Chapter 14. Answers & Suggestions

As a college teacher, all the quizzes, tests, and projects I give are “open book, open mouth.” Students can always use their notes, they can use their books, they can talk with each other, they can talk with me. Having taken hundreds of college units myself, from a science major to a design major to a Shakespeare major, I learned that I was much more likely to retain the correct information if I wrote down the correct information. Rather than guessing and then writing down a wrong answer, the process of finding the correct answer on a test was much more productive. So I encourage you to bounce back and forth between the quiz and the answers, to discuss them with friends, and especially to apply the questions to other designed pages you see around you. “Open eyes” is the key to becoming more visually literate.

Listen to your eyes.

There are double Returns above and below the headings: Take out all double Returns, but add a little extra space above the headings so they connect to the material they belong with.

Separate personal info from résumé items with a little extra space.

There is already a repetition in the headings: Strengthen that repetition by making the headings strong and black.

The strong black impression in the bullets now repeats and reinforces the strong black in the headings.

By the way: The numbers in the new version use the “proportional oldstyle” form that is found in many OpenType fonts. If you don’t have them, make the numbers a point size or two smaller so they don’t call undue attention to themselves.

2. complementary

3. tint

4. shade

5. CMYK

6. RGB

2. its

3. its

4. its

5. it’s

6. it’s

7. Mom ’n’ Pop Shop

8. fishin’

9. ’60s

10. cookies ’n’ cream

Modern: High Society

Slab serif: The enigma continues

Sans serif: It’s your attitude

Script: Too Sassy for Words

Decorative: At the Rodeo

Jiggle: C

Diggle: A

Piggle: A

Higgle: C

Wiggle: B

Riggle: A

Figgle: B

Biggle: D

Miggle: D

Tiggle: A

Conflict. Too many similarities: They are both all caps; they are about the same size; both kind of fancy; similar in weight.

Dogfood:

Contrast. Strong contrast of size, color, form (both caps vs. lowercase and roman vs. italic), weight, and structure (although neither font has a definite thick/thin contrast in their strokes, the two faces are definitely built out of very different materials).

My Mother:

Conflict. Although there is a contrast of form in the caps vs. lowercase, there are too many other similarities: same size, very similar weight, same structure, same roman form.

Funny Farm:

Conflict. There is potential here, but the differences need to be strengthened. There is a contrast of form in the caps vs. lowercase, and also in the extended face vs. the normal face. There is a slight contrast of structure in that one face has a gentle thick/thin transition and the other has monoweight, extended letters. The biggest problem is a lack of focus: “Health Insurance” is larger, but uses a light weight face; “Funny Farm” is smaller but uses all caps and bold. Decide which phrase is the boss and emphasize it over the other.

Let’s Dance:

Contrast. Even though they are exactly the same size and from the same family (the Formata family), the other contrasts are strong: weight, form (roman vs. italic and caps vs. lowercase), color (though both are black, the weight of “DANCE” gives it a darker color).

2. Don’t. Typefaces from the same category have similar structures.

3. Don’t. They will fight with each other. Decide what is the most important and emphasize that item.

4. Don’t. Most scripts and italics have the same form—slanted and flowing.

5. Do. You instantly have a strong contrast of structure and color.

6. Do. You instantly have a contrast of structure and color, but you will still need to work with it.

7. Don’t. Two fancy faces will usually conflict because their fancy features both compete for attention.

8. Don’t. Your purpose in putting type on a page is to communicate.

9. Do.

10. Do. The basic law of breaking the rules is to know what the rules are in the first place. If you can justify breaking the rules—and the result works—carry on!

Removed the border that was crowding the edges.

Used a stronger typeface whose bold has a bigger impact on the page (Principle of Contrast).

Repeated the bold to point out the three steps and repeated the light face to comment on them (Principle of Repetition).

Gave the text strong alignments (Principle of Alignment).

Separated the three steps so you can instantly see there are three of them, thus making it unnecessary to use the numerals (Principle of Proximity).

