I never knew that I had a creative streak. I grew up in the US Military and had never really had to exercise my creativity throughout my career. As a technician, I had to come up with some unorthodox methods to solve some issues, but never creativity as a design aspect.
Then, I went and opened a blog in July 2020. I had no idea what I was doing, which is pretty much how everyone starts their journey. Around August and September, I began to add my own pictures and images to my blog site to spice things up. Here are some of my initial designs from a year ago.
Needless to say, I needed some help. However, at the time, I was very proud of my designs. The next step was to get a subscription to Pixlr.com, where I had access to millions of stock photos. I really could get my creative juices flowing now. Here are some of my favorite designs before I read a design book.
Then came the big event—I read “The Non-Designer’s Design Book” by Robin Williams (completed April 18, 2021). Reading this book has been transformative and life-changing. I can now see things during my creative pursuits that I never thought possible. I learned of the book while reading “Ca$hvertising,” an advertising book. Here are some of my favorite designs after reading the book.
Wow, what a difference. I had a hard time picking my favorites for the last batch. Each design sort of grows on you. Now, how did the design book help me understand some of the fundamentals of design? Simple, the author broke the design basics into four main rules (C.R.A.P). If you follow these rules, you will be heading in the right direction. The rules are:
Contrast. Contrast is how you show differences on the page. It is how you draw the eye to a particular section of the page. You want to control the viewer’s eyes and sense of direction using contrast.
Repetition. Repetition is where you repeat certain elements (pictures, fonts, colors) throughout the design to keep it consistent. This helps the design look like one piece of art and not a jumbo of stuff.
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Alignment. Alignment was my greatest foul before I read the book. Nothing can be random on the page. It should align with another object somewhere else. Also, fonts can only have one type of alignment (right, center, left-justified) per page. The Center is the worst alignment because it makes everything look amateur. Looking back at my pre-book days, no crap, every font was center-aligned. Yikes.
Proximity. Proximity is used to tell a story to the viewer. When things are close, they belong together—part of the same group. When you separate items, it means to the reader that this is a new, different piece of information to consume.
The author also gives us some bonus content regarding fonts and colors. The section on fonts has been beneficial in my journey.
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Fonts. There are six categories of typefaces (sans serif, modern, slab serif, old-style, script, decorative). Don’t use two of the same category on the same page. You can contrast these typefaces in six ways (size, weight, structure, form, direction). Understanding fonts has been a game-changer.
Colors. The author reviews the color wheel for the uninitiated (me). It is good to see what colors match each other. Other colors will stand out against others in your works.
Don’t worry; I am going to review each of these topics individually throughout the series. Obviously, the best thing for you to do is grab the book. It is a fantastic piece of work. However, it will be easy for me to assist you because I am still a beginner. I can show you how I am using these rules daily.
So stay tuned for my Basics of Design series. I hope you understand the value of learning design when starting a business. Also, you will want to learn how to write and advertise. If you can become a master (not the master) of these, you can be a one-stop-shop of business intellect. Good Luck!
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