Ch 5: Basic Design Principles
INTRODUCTION
Design must be visually appealing to the audience and well thought out. And while aesthetics are one of the main things that come to mind when we talk about graphic design, they’re definitely not the only piece of the puzzle. Steve Jobs once said that design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works. One of the other pieces that help make it work is the feeling. When we talk about the feeling of a design, we’re referring to whether or not the design stays on message. If there’s consistency in the message it will evoke the proper emotional response from the intended audience. Donald A. Norman once said, “Everything has a personality. Everything sends an emotional signal. Even when that is not the intention of the designer, the people who view the website infer personalities and experience emotions.” While Norman is referencing websites, this is true for all design. We have to be aware of this concept as designers and learn to effect and guide the emotions of those who view our work. Basic design principles are very important to strong graphic design. You need to have a good handle on these principles to become a good graphic designer. In this lesson you will be explore the basic design principles. This will help you understand all of the subtle nuances that go along with them so that you can actually start to put them in play as you start to create your designs throughout this course.
