Design Elements: Understanding the rules and knowing when to break them, 2nd Edition

323 Pages·2007·94.221 MB·English

by  Samara, Timothy

DESIGN
ELEMENTS
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© 2014 by Rockport Publishers
All rights reserved. No part of this book may
be reproduced in any form without written
permission of the copyright owners. All images
in this book have been reproduced with the
knowledge and prior consent of the artists
concerned, and no responsibility is accepted
by producer, publisher, or printer for any infringe-
ment of copyright or otherwise, arising from
the contents of this publication. Every effort
has been made to ensure that credits accurately
comply with information supplied. We apologize
for any inaccuracies that may have occurred
and will resolve inaccurate or missing information
in a subsequent reprinting of the book.
First published in the United States of America by TI
Rockport Publishers, a member of
Quayside Publishing Group D
100 Cummings Center
Suite 406-L
Beverly, Massachusetts 01915-6101
Telephone: [phone]
E
Fax: [phone]
www.rockpub.com
Visit RockPaperInk.com to share your opinions,
creations, and passion for design.
Originally found under the following Cataloging
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
ISBN: 978-1-59253-927-7
Digital edition published in 2014
eISBN: 978-1-62788-057-2
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
U
Cover and text design
Timothy Samara, New York
r
Printed in China
t
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TIMOTHY SAMARA
DESIGN
ELEMENTS
Understanding the
rules and knowing when
to break them
SECOND EDITION
UPDATED + EXPANDED
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CONTEEN
26 86 128 186
FORM COLOR CHOOSING T
AND FUNDAMEN- AND USING W
SPACE TALS TYPE IM
chapter 01 chapter 02 chapter 03 ch
28 88 130
SEEING FORM AND SPACE THE IDENTITY OF COLOR STRUCTURE AND OPTICS THE
38 98 138
CATEGORIES OF FORM CHROMATIC INTERACTION ISSUES RELATED TO STYLE MED
58 112 146
PUTTING STUFF INTO SPACE COLOR SYSTEMS MECHANICS OF TEXT PRE
72 122 162
COMPOSITIONAL STRATEGIES EMOTIONS AND MESSAGES TEXTURE AND SPACE CON
170
TYPE AS INFORMATION
182
HOW COLOR AFFECTS TYPE
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06
WHAT IS GRAPHIC DESIGN?
TWENTY RULES FOR MAKING
10
GOOD DESIGN
CAUSIN’ SOME TROUBLE:
WHEN AND WHY TO BREAK
296
EVERY RULE IN THIS BOOK
312
INDEX BY SUBJECT
318
CONTRIBUTORS
EENTS
186 232
THE PUTTING
WORLD OF IT ALL
IMAGE TOGETHER
chapter 04 chapter 05
188 234
THE NATURE OF IMAGES MERGING TYPE AND IMAGE
204 246
MEDIA AND METHODS WORKING WITH GRIDS
216 264
PRESENTATION OPTIONS INTUITIVE ARRANGEMENT
220 272
CONTENT AND CONCEPT DESIGN AS A SYSTEM
288
THE WORKING PROCESS
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A graphic designer is a
communicator: someone who
takes ideas and gives them
visual form so that others can
understand them.
WHAT IS
GRAPHIC
DESIGN?
Logo for a Logo for a
financial services food bank
company NAROSKADESIGN
LSDSPAIN GERMANY
Branding and wayfinding for a wine merchant PARALLAXAUSTRALIA
06 07
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Book cover with transparent jacket
LABORATÓRIO SECRETO BRAZIL
The designer uses imagery, symbols, type, In contrast to other disciplines in the visual
color, and materials—whether printed arts, graphic design’s purpose is typically
or on-screen—to represent the ideas that defined by a client—it’s a service paid for
must be conveyed; and to organize them by a company or other organization—rath-
into a unified experience that is intended er than generated from within the designer.
to evoke a particular response. Although artistic creation historically had
been commissioned by patrons, it wasn’t
While more or less confined to the creation until the 1830s that the mystique of the
of typefaces and books from the Middle bohemian painter as “expresser of self”
Ages until the Industrial Revolution of the arose and, consequently, a marked distinc-
late 1700s and early 1800s, design expanded tion between fine and commercial art.
into advertising, periodicals, signage, Designers encouraged this distinction for
posters, and ephemera with the appearance philosophical, as well as strategic, reasons,
of a new, consumer marketplace. The term especially as they began to seek recognition
“graphic design” itself appeared more for design as a profession that could add
recently (attributed to W. A. Dwiggins, an tremendous value to corporate endeavors.
American illustrator and book designer, in
1922, to describe his particular activities). In the fifty-odd years since, the graphic
The formal study of design as an indepen- designer has been touted as everything
dent discipline didn’t come about until the from visual strategist to cultural arbiter—
1920s, and the term entered into wide usage and, since the mid 1970s, as an “author”
only after World War II. as well—shaping not only the corporate
Invitation to a marketing event
STUDIO NEWWORK UNITED STATES
07 design elements
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To
is
an
de
a
To
to
Website for an architecture firm POULIN+MORRISUNITED STATES ed
bottom line through clever visual manipu- Further, a designer must be more than
to
lation of a brand-hungry public, but also casually familiar with psychology and
the larger visual language of the postmod- history, both with respect to cultural
m
ern environment. All these functions are narratives, symbolism, and ritualized
important to graphic design ... but, lest we experiences, as well as to more commercial,
pe
forget the simplicity of the designer’s true consumer-based impulses and responses
nature, let us return to what a graphic (what is often referred to as marketing).
designer does. A graphic designer assimi- Last, but certainly not least, a designer D
lates verbal concepts and gives them form. must have great facility with—and more
often, in-depth, specialized knowledge th
This “giving form” is a discipline that inte- of—multiple technologies needed to imple-
grates an enormous amount of knowledge ment the designed solution: printing pr
and skill with intuition, creatively applied media and techniques, film and video,
in different ways as the designer confronts digital programming, industrial processes,
the variables of each new project. architectural fabrication, and so on.
PAU
A designer must understand semiotics—
Yal
the processes and relationships inherent in
perception and interpretation of meaning
through visual and verbal material. He
or she must have expertise in the flow of
information—instructional strategies,
data representation, legibility and usability,
cognitive ordering, and hierarchic problem
solving—extending into typography, the
mechanics of alphabet design, and reading.
To design requires analytical and technical
mastery of image making—how shapes,
colors, and textures work to depict ideas, Animated motion sequence ONLABGERMANY
achieve aesthetic cohesion and dynamism
and signify higher-order concepts while
evoking a strong emotional response.
Broch
08 what is graphic design? 09
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