From the course: Learning Graphic Design: Things Every Designer Should Know

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Keep it simple: Part 3

Keep it simple: Part 3

From the course: Learning Graphic Design: Things Every Designer Should Know

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Keep it simple: Part 3

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Most designs are not inherently simple. There's just a lot of stuff that you need to put on your page. A magazine cover is going to be an example of that, nameplate, headlines, photographs, date folios, all of that. And so the solution here is to make all the elements that are in the mix simpler and place them in simpler ways. So, here's an example. The Ambient Photography Club publishes a monthly magazine whose cover showcases the work of one of its photographers. The nameplate is set in a massive slab style with an outline on it, a drop shadow behind it. The photograph itself has a frame around it with its own drop shadow. The headlines are in a swashy calligraphic typeface, the background is this electric Kodak yellow. Any of these elements are fine by themselves. But when you combine them all, they make a busy, distracting presentation. And to see just how distracting, watch what happens when we take them all away. The nameplate, the date folio, those swashy headlines, the Kodak…

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