Before&After BAmagazine.com ® i U X DesignTalk12 FiveDesignIdeas “Object” Graph Square Cover Horizontal Scroll HOME INSURANCE GUIDE Smoothing the crosswalk A card whint not oogum or bont Pretty simple, glead and tarm Texture and flasp net exating end mist of it snooling Spaff forl isn’t cubular but quastic, leam restart that can’t prebast It’s tope, this fluant chasible Silk, shast, lape and behast Concrete from the sky A card whint not oogum or bont Pretty simple, glead and tarm Texture and flasp net exating end mist of it snooling Spaff forl isn’t cubular but quastic, leam restart that can’t prebast It’s tope, this fluant chasible Silk, shast, lape and behast A forest of rebar A card whint not oogum or bont Pretty simple, glead and tarm Texture and flasp net exating end mist of it snooling Spaff forl isn’t cubular but quastic, leam restart that can’t prebast It’s tope, this fluant chasible Silk, shast, lape and behast Old Roseville DOWNTOWN RENOVATION PROJECT Minimal Poster NORTHEASTERN MUTUAL GROUP Staggered Layout CALIFORNIA BEACH VOLLEYBALL ASSOCIATION TOU RN AM ENT INFO R MATIO N Continued Design talk 0659 Before&After Design talk ® BAmagazine.com of i U X Photodesign A page of people pictures? Add life! What nicer way to illustrate a company’s “intellectual capital” than to picture its intellectual staff ! For its 2006 annual report, Software Engineering Institute papered its cover with beautifully lit photos of happy people—with a designed-in twist Rather than static, yearbook-style rows of mug shots, small cropping and layout variations turned this small collage into a beehive of visual activity Start with a grid Shift the rows Pull up Push down Stretch out Designed-in activity makes this cover energetic Here’s how it’s done First, to add front-to-back motion, photos are selected and cropped to three distances— close up, near and far (left) Next, horizontal motion is added by shifting the rows of images from left to right (above, middle), which avoids the static evenness of a brick-layer pattern Finally, vertical motion is added simply by making several photos taller and shorter Close up Near Far http://www.sei.cmu.edu/annual-report of Design talk 0659 Before&After ® Design talk BAmagazine.com of i U X Graph Use pictures to represent numbers Pictures on a graph convey more data than words or even numbers alone For your next graph, instead of an ordinary line, bar or pie, substitute people, ears of corn or railroad cars! Like this: Japan 12,553 Mexico 8,485 Taiwan 6,915 2006 U.S Corn Export Sales (One ear represents 1,000 metric tons of unmilled corn.) Use a lot (Above) Software Engineering Institute’s graph shows the actual number of people involved in its various functions (Left) At tiny size, detail is unnecessary; silhouette a photo with a simple, clear shape Use a few This approach is practical when dealing with large numbers; each photo represents tens or hundreds or thousands or millions of something (Be sure to say.) Single objects with simple shapes (left) yield the best results of Design talk 0659 Before&After ® Design talk BAmagazine.com of i U X Layout Build a cover of squares This cover uses its own grid as a visual element! Divide a square page into four squares, put a point of interest in one corner, the title in the opposite corner, then make the two squares visible HOME INSURANCE GUIDE NORTHEASTERN MUTUAL GROUP 78% Draw a grid (Above) Divide a square page into four squares Position the photo—one with plenty of cropping room—so that a point of interest is in one of the squares Frame that square in white (here, all are white for clarity) Whatever’s in the frame will get the reader’s attention, quietly Try it You’ll find that the frame can gather, connect, focus; it conveys subtle messages depending on the photo and echoes the page structure, too Fill the opposite square with color sampled from the photo, and reduce its opacity to allow some see-through Below, put a squarish typeface in the corner to sustain the square motif HOME INSURANCE GUIDE of Home Insurance Guide Design talk 0659 Before&After m or bont Pretty simple, glead and tarm Spaff forl isn’t cubular but quastic, leam e Silk, shast, lape and behast Design talk ® i U X BAmagazine.com of Web design Scroll your page sideways A sideways-scrolling Web page is a lifelike way to present a gallery of photos when the page as a whole doesn’t need to be printed A click on any image can pop open a larger version Pouring the balusters A card whint not oogum or bont Pretty simple, glead and tarm Texture and flasp net exating end mist of it snooling Spaff forl isn’t cubular but quastic drag Smoothing the crosswalk A card whint not oogum or bont Pretty simple, glead and tarm Texture and flasp net exating end mist of it snooling Spaff forl isn’t cubular but quastic, leam restart that can’t prebast It’s tope, this fluant chasible Silk, shast, lape and behast Concrete from the sky A card whint not oogum or bont Pretty simple, glead and tarm Texture and flasp net exating end mist of