Basic Design Concepts and Tips
1. Hierarchy
When designing the layout of a page, make sure you have an easy to understand hierarchy of information.
Large blocks of text are hard to follow so make sure they are broken into easy to read chunks!
Headlines have to be the first thing that catches your eye.
To attract your viewer's attention to a specific headline you can apply a wide range of skills.
Making it bolder is the most obvious solution.
Consider using more creative elements like the positioning of the headline and the "whitespace" which surrounds it.
As you can see on the top of this page, the headline Basic Design Concepts and Tips can attract your attention without being very large in point size.
This is because there is plenty of breathing room around it.
Other tricks that attract your viewer's attention are CAPITALIZING or changing the color, line spacing, letter spacing or orientation of text.
Do not conform to the above stated methods alone. Find creative ways (based on your content) of attracting attention specific words or phrases.
2. Grid
Your page layout needs to conform to some sort of a grid which makes the information appear organized in a logical manner.
My motto for making a truly creative design grid is: remove anything superfluous!
Start off with black and white type.
Add appropriate color. Imagery comes last; like icing on the cake.
(The only case when this is not true is for artsy design or primarily non-textual content)
Never add more elements just for the sake of it.
If something is not related to your subject or does not make your design stronger, remove it!
3. Content
Designing is all about your content.
Your subject matter should dictate what decision you make.
Try to reflect what your content says through your design.
For example, if you are talking about something very traditional or conservative your design should be very plain.
In that case you might use a traditional Serif font, your text would be very neatly laid out with no overlap or cropping.
If your designing a page about trash metal, your design has to convey the feeling of the music.
You might want to mix things up, make them appear chaotic.
For example, your images could be interfering with the text or something like that.
You may want to make your titles stand through typographic tricks likeTHISforEXAMPLE.
4. Legibility
As you have read above, there are plenty of tricks you can apply but it is very important to arrange your information in a legible manner.
If people can't read your content easily, they probably won't.
Pay close attention to the colors you use, the point sizes of your type and the line spacing.
5. The System
When you have to design more than one page, make sure you have variety.
Doing the same thing over and over again is weak design.
Try to mix things up, but not so much that your design changes its "feel."
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