http://www.usability.gov/what-and-why/visual-design.html
Ottawa, Graphic Design, Logo Design | Logo & Brand Identity Creative Process How does a Creative Process Help? The goal of a creative process in graphic design is to channel time, energy and creativity in a direction that is in line with a specific project’s needs. By its own nature, creativity can be hard to harness into a predictable and linear set of stages, but it is of enormous value to do so. A good creative process for logo design greatly improves the opportunity for a successful outcome in a reasonable time frame. When developing a brand identity, it is difficult to predict how the creative process will go, but it is essential that every identity go through all of the stages. We Both Have Responsibilities A creative process works best if responsibilities are clear from the beginning. Words Before Visuals I spend a lot of time analyzing the information provided by a client. Where Does the Time Go? All projects are unique and the amount of time spent on the different tasks varies. Gather, Analyze, Visualize, Repeat. My process in its highest level: back to top
Education Exchange The Adobe Digital Careers activities align to the key design, research and communication, project management and technical skills that are required for students to be successful in their future digital career. Activities contain an instructor guide (with learning objectives, step-by-step teaching instructions, assessment rubric, and details on alignment to the Adobe Certified Associate exams) and student technical guides or worksheets. Each activity will take between 1-3 hours to teach, depending on the activity and the level of your students. Activities can be used on their own or combined in a sequence to create projects and curriculums.
Color Contrast - all about the difference - Love of Graphics Contrast – a definition Contrast can be defined as “the difference in visual properties that makes an object (or its representation in an image) distinguishable from other objects and the background.” In plain English that could be described at its most basic level as “things which look different from one another” or as the definition taken from Cambridge online Dictionary “an obvious difference between two or more things”. The real meaning of form is made clearer by its opposite. Jan Tschichold, Typographer “The New Typography” Contrast – in color Remember thrusting your hand into a big pail of mixed-up, broken crayons, then leafing through your construction paper to find the perfect hue to go with your chosen sticks of pigmented wax? Contrast is the perceived difference in colors that are in close proximity to each other. Value Dark areas advance, or stand out, while light areas recede, or hang back.Dark areas also have more weight in terms of balance. Color The Pure Color (Hue) Contrast
Clean Up Your Mess - A Guide to Visual Design for Everyone 10 Web Typography Rules Every Designer Should Know When someone visits a website you’ve designed, the odds are that they don’t care much about the colors, images or sounds, they’re immediately looking at the text. No matter how many bells and whistles you’ve built into a website, everyone relies on text to accomplish whatever they’re visiting the site to do. That alone should make typography, the art of arranging type, a priority for any web designer. In this article we take a look at 10 easy rules to keep in mind when designing your next web project. 1. With a design like JonesingFor a designer without a great grasp of the text would have struggled to put together the typography that makes this site really work. Some web designers think that just copying and pasting out of a text file constitutes the total of their textual duties. You can kick your typography up yet another notch, if you can read through the text once it’s in place in your design. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. It’s not possible to entirely avoid serifs, of course.
Methods Project Management (4) A project plan takes into account the approach the team will take and helps the team and stakeholders document decisions made regarding the objective, scope, schedule, resources, and... Creating an interdisciplinary team with the right mix of skills is vital to the smooth and successful execution of any project. Team members may be able to cover multiple roles or there may... Website requirements are a list of necessary functions, capabilities, or characteristics related to your website and the plans for creating it. User Research (14) When reporting results from a usability test, you should focus primarily on your findings and recommendations that are differentiated by levels of severity. Task analysis is the process of learning about ordinary users by observing them in action to understand in detail how they perform their tasks and achieve their intended goals. Usability Evaluation (14) Information Architecture (4) User Interface Design (4)
Create a Complex, Repeating, Geometric Pattern in Photoshop For many, the thought of creating a complex geometric pattern in Photoshop might seem like a daunting task. While complex patterns might look complicated, the techniques used to create them aren't actually that advanced. In this tutorial, we will use vector shapes to design a complex geometric pattern, without the use of any plug-ins or special effects. Tutorial Assets The following assets were used during the production of this tutorial. 26 Repeatable Pixel Patterns 1. Step 1 In Photoshop, make new file by pressing Command/Ctrl-N. Step 2 Hit Command/Ctrl-R to reveal Ruler on left and top of the canvas. Step 3 Drag from vertical ruler to add guide at 125 pixels or half the canvas width. Step 4 Repeat same step, this time from horizontal ruler. Step 5 Click foreground color to change it to #5a5b5d. Step 6 Hit Alt-Delete to fill background with foreground color. 2. The pattern is made of three geometrical objects. Activate Ellipse Tool from Toolbar. Draw another circle with same size and property.
