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Design a
label-style
title
Words in a shape convey a pleasing blend of informality and permanence. Continued
Continued î‚Š
Label-style title
0600
Before&After
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Design a label-style title
Words in a shape make a simple and attractive point of interest
DC
De sig nC las sic s
TR AN ADI D TIO FU N RN AL ISH INT IN ER GS IO R
S
CRAZY COLORS 2005 Calendar The year in color
thomas fabrics 2004 WINTER COLLECTION SWATCH BOOK
Add a little fun to your next cover by giving it a label-style title. The simplicity, depth and real-object feel of a label yields great results on a wide variety of backgrounds. A label draws the reader’s eye immediately, it conveys a pleasing blend of informality and permanence, and it’s especially useful when you have no other artwork. Attention to placement and contrasts are the keys to producing good designs.
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Label-style title
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CRAZY COLORS 2005 Calendar The year in color
Label-style title
BAmagazine.com
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Activate your design
A label-style title conveys a sense of deliberate design. It pulls the eye across empty space like a painting on an empty wall and engages the reader with its shape and presence.
You have a blank page and a title to put on it. Where do you start?
CRAZY COLORS
(A) One approach is to fill up the space with type. The result is readable and stands out on a shelf, but it’s static and has no artistry or grace. (B) A label turns the empty space into a visual force that pushes the eye rightward, energizing the design. The label-style treatment creates a focal point and mimics reality, too. That’s design.
CRAZY COLORS 2005 Calendar The year in color
The year in color 2005 Calendar
A Off center creates motion—but which side? Because we read left to right, our eyes naturally drift to the right—we refer to this as riding the “read breeze”—which affects our design. (A) A label on the right is a destination—our eyes move across empty space toward the label. This is strong design. (B) Conversely, a label on the left is read first, then the eye drifts rightward into empty and unrewarding space. Acceptable design but not as strong.
B
A
B
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Label-style title
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Before&After
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CRAZY COLORS 2005 Calendar The year in color
Label-style title
BAmagazine.com
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i U X
Color
For a fresh, inviting look, use adjacent (analogous) colors, which always work well together. Use dark, medium and light values for a vibrant contrast.
Analogous colors make harmonious palettes because they have a color in common. Orange, red and violet, for example, all contain red (below).
CRAZY COLORS 2005 calendar The year in color
CRAZY COLORS 2005 Calendar The year in color
Analogous colors are easy to use—pick a color on the wheel, and then pick the color next to it.
CRAZY COLORS 2005 calendar The year in color
Dark
Blue
Red
Light
Medium
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Label-style title
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Before&After
®
CRAZY COLORS 2005 Calendar The year in color
Label-style title
BAmagazine.com
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i U X
Type
The main visual interest on the small field is its typography. Here, a dense block of simple, bold type complements the simple, bold rectangle.
Crazy colors 2005 Calendar The year in color A
Crazy Colors 2005 Calendar The year in color B
Default leading (spacing) that’s correct at text size is too airy at headline size. Squeeze the air out of your headline with negative leading and tight letterspacing. (A) 16.5/19.5 pt, letterspacing 0, (B) 16.5/13.5 pt, letterspacing –30. The result is a bold block of type inside the bold rectangle.
CRAZY COLORS 2005 Calendar The year in color
Title Uppercase and bold
Support copy Lowercase and light
Type is one size and color, differentiated only by contrasts of weight and case. You’ll need a type family that contains both light and heavy weights to ensure type harmony.
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Label-style title
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Before&After
®
CRAZY COLORS 2005 Calendar The year in color
Label-style title
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i U X
Title tab
Here’s the label as a 3-D tab. Fun and realistic, too, a tab shrinks your title field to a manageable size, and it works great atop photos.
A tab does more than provide space for type. It reduces your field to a manageable size and creates an all-eyes-on-me focal point that you can’t miss on an open field.