it snooling Spaff forl isn’t cubular but quastic, leam restart that can’t prebast It’s tope, this fluant chasible Silk, shast, lape and behast A forest of rebar A card whint not oogum or bont Pretty simple, glead and tarm Texture and flasp net exating end mist of it snooling Spaff forl isn’t cubular but quastic, leam restart that can’t prebast It’s tope, this fluant chasible Silk, shast, lape and behast Opening a valve A card whint not oogum or bont Pretty simple, glead and tarm and flasp net exating end mist of it snooling Spaff forl isn’t cubular but quastic, leam that can’t prebast It’s tope, this fluant chasible Silk, shast, lape and behast Old Roseville drag DOWNTOWN RENOVATION PROJECT Like a gallery A single row of photos is perfect for timelines, stepby-steps, anything you’d normally view in a linear manner Note above that all images (including verticals) are aligned to the baseline; same-length captions keep the line simple Clean and very intuitive of Design talk 0659 Before&After ® Design talk of BAmagazine.com i U X Poster Simple, bold, bright Our visual world is so cluttered that the key to catching a viewer’s eye is good, old-fashioned minimalism—use less stuff, not more This is especially true with posters To be seen from a long way away, make your imagery simple, bold and bright Familiar shapes, like the hands, and vivid colors connect quickly The hands are warm analogous (side by side) colors atop a cold, split complementary (nearly opposite) field, an energetic combination With such clear imagery, you don’t have to shout for attention; note how the single line of white type stands out clearly CALIFORNIA BEACH VOLLEYBALL ASSOCIATION TOURN AME NT I NFORMATI ON of Design talk 0659 Before&After Design talk ® BAmagazine.com of i U X Article resources Typefaces Colors Futura Extra Bold Futura Book Futura Medium 6b HTF Didot Helvetica Neue Std Light HOME INSURANCE GUIDE C45 M90 Y0 K0 C0 M65 Y100 K0 C0 M20 Y95 K0 10 C40 M30 Y95 K10 10 Images 11 (a–c) iStockphoto.com | 11 C0 M0 Y0 K100 a b c CALIFORNIA BEACH VOLLEYBALL ASSOCIATION TO U R N A M E N T I N F O R M AT I O N NORTHEASTERN MUTUAL GROUP 6a Japan 12,553 Mexico 8,485 Taiwan 6,915 6c 2006 U.S Corn Export Sales (One ear represents 1,000 metric tons of unmilled corn.) of Design talk 0659 Before&After ® Design talk BAmagazine.com of Subscribe to Before & After Subscribe to Before & After, and become a more capable, confident designer for pennies per article To learn more, go to http://www.bamagazine.com/Subscribe E-mail this article To pass along a free copy of this article to others, click here Join our e-list To be notified by e-mail of new articles as they become available, go to http://www.bamagazine.com/email i U X Before & After magazine Before & After has been sharing its practical approach to graphic design since 1990 Because our modern world has made designers of us all (ready or not), Before & After is dedicated to making graphic design understandable, useful and even fun for everyone John McWade Publisher and creative director Gaye McWade Associate publisher Dexter Mark Abellera Staff designer Before & After magazine 323 Lincoln Street, Roseville, CA 95678 Telephone 916-784-3880 Fax 916-784-3995 E-mail mailbox@bamagazine.com www http://www.bamagazine.com Copyright ©2007 Before & After magazine ISSN 1049-0035 All rights reserved You may pass along a free copy of this article to others by clicking here You may not alter this article, and you may not charge for it You may quote brief sections for review; please credit Before & After magazine, and let us know To link Before & After magazine to your Web site, use this URL: http://www.bamagazine.com For all other permissions, please contact us of | Printing formats Design talk 0659 Before&After BAmagazine.com ® i U X Before & After is made to fit your binder Before & After articles are intended for permanent reference All are titled and numbered For the current table of contents, click here To save time and paper, a paper-saver format of this article, suitable for one- or two-sided printing, is provided on the following pages For presentation format Print: (Specify pages 1–8) For paper-saver format Print: (Specify pages 10–13) Print Format: Landscape Page Size: Fit to Page Save Presentation format or Paper-saver format Back | Paper-saver format Pull up Push down Stretch out I N F O R M AT I O N DOWNTOWN RENOVATION PROJECT Old Roseville A forest of rebar A card whint not oogum or bont Pretty simple, glead and tarm Texture and flasp net exating end mist of it snooling Spaff forl isn’t cubular but quastic, leam restart that can’t prebast It’s tope, this fluant chasible Silk, shast, lape and behast Design Talk 12: Five Design Ideas 0659 Concrete from the sky A card whint not oogum or bont Pretty simple, glead and tarm Texture and flasp net exating end mist of it snooling Spaff forl isn’t cubular but quastic, leam restart that can’t prebast It’s tope, this fluant chasible Silk, shast, lape and behast TO U R N A M E N T CALIFORNIA BEACH