After reading Williams' principles of design, I found myself thinking back to projects I created for past classes, as well as some other creative things I have made, and I have to admit I'm rather embarrassed. I am now aware that what I thought looked good at the time is completely wrong in so many ways. The first image that came to my mind was of a slide show I created last semester. I am mortified that I actually showed it in front of my class and used it for a presentation (I always wondered why I didn't get as good of a grade as I had expected). I was the type of designer that was afraid of leaving too much open space. I used way too many pictures that ended up being more distracting and overwhelming than useful. Instead of choosing colors that were pleasing to the eye or made sense for the content, I chose colors based on what I thought was pretty (bright, flashy, pink). The list of my problems goes on and on. This reading made me wish I could go back in time and fix all of my major design mistakes (I would post an example of my horrible slide show but I prefer to pretend it never existed).
What I really like about Williams is that she not only explains her basic principles of design well, but she also backs them up with plenty of examples to help the reader visualize what she means. I found that technique very helpful for me. She also makes it easy on us by having a memorable acronym that can be applied to any design. CRAP is pretty self explanatory and can be used as a mental checklist so that whenever you design something, you can easily make sure you cover the most important principles. I found it amazing how sometimes the smallest changes in design made the biggest difference. There were many great points made about design, but one thing that stood out to me the most was: Don't be afraid to make a bold statement (aka go big or go home).
But even though Williams says it's good to be bold, there is such thing as over-doing it. You never want any part of your design to be distracting and take away from what you're really trying to get across. Take this random website for example. The graphic is repeated in an annoying and excessive way, and the font style and color fail to contrast, making the text very difficult to read because everything blends in with the background.
Basically I could make a long list of design don'ts, but we all read the book so we already know what they are. Just take a look at this website I found and you will see everything you should NOT do.
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I'm not sure whether it's more painful for me to look at my old designs or my old writing itself. It's important to learn as we go, I think.
ReplyDeleteAlso, this is a really pretty blog theme: artsy and aesthetically pleasant, but still very functional, and I would even say professional.
First of all I think the examples you used were wonderful, or rather mortifying. As for the first one I couldn't even focus on the writing, reading one word a line is just ridiculous. When I clicked on your second example, yes I realized it was bad, but I didn't realize how bad it was until I tried to read the list of links. That's when I immediately gave up on tying to navigate through the site. You make a valid point that information is often viewed and judged not by its content, but by the way it is presented.
ReplyDeleteIt is true that many times we regret that work we have done before, but your description really makes me curious to see your slide show =) I doubt it is as horrible as the sites we have been looking at in class.
-Beckah
Rachel,
ReplyDeleteSo as I was reading along I agree with you that you have to make things simple and not over do it. As of right now I may think my website may be pretty or eye catching others may not. I also clicked on one of your links you have posted in this blog and I was scared to say the least, I had to x out of the site asap. I also think Williams is very good at showing us really good examples of what looks good and what doesn't.
Wow, I just noticed the cat running backwards on the bottom left of the Accept Jesus page.
ReplyDeleteAnyway! I just redesigned the handout "Our Design Principles" to pass out in class this Thursday, and I find myself embarrassed by the design I created just a week ago. I am so glad you raised this point, because it reminds us to be generous and supportive readers of each others' work and to recognize that learning to write well--whether it's a paper, a powerpoint, a webpage, or a flyer--is an ongoing process.
I also noted a point you made that Bekah commented on: the inseparability of form and content. That's important. We will talk more about that.