want something going on in the center.
Here, the center is the only place on the
| | 03:17 |
card where nothing is happening.
So, there's a third possibility, and that
| | 03:23 |
is to center everything.
This gives us our organic shape, symmetry
| | 03:29 |
on both sides.
The center is full so there's not a
| | 03:33 |
problem there.
The downside to this, though, is that
| | 03:37 |
there's no fixed start point.
There's no fixed endpoint.
| | 03:39 |
And there's no fixed dividing point.
So there's no place for your eye to come
| | 03:43 |
to rest.
And, as a result, this is hard to read.
| | 03:47 |
So we don't want this.
Our favorite solution is to set the list
| | 03:53 |
of names and titles like they do in the
movies.
| | 03:59 |
Set a narrow gutter.
This is probably a pike of wide and set a
| | 04:04 |
right tab on the left margin.
And a left tab on the right margin.
| | 04:08 |
And then tab the type to the guides just
like this.
| | 04:14 |
This is a very cool setting.
We have a sharp center line that gives
| | 04:18 |
the eye a focal point, a place to rest.
We have a nice organic shape on the left,
| | 04:23 |
and on the right.
It's not quite symmetrical, and the
| | 04:27 |
center has activity in it.
So let's center this list on the card.
| | 04:34 |
And it looks very good, but we have an
adjustment to make.
| | 04:38 |
You can see that the title side on the
right is wider than the name side on the left.
| | 04:44 |
So, although the gutter is centered to
block as a whole is off center to the right.
| | 04:51 |
This kind of thing happens often in
design.
| | 04:53 |
The solution is to ignore the center line
and nudge the block to the left a little bit.
| | 05:01 |
Thing is, you're doing this by eye, not
your ruler.
| | 05:05 |
Now the card is beautiful.
The look of our names and titles has the
| | 05:11 |
centered, organic feel of the top of the
card and it's all flowing together.
| | 05:18 |
All the interest is down the middle of
the card.
| | 05:20 |
It's a great look, very space efficient,
plenty of depth, plenty of visual
| | 05:26 |
interest, we love this solution.
So, that's how you do it.
| | 05:32 |
How to typeset a list of names and titles
beautifully.
| | 05:37 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Big type, small type| 00:03 |
Here's a tip for when you've set your
type at one size but you're going to use
| | 00:07 |
it at at a larger or smaller size.
You need to make some spacing adjustments.
| | 00:13 |
Have a look at this, I have the first
paragraph of our Declaration of
| | 00:18 |
Independence set in Adobe Caslon.
And by the way, Caslon was in use at the
| | 00:24 |
time of the declaration and is reported
to have been Ben Franklin's favorite typeface.
| | 00:31 |
This is set in its default settings,
which look great at normal size.
| | 00:35 |
But as we reduce it, it begins to get
somewhat congested.
| | 00:41 |
The solution to this is to add letter and
word spacing, in this case about 40%, and
| | 00:48 |
then add line spacing, or line letting.
And what we're doing is putting white
| | 00:54 |
space back into the paragraph by
separating all the characters, airing it
| | 00:59 |
out, relaxing it a bit.
And it just makes it more readable at
| | 01:03 |
small sizes.
To see this really small, look again at
| | 01:09 |
the original setting reduced to 50% and
set next to it, the more relaxed version.
| | 01:17 |
Setting it this way takes slightly more
space than the original.
| | 01:20 |
To me, this is a trivial trade-off for
the increased readability.
| | 01:25 |
But if you must fit an exact space, the
solution is to reduce the new relaxed
| | 01:30 |
paragraph, keeping its proportions the
same, and fit it into that space.
| | 01:38 |
The converse of this is also true.
If you've set your type at its defaults
| | 01:41 |
and you want to use it in very large,
like you might with a poster, you want to
| | 01:46 |
do the opposite.
In this case, when we enlarge the word,
| | 01:51 |
it's very readable.
But there's an unnecessarily large amount
| | 01:55 |
of space between the letters.
The solution is just to remove that space.
| | 02:02 |
This can be done with kerning, letter by
letter, or with tracking the word overall.
| | 02:07 |
And the result will be a more attractive
word for viewing in large sizes at close distances.
| | 02:14 |
You see this technique every day along
our highways.
| | 02:18 |
Our highway signs are marvels of
legibility.
| | 02:21 |
You can see them in tiny sizes, a long
distance away, at speed, in the dark, in
| | 02:26 |
the rain.
And they do it the same way.
| | 02:29 |
This Peachtree Lane, set as it would
appear on paper.
| | 02:35 |
Relax the letter spacing, relax the line
spacing, and there you go.
| | 02:42 |
So, to review.
Smaller type, bigger spaces.
| | 02:48 |
Bigger type, smaller spaces.
| | 02:53 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| How to design without graphics| 00:00 |
Reader Karen Klum writes lamenting her
image free company's insistence on text
| | 00:09 |
only documents.
We can use no graphics at all, she said.
| | 00:14 |
It's incredibly boring.
What can we do?
| | 00:17 |
(LAUGH) Karen, to you and your silently
suffering soulmates, that's a tough one.
| | 00:23 |
The short answer is, use more white
space.
| | 00:27 |
It doesn't sound like much, but here's
what's going on.
| | 00:33 |
In image free design, you basically have
two elements to work with.
| | 00:37 |
You have white stuff that is basically
the page or the screen.
| | 00:41 |
And you have black stuff in this case
type that goes on that page.
| | 00:47 |
When you fill the page entirely with
black, the white disappears.
| | 00:52 |
It really becomes just a passive carrier
for all those words.
| | 00:57 |
You want to get the white involved in the
design.
| | 00:59 |
And to do that, you need to make more of
it.
| | 01:03 |
Now you have two visible things.
You have black, and you have white.
| | 01:09 |
And the white now is going to play an
active role in the design.
| | 01:14 |
You can already see that it creates kind
of a zone of silence around your words.
| | 01:18 |
It's, it's very book-like.
It makes it easier to see the words, and
| | 01:23 |
they're more pleasant to read.
To see this in action, let's fill the
| | 01:28 |
brochure page with text.
