Since print is meant primarily to be read, the first and most important thing to consider is its legibility. However, what also has to be taken into consideration is how the print is meant to be seen. In newspapers and magazines, yes is has to be read, so the things to consider regarding legibility would be the font, the font size, the colours and its contrast with the background. It can also be enhanced by adding photographs and pictures. Although if we look at billboards and such, we have to consider whether the advertisement could be seen, read and understood by motorists as the pass by speedily and only have time to catch a glimpse.
However I discovered that there is more than just the above to follow while you are creating a web design. Michael McPherson( principle of a Boston-based web designing company) helped me understand it a little better. “Realize that your type can, and will be, resized, cut and generally mutilated by browsers, poor monitors and search engines. Half of the visitors to your site will read and navigate using search engines that completely strip your design and layout from the content. Plan for it.” By making sure of a few things like keeping it simple, not using too many colours and keeping the font size bigger, web designers would not have the problems listed above.
Anti smoking campaigns are very important and widely used adverts, and getting the message across in one look is quite important if, for example, it is to be put up on a billboard.
These are some of the creative pieces of advertisements, which in my opinion are quite legible, as they succeed in sending the message across that smoking is hazardous for not only their own health but also the health of their children. It is successful in making people aware of the adverse effects of smoking, and sort of reminding them that they do have a choice to stop before it is too late.
Another example I found was of Kindle program for the iPhone, and I believe that just by looking at it we could say that it is a legible and therefore successful program. The background is dark and it contrasts nicely with the content and vice versa with the text part. The title and browsers are very handy and in short it does sell itself.
In order to communicate effectively, the design of an advert, on anything really, be it a map or the layout of a shopping centre, the design must establish a visual hierarchy. It must let the viewer see at a glance what the most important part is and be able to navigate easily. M&S provides a good example, as it has a board on all floor with clear instructions on what each floor contains, and even on the floor itself the clothes that are put together and the colour order, is quite remarkable, which is done in order to create a visual hierarchy.
A visual progressing begins with the carrier of the piece’s primary message and moves on to elements that provide additional thematic support and factual information. In aesthetic, the main role of composition is to guide the viewer’s eyes through the whole piece in a helpful manner. In this advert for sadness, the first thing that eye sees it the large text saying ‘Sadness’ after with we see the man and the wordings of top, and lastly the small text at the bottom of the page.
It is entirely different in this Vogue magazine, in which the first thing you notice is the photograph of Kate Moss, after which you look at the title of the magazine and then your eyes roam over the medium text and finally on the rest of the small text. It is visually quite appealing and accurate as there is a clear pattern to the layout and there is also legibility that if it is on a newspaper stand, it could be checked out in a glance, maybe even attracting the customer to browse through it and buy it.
Both legibility and visual hierarchy are important, because in this competitive world, the people who get the most views usually get the sales.
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