3foldComm

The purpose of design is to communicate a message clearly and efficiently. The viewer must be hooked and the most important information delivered in a matter of seconds.

The best way to do this successfully is to highlight key information. There are several devices we use to call out important information, such as typefaces, scale, style (bold, italic, etc), negative space and alignment. The use of too many, however, will cause the message to become muffled – if ten people are yelling in one room, nobody will be understood.

Here are some quick tips for avoiding a visual cacophony:

• Minimize the number of typefaces used. The more faces used, the more confused the audience will be. Think of typefaces as individual personalities – too many would make your piece schizophrenic and confusing.
• Avoid too many variations in type size. Too many different sized words compete with each other for importance. Pick a standard size (8-11pt is ideal) for the whole document and deviate only for bringing attention to the most important parts.
• Use a light touch with stylized emphasis such as bold, italic and underline. Use bold for the most important info, italics for proper grammar use (article names) or for quotes, and underlines for links on the web (unless you just love using a typewriter, join us in the 21st century please).
• Unoccupied space is just as important as occupied space. Hello, white space, welcome to the party. A person’s first instinct is to evenly distribute all elements in a document, but fight the urge! White space lets the eye rest, creates visual interest, and focuses attention on isolated elements.

The most important thing to remember when designing your own documents to: know your audience. What matters to them, what do they need to know, and what can you leave out? Keep it clean, concise and interesting and you’ll make an impact…the good kind.