In this case, a list of donors.
| | 01:33 |
White is playing no role in this design.
But by reducing the size of the list, we
| | 01:38 |
activate the white.
It now has weight and presence, and it
| | 01:44 |
has shape.
The white doesn't need to be white
| | 01:48 |
either, it can be any color, including
grey.
| | 01:52 |
Once we have the space, we can add a
large head in beautiful type.
| | 01:57 |
This is adobe garamond.
And by turning that head white, we give
| | 02:02 |
ourselves a third level of hierarchy.
And that is of depth.
| | 02:06 |
Add a subhead and we're done.
The result is a visible narrative made of
| | 02:12 |
beautiful type, clear hierarchy and
silent space.
| | 02:16 |
All this, in addition to that original
list of names.
| | 02:20 |
And you might be thinking to yourself,
well, yes, that's nice.
| | 02:24 |
But we need our names as big as we had
them in the first place.
| | 02:26 |
Now what?
Well, there's a solution but it requires
| | 02:32 |
turning the page sideways.
We'll place our head, we'll place our sub head.
| | 02:38 |
Now, we'll take that list of names and
run it all together paragraph style
| | 02:43 |
separated by bullets.
And what we've done is borrow that
| | 02:47 |
original unused white.
And turned it into active space that had shape.
| | 02:53 |
It has texture and by the turning the
page grey we add that third level of heirarchy.
| | 02:59 |
That depth back into it.
So to review, when you have no images you
| | 03:06 |
need to get your white space active in
your design.
| | 03:11 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Expressive type alignment| 00:00 |
Awhile back, a reader wrote to me,
directing my attention to the website of
| | 00:08 |
M&T Bank.
And his question was this, M&T Bank has a
| | 00:14 |
new green flag campaign flag out, and I
was looking at some of their marketing material.
| | 00:19 |
And they have the copy oddly formatted.
Any ideas as to why the unconventional
| | 00:26 |
use of alignment?
And what he's referring to is right here.
| | 00:30 |
I don't know why they've aligned their
type this way, without talking to them,
| | 00:36 |
but I can give you a few guesses.
Let's look at this big.
| | 00:40 |
And what you see are three lines of copy
that are not aligned to the left, not
| | 00:46 |
aligned to the right, nor are they
centered.
| | 00:50 |
And so, they're up here rather carefree.
I'm pretty sure that's the effect the
| | 00:55 |
bank was looking for.
Words in a light casual spoken voice.
| | 01:00 |
We can see this by looking at the copy
flush to the left.
| | 01:03 |
Any time that you create a point of
alignment, you're adding a sense of
| | 01:08 |
rigidity, kind of fixed in place, and
therefore some formality.
| | 01:15 |
It may be easier to look at if we turn
the type black.
| | 01:18 |
Flush to the left.
This is how it would normally be set.
| | 01:21 |
Flush to the right we have a similar
issue.
| | 01:24 |
Even centered creates a symmetry on the
center line that is static, no activity,
| | 01:31 |
more formal.
The second thing involved here is they're
| | 01:36 |
choice of type.
A bank typically will set it's material
| | 01:40 |
in a typeface like Helvetica.
Helvetica bold.
| | 01:45 |
It's clean, simple, a conservative
choice.
| | 01:48 |
Banks do like being conservative.
They like being kind of, formal.
| | 01:52 |
It conveys security and trustworthiness.
The typeface they've chosen is called
| | 01:59 |
Corisande and its weight corresponds to
Helvetica regular.
| | 02:05 |
We can see some differences between the
construction of Helvetica and the
| | 02:09 |
construction of Corisande.
Helvetica, the top loop of the a comes
| | 02:15 |
all the way over.
It has A tail.
| | 02:19 |
The E closes here.
The N has a normal size nick in it.
| | 02:28 |
The V is strictly straight lines.
And the S, like the E, closes on both ends.
| | 02:37 |
If we now look at Corisande, you'll see
that the a has a curving line here.
| | 02:45 |
The tail is gone, the E is more open, the
N eliminates the nick that's in Helvetica.
| | 02:57 |
Let's look back at Helvetica.
Where Helvetica's V is perfectly straight
| | 03:02 |
Corisande has a little curve on the end.
And the corisande S has open ends, unlike
| | 03:11 |
Helvetica's, which are more closed.
The Helvetica S is kind of wrapped into itself.
| | 03:16 |
And so, Corisande is just a little more
casual type base, that nevertheless.
| | 03:22 |
Retains the Roman structure of a more
formal typeface.
| | 03:26 |
So, I'd say M&T is trying to bridge the
two worlds, not being too light, too
| | 03:30 |
casual, and not being too formal either.
So, let's go back and set this type
| | 03:34 |
again, flush to the left, change it to
green.
| | 03:37 |
And now ,do what they've done and add a
second level of green.
| | 03:46 |
This is a fairly breezy way of creating a
focal point for the reader.
| | 03:50 |
They want you to see an easy way to save.
The last step is to unalign it.
| | 03:58 |
So, that's what I think they've done.
They've retained some of the
| | 04:01 |
characteristics of normal Roman bank
type.
| | 04:06 |
And they've added some casual notes, to
lighten it up.
| | 04:11 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| The visual oxymoron| 00:04 |
Today we have an example of what happens
when your words say one thing, but your
| | 00:08 |
graphics say something else.
Have a look at this sign above our
| | 00:12 |
dentist's office.
It's a nice name.
| | 00:14 |
And the lower case handwriting was the
designer's effort to make it look inviting.
| | 00:20 |
But that typeface, it's all needles and
razor blades and barbed wire.
| | 00:26 |
It has hard edges and sharp points, even
in the negative spaces.
| | 00:31 |
And those needles on the end (SOUND), red
is not a good color for a tooth, even if
| | 00:38 |
it's intended to be in a little heart.