VOLLEYBALL ASSOCIATION Smoothing the crosswalk A card whint not oogum or bont Pretty simple, glead and tarm Texture and flasp net exating end mist of it snooling Spaff forl isn’t cubular but quastic, leam restart that can’t prebast It’s tope, this fluant chasible Silk, shast, lape and behast Minimal Poster Horizontal Scroll DesignTalk12 NORTHEASTERN MUTUAL GROUP HOME INSURANCE GUIDE FiveDesignIdeas “Object” Graph Square Cover Staggered Layout Photodesign A page of people pictures? Add life! Shift the rows Designed-in activity makes this cover energetic Here’s how it’s done First, to add front-to-back motion, photos are selected and cropped to three distances— close up, near and far (left) Next, horizontal motion is added by shifting the rows of images from left to right (above, middle), which avoids the static evenness of a brick-layer pattern Finally, vertical motion is added simply by making several photos taller and shorter of Before&After | www.bamagazine.com http://www.sei.cmu.edu/annual-report What nicer way to illustrate a company’s “intellectual capital” than to picture its intellectual staff ! For its 2006 annual report, Software Engineering Institute papered its cover with beautifully lit photos of happy people—with a designed-in twist Rather than static, yearbook-style rows of mug shots, small cropping and layout variations turned this small collage into a beehive of visual activity Far Start with a grid Close up Near 0659 Design Talk 12: Five Design Ideas Graph Use pictures to represent numbers 78% 6,915 Taiwan Home Insurance Guide Fill the opposite square with color sampled from the photo, and reduce its opacity to allow some see-through Below, put a squarish typeface in the corner to sustain the square motif HOME INSURANCE GUIDE Design Talk 12: Five Design Ideas 0659 12,553 Japan 8,485 Use a few This approach is practical when dealing with large numbers; each photo represents tens or hundreds or thousands or millions of something (Be sure to say.) Single objects with simple shapes (left) yield the best results (One ear represents 1,000 metric tons of unmilled corn.) 2006 U.S Corn Export Sales Mexico Pictures on a graph convey more data than words or even numbers alone For your next graph, instead of an ordinary line, bar or pie, substitute people, ears of corn or railroad cars! Like this: Use a lot (Above) Software Engineering Institute’s graph shows the actual number of people involved in its various functions (Left) At tiny size, detail is unnecessary; silhouette a photo with a simple, clear shape Layout Build a cover of squares HOME INSURANCE GUIDE NORTHEASTERN MUTUAL GROUP of Before&After | www.bamagazine.com Draw a grid (Above) Divide a square page into four squares Position the photo—one with plenty of cropping room—so that a point of interest is in one of the squares Frame that square in white (here, all are white for clarity) Whatever’s in the frame will get the reader’s attention, quietly Try it You’ll find that the frame can gather, connect, focus; it conveys subtle messages depending on the photo and echoes the page structure, too This cover uses its own grid as a visual element! Divide a square page into four squares, put a point of interest in one corner, the title in the opposite corner, then make the two squares visible 0659 Design Talk 12: Five Design Ideas Web design Scroll your page sideways Smoothing the crosswalk A card whint not oogum or bont Pretty simple, glead and tarm Texture and flasp net exating end mist of it snooling Spaff forl isn’t cubular but quastic, leam restart that can’t prebast It’s tope, this fluant chasible Silk, shast, lape and behast that can’t prebast It’s tope, this fluant chasible Silk, shast, lape and behast that can’t prebast It’s tope, this fluant chasible Silk, shast, lape and behast Opening a valve A card whint not oogum or bont Pretty simple, glead and tarm Texture and flasp net exating end mist of it snooling Spaff forl isn’t cubular but quastic, leam restart drag A forest of rebar A card whint not oogum or bont Pretty simple, glead and tarm Texture and flasp net exating end mist of it snooling Spaff forl isn’t cubular but quastic, leam restart DOWNTOWN RENOVATION PROJECT Old Roseville TOUR N AM ENT I N FOR M AT I O N Design Talk 12: Five Design Ideas 0659 CALIFORNIA BEACH VOLLEYBALL ASSOCIATION Like a gallery A single row of photos is perfect for timelines, stepby-steps, anything you’d normally view in a linear manner Note above that all images (including verticals) are aligned to the baseline; same-length captions keep the line simple Clean and very intuitive Concrete from the sky A card whint not oogum or bont Pretty simple, glead and tarm Texture and flasp net exating end mist of it snooling Spaff forl isn’t cubular but quastic, leam restart that can’t prebast It’s tope, this fluant chasible Silk, shast, lape and behast A sideways-scrolling Web page is a lifelike way to present a gallery of photos when the page as a whole doesn’t need to be printed A click on any image can pop open