The best background photos have fairly uniform texture and value. What do you do if you have a busy photo (above, left)? One solution is to enlarge a detail (above, right) until it smooths out.
thomas fabrics Along with a drop shadow, bleeding the tab off the edge fastens it to the page and, in this case, mimics a true sewnon fabric tab. The depth of the shadow should be similar to the material’s depth. Our shadow settings: Opacity: 60%, X-Offset: 0p0, Y-Offset: 0p2, Blur: 0p4, Mode: Multiply
2004 WINTER COLLECTION SWATCH BOOK
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Label-style title
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Before&After
®
CRAZY COLORS 2005 Calendar The year in color
Label-style title
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BAmagazine.com
i U X
Banners and corners
Sometimes your photo is key; your readers really need to see it. In such a case, set your label as a low-key accent that plays a supporting role.
DC
De sig nC las sic s
TR AN ADIT D FU IONA RN L ISH INT IN ER GS IO RS
A label can be any shape. Top-heavy image? Balance it by running a label across the bottom. Have an open corner or free space along the side? Put your label there. Apply a slight drop shadow to complete the look.
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Label-style title
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Before&After
®
CRAZY COLORS 2005 Calendar The year in color
Label-style title
BAmagazine.com
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i U X
Contrast
Give your label a voice—the difference of light and dark determines the “voice” and visibility of your label. High, medium and low contrasts are similar in voice to yell, speak, whisper.
DC Using only colors from the photo, dark type on a medium-value label (A) yields soft contrast; the type does not jump off the page, but it’s seen and heard in a speaking voice. Light type on dark (B) is a stronger difference and makes a more forceful presentation.
A
DC
Design Classics
B
DC
Design Classics
De sig nC las sic s
TR AN ADIT D FU IONA RN L ISH INT IN ER GS IO RS
Colors of label and type will say a lot in your design. The most harmonious place to find colors is right in the image; select light, medium and dark values of each.
TRADITIONAL INTERIORS AND FURNISHINGS
TRADITIONAL INTERIORS AND FURNISHINGS
Note: In high contrast, a white line divides the information within the label.
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Label-style title
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Before&After
®
CRAZY COLORS 2005 Calendar The year in color
Label-style title
BAmagazine.com
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i U X
Article resources
Typefaces 1
2
CRAZY COLORS 2005 Calendar The year in color
13 14
CRAZY COLORS
10
12 16
17
11
CRAZY COLORS
15
Colors
1 Vectora Black | 16.5/13.5 pt
4 Helvetica Neue Heavy Cond. | 14/14 pt 5 Helvetica Neue Light Cond. | 14/14 pt 6 Didi Regular | 54 pt
19 9b
3 4 5 6 7a 7b
9a
thomas fabrics 2004 WINTER COLLECTION SWATCH BOOK
DC
De sig nC las sic s
TR AN ADIT D FU IONA RN L ISH INT IN ER GS IO RS
9 (a-b) Photos.com | a
DC DC DC
12 C25 M0 Y100 K0 13 C90 M5 Y40 K0 14 C90 M55 Y0 K45 15 C10 M40 Y90 K0 16 C15 M100 Y100 K0
Images 8 Phototone Backgrounds, Paper & Textiles CD
18
11 C40 M0 Y100 K15
3 Helvetica Neue Light Ext. | 20 pt
7 (a-b) Avenir Light | a) 24/28 pt, b) 10.8/12 pt
8
10 C0 M15 Y100 K0
2 Vectora Light | 16.5/13.5 pt
b
17 C40 M90 Y10 K45 18 C0 M100 Y85 K0 19 C95 M60 Y45 K30
20 23
20 C20 M25 Y35 K0 21 C40 M30 Y60 K25
21 23
22 C25 M90 Y95 K45 23 C45 M60 Y65 K55
22 20
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Label-style title
0600
Before&After
®
CRAZY COLORS 2005 Calendar The year in color
Label-style title
Subscribe to Before & After Did you enjoy this article? Subscribe, and become a more capable, confident designer for pennies per article. To learn more, go to http://www.bamagazine.com/Subscribe
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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.
To pass along a free copy of this article to
John McWade Publisher and creative director Gaye McWade Associate publisher Vincent Pascual Staff designer Dexter Mark Abellera Staff designer
others, click here.