And paired with blue, it's agitating too.
| | 00:44 |
There are many ways you can say gentle
using type.
| | 00:51 |
A simple one is to use a typeface with
round, pillowy shapes.
| | 00:56 |
Use light tones and for the dentist add
fresh, watery colors like aqua-greens and blues.
| | 01:03 |
Add a dreamy little curve and you're
there.
| | 01:05 |
Words and graphics now say the same
thing.
| | 01:11 |
As you design, keep in mind that the
words-graphics connection is an
| | 01:17 |
influential one.
And always ask.
| | 01:19 |
How can I get these two things, working,
together.
| | 01:23 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
ImageExtreme photo cropping| 00:03 |
So, I'm in the checkout line, and I see a
technique that will be familiar to most
| | 00:08 |
of you.
And that's the extreme cropping on the
| | 00:11 |
narrow banner on the top of this beverage
cooler.
| | 00:15 |
What I want to point out is how much
visual information can be conveyed with
| | 00:20 |
super tight cropping.
Pay attention to the huge Coca-Cola bottle.
| | 00:26 |
Instead of shrinking it to fit that
space, they've left the bottle huge and
| | 00:30 |
just cropped in on the most important
part, which is the name.
| | 00:35 |
What's interesting though, in that doing
that, you can see the shape of the
| | 00:39 |
bottle, the water drops on the bottle,
the ribbing of the bottle, the beverage
| | 00:43 |
inside the bottle, you can see the
surface of the bottle, everything you
| | 00:47 |
need to know to convey that coke bottle.
Although, you're seeing only a tiny
| | 00:52 |
fraction of it.
The most obvious place for this technique
| | 00:57 |
is on a web banner.
When you're designing a web banner, it
| | 01:01 |
might help to think of it not as a sign
board with discrete edges, that you have
| | 01:06 |
to paint within.
But rather as a window to a larger world.
| | 01:12 |
And visualize yourself looking through
blinds to that world.
| | 01:17 |
Crop that way, place it in your banner,
add your name, and you have a great
| | 01:22 |
result pretty easily.
Look how much visual information is being
| | 01:27 |
conveyed in this slice.
You have a needle and thread, a measuring
| | 01:32 |
tape, buttons, the colors, the textures,
the general ambiance of the whole photo.
| | 01:39 |
You can get pretty extreme with this.
Key is always to pick out the most
| | 01:44 |
expressive sliver of an image.
This could be a fun exercise.
| | 01:49 |
Here, we have a star, we have a blue
field, a little bit of red strip, a
| | 01:52 |
little bit of white stripe, and with no
more than those you can see the flag.
| | 01:58 |
You can see the texture, the fabric,
there's the age of the flag, and even the
| | 02:02 |
stitching are all conveyed in that narrow
space.
| | 02:06 |
So, here's the take away, when you need a
narrow image, instead of thinking small,
| | 02:13 |
think about big and full sized, viewed
through blinds.
| | 02:18 |
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| A cutout photo adds realism to a page| 00:03 |
I'd like to show you how a cutout photo
can bring your readers into your story,
| | 00:09 |
be very engaging, very interesting to
look at.
| | 00:11 |
I'm going to illustrate this for you on a
side bar.
| | 00:16 |
A side bar is a short story that's
attached to a longer story that's similar
| | 00:21 |
to it or related to it.
In this case, the side bar is about the
| | 00:25 |
ship RMS Titanic, a name that should
sound familiar.
| | 00:30 |
We have a department head, a photo, a
headline, text, and I'll show you two
| | 00:35 |
ways to go about this.
The easiest most common way is to just
| | 00:40 |
picture the ship.
The article is talking about the ship, so
| | 00:44 |
let's just show it.
It's kind of the encyclopedia approach
| | 00:48 |
and this is great for the reader who is
unfamiliar with the ship.
| | 00:53 |
The other way is to picture an artifact
from the ship.
| | 00:58 |
In this case, this life ring, kind of
represents the fate of the Titanic.
| | 01:03 |
It's one small object.
The one down side to this is that it is a
| | 01:06 |
small artifact.
And because we have it in a rectangle,
| | 01:10 |
there is a little bit of distance.
It's almost like a framed object on the wall.
| | 01:15 |
And we're not as involved with it as we
could be.
| | 01:20 |
The solution is pretty cool and that's to
eliminate its background, and then
| | 01:25 |
enlarge it to fill the space.
And just place it right on top of the
| | 01:29 |
page, over the top of the text.
Fill up the space, have a shadow on it,
| | 01:36 |
and now we have a very interesting
presentation.
| | 01:40 |
Brings you kind of up close and personal
with the story.
| | 01:44 |
Design wise, it's great, because you have
the contrast of 3D versus the flat page.
| | 01:49 |
You have the organic shape of the life
ring versus the very rectangular shapes
| | 01:54 |
of the page.
This is a fun technique.
| | 01:58 |
You'll use this a lot.
And it just sort of brings a sense of
| | 02:01 |
life and a sense of engagement for the
reader.
| | 02:06 |
One peice to note before we go and that
is if you have a photograph that's
| | 02:11 |
already cropped, you'll need to put
against an edge.
| | 02:16 |
You don't want to float an already
cropped picture out in space or that
| | 02:21 |
would spoil the illusion.
So, that's it.
| | 02:25 |
That's how a cutout photo can bring your
readers into your story.
| | 02:29 |
Be very engaging.
Very interesting to look at as well.
| | 02:32 |
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| Vertical photo on a horizontal page| 00:03 |
Whenever you have a vertical image that
needs to fill a horizontal space, but you
| | 00:08 |
can't crop the image, you'll need to do
some gymnastics.
| | 00:13 |
I have a couple of tricks.
The problem is this.
| | 00:17 |
Vertical image, horizontal space.
The only way to actually fill this space
| | 00:23 |
is to enlarge the image and crop, but
when we do that, we obviously lose the
| | 00:30 |
energy of the movement.
It changes the communication entirely.
| | 00:34 |
So, a work around is to just fill the
page with the background color of the image.
| | 00:40 |
What this does is reduce the contrast
between the image in the background a lot.
| | 00:48 |
Feather the edges to soften the
transition, and that's it.
| | 00:52 |
What's interesting about this is that
where before the image was dark in the
| | 00:57 |
center of a light page.
