Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
Design In My Life
Rebecca Yu
Supratextual Elements
The information on this page is presented in columns,
which are part of a grid pattern (Samara 25). The design
of the page has also partially been guided by “artefactual
constraints” (Waller 4). That is, words and pictures have
been arranged in this way because of the page dimensions.
The newspaper belongs to level 3 of Waller’s scale of ty-
pographic genres. Newspapers are generally organized in
similar formats but the design still lacks more sophisti-
cate design elements. Furthermore, the important title is
placed in a prominent position at the top of the page.
The buttons along the top are shown to be part of a group
through alignment as well as format (Lipton 25).
This sign uses plain language so that any reader can eas-
ily understand the message. The big, bold “caution” and
use of contrast emphasizes the importance (Lipton). The
symbols on the sign are small, but have been designed to
“read small.”
Creating contrast
For this reason, we experimented with a wide range of
colors for the background before choosing the one we
thought best fit our brochure. We wanted to use a color
scheme that would make the words legible, but did not
want a simple black and white. We decided to settle on a
crème-colored off-white. This mild color was light enough
to make the black type contrast strongly with the back-
ground. The color choices also prevented the “shimmer
effect” caused by the use of complementary colors at
USA Today Spread: Waller’s Typography Genres equal intensities.
Information Design in My Life - Page 28
Apple iPod Ad: Use of color and repetition
Symbols
The information on the poster has been placed in a limited
area for easy readability. It follows Hedrick’s suggestion that
a line should contain no more than 45 to 75 characters.