"Make it legible, readable, or whatever you want to call it. It should go without saying that type can’t be read has no purpose, but, unfortunately, it bears repeating. Yes, typography can be manipulated for inventive interconnection of structural elements within language; and yes, typography can resonate with its subculture audience and reference this or that pop-cultural zeitgeist. Whatever! It must still transmit information. Back when typography was treated very rigidly and always in good taste, Beatrice Ward, an English type critic, likened it to a crystal wine goblet – a transparent vessel designed for utmost clarity, not for looks. Beatrice might be dead and her crystal goblet might have been replaced by the far less stuffy jelly jar, but the jelly jar still lets you see what kind of wine your drinking." - Design Elements: A Graphic Style Manual, Stratham
Rule #8 - Be decisive. Do it on purpose – or don’t do it at all.
"Make a thing appear one way or another. A great deal of the process of understanding visual material is the ability to distinguish the difference between things. It’s a strategy left over from millennia of surviving in the bush by knowing that the big object in front of us is a large rock and not an attacking predator. Place visual material with confidence, and make clear decisions about size, arrangement, distance from other material, and so on. Decisiveness makes a viewer more likely to believe that the message means what it says; weakness or insecurity in the composition opens up all kinds of nasty thoughts in the viewer, even if he or she is intellectually unaware of the source-something feels off, unresolved, or not quite right. Suddenly, the viewer is trying to figure out what the issue is and not paying attention to the message itself. And that we just can’t have." Design Elements: A Graphic Style Manual, Stratham
Rule #7 - Treat the type as an image, as though it’s just as important.
"A sad commentary on typography today is that most of it fails in this regard: it’s either unimaginatively separated from photography in the notorious “headline/picture/body-copy” strategy seen in countless ad campaigns during the past sixty years or insensitively slapped across images, in quirky typefaces, under the assumption that if it’s big and on top of the photo, it’s integrated. Time for a reality check! Type is visual material-made up of lines and dots and shapes and textures – that needs to relate compositionally to everything else included in the design, no matter different they seem to be." Design Elements: A Graphic Style Manual, Stratham
Rule #6 - Negative space is magical – create it, don’t just fill it up!
"It’s said often that negative space-sometimes called white space (even thought there might not be any white around)-is more important that the stuff that’s in it. For the most part, this is true. Space calls attention to content, separates it from unrelated content around it, and gives the eyes a resting place. Negative space is just as much a shape that you have to deal with in a composition as positive shapes, whether pictures or type. When you don’t deal with it at all, negative space feels dead and disconnected from the visual material it surrounds. If the space gets filled up, the result is an oppressive presentation that no one will want to deal with. A lack of negative space overwhelms and confuses the audience, which is likely to get turned off." Design Elements: A Graphic Style Manual, Stratham
Rule #5 - If you can do it with less, then do it
"This is a riff on an adage left over from Modernism, sometimes known as the “less is more” theory. It’s not so much an aesthetic dogma now as it is a bit of common sense: the more stuff jammed into a given space, the harder it is for the average bear to see what they are supposed to be seeing. Plus, it’s trashy; anybody can load a bunch of stuff onto a dull message and pretend it’s a complex work of art, but there’s a big difference between “complicated” and “complex,” a state that often comes about in a simple context. True art lies in the harmonic convergence of thoughtfulness and creativity applied to very little. If the concept and the form are truly beautiful, there can be very, very of it to look at-without sacrificing a rich experience. Think about how much visual garbage gets thrown at someone walking down the street everyday, and ask yourself: “Wouldn’t it make more sense to delete some of that mush in favor of something sleek, clear and noticeable?” Make more meaning out of what is there; don’t gunk it up. If the idea is clear without adding, putting more stuff in is just “gilding the lily;” if the idea isn’t there and it’s not visually interesting, adding to it is simply trying to make “a silk purse from a sow’s ear.” Design Elements: A Graphic Style Manual, Stratham
Rule #4 - Pick colors on purpose
"Don’t just grab some colors out of the air. Know what the colors will do when you combine them and, more important, what they might mean to the audience. Color carries an abundance of psychological and emotional meaning, and this meaning can vary tremendously between cultural groups and even individuals. Color affects visual hierarchy, the legibility of type, and how people make connections between disparate items-sometimes called color coding-so choose wisely. Never assume that a certain color, or a combination of colors, is right for a particular job because of convention either. Blue for financial services, for example, is the standout color cliché of the past fifty years. Choose colors that are right, not those that are expected." Design Elements: A Graphic Style Manual, Stratham
Rule #3 - Use two typeface families maximum. OK, maybe three
"Choose typefaces for specific purposes. In doing that, you’ll need to define what the purposes are, and you’re likely to find that there are only two or three purposes for text in a project. Because a change in type family usually signals a change in meaning or function-restrain yourself! A single type family with a variety of weights and italics should be enough all by itself; adding a second is nice for texture, but don’t overdo it. Too many typefaces are distracting and self-conscious and might confuse or tire the reader." Design Elements: A Graphic Style Manual, Stratham
Rule #2 - Speak with one visual voice
"Make all parts talk to each other…in the same language. Take a look at everything, from the big picture down to the tiniest detail, and ask yourself: “Does everything relate harmoniously to everything else?” Good design assumes that the visual language of the piece-its internal logic-is resolved to address all of its parts so that they reinforce, restate, and reference each other, not only in shape or weight or placement, but conceptually as well. As soon as one element seems out of place, or just a leftover that hasn’t been given any thought, it disconnects from the others, and the message is weakened." Design Elements: A Graphic Style Manual, Stratham
Rule #1 - Have a concept
"If there’s no message, no story, no idea, no narrative, or no useful experience to be had, it’s not graphic design. It doesn’t matter how amazing the thing is to look at; without a clear message, it’s an empty although beautiful shell. That’s about as complicated as this rule can get. Let’s move on." Design Elements: A Graphic Style Manual, Stratham
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