Editorial board Gwen Amos, Carl Winther
E-mail this article
Join our e-list To be notified by e-mail of new articles as they become available, go to http://www.bamagazine.com/email
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 ©2005 Before & After magazine, ISSN 1049-0035. All rights reserved You may pass this article around, but you may not alter it, and you may not charge for it. You may quote brief sections for review. If you do this, please credit Before & After magazine, and let us know To feature free Before & After articles on your Web site, please contact us. For permission to include all or part of this article in another work, please contact us.
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Printing formats
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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.
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Print Format: Landscape Page Size: Fit to Page
Save Presentation format or Paper-saver format
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Paper-saver format
0600 Label-style title
Design a
label-style
0600
title
DC
TR AN ADIT D FU ION RN AL ISH INT IN ER GS IO R
De sig n Cla ssi cs S
Words in a shape convey a pleasing blend of informality and permanence.
CRAZY COLORS 2005 Calendar The year in color
thomas fabrics 2004 WINTER COLLECTION SWATCH BOOK
Label-style title
Add a little fun to your next cover by giving it a label-style title. The simplicity, depth and real-object feel of a label yields great results on a wide variety of backgrounds. A label draws the reader’s eye immediately, it conveys a pleasing blend of informality and permanence, and it’s especially useful when you have no other artwork. Attention to placement and contrasts are the keys to producing good designs.
1 of 5
Before&After | www.bamagazine.com
Activate your design
CRAZY COLORS 2005 Calendar The year in color
B
Light
CRAZY COLORS 2005 calendar The year in color
Medium
CRAZY COLORS 2005 Calendar The year in color
CRAZY COLORS 2005 calendar The year in color
Label-style title
0600
CRAZY COLORS
B
A
The year in color 2005 Calendar
Off center creates motion—but which side? Because we read left to right, our eyes naturally drift to the right—we refer to this as riding the “read breeze”—which affects our design. (A) A label on the right is a destination—our eyes move across empty space toward the label. This is strong design. (B) Conversely, a label on the left is read first, then the eye drifts rightward into empty and unrewarding space. Acceptable design but not as strong.
A
A label-style title conveys a sense of deliberate design. It pulls the eye across empty space like a painting on an empty wall and engages the reader with its shape and presence.
You have a blank page and a title to put on it. Where do you start? (A) One approach is to fill up the space with type. The result is readable and stands out on a shelf, but it’s static and has no artistry or grace.
Red
Analogous colors make harmonious palettes because they have a color in common. Orange, red and violet, for example, all contain red (below).
Blue
2 of 5
Before&After | www.bamagazine.com
Dark
For a fresh, inviting look, use adjacent (analogous) colors, which always work well together. Use dark, medium and light values for a vibrant contrast.
Color
(B) A label turns the empty space into a visual force that pushes the eye rightward, energizing the design. The label-style treatment creates a focal point and mimics reality, too. That’s design.
Analogous colors are easy to use—pick a color on the wheel, and then pick the color next to it.
0600 Label-style title
A tab does more than provide space for type. It reduces your field to a manageable size and creates an all-eyes-on-me focal point that you can’t miss on an open field.
Type
Crazy Colors 2005 Calendar The year in color B
CRAZY COLORS 2005 Calendar The year in color Type is one size and color, differentiated only by contrasts of weight and case. You’ll need a type family that contains both light and heavy weights to ensure type harmony.
Support copy Lowercase and light
Title Uppercase and bold
The main visual interest on the small field is its typography. Here, a dense block of simple, bold type complements the simple, bold rectangle.
Crazy colors 2005 Calendar The year in color A Default leading (spacing) that’s correct at text size is too airy at headline size. Squeeze the air out of your headline with negative leading and tight letterspacing. (A) 16.5/19.5 pt, letterspacing 0, (B) 16.5/13.5 pt, letterspacing –30. The result is a bold block of type inside the bold rectangle.
Title tab
Label-style title
2004 WINTER COLLECTION SWATCH BOOK
thomas fabrics
Here’s the label as a 3-D tab. Fun and realistic, too, a tab shrinks your title field to a manageable size, and it works great atop photos.