Now, you can really see the spotlight
| | 01:01 |
that's behind the dancer.
And he comes right off the page.
| | 01:04 |
He's not literally filling the page, but
has the effect of a full page with a
| | 01:12 |
spotlight on him.
A second example is this bridge tower in
| | 01:17 |
day light.
Again, there's no way to crop this image
| | 01:21 |
without damaging it.
What we have is a picture of its blue on
| | 01:25 |
the top and green on the bottom.
To work with that, instead of sampling
| | 01:31 |
just one color, sample two, and create a
gradient fill for the background.
| | 01:37 |
Now, the picture and the background
practically blend together.
| | 01:40 |
Not literally.
You can tell that the image is setting on
| | 01:44 |
a background, but the effect is more
coherent which lower contrast than it was before.
| | 01:52 |
We are no longer seeing vertical stripes
on the page.
| | 01:57 |
And alternative to this method is one
that's quite similar, and it's one that
| | 02:02 |
Sport Center uses when it has an old four
by three television image that it needs
| | 02:06 |
to fit a 16 by nine screen.
They put sidebars out on the side of the screen.
| | 02:13 |
The first step is to blur the image, then
enlarge it.
| | 02:17 |
Then, put the cropped image behind the
original, just like that.
| | 02:23 |
This is obviously a special effect, and
yet at a glance it pulls the whole screen
| | 02:27 |
together in kind of a dynamic way and
makes this work.
| | 02:31 |
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|
|
LayoutInvisible square makes card design easy| 00:04 |
I'd like to show you one of my favorite
techniques for designing a business card
| | 00:07 |
that includes a graphic.
It's super easy, it's super versatile.
| | 00:13 |
And it's based on an idea that I call the
invisible square.
| | 00:19 |
It's as easy to do as this.
Start with a business card.
| | 00:24 |
This standard US business card is 3 and a
half inches by 2 inches, and at one end
| | 00:30 |
just draw a square.
It's obviously 2 inches by 2 inches, and
| | 00:36 |
on this line set your type.
You'll notice in this case just a single
| | 00:41 |
typeface in a single size, differentiated
only by weight.
| | 00:48 |
I've left a gap because I want the
company name across the center of the card.
| | 00:53 |
You can see here a bit of an issue
because the copy doesn't align with the name.
| | 00:58 |
And so I'm going to fudge the square.
This'll kind of show you that this is not
| | 01:02 |
an exact science, but it's close.
Now I'll turn the card black.
| | 01:08 |
Because there were no graphics for this
new business, I went online and found a
| | 01:12 |
colorful abstract clip illustration and
set it in place.
| | 01:17 |
And just like that we have a great
result.
| | 01:21 |
Quickly, easily It's very handsome.
You probably wouldn't even notice there's
| | 01:26 |
a square there.
This can run vertically too.
| | 01:31 |
Just put the square at the top of the
card.
| | 01:34 |
You'll use this for all kinds of topics.
Here's an aquarium store, Baja Tropicals.
| | 01:41 |
In this case, the name, only the name is
set in Lithos, a more expressive
| | 01:48 |
typeface, and the photograph covers the
entire field.
| | 01:54 |
You can see the square there.
You'll see it, but your readers aren't
| | 01:58 |
going to see it.
Here's a card for an antique bookstore,
| | 02:04 |
completely different look, exactly the
same square.
| | 02:08 |
The logo type is centered in the square
and everything is set in a ravishing
| | 02:13 |
romantic typeface called nuptial script.
It's a beautiful result, and that really
| | 02:21 |
is all it takes.
| | 02:22 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Nine captions on one photo!| 00:04 |
Hidden, it seems, in every picture, are
many stories.
| | 00:08 |
There is kind of the global story of you
see with these five students side by side
| | 00:13 |
on the walkway.
Then, each one of these people has a
| | 00:17 |
personal story, or many.
There's a story in the sidewalk.
| | 00:22 |
Who designed it?
How did it get there?
| | 00:25 |
The student union building, who made that
and how is it used?
| | 00:30 |
What's that bicycle over there?
What kinds of trees are these?
| | 00:35 |
Many stories going on here.
And one of the coolest ways to unpack
| | 00:39 |
these stories is to write a caption for
each one, and put it right on the photo.
| | 00:47 |
So, for example, look at this student.
We've written a caption specifically for him.
| | 00:53 |
Set it in a single typeface.
This is Vectora Roman, bold caps.
| | 00:58 |
It's Sans Serif, which against a busy
background, I recommend.
| | 01:02 |
It needs to be clean, very simple.
We've added a thin border and put a
| | 01:08 |
slight translucency in the background
because laying small type across a busy
| | 01:13 |
background will make a mess.
But this tells a story.
| | 01:19 |
Tim has a story.
Cassandra has a story.
| | 01:23 |
Dawn has a story.
Roger has a story.
| | 01:26 |
Graphically, there is a consistency here.
We still our picture stories framed in
| | 01:33 |
white frames, each of which is the same
width as the other.
| | 01:36 |
The frames just run as long as they need
until the story ends.
| | 01:43 |
On this photo, these are biographical
stories, which you can see if we get in a
| | 01:48 |
little closer.
It starts with the students name and just
| | 01:51 |
tells a little about them.
And so, now, one picture has five verbal
| | 01:57 |
stories on it, as well as the kind of
overall visual story.
| | 02:03 |
What's fun is that there can be another
level.
| | 02:04 |
We can add even more captions by putting
more of them off to the side and
| | 02:09 |
numbering them.
These captions look different because
| | 02:13 |
they are different, and it's important to
separate them visually.
| | 02:18 |
These are not biographies, but just
remarks from an outside observer.
| | 02:22 |
Which you can see if we zoom in.
Comment about the activity center.
| | 02:28 |
Comment about Dawn's textbook.
Comment about Roger's shoes.
| | 02:35 |
So, all of a sudden, we go back to look
at the picture as a whole.
| | 02:38 |
We have one, two, three, four, five, six,
seven, eight, nine stories that we're
| | 02:44 |
telling on a single image.
