From the course: Layout and Composition: Advanced Principles

Welcome

From the course: Layout and Composition: Advanced Principles

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Welcome

- I'm Sean Adams, and this is the advanced course covering layout and composition. If you've taken the fundamentals course, you've already been introduced to the basics. These are great. And now it's time to move on to the deeper dive. So welcome, get ready to dig in and be inspired, challenged, and learn some extraordinary techniques along the way. Understanding and mastering composition and layout is like learning the piano. The more you do, the better you become. Once you've gotten the hang of the basics, it's time to move on to advanced issues. Now, there are fewer absolutes and more opportunities for personal expression and spontaneity. It's time to move into the world of jazz. Not everything is 100% correct or 100% wrong, that's what makes it exciting. Of course, the goal of any design project is to get and keep the viewer's attention. Communicate an idea and make it memorable. The tools we'll look at here reach those goals. We'll cover issues of complex color and communication, and look at all composition from a three-dimensional point of view. We hope to use typography to make information clear and accessible, but here we'll look at ways of augmenting, or subverting clarity and communication. I've wanted to dig into more extreme uses of negative space, black and white contrast and scale for a while. And here, we do just that. Of course, no course of layout and composition would be right without exploring options and techniques to really knock the socks off the audience using scale, repetition, and hierarchy. The proliferation of template systems and artificial intelligence are two threats we face as designers. At some point, nice and expected design will be accessible to everyone. But the Ace and R pocket is our ability to create ideas and execute them with unexpected solutions. That word, unexpected, is used often during this course. How can you use symmetry with power and strength contrary to traditional classical layout? What processes for determining a layout are unorthodox and alternative? How can you use disharmony to create an emotional response from the audience. These are core issues we'll explore using examples, work from a variety of designers, and diagrams. Understanding how to use layout as a powerful tool is a critical part of a designer's success. Knowing the right way and sometimes doing it the wrong way, separate you from the next template system that comes along. Integrating your personal point of view and spirit as a dimension makes the work proprietary. This is better for you, your client, or other designers you work with. And it's fun. Welcome.

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