a larger version Pouring the balusters A card whint not oogum or bont Pretty simple, glead and tarm Texture and flasp net exating end mist of it snooling Spaff forl isn’t cubular but quastic , this fluant chasible Silk, shast, lape and behast ard whint not oogum or bont Pretty simple, glead and tarm mist of it snooling Spaff forl isn’t cubular but quastic, leam drag Poster Simple, bold, bright Our visual world is so cluttered that the key to catching a viewer’s eye is good, old-fashioned minimalism—use less stuff, not more This is especially true with posters To be seen from a long way away, make your imagery simple, bold and bright of Before&After | www.bamagazine.com Familiar shapes, like the hands, and vivid colors connect quickly The hands are warm analogous (side by side) colors atop a cold, split complementary (nearly opposite) field, an energetic combination With such clear imagery, you don’t have to shout for attention; note how the single line of white type stands out clearly 0659 Design Talk 12: Five Design Ideas 6a INFORMATION Article resources 12,553 Japan HOME INSURANCE GUIDE NORTHEASTERN MUTUAL GROUP 6,915 Taiwan 6b Typefaces Futura Extra Bold Futura Book Futura Medium HTF Didot (a–c) iStockphoto.com | Images Helvetica Neue Std Light 10 11 6c a b c C0 M20 Y95 K0 C0 M65 Y100 K0 C45 M90 Y0 K0 Colors 10 C40 M30 Y95 K10 11 C0 M0 Y0 K100 Before & After magazine Before & After has been sharing its practical approach to graphic design since 1990 Because our modern world has made designers of us all (ready or not), Before & After is dedicated to making graphic design understandable, useful and even fun for everyone John McWade Publisher and creative director Gaye McWade Associate publisher Dexter Mark Abellera Staff designer Before & After magazine 323 Lincoln Street, Roseville, CA 95678 Telephone 916-784-3880 Fax 916-784-3995 E-mail mailbox@bamagazine.com www http://www.bamagazine.com Copyright ©2007 Before & After magazine ISSN 1049-0035 All rights reserved You may pass along a free copy of this article to others by clicking here You may not alter this article, and you may not charge for it You may quote brief sections for review; please credit Before & After magazine, and let us know To link Before & After magazine to your Web site, use this URL: http://www.bamagazine.com For all other permissions, please contact us Design Talk 12: Five Design Ideas 0659 TOURN AMENT CALIFORNIA BEACH VOLLEYBALL ASSOCIATION 8,485 Mexico (One ear represents 1,000 metric tons of unmilled corn.) 2006 U.S Corn Export Sales Subscribe to Before & After more capable, confident designer for pennies Subscribe to Before & After, and become a per article To learn more, go to http://www.bamagazine.com/Subscribe E-mail this article To pass along a free copy of this article to others, click here Join our e-list To be notified by e-mail of new articles as they become available, go to of Before&After | www.bamagazine.com http://www.bamagazine.com/email 0659 Design Talk 12: Five Design Ideas [...]... silhouette a photo with a simple, clear shape Layout Build a cover of squares HOME INSURANCE GUIDE NORTHEASTERN MUTUAL GROUP 2 of 4 Before&After | www.bamagazine.com Draw a grid (Above) Divide a square page into four squares Position the photo—one with plenty of cropping room—so that a point of interest is in one of the squares Frame that square in white (here, all are white for clarity) Whatever’s in the... conveys subtle messages depending on the photo and echoes the page structure, too This cover uses its own grid as a visual element! Divide a square page into four squares, put a point of interest in one corner, the title in the opposite corner, then make the two squares visible 0659 Design Talk 12: Five Design Ideas Web design Scroll your page sideways Smoothing the crosswalk A card whint not oogum...Graph Use pictures to represent numbers 78% 6,915 Taiwan Home Insurance Guide Fill the opposite square with color sampled from the photo, and reduce its opacity to allow some see-through Below, put a squarish typeface in the corner to sustain the square motif HOME INSURANCE GUIDE Design Talk 12: Five Design Ideas 0659 12,553 Japan 8,485 Use a few This approach is practical... Ideas 0659 12,553 Japan 8,485 Use a few This approach is practical when dealing with large numbers; each photo represents tens or hundreds or thousands or millions of something (Be sure to say.) Single objects with simple shapes (left) yield the best results (One ear represents 1,000 metric tons of unmilled corn.) 2006 U.S Corn Export Sales Mexico Pictures on a graph convey more data than words or even... and tarm mist of it snooling Spaff forl isn’t cubular but quastic, leam drag Poster Simple, bold, bright Our visual world is so cluttered that the key to catching a viewer’s eye is good, old-fashioned minimalism—use less stuff, not more This is especially true with posters To be seen from a long way away, make your imagery simple, bold and bright 3 of 4 Before&After | www.bamagazine.com Familiar shapes,