The best background photos have fairly uniform texture and value. What do you do if you have a busy photo (above, left)? One solution is to enlarge a detail (above, right) until it smooths out.
Along with a drop shadow, bleeding the tab off the edge fastens it to the page and, in this case, mimics a true sewnon fabric tab. The depth of the shadow should be similar to the material’s depth. Our shadow settings: Opacity: 60%, X-Offset: 0p0, Y-Offset: 0p2, Blur: 0p4, Mode: Multiply
3 of 5
Before&After | www.bamagazine.com
0600
0600 Label-style title
Banners and corners
DC De sig nC l a ssic s
TR AN ADIT D F ION U RN AL ISH INT IN ER GS IO RS
A label can be any shape. Top-heavy image? Balance it by running a label across the bottom. Have an open corner or free space along the side? Put your label there. Apply a slight drop shadow to complete the look.
Sometimes your photo is key; your readers really need to see it. In such a case, set your label as a low-key accent that plays a supporting role.
Contrast
TRADITIONAL INTERIORS AND FURNISHINGS
Design Classics
TRADITIONAL INTERIORS AND FURNISHINGS
Design Classics
DC
De sig n C las sic s RS TR AN ADIT D FU IONA RN L ISH INT IN ER GS IO
Label-style title
Colors of label and type will say a lot in your design. The most harmonious place to find colors is right in the image; select light, medium and dark values of each.
Give your label a voice—the difference of light and dark determines the “voice” and visibility of your label. High, medium and low contrasts are similar in voice to yell, speak, whisper.
DC DC
Note: In high contrast, a white line divides the information within the label.
4 of 5
Before&After | www.bamagazine.com
0600
B
A
Using only colors from the photo, dark type on a medium-value label (A) yields soft contrast; the type does not jump off the page, but it’s seen and heard in a speaking voice. Light type on dark (B) is a stronger difference and makes a more forceful presentation.
0600 Label-style title
0600 Label-style title
14
17
18
CRAZY COLORS
CRAZY COLORS
13 12 16 15
9b
20 23
21 23 22 20
Typefaces 1 Vectora Black | 16.5/13.5 pt 2 Vectora Light | 16.5/13.5 pt 3 Helvetica Neue Light Ext. | 20 pt 4 Helvetica Neue Heavy Cond. | 14/14 pt 5 Helvetica Neue Light Cond. | 14/14 pt 6 Didi Regular | 54 pt 7 (a-b) Avenir Light | a) 24/28 pt, b) 10.8/12 pt
Images
b
8 Phototone Backgrounds, Paper & Textiles CD 9 (a-b) Photos.com | a
Colors 10 C0 M15 Y100 K0 11 C40 M0 Y100 K15 12 C25 M0 Y100 K0 13 C90 M5 Y40 K0 14 C90 M55 Y0 K45 15 C10 M40 Y90 K0 16 C15 M100 Y100 K0 17 C40 M90 Y10 K45 18 C0 M100 Y85 K0 19 C95 M60 Y45 K30 20 C20 M25 Y35 K0 21 C40 M30 Y60 K25 22 C25 M90 Y95 K45 23 C45 M60 Y65 K55
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 Vincent Pascual Staff designer Dexter Mark Abellera Staff designer Editorial board Gwen Amos, Carl Winther 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 Š2005 Before & After magazine, ISSN 1049-0035. All rights reserved You may pass this article around, but you may not alter it, and you may not charge for it. You may quote brief sections for review. If you do this, please credit Before & After magazine, and let us know. To feature free Before & After articles on your Web site, please contact us. For permission to include all or part of this article in another work, please contact us.
Label-style title
0600
î‚Š
DC De sig nC las sic s RS
TR AN ADIT D FU IONA RN L ISH INTE IN GS RIO
2004 WINTER COLLECTION SWATCH BOOK
thomas fabrics
CRAZY COLORS 2005 Calendar The year in color
Article resources
2
1
10
11
8
19
3 4 5 6 7a 7b
9a
DC DC DC
Subscribe to Before & After Did you enjoy this article? Subscribe, 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
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