Way more interesting.
| | 02:48 |
Way more engaging than just the generic
caption that you would typically see and
| | 02:54 |
you wouldn't know any of these stories
just by looking at the picture itself.
| | 02:59 |
So, when you have a cool picture, unpack
it for your audience, and put the
| | 03:04 |
captions as many as you need.
Write on it.
| | 03:08 |
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| How to design a second page| 00:03 |
When you've designed the beautiful first
page, you want to follow it up with an
| | 00:07 |
equally good looking second page.
I'm using the word page kind of loosely here.
| | 00:12 |
Because what I want to show is a CD jewel
case for which we want to design a disc label.
| | 00:19 |
A good technique is to think of the
second page as a lesser and simpler
| | 00:24 |
version of the first.
So, in this case, lift an object out of
| | 00:29 |
the scene.
You're not literally lifting it from the photo.
| | 00:33 |
You have to find another photo that looks
like it belongs to it.
| | 00:37 |
Enlarge it, isolate it and place it on
the second page.
| | 00:42 |
Sample a color from the scene, and you're
done.
| | 00:47 |
You have a beautiful disc cover that
clearly looks like it belongs to the
| | 00:51 |
front cover.
So, the take away here, make your second
| | 00:55 |
page a lesser and simpler version of the
first page.
| | 01:00 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Working around a weak photo| 00:04 |
I want to show you a layout technique for
working with photos, when your primary
| | 00:08 |
photo isn't the best one.
We're working with a hobby magazine in
| | 00:14 |
PDF landscape format.
A 12 page interview with this man.
| | 00:19 |
His name is Bert, is the anchor story of
the issue and these are the two photos
| | 00:24 |
that we have.
The bigger one is a photo of Bert but
| | 00:29 |
it's not a very good picture, he looks
fine, but there is a lot of who who in
| | 00:33 |
the background.
A man looking practically in to his ear,
| | 00:37 |
pillows/g, post, truck wheels, all that.
The other is a smaller photo of a model
| | 00:43 |
helicopter in flight.
The classic approach, especially since
| | 00:47 |
it's an article about him, would be to
make Bert the biggest, most important
| | 00:52 |
element on the spread.
But, in this case, that would make an
| | 00:56 |
unattractive presentation, and also kind
of a static one.
| | 01:01 |
I mean he's just standing there.
So what I want to show you is how to work
| | 01:06 |
around that instead of focusing on him.
We'll focusing on what he does which is
| | 01:13 |
fly model helicopters which is what the
readers are interested in anyway.
| | 01:20 |
The landscape page is a great format, the
best really for online viewing.
| | 01:25 |
It fits the monitor, no squinting, no
scrolling.
| | 01:28 |
Our hobby magazine is built on a six
column grid, but for this lead we'll
| | 01:34 |
ignore all but the outer margins.
We'll this small photo.
| | 01:38 |
The photo of the helicopter and enlarge
it to fill the page.
| | 01:43 |
We can do this, because it's interesting
to the reader.
| | 01:47 |
The reader of the hobby magazine is
himself a helicopter pilot and also,
| | 01:52 |
because it has adequate resolution
although that's a different issue.
| | 01:57 |
Our magazine house colors are black and
red.
| | 02:00 |
So fill out the page by adding a strip of
black along the bottom kind of like a
| | 02:05 |
floor or a foundation.
Now, we'll pretty radically crop the
| | 02:10 |
photo of Bert, just get rid of everything
around him.
| | 02:16 |
Now we have a good photo.
It's static, but it's focused on Burt
| | 02:20 |
without distraction.
Shrink it, and put it down here in the corner.
| | 02:28 |
Our house typeface is a massive font
called Giza, spelled GIZA.
| | 02:34 |
And what we'll do is compensate for the
small photo with a big name.
| | 02:38 |
Set his name huge in a single line along
here, very bold, very dramatic.
| | 02:44 |
Note the stripes, we have the green
stripe of the field, the white stripe of
| | 02:48 |
his name, the black stripes.
What's cool is that these reinforce the
| | 02:53 |
horizontal line on the landscape page.
Here I want to cross the page from left
| | 02:58 |
to right at least a fewer in the Western
world.
| | 03:01 |
So all the lines are directing you to the
lower right corner without your realizing it.
| | 03:08 |
Last step is to finish by adding the
descriptive kicker to this article.
| | 03:13 |
It tells the reader that this is an
interview, and what it's about, again
| | 03:18 |
with that strong horizontal line.
So there you go, structured page,
| | 03:25 |
interesting to look at, lots of energy.
The helicopter has more energy than the
| | 03:29 |
static shot of Bert, yet it's obviously
an interview with Bert Kammerer.
| | 03:35 |
The huge name has presence that the photo
alone doesn't have.
| | 03:39 |
The portrait's now just a support
feature.
| | 03:43 |
What's interesting is that by not
picturing Burt so much, it's kind of a tease.
| | 03:47 |
Mean, we want to see more of him.
And we will see more in subsequent pages.
| | 03:54 |
So, to review, big object, small, small
object, big.
| | 03:59 |
Important object, small, less important
object, big.
| | 04:03 |
It can apply to all kinds of jobs and
projects.
| | 04:06 |
You don't even need a bad photo.
Sometimes this technique will give you
| | 04:10 |
the perfect vibe and editorial voice for
your project.
| | 04:16 |
Always try it.
| | 04:17 |
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| The power of empty space| 00:04 |
In design, empty space, that's space
where nothing is happening, is visual silence.
| | 00:12 |
And you need it.
You know, comic timing relies on that
| | 00:17 |
little pause while the audience gets it,
for the joke to work.
| | 00:23 |
That pause is empty space.
You hear silence in music all the time.
| | 00:29 |
I mean in one minute the air is full of
sound and rhythm and then it gets quiet,
| | 00:37 |
sometimes silent for a few bars, then it
comes back up, you know, with more power
| | 00:44 |
than before.
And just rouses you and the audience.
| | 00:48 |
I mean, it's exciting.
That silence is empty space.
| | 00:55 |
You use silence all the time in everyday
speech.
| | 00:58 |
You know, kind of like, thinking space.