ACRL Visual Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education Approved by the ACRL Board of Directors, October 2011 Introduction The importance of images and visual media in contemporary culture is changing what it means to be literate in the 21st century. Today's society is highly visual, and visual imagery is no longer supplemental to other forms of information. New digital technologies have made it possible for almost anyone to create and share visual media. Yet the pervasiveness of images and visual media does not necessarily mean that individuals are able to critically view, use, and produce visual content. Visual Literacy Defined Visual literacy is a set of abilities that enables an individual to effectively find, interpret, evaluate, use, and create images and visual media. In an interdisciplinary, higher education environment, a visually literate individual is able to: Visual Literacy and Higher Education Across disciplines, students engage with images and visual materials throughout the course of their education. Standards Development Process
Composition and Design Principles ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Everybody immediately responds to subject matter in art. A picture of a butterfly and a picture of a snake do not get the same response. In addition to subject matter*, the formal aspects of visual composition are like the grammar of a language. In writing, a story is written with words - subject matter. The use of design principles applied to the visual elements is like visual grammar. TEACHING TIP Art vocabulary can be taught along with every project. *Glossary: "Subject matter" is similar to "topic" or "content" when teaching art. Six Visual Elements (art elements) top of page We think of the elements as the basic visual material with which to make art. Some Design Principles or design rules (some creative artists purposely break rules) top of page This list is an example list. Balance is the consideration of visual weight and importance. Variety - You create variety when elements are changed. Depth.
Visual & Graphic Design You’ve heard you can’t judge a book by its cover. But the truth is, if a book doesn’t have a good cover, most people won’t even reach for it. The same can be said about elearning. Good visual design compels the learner to go deeper and learn more; and it reassures them the course is valuable and worth their time. The course’s visual design is a powerful tool for setting the tone, communicating key concepts, and engaging your audience. I’d even say it’s critical to your course’s success. In the posts below, you’ll learn some visual design basics that make for more effective communication. Communicate with Good Visual Design Graphic Design for Your E-Learning Courses Resources to Help You Build Better Graphics
Design elements and principles Design elements and principles describe fundamental ideas about the practice of good visual design. As William Lidwell stated in Universal Principles of Design: The best designers sometimes disregard the principles of design. When they do so, however, there is usually some compensating merit attained at the cost of the violation. Principles of design[edit] Principles applied to the elements of design that bring them together into one design. Unity/Harmony[edit] According to Jose Contreras, author of The Elements of Graphic Design, to achieve visual unity is a main goal of graphic design. Methods[edit] Balance[edit] It is a state of equalized tension and equilibrium, which may not always be calm. [3] Types[edit] The top image has symmetrical balance and the bottom image has asymmetrical balance SymmetryAsymmetrical produces an informal balance that is attention attracting and dynamic.Radial balance is arranged around a central element. Hierarchy[edit] Scale/proportion[edit] Contrasts[edit]
Create an Intense Fallen Angel Composition in Photoshop Preview of Final Results Create A Dramatic Fallen Angel Scene Resources Step 1 Create a new document with size of 1000×1000 px and fill it with white (or any color you like). Open desert stock. You can see that I created a lean angle to get more visual impact. Step 2 Click the second button at the bottom of Layer Pallete to add mask to desert layer. Step 3 To create some depth for the picture choose Filter-Blur-Gassian Blur and pick radius as 2 px: I just want to blur the foreground so on Smart Filter mask I used soft black brush to reveal the rest: Step 4 There is a part which does not look good on the ground so hit Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+N to make a new layer above the desert one with Clipping Mask: Active Clone Tool (S) and use it to remove the part indicated in a previous screenshot: Step 5 I used an adjustment layer to darken the desert. On Curves layer mask I used soft black brush with opacity about 10-15% and 40-45% to reduce the dark effect on the top of the ground (desert):
Type Design Introduction Design History Family Classifications An Introduction to Type Type Design Since the first recordings of letterforms the concept of the typographic form has evolved into a seemingly endless variety of designs. Type design variations fall within specific categories. Typeface The basic category of type design is the typeface: the specific letterform design of an alphabet , including the serif shape, x-height, length of ascenders and descenders, variation of stroke weight, and any other characteristics that differentiate it from any other design. Typestyle A typeface usually includes several design variations called styles . Character angle . Character weight. Character width . Font A collection of all the characters of a typeface in one size and one style is called a font. Type Family The complete assembly of all the sizes and styles of a typeface forms a type family, bearing the name of its typeface. Type Measurements Point, pica and inch conversions are as follows: Points Picas
The Gestalt Principles The Gestalt Principles Gestalt is a psychology term which means "unified whole". It refers to theories of visual perception developed by German psychologists in the 1920s. These theories attempt to describe how people tend to organize visual elements into groups or unified wholes when certain principles are applied. These principles are: Similarity Similarity occurs when objects look similar to one another. The example above (containing 11 distinct objects) appears as as single unit because all of the shapes have similarity. Unity occurs because the triangular shapes at the bottom of the eagle symbol look similar to the shapes that form the sunburst. When similarity occurs, an object can be emphasised if it is dissimilar to the others. The figure on the far right becomes a focal point because it is dissimilar to the other shapes. Continuation Continuation occurs when the eye is compelled to move through one object and continue to another object. Closure Examples Proximity Figure and Ground Figure