10 GOOD RULES
FOR
DESIGN
“To understand the meaning of design is to...
understand the part form and content play...and realize that design is also commentary, opinion, a point of view, and social re-
sponsibility. To design is much more than simply to assemble, to
order, or even to edit; it is to add value and meaning, to illuminate, to simplify, to clarify, to modify, to dignify, to dramatize, to persuade, and perhaps even to amuse. Design is both a verb and a
noun. It is the beginning as well as the end, the process and the product of imagination.�
-Paul Rand Design, Form and Chaos
CONTENTS
1 2 3 4 5
HAVE A CONCEPT
BE UNIVERSAL
IF YOU CAN DO IT WITH LESS , DO IT
FIGHT THE FLATNESS
LESS COLOR IS MORE
6 7 8 9 10
TYPE IS ONLY TYPE WHEN IT’S FRIENDLY
CREATE IMAGES, DON’T SCAVENGE
TREAT TYPE AS YOU WOULD AN IMAGE
GIVE IT THE ONE-TWO PUNCH
AVOID REDUNDANT REDUNDANCIES
HAVE A CONCEPT
ONE
If there’s no message, no story, no idea, no narrative, or no useful experience to be had, it’s not graphic design. It doesn’t matter how amazing the thing is to look at; without a clear message, it’s an empty, although beautiful, shell. That’s about as complicated as this rule can get. Let’s move on.
Courtney Garvin, 2010, Unboundary, Atlanta
BE UNIVERSAL
TWO
A very large audience, not a few people who are “in the know,” must interpret what you mean with those shapes, colors, and images. Sure, you get it, and other designers will get it, but ultimately it’s the public who must do so. Speak to the world at large; draw upon humanity’s shared narratives 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.
Erik Johnson, 1995, Charles S. Anderson Design Company
IF YOU CAN DO IT WITH LESS, DO IT
THREE This is a riff on the “less is more” theory, not so much an aesthetic dogma now as it is a bit of common sense: the more stuff jammed into a given space, the harder it is to see what needs to be seen. There’s a big difference between “complicated” and “complex.” True power lies in creativity applied to very little - without sacrificing a rich experience. Adding more than needed is just “gilding the lily.”
Alfred A. Knopf, New York, New York, 2007
FIGHT THE FLATNESS
FOUR People make a weird assumption about
seeing deep space by exploiting changes in
two-dimensional visual stuff, and that is: it’s
size and transparency. Create differences in
flat! Go figure. Layouts that fail to impart a
density and openness by clustering some
sense of depth or movement-those in which
elements and pushing others apart. Apply
everything is the same size, weight, color and
color to forms such that some appear to
perceived distance from everything else are
advance and others recede. Convince the
dull and lifeless. “Without contrast,” Paul Rand
viewer that the surface is a window into a
once said ,”you’re dead.” Fool the viewer into
bigger, engaging world.
Alex Steinweiss, Tokyo, Japan, 1970
LESS COLOR IS MORE
FIVE
Color is exciting but, much like a circus, too many things happening at once with hue, value, and intensity prevents viewers from getting a memorable color idea. Stick to a simple palette and create rick relationships. A lot can be accomplished with black alone, for instance; and using a single dramatic color, rather than black, is a sure way or making a big impact.
Lois Ehlert, Harriet Barton, 1991
TYPE IS ONLY TYPE WHEN IT’S FRIENDLY
SIX
It should go without saying that type that can’t be read has no purpose, but, unfortunately, it bears repeating. Yes, typography should be expressive, visually inventive, and conceptually resonant. It must still transmit information. Choose type faces that aid legibility, watch out for weird color contrasts, set test in a size that your grandmother can read, and you should be good to go.
Werner Design Werks, Inc., Minneapolis, Minnesota, 2002
CREATE IMAGES DON’T SCAVENGE
SEVEN Make what you need, and make it the best
Your options are limitless; consider them all.
you can-or pay someone to do it for you and
Try not to rely on what already exists, even
art-direct them. And remember: Not every
though it might be cheaper or easier.
idea benefits from full color photographic
Inventing images from scratch-in whatever
depiction. Very often, a more original and
medium-will help and connect powerfully with
meaningful solution is no further away than a
the audience. Plus, you can say, quite proudly,
couple of dots and lines, a simple funky icon,
that you did it all yourself.
or (gasp!) an abstract pattern or a scribble.
Seymour Chwast, The Pushpin Group, 1991
TREAT TYPE AS YOU WOULD IMAGE
EIGHT A great deal of typography often fails in this
regard: it’s either blandly separated from images or insensitively slapped across them, under the assumption that this alone will integrate it as part of a layout. Type is visual material-made up of lines and dots and shapes and textures-that must relate compositionally to everything else included in the design, no matter how different they seem to be.
Reba Sochis, Sochis Advertising & Promotion, 1960
GIVE IT THE ONE-TWO PUNCH
NINE
Focus viewers’ attention on one important thing first-a big shape, a startling image or type treatment, or a daring color-and then lead them to the less important items in a logical way. This is establishing a “hierarchy”-the order in which you want them to look at the material-and it is essential for access and understanding. Without it, you’ve already lost the battle.
Thomas Hull, Jerod Dame, Rigsby Desgin, 1998
AVOID REDUNDANT REDUNDANCIES
TEN Be conscious of how much information is conveyed by a project’s text. When you introduce imagery, you need not show the same information. Instead, consider what the text isn’t telling the viewer and show that (and, conversely, text should tell what the
images don’t show). The image and text,
working in concert, should not only complete each other but contribute to a new, deeper understanding. In closing the gaps and making such leaps, the viewer becomes more intensely engaged.
Scott Harben, Univsersity of North Texas, 2009
Designed by Autumn Beane Text from: Design Essentials: A Graphic Style Manual
by Timothy Samara
Body copy: Lucida Grande 10pt/20pt Display: Arial Black 120pt