Like this.
| | 01:03 |
Silence is a regular part of things.
So, for your designs to feel natural, as
| | 01:14 |
well as to be strong.
You need to use empty space in rhythm
| | 01:20 |
with your filled space.
Empty space is often called white space
| | 01:25 |
and this is a topic I'll talk about a
lot.
| | 01:29 |
For now I have two examples.
The first is one of those fortuders
| | 01:36 |
layouts that practically designed itself.
It's the lead of an editorial article
| | 01:43 |
about an unpopular corporate CEO, who
after a string of failed acquisitions
| | 01:50 |
found herself embattled and isolated.
And about to be fired.
| | 01:57 |
The article is titled, Alone at the Top.
We have been given the headline and a
| | 02:04 |
descriptive deck head plus a photo.
And this photo couldn't be better, it's
| | 02:12 |
dark she's pictured in profile no eye
contact with us, which is important her
| | 02:20 |
gaze is distant.
I mean, even here looking away from the
| | 02:23 |
copy adds to her sense of isolation.
If she were looking into the copy, she
| | 02:28 |
wouldn't look happier.
But she would appear more engaged.
| | 02:34 |
So, here's what we'll do.
Put the photo on the page, sample a
| | 02:45 |
background color along an edge, and fill
the page.
| | 02:50 |
Now reduce her size and place her on the
bottom edge near the corner.
| | 02:57 |
Two things to note here.
One is that white space doesn't have to
| | 03:03 |
be white.
It can be any color.
| | 03:06 |
Black is especially powerful.
Two is that in making her small, we've
| | 03:14 |
made the black huge, and it's heavy.
That weight and empty expanse amplifies
| | 03:25 |
her sense of isolation and burden.
So, in once sense it's empty, with
| | 03:30 |
nothing in it, but it's full of black.
Which obviously has storytelling presence.
| | 03:40 |
Add the headline, add the deck head, all
the way across the page from the photo,
| | 03:46 |
and there you go.
Alone at the top.
| | 03:53 |
Okay, empty space can be cheery too.
And it doesn't have to be entirely empty.
| | 03:58 |
Here we have a head and a paragraph of
text.
| | 04:02 |
And a photo, and what I wanted to do was
emphasize the littleness of the ladybug.
| | 04:10 |
So, its again small, and at the bottom,
but because the topic is like this time,
| | 04:18 |
the white space acts like a stage.
Like an open light filled space instead deadweight.
| | 04:28 |
Not only that, you basically perceive the
entire page as white.
| | 04:33 |
Even though there's copy on it.
That's because the copy is so light.
| | 04:39 |
That's on purpose and fairly widely
spaced that you just see right through
| | 04:45 |
it, the head and paragraph are set in the
same type face.
| | 04:51 |
One bold the other light.
A cool thing, and important, is the
| | 04:57 |
littleness of the headline.
It's the same size as the text.
| | 05:03 |
Yet in bold, and orange like the ladybug,
you can see how visible it is.
| | 05:08 |
How the two just span the page and tie
together.
| | 05:12 |
A headline doesn't have to be big.
In this case, it's small size helps
| | 05:19 |
convey the littleness.
So, that's it.
| | 05:25 |
Remember, that for your designs to feel
natural, like real life, as well as to be strong.
| | 05:32 |
Expressive, well-timed, you need to use
empty space in rhythm with your filled space.
| | 05:41 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
LogoHow to design a logo fast| 00:04 |
Have you ever had to design a logo fast?
Not one of those timeless soul bearing
| | 00:08 |
logos for which you need a creative
brief.
| | 00:11 |
But something light.
Maybe for your club or small surface or
| | 00:15 |
just to brand an event.
Thing is you needed fast, like by lunch.
| | 00:20 |
Here's an idea.
Set your words, making sure your most
| | 00:27 |
important word is in the center and make
it big.
| | 00:31 |
Place your guides and align your words
top and bottom to those guides but
| | 00:35 |
enclose the words you've just made in a
shape.
| | 00:37 |
Fill that shape and if its a medium value
like we have here, go ahead and color
| | 00:45 |
your main word a lighter color just to
create contrast.
| | 00:49 |
Embellish with some lines and just like
that you have a nice logo.
| | 00:55 |
Perfectly usable.
Here's a variation.
| | 01:01 |
Start by setting your words the same as
before.
| | 01:03 |
And make the same adjustments as before.
This time, though, instead of enclosing
| | 01:09 |
all the words in a shape, enclose only
your primary word in a rectangle.
| | 01:15 |
Fill it, and embellish it with an
outline.
| | 01:20 |
Now, draw a circle around the remaining
words.
| | 01:23 |
Send this circle to the back, fill it
color, and embellish it with the same outline.
| | 01:29 |
And, there you go.
You have a handsome logo that can serve
| | 01:33 |
as an emblem for your book club.
A final example, you may need to badge an event.
| | 01:41 |
In this case, Hot Pink is having a 5K
walk run to raise cancer awareness.
| | 01:47 |
The problem is that their focal point,
5K, is very short.
| | 01:51 |
And so their shape ends up being a mere
rectangle.
| | 01:55 |
Go ahead and draw that rectangle and fill
it, then take a queue from the angles of
| | 02:02 |
that K and give it a little skew.
And just like that you have a handsome
| | 02:08 |
badge simply.
So to review, your words in closing shape
| | 02:15 |
make an attractive logo quickly and
easily.
| | 02:22 |
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| Do you really need a logo?| 00:04 |
Cathy Thomas is a babysitter for pets.
Her business is as small as a business
| | 00:09 |
can be.
Just her, pet-sitting for family, for
| | 00:13 |
friends, for customers.
A friend designed a logo for her and
| | 00:18 |
writes, I'm an amateur logo designer.
And I've recently designed a logo for a
| | 00:22 |
local pet-sitting business.
This is one of my first logos, so even
| | 00:26 |
general logo design tips would be nice.
Let's have a look and see what we can see.
| | 00:34 |
The logo is a dog and a cat in profile
silhouette.
| | 00:38 |
One red, the other green, filled with
gradient fills.
| | 00:41 |
And right off the bat, I'd say that you
don't want to use a gradient as a
| | 00:45 |
permanent part of a logo.