Page 19: Sally’s Psychic Services

Title is larger.

The rest of the type is smaller.

The three services are on three individual lines.

Related elements are grouped together.

Capitalized the words in the email and web address so they are easier to read.

Got rid of the extra heart.

Got rid of the word ‘available.’

Lightened the heart so it doesn’t compete with the text.

Enlarged the heart and overlapped it with the text to integrate it.

Page 20: First Friday Club

The main text is smaller.

Title is larger, which can be done when the rest of the text is organized and smaller.

The information is organized consistently so the reader can find it.

Headings are bold using the Principle of Contrast.

A strong alignment is provided using the Principle of Alignment.

Page 23: Moonstone Dreamcatchers

Title is larger.

Corners are not so rounded.

Text is aligned.

Abbreviations are spelled out.

Bullets are used instead of commas.

Some text is gray so it interrupts the visual less.

The moon escapes out the top.

Page 25: Shakespeare Close Reading

The contact info is on separate lines—but grouped together and separated—so it will stand out as important information.

Deleted the words phone, email, and web because they are unnecessary.

Deleted the semicolon after the phone number and the last slash after the web address.

Made the page color a little brighter.

Made SHAKESPEARE lowercase so it is easier to read and can be set larger.

Cropped the photo wider.

Page 27: Gertrude’s Piano Bar

Title is not all caps.

Gave Gertrude a nicer font for her menu heading.

Removed the underlines from the subheads.

Set the names of the dishes in bold and the descriptions in regular to help differentiate the information.

As mentioned, changed all caps to title case (initial caps in each word).

Page 30: Moonlight Inn

Move the bullets closer to the copy.

Provide at least a tiny bit of space between the photos to define them.

The body copy needs space between it and the photos.

The address and contact information need space to separate them from the photo.

The sides are crowded, yet there is lots of empty space at the top and bottom. The advantage for you here is that this gives you some flexibility in arrangement.

Tip on redesigning this ad: Get rid of the redundancies in the text.

Page 39: O ye gods

2. Centered arrangement actually looks centered, with varying line lengths.

Space between the lines is consistent within the quotation.

Typeface is not so large and horsey.

Typeface is lovely.

3. Interesting typeface.

Interesting graphic.

Centered alignment is clearly intentionally centered.

4. Strong and bold.

Black bar behind text and text is reversed out.

Appropriate ornament is used in a subtle way.

Page 45: Tri-State Wellness Ad

Enlarged the heading.

Englarged the logo leaves.

Made the horizontal spacing consistent.

Put the phone number at the top of each section to avoid trapping the white space inside the ad.

Changed the hyphens to periods in the phone numbers, which visually cleans it up a bit.

Spelled out “Appts.”

Spelled out the addresses to get rid of those visually annoying period/comma combinations. Also used small bullets instead of commmas.

Made the space between the lines consistent, except for the HIV testing which they seemed to want to set apart to call attention to itself, which is a perfect use of the Principle of Proximity.

Made the outline of the ad a half point thinner to avoiding enclosing it so strongly.

Added the blue bar across the bottom.

Made the web address larger and used caps to make it easier to read.

Used a piece of the logo, enlarged and tinted, in the empty space.

Page 47: The Undiscover’d Country

Removed the border from the graphic.

Enlarged the graphic to fill the space better, aligning the left and right edges in this freeform case.

Justified the type in this instance, only because the columns are wide enough for that size of type to prevent big gaps between words.

Changed the indent to an em space (eg., 12-point type would take a 12-point indent, about two spaces).

Page 49: I Read Shakespeare

Set the headings in the same font as the title (Principle of Repetition as described in the following chapter). Also used the same color.

Removed the indent in the first paragraphs after the headings.

Made the paragraph indents an em space in width (width of the point size of the type).

Used the tabs and leaders to make sure the table of contents align instead of using a row of periods.

Enlarged the readers graphic and shaded it back to gray so it wouldn’t compete with the headline.

