Design Elements, Third Edition: Understanding the rules and knowing when to break them - A Visual Communication Manual

323 Pages·2020·98.808 MB·English

by  Timothy Samara

TIMOTHY SAMARA
Design
Elements
A VISUAL
COMMUNICATION
MANUAL
Understanding
the rules and knowing
when to break them
THIRD EDITION
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© 2020 Quarto Publishing Group USA Inc.
Text © Quarto Publishing Group USA Inc.
Images © 2020 Credited Contributors
First published in 2020 by Rockport Publishers,
an imprint of The Quarto Group,
100 Cummings Center, Suite 265-D, Beverly, MA 01915, USA.
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10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
ISBN: 978-1-63159-872-2
Digital edition published in 2020
eISBN: 978-1-63159-873-9
Originally found under the following Library of Congress
Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Samara, Timothy.
Design elements : a graphic style manual :
understanding the rules and knowing when to
break them / Timothy Samara.
p. cm.
ISBN-13: 978-1-59253-261-2 (flexibind)
ISBN-10: 1-59253-261-6 (flexibind)
1. Graphic design (Typography) 2. Layout
(Printing) I. Title.
Z246 .S225
686.2’2—dc22
2006019038
CIP
Design: Timothy Samara
Page Layout: Timothy Samara
Contents
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6 What Is Graphic Design?
8 Twenty Rules for
Making Good Design
18
FORM AND SPACE
20 DEFINING VISUAL LANGUAGE
34 ATTRIBUTES OF FORM
48 PUTTING STUFF INTO SPACE
302 Causin’ Some Trouble: 70 COMPOSITIONAL STRATEGIES
Breaking Every Rule in
This Book
84
314 Index (By Subject) COLOR FUNDAMENTALS
86 THE IDENTITY OF COLOR
318 Directory of Contributors
92 CHROMATIC INTERACTION
108 COLOR LOGIC AND SYSTEMS
320 About the Author
118 WHEN COLOR MEANS SOMETHING
and Acknowledgments
126 COLOR IN THE REAL WORLD
132
CHOOSING AND USING TYPE
134 STRUCTURE AND OPTICS
140 ISSUES RELATED TO STYLE
150 THE MECHANICS OF TEXTSETTING
164 TYPE IS VISUAL, TOO
174 TYPE AS INFORMATION
194
THE WORLD OF IMAGERY
196 THE NATURE OF IMAGES
206 MEDIA AND METHODS
220 CONTENT, CONCEPT, CONTEXT
234 NARRATIVE MASSAGE
242
PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER
244 MERGING TYPE AND IMAGE
256 WORKING WITH GRIDS
268 INTUITIVE ARRANGEMENT
274 DESIGN AS A SYSTEM
294 THE WORKING PROCESS
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What Is Graphic Design?
A graphic designer is a communicator: someone who creation historically had been commissioned by patrons,
takes ideas and gives them visual form so that others can it wasn’t until the 1830s that the mystique of the bohemian
understand them. The designer uses imagery, symbols, painter as “expresser of self” arose and, consequently, a
type, color, and materials (whether printed or on screen) marked distinction between fine and commercial art.
to represent the ideas that must be conveyed; and to Designers encouraged this distinction for philosophical,
organize them into a unified experience that is intended as well as strategic, reasons, especially as they began to
to evoke a particular response. seek recognition for design as a profession that could add
—— tremendous value to corporate endeavors.
While more or less confined to the creation of typefaces ——
and books from the Middle Ages until the Industrial Revolu- In the fifty-odd years since, the graphic designer has been
tion of the late 1700s and early 1800s, design expanded touted as everything from visual strategist to cultural
into advertising, periodicals, signage, posters, pamphlets, arbiter (and, since the late 1970s, as an author as well),
and ephemera with the appearance of a new consumer shaping not only the corporate bottom line through clever
marketplace. The term “graphic design” itself appeared visual manipulation of a brand-hungry public, but also the
more recently (attributed to WA Dwiggins, an American larger visual language of the contemporary environment.
illustrator and book designer, in 1922, to describe his All these functions are important to graphic design…but,
particular activities). The formal study of design didn’t lest we forget the simplicity of the designer’s true nature,
come about until the 1920s, and the term entered into let us return to what a graphic designer does. A graphic
wide usage only after World War II. designer assimilates verbal concepts and gives them form.