It'll give you color problems, contrast
| | 00:50 |
problems, reproduction problems.
You'll have a more versatile image if you
| | 00:55 |
use flat colors instead of gradients.
You can add a gradient for a special occasion.
| | 01:02 |
The upside down cat is hard to read,
although we do have kind of a yin yang
| | 01:07 |
thing going on here.
And overall, the logo looks a little like Quizo's.
| | 01:15 |
The dog and the cat alone have pretty
strong silhouettes, which in high
| | 01:19 |
contrast are easy to see.
The dog's ear, though, is a problem.
| | 01:24 |
It's a foreign thing.
It looks different from the other things.
| | 01:27 |
It's white.
It's a thin line.
| | 01:29 |
It's a loop.
The issue isn't that it just looks
| | 01:32 |
different, but because it's there, it
activates the other two different areas.
| | 01:38 |
One is the hole in the center of the
logo, and the other is the tiny cat's ear
| | 01:45 |
which is pointy and small.
And it's kind of a foreign object too.
| | 01:49 |
Until you have these two strong
silohuettes that create a circle with
| | 01:54 |
these three funny different foreign
objeccts there, all of which weaken the image.
| | 02:01 |
These issues were pointed out to the
designer who came back with a revision
| | 02:04 |
and the revision is better.
The cat is right side up and more in
| | 02:10 |
scale with the dog.
But there's still that funny white line.
| | 02:15 |
It's thin and snaking, and completely
different from the bold flat silhouettes.
| | 02:21 |
And the colors are unnatural.
By making natural colors and simply
| | 02:26 |
getting rid of that white line, we have a
stronger image.
| | 02:30 |
And note now that the details on the
image, the points all look alike creating unity.
| | 02:36 |
And the result is a fairly strong image.
So the real question is, does this image
| | 02:41 |
represent Cathy, and how well?
Any image or logo that has hard edge is
| | 02:47 |
going to look a little bit corporate.
And therefore, a little bit distance is
| | 02:51 |
going to put some space between you and
me.
| | 02:54 |
And is that what Cathy wants?
Logos are typically used to distinguish
| | 02:59 |
one product from another on a store
shelf, or out on a range.
| | 03:06 |
It's used to distinguish AT&T from
Sprint, or Shell from Chevron.
| | 03:12 |
Is that what's needed here?
Logos can also tell little stories and I
| | 03:17 |
think a story telling image, at least,
would do better for Cathy.
| | 03:22 |
Place it on the page.
Write her name in a typeface that
| | 03:25 |
compliments the image.
And then soften it, sample some color.
| | 03:30 |
Set our contact information in a straight
forward type face, and finish with the
| | 03:34 |
most important line of all.
And that's her safe and sound slogan.
| | 03:39 |
And if I saw this on a card, I'd trust
the person on the other end and give her
| | 03:45 |
a call.
So, that's the important thing.
| | 03:50 |
When you're working on a logo, make sure
that your image is telling the right story.
| | 03:55 |
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| Do you really need a second logo?| 00:04 |
If your logo is as simple as Apple or
Nike, it will look good no matter what
| | 00:09 |
size you use it, or no matter where you
use it.
| | 00:13 |
But if your logo is more complex, and
most of them are, when you reduce it to a
| | 00:17 |
small size, it will often feel weak, or
thin, or congested, or in some way, not right.
| | 00:25 |
What do you do?
Well, the surprising answer is that you
| | 00:28 |
may need to make a second logo.
The original for use at normal size and a
| | 00:34 |
second one for use at small sizes.
I have two examples.
| | 00:39 |
The first is for Acacia Construction,
whose logo consists of a small skyline
| | 00:45 |
made of thin vertical lines that at
normal size, look great.
| | 00:48 |
But when it's reduced, those lines get
too thin, and have too little space
| | 00:54 |
between them.
So, what we need to do is make a second
| | 00:58 |
logo that's a simpler, bolder version of
the original.
| | 01:03 |
The first step is simply to draw the
skyline using fewer lines.
| | 01:08 |
Make them bolder.
Now, bold the typeface just a little bit.
| | 01:13 |
You can see that the bold version doesn't
have quite the gracefulness of the
| | 01:16 |
original, but reduced to webpage size,
look what happens.
| | 01:21 |
You can see that the two images side by
side now feel like the same logo.
| | 01:26 |
And they look equally good in the size
they'll be used.
| | 01:31 |
The second example is more complex.
Here's a logo for Kenzies.
| | 01:37 |
I don't know what Kenzies is, I just made
it up.
| | 01:40 |
It looks good at full size, but when it's
reduced those lines have become too thin,
| | 01:45 |
and especially the spaces between them
have become too narrow.
| | 01:50 |
The solution is to redraw the logo.
In this case, we'll make only six little
| | 01:56 |
nubbies instead of eight, bolder lines,
slightly bolder lettering, more space
| | 02:02 |
between the letters, more space between
the two elements.
| | 02:07 |
And when this version is put side by side
with the original, they now look alike.
| | 02:13 |
You can see this clearly when the
original is put side by side with the new version.
| | 02:20 |
So, to review.
For use at low resolution or in small
| | 02:24 |
sizes, make a second logo that's a
simpler and usually bolder version of the first.
| | 02:31 |
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| Three suggestions for your next logo| 00:03 |
There I was at my desk working, and an
email arrives from a friend of mine,
| | 00:08 |
Clayton, who is a videographer.
And all it said was, do you like this or
| | 00:14 |
do you like this?
He's working on a business card for himself.
| | 00:21 |
And I had to laugh, because I'm a big fan
of understatement.
| | 00:26 |
But this is so understated, it's kind of
like not stated at all.
| | 00:33 |
A completely nondescript typeface.
This is Century Gothic Bold Italic, and
| | 00:38 |
nothing's happening.
So, thinking minimal, I said, well, of
| | 00:44 |
the two, I'll take the one without the
underline.
| | 00:46 |
And underline is normally used for
differenciation.
| | 00:51 |
Which, in this case, is not nessecary.
