evaluating design
Designing with PARC Some of you may already have a wealth of experience with graphic design and visual layout; for those of you, this lesson may provide a series of simple, helpful reminders about the basics of design work. Others of you, in contrast, may have little or even no experience with graphic design. Our videos and readings for this week may be an eye-opener for you, offering a few crucial principles that will guide your future efforts. These four key principles—contrast, repetition, alignment, and proximity—when utilized properly and combined, should allow you to produce fresh, clean, visually interesting pieces. Those four basic principles are: Proximity—placing related objects into groups. By placing conceptually similar objects near one another, the designer makes them into “one visual unit rather than several separate units.” By employing the proximity principle, designers “organize information, reduce clutter, and give the reader a clear structure” (13). Alignment—orienting objects on the page so that they exist in either horizontal, vertical, or diagonal relationships to one another. As Williams notes, “Nothing should be placed on the page arbitrarily. Every item should have a visual connection with something else on the page” (33). Repetition—utilizing certain elements of visual design multiple times in a single piece. By repeating colors, shapes, fonts, and other visual elements, the designer “develops the organization and develops unity” (13). Contrast—making elements that are not the same appear very different from one another. As she notes, “Avoid elements on the page that are merely similar. If the elements (type, color, size, line thickness, shape, space, etc.) are not the same, then make them very different” (13). Below are examples of two flyers. Analyze the design of each example in terms of PARC, typography and color, as explained in the course content for this week. Decide which design (or parts of a design) are successful and/or unsuccessful and write an evaluation. Be sure to use the terminolobcqgy from our course content.