——
In contrast to other disciplines in the visual arts, graphic
design’s purpose is typically defined by a client—it’s a
service paid for by a company or other organization—
rather than from within the designer. Although artistic
4
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Graphic design is a complex combination of words and
pictures, numbers and charts, photographs and illustrations…
A popular art and a practical art, an applied art and an ancient
art. Simply put, it is the art of visualizing ideas… But it is
also an idiomatic language, a language of cues and puns and
symbols and allusions, of cultural references and perceptual
inferences that challenge both the intellect and the eye.
JESSICA HELFAND /Designer, writer, theorist / Cofounder, DesignObserver.com
creation historically had been commissioned by patrons, This “form-giving” is a discipline that integrates an But graphic design is greater than just the various aspects
it wasn’t until the 1830s that the mystique of the bohemian enormous amount of knowledge and skill with intuition, that comprise it. Together, they establish a totality of
painter as “expresser of self” arose and, consequently, a creatively applied in different ways as the designer con- tangible, and often intangible, experiences. A designer is
marked distinction between fine and commercial art. fronts the variables of each new project. responsible for the intellectual and emotional vitality
Designers encouraged this distinction for philosophical, —— of the experience he or she visits upon the audience, and
as well as strategic, reasons, especially as they began to A designer must understand semiotics—the processes and his or her task is to elevate it above the banality of literal
seek recognition for design as a profession that could add relationships inherent in perception and interpretation transmission or the confusing self-indulgent egoism of
tremendous value to corporate endeavors. of meaning through visual and verbal material. He or she mere eye candy. And yet, beauty is a function, after all,
—— must have expertise in the flow of information—instruc- of any relevant visual message. Just as prose can be dull
In the fifty-odd years since, the graphic designer has been tional strategies, data representation, legibility, usability, or straightforward or well edited and lyrical, so too can
touted as everything from visual strategist to cultural cognitive ordering, and hierarchic problem solving— a utilitarian object be designed to be more than just simply
arbiter (and, since the late 1970s, as an author as well), extending into typography, the mechanics of alphabet what it is. “If function is important to the intellect,”
shaping not only the corporate bottom line through clever design, and reading. Designing requires analytical and writes respected Swiss designer Willi Kunz, in his book,
visual manipulation of a brand-hungry public, but also the technical mastery of image making—how shapes, colors, Typography: Macro- and Micro-Aesthetics, “then form is
larger visual language of the contemporary environment. and textures work to depict ideas, achieve aesthetic cohe- important to the emotions…Our day-to-day life is enriched
All these functions are important to graphic design…but, sion and dynamism, and signify higher-order concepts or degraded by our environment.”
lest we forget the simplicity of the designer’s true nature, while evoking a strong emotional response. Further, a ——
let us return to what a graphic designer does. A graphic designer must be more than casually familiar with psychol- The focus of this book is on these formal, or visual, aspects
designer assimilates verbal concepts and gives them form. ogy and history, both with respect to cultural narratives, of graphic design and, implicitly, their relevance for the
symbolism, and ritualized experiences, as well as to more messages to be created using them. It’s a kind of user
commercial, consumer-based impulses and responses (what manual for creating what is understood to be strong design
is often referred to as “marketing”). Last, but certainly not and empowering readers to effectively—and skillfully—
least, a designer must have great facility with (and often, harness their creativity to meet the various challenges that
in-depth, specialized knowledge of) multiple technologies designers encounter every day.
needed to implement the designed solution: printing media
and techniques, film and video, digital coding, industrial
processes, architectural fabrication, and so on.
Images, left to right
FOR THE PEOPLE / TASMANIA
LABORATÓRIO SECRETO / BRAZIL
CLASSMATE STUDIO / HUNGARY
B&B STUDIO / UNITED KINGDOM
5 DESIGN ELEMENTS
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Rules can be broken—
but never ignored.