He said thank you very much.
| | 00:56 |
And the next day, he sent me another one.
He said he got thinking about this and
| | 01:00 |
really, maybe, what needed to happen was
that it needed to be in a box.
| | 01:06 |
Alright, there's at least some
commonality with the typeface and the box.
| | 01:13 |
Because the typeface is upright and the
box is also upright.
| | 01:19 |
And this can be used as a single design
element.
| | 01:21 |
It will run in black.
It will run in white.
| | 01:25 |
Those are the good things about it.
The down side is that it's really just
| | 01:31 |
totally nondescript.
Anyway, that happened to come in at a
| | 01:37 |
moment when on my screen was this
typeface.
| | 01:43 |
I was over on the Behance website, and I
ran across this incredibly exotic
| | 01:48 |
typeface called Accent.
Accent is made of nothing but superfine
| | 01:53 |
circles and straight lines.
And the interesting this is that all the
| | 01:57 |
corners are filled in.
It's a display face.
| | 02:02 |
You're going to, going to want to use
this for maybe one word.
| | 02:06 |
Kind of like this.
It can make a beautiful poster, it can
| | 02:10 |
make an album cover.
Anyway, so here I am looking at Accent,
| | 02:15 |
and Clayton's nondescript logo comes in.
And so, I just kind of idelly typed
| | 02:21 |
MooreDVD in Accent, added the color, and
sent it over to him.
| | 02:27 |
And he loved it.
And it's like, well kind of yes.
| | 02:33 |
If you've been looking at this, you're
going to think this is pretty cool.
| | 02:40 |
And so, here's the first thing I want you
to know.
| | 02:44 |
What I told Clayton was, all right, you
really like this, but this is so radical.
| | 02:49 |
Just kind of so out there, so different
from what you were doing, you need to
| | 02:53 |
just pin this to your wall and look at it
for a week, or two weeks, and think about it.
| | 03:00 |
Just think about it and see if you still
like it in a week.
| | 03:02 |
And if you do, we can start talking about
how to work with it.
| | 03:08 |
The other thing with this, is that
because the type is so thin on a monitor,
| | 03:13 |
it looks brilliant.
But in print or at smaller sizes, it's
| | 03:17 |
going to begin breaking up and virtually
disappearing as it's doing on this video.
| | 03:24 |
And this is a physical problem that we'll
have to solve if we use this.
| | 03:30 |
So that was it.
I went back to work.
| | 03:33 |
Two weeks later, I get another email from
Clayton, and in it is this.
| | 03:41 |
And he said, I still like it.
I was thinking about how to make it work.
| | 03:45 |
So, what I did was add a stroke to all
the letters.
| | 03:48 |
And he's changed the colors too.
And what happened is that the heavy
| | 03:55 |
stroke changed the character of this
typeface.
| | 03:59 |
Where before, those super fine lines were
very elegant, sophisticated, just really
| | 04:05 |
exotic even, now they're ordinary.
And the counters, which are the shapes
| | 04:12 |
inside the letters, start looking kind of
cartoony.
| | 04:15 |
Like they're little bubbles or something,
sort of Jetson style.
| | 04:18 |
And it has a completely different look
and feel from the original.
| | 04:23 |
Although, it does reproduce better.
The second thing is, what's with the
| | 04:28 |
little red dot?
And Clayton said, well, the little red
| | 04:31 |
dot is to represent a recording light.
And that's kind of a cool idea.
| | 04:37 |
But here's the second thing I want you to
know.
| | 04:40 |
Don't put two visual tricks in the same
logo.
| | 04:44 |
You can use just the typeface, because it
has all the character, all the tone, all
| | 04:49 |
the mood, all the expression that you'd
want, or you can use a dot.
| | 04:56 |
A dot is a completely different message.
I think about a dot differently when I
| | 05:02 |
relate it to a recording light.
You know, I'm thinking of camera, I'm
| | 05:06 |
thinking of studio, I'm thinking of dark,
I'm thinking of low key, understated.
| | 05:12 |
And also, for me, I'm thinking this a
very powerful little image.
| | 05:16 |
And I get all interested in the dot.
It's like, this dot could make a great
| | 05:22 |
logo for Clayton, the videographer.
It's understated, it's low key and this
| | 05:27 |
typeface, this is FF Din, spelled d, i,
n.
| | 05:31 |
It looks like the white engraving you
will see on your camera body.
| | 05:37 |
Just the name and the dot.
Really, very evocative, super simple, you
| | 05:42 |
can run it in any media, any place.
You can add it to a business card.
| | 05:47 |
And I just whipped up a quick example.
I love the understatedness of it.
| | 05:51 |
The dot alone in a field, like that
recording light is on.
| | 05:57 |
His business name, his contact
information, some of which I've hidden
| | 06:02 |
from you.
Anyway, the dot I liked.
| | 06:07 |
So, I sent this back to Clayton.
And that's where the project stands right now.
| | 06:13 |
We'll see what happens next.
So, here's what I want you to take away
| | 06:18 |
from this.
One, Live with it.
| | 06:24 |
If you make something, especially a
radical something.
| | 06:27 |
But this should be true with almost
everything.
| | 06:30 |
Live with it for a while.
Put it on your wall, put it on your desk,
| | 06:35 |
make a business card, make whatever you
need, and leave images lying around your
| | 06:39 |
office, so you can encounter them in
different environments.
| | 06:43 |
And just live with it, and see if you
like it in a week.
| | 06:46 |
See if you like it in two weeks.
See if it's working for you.
| | 06:52 |
Next, One trick per logo.
This is true of almost all design.
| | 06:58 |
It's just not just logo, but limit
yourself to one kind of visual expression.
| | 07:06 |
And three, a dot is all it takes.
And it's really a common mistake.
| | 07:11 |
Not a mistake, but a common temptation in
doing logo design, to make these
| | 07:16 |
elaborate images.
You know, with type, and graphics, and
| | 07:20 |
effects, and telling whole little stories
with illustrations.
| | 07:24 |
But really, a dot is all it takes.
| | 07:27 |
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