Aligned the readers graphic with the top and bottom of the headline, plus the left column edge. Points and circles always extend a bit beyond the alignment edge as a response to the visual trick of appearing smaller.

Page 50: Pie as Art

Moved the text closer to the numbers (Principle of Proximity).

Changed “6” in the title to “Six” to prevent conflict with the numerals.

Englarged the title a bit.

Page 53: Fredrick Space Design

Enlarged the heading a bit so it aligns with the photo.

Grouped the subhead into closer proximity.

Maintained the strong right alignment on the bottom, which put the web address on its own line, which actually helps clarify the information.

Put caps in the web address so you can read it more easily.

Reduced the second logo in the bottom half a little bit so it stops competing with the one above.

Page 53: Happy Saddles

Is “Est. 2003” really worth all the space and attention it gets?

Do you really need to have a separate line stating “Horseback Riding”?

Put initial caps in that long web address to make it easier to read.

Can you shorten the line about “more information”?

Can you avoid those two blocks of black that make your eyes bounce back and forth between them?

Page 62: Pie wants to be shared

These things are repeated:

The headline font in the names of the workshops.

The serif font in the subhead and the footer.

The serif font as italic in each workshop.

The two colors.

The spacing between workshops.

The dotted rule.

The spacing between the dotted rules and the type.

Avoid amateur centered with font choice, spacing, appropriate clipart, no border.

Page 63: Dr. Sal and friends

The repetitive elements are:

The color of the green type.

The font for the green type.

The color of the white type.

The font and shadow for the white type.

The color of the shapes.

The overlap of various elements.

The style of the images.

Page 64: Yountville Seniors Radio

Repeated:

Two fonts.

Small caps.

Color of background in color of text.

Second color of blue (the complement of orange).

Copy text is aligned horizontally with the title text.

Page 64: Umbrellas & Charcoal

Repeated:

Dark maroon color.

Green color in bubbles.

Strong alignment of box with strong alignment of text.

Page 79: iRead rack card

Background is rich black (20 percent each of cyan, magenta, and yellow, with 100 percent black)

Title is larger.

Headline matches the logo font (Principle of Repetition).

Font uses the regular weight instead of the light weight so it will hold up better when reversed out of black.

The last two lines were split into three lines so it could be set larger.

Red dotted line repeats the red of the logo.

Took one point out of the main body text linespacing to create more space between the elements.

Widened the text block a little so the last line of the main body would be one complete sentence.

Broke the headline at a more appropriate place.

Page 81: Hugs Pie Shop

Changed the border to a thinner line (a half point).

Changed all caps to caps and lowercase.

Deleted unnecessary information such as “telephone” and the zip code and area code since this is a local ad in a local paper, allowing it to be set larger.

Enlarged the pie and let it float, after using Photoshop to make the background transparent.

Arranged the types of pies to fit the space better.

Aligned most of the copy on the left; some elements align on the right.

Repeated the shop’s favorite phrase in the shop name’s font.

Set the shop’s favorite phrase on a curved line.

Moved the phrase “a pie gallery” into the headline because the shop does have a gallery of pies as art.

Page 82: Sally’s Psychic Services

Got rid of Times New Roman: Replaced the heading with a script and the rest of the text with a sans serif.

Added the dark purple bar.

Pulled in the dark purple to appropriate lines in the bold sans.

Removed the light purple background to increase the contrast.

Reduced the size of the heart so it doesn’t interrupt the text so much.

Raised the heart to open the white space.

Page 142: Dentist:

2nd ad: Set SMILE in lowercase.

Changed the headline to roman instead of italic.

Deleted the odd graphics that seem to just fill the space randomly.

Set the name and other three lines in lowercase so they could be larger.

Removed one of the “Emergencies Welcome.”

Deleted the random graphics.

3rd ad: Added contrast in the black bars.

Brought the text blocks closer together so the white space is more organized.

Got rid of the odd bits of space above and below and to the side of the photo.