Posts Tagged ‘design’

For me, fonts are kind of like t-shirts. They tend to accumlate over time and, although they’re all fun to wear, I don’t necessarily need all of them them in my closet all of the time. As a designer, I use a ton of different fonts for the work I do (and clearly, metaphors as well!) If you’re loading a lot of fonts into your system every time you start your machine, you may find that it needlessly slows your computer down. That’s why I’ve been trying out some font management software lately to help alleviate the problem. These software programs allow you to install your fonts into their interface and then turn them on and off as you need them. They can also scan your computer for damaged fonts that might be causing problems.

If you are a Mac user, there is a program that comes pre-installed on new machines called Font Book. To be honest, I haven’t had much luck getting this to work the way I need it to. If you want to give it a try, I’d definitely recommend reading the help documentation before giving it a shot.

Another program that I’ve been using for a few years now is called Extensis Suitcase (now called Fusion 2). This piece of software is relatively inexpensive ($99) and works extremely well. The interface is very simple and it even interacts with some pieces of software like those from Adobe. They have software available for Mac and PC.

A third option is one that I just started using a few days ago. It’s a free program called Linotype Font Explorer X created by the Linotype Font Foundry. The interface is similar to iTunes and the setup is extremely easy. They even have a “store” so you can buy fonts that you need directly from them much like buying music in iTunes. After just a few days of using it, I’m extremely impressed.

If any of you have had similar problems or successes with fonts, be sure and leave a comment below!

After casting my ballot this morning at the polls, I was reminded of a real life example of the importance of good design. During the 2000 election, there was a very large debate about the use of the “Butterfly Ballot” in Palm Beach County and whether the terrible ballot layout changed the course of the election that year. Aaron pointed me to an article on the Presentation Zen site, which provides some great information on this seemingly simple design problem.

At its core, graphic design is all about using a visual language to communicate information. The Palm Beach County ballot is a great example in support of the importance of quality design. Good designers are trained to find new, innovative, creative, and CLEAR ways to present information to people. They take into account the audience that they are designing for and carefully research what the needs of that audience might be. A failure to do so is a fundamental failure in the design process. This quote from David Kelley, founder of IDEO, looks at this from the product design angle:

“Bad design is where the customer thinks it’s their fault that something doesn’t work. So, if you can’t make your GPS device work in your car — I mean, there should be a riot because they’re so poorly designed! Instead, the user thinks, ‘Oh, I’m not very smart, I can’t make this GPS thing work.’ People should demand more from the things they own; they need to demand that things work.”
– David Kelley, IDEO

We can all learn a lesson from the poor ballots of 2000 and try to make sure that we use visual elements and design to help clearly communicate our message and not take away from it. Try thinking about this the next time you put a PowerPoint presentation together. In addition to the great information Aaron and Amber provide, I’ve written some thoughts on design that might give some more suggestions and I encourage you to post your ideas in the comments!

Oh, and don’t forget to vote today (and be sure and double check that ballot, just in case!)

Nancy Duarte’s Slide:ology: The Art and Science of Creating Great Presentations is a hot read around CRL right now–Jim Knight recently reviewed the book in his blog, and just yesterday I saw a copy sitting on Don’s desk. It’s a great companion piece to the likes of Made to Stick.

Last week, publishers O’Reilly and Associates hosted a one-hour webinar with Duarte to discuss the book and the notion that visuals sell your story. I wasn’t able to sit in on it, and neither were you, probably, but fortunately O’Reilly already has the archived video up on YouTube, so I can embed it right here:

Watch the video, read the book, read some of the things we’ve shared about presenting in the past, and think about the slides you use. How can you tell your story–and the story of SIM–better?

“Most people think typography is about fonts.

Most designers think typography is about fonts.

Typ
ogra
phy is more than that, it’s expressing language through type.

Placement, composition, typechoice.”

-Mark Boulton

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Every now and then, I’m sent a Powerpoint presentation or poster or document and am asked to “clean it up” a bit. One of the things I often end up changing is the color that is used in the document. Color is tricky to deal with because it is hard to know where to start and how to choose colors that are effective. Color is so complex, in fact, that I was actually required to take an entire course on color theory in school!

My goal here is to try and give some basic pointers on color and how to use it to your advantage to help with your communications and not to turn people away from what you’re trying to say. I will use a Powerpoint slide to demonstrate, but I think these ideas will translate to everything from a presentation cover to a website to an invitation and even to photography.

In terms of visual communications and design, color serves a few different purposes. The first is purely aesthetic; it makes things look attractive.

The second good use of color is to establish a sense of hierarchy and to make certain elements stand out that are important.

A third use of color is to evoke meaning and emotion. What do you think of when you see the colors red and green? Maybe Christmas? What about something that is dark and neutral colors? It might be sad or sinister. Most colors have associated symbolism that is globally accepted, for example, blue is seen as calming or peaceful and red is energetic or angry. This is something to keep in mind when you’re setting up the color on a document.

When taking a file to be printed (at either type of printer), you might find yourself trying to understand a different language when asked about what kind of options or “specs” that you’d like. To make the process easier for you and the printer and to help reduce costly mistakes, I’ve listed a few things below that you need to know before taking a job to a printer.
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Hello! This is Dave Gnojek and I’m the Graphic Designer for the KU Center for Research on Learning. I’ve been talking with Aaron Sumner for a while about getting together so that I can share some of my thoughts on design and how it fits into the work we do here at the CRL. The Stratepedia blog seemed like the perfect venue for this and so, from time to time, I’ll be posting about things related to design that everyone can benefit from! For this post, I’d like to start discussing printing and how to understand some of the issues that might arise when you contact a printer.
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