DAVID JURY/TYPOGRAPHER/ From his book About Face: Reviving
the Rules of Typography RotoVision, London, 1996.
TWENTY RULES FOR
MAKING GOOD DESIGN
6
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When people talk about “good” or “bad” results by breaking them out of ignorance.
design, they’re referring to notions of In addition, rules help frame communal
quality they’ve picked up from education discussion about interpreting and evaluat-
and experience; and just as often, from the ing creative work so there’s at least some
experience of thousands of designers and consensus about where to start. If every-
critics before them. Some of these notions thing is “good,” then nothing really can be.
are aesthetic (“asymmetry is more beautiful Relativism is great, but after a point, it just
than symmetry,” for example) and some- gets in the way of honest judgment and
times strictly functional (“don’t reverse a celebrates mediocrity.
serif typeface from a solid background if it’s ——
less than 10 points in size, because it’ll fill By no means should any rule, including
in”). Both kinds of observation are helpful those that follow, be taken as cosmic law.
for avoiding pitfalls and striving to achieve Unconvinced? Then simply turn to page
design solutions that aren’t hampered by 302, where breaking every rule in this book
irritating difficulties. is advocated wholeheartedly. But these
—— rules are a starting point: an excellent list
Every time one attempts to cite rules gov- of issues to consider, especially if you’re
erning what constitutes quality, however, only just starting out as a designer. (Even
people are bound to get their underwear in seasoned professionals can do with a little
a knot: “That’s so limiting!” To those refresher now and then.) In the end, you
people, I’ll say this: get over it. Rules are will decide how and when to apply the
guidelines, based on accumulated experi- rules, or not…But you’ll also understand
ence from many sources. They always come the likely results of either course of action.
with exceptions and can be broken at any
time, but not without consequences. The con-
sequence of breaking one rule might mean
reinforcing another; in the right context,
it might even mean true innovation—in
which such a discovery, oddly enough, will
establish yet another rule. This is how cre-
ativity works. It’s important to know which
rules have come to be considered important
(and why) so as to avoid really unfortunate
7 DESIGN ELEMENTS
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01
HAVE A CONCEPT
If there’s no message, no story, A very large audience, not a few
no idea, no narrative, or no useful people who are “in the know,” must
experience to be had, it’s not interpret what you mean with those
graphic design. It doesn’t matter shapes, colors, and images. Sure, you
how amazing the thing is to look get it, and other designers will get it,
at; without a clear message, it’s an but ultimately it’s the public who must
empty, although beautiful, shell. do so. Speak to the world at large;
That’s about as complicated as this draw upon humanity’s shared narra-
rule can get. Let’s move on. tives of form and metaphor and make
connections, not boundaries. If you’re
unsure whether your ideas make
sense, show them to someone on the
street and find out.
By printing the text to appear as though it’s on built with gigantic, interlocking puzzle pieces that
the back of the poster (left) but folded forward, the were fundamental to their philosophies and how
designer transforms the literal into a metaphor they constructed their home in the 1950s.
for the architectural and gestural qualities of the
SULKI+MIN / SOUTH KOREA 
dance it promotes. An exhibition about designers
PEOPLEDESIGN / UNITED STATES 
and architects Ray and Charles Eames (right) is
02
COMMUNICATE—
DON’T DECORATE
Oooh…neat! But what exactly is it? Make sure all the elements “talk”
Form carries meaning, no matter how to each other. Good design assumes
simple or abstract, and form that’s not the visual language of a piece—its
right for a given message junks it up internal logic—is resolved so that its
and confuses. It’s great to experiment parts all reinforce each other, not only
with images and effects, but any- in shape or weight or placement, but
thing that doesn’t contribute to the conceptually as well. When one ele-
composition or meaning is simply eye ment seems out of place or unrelated,
candy that no longer qualifies as de- it disconnects from the totality and
sign. Know what each visual element the message is weakened.
does and why, or choose another with
purpose.
The notion of “blooming” underpins a publica-
tion of graduating students’ design work; unique
abstract ink washes create the sense of unfurling
flower petals without being literal.
TIMOTHY SAMARA / UNITED STATES
8 DESIGN ELEMENTS
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