People design their slogans often times with quotations. This is and old feature that doesn’t have a place with a modern slogan. If the slogan is truly someone’s quote then go for it but leave the quotes off if it is just a statement. Aim to also have your slogans be unique to your type… Continue reading Slogans should be quote free.
Category: Design Tips
Streamline the content
Here is an example of too much clutter. This format can be streamlined more effectively. Remove the duplicate “:00” and the extra spaces around the dash. The dash should also be an EN dash. While you are at it, don’t forget the space before the “pm”
Group your bullets
Bulleted lists are very common and often times a designer will just set the leading but not the space-between paragraphs. The problem this causes is that all the lines of info are equally spaced and don’t have clear groupings. If space-between was used and the leading reduced the bulleted info would be grouped appropriately and… Continue reading Group your bullets
Underline me not
Designers have the ability to use so many options to make a headline or any amount of text more prominent that underlining should be one of the last options we consider. There is a difference between using a line as a divider but when it is as an underline you are digressing to the days… Continue reading Underline me not
Face it into the ad
It may be a subtle item but the direction images face are important. In this example the camera is facing off of the ad. If this were a photo of a person they would be looking away from the content. Aim to have items looking into the ad so the eyes point to the ads… Continue reading Face it into the ad
Between the Lines
I have never understood how designers determined that outlining type helped make it more readable. Unfortunately, it actually makes type harder to read. It is like putting an annoying sound in the background of your favorite sound. How about the sound of fingernails on a chalkboard. It just makes you cringe. It would be better… Continue reading Between the Lines
Proportional response
Somehow the approval process was dropped here. I can’t imagine Smart Bank was OK with all their photos were squished. It is amazing how many people don’t realize they aren’t resizing their images proportionally. The Shift key is the perfect help for this.
Time to drop the WWW
As we have progressed through time with giving out web site addresses we have dropped more and more in the long line of info. Remember when we used to include “http://www.”? Since we end websites with .com, .us, .tv and other endings isn’t that obvious enough that the www. can now be dropped? Being a… Continue reading Time to drop the WWW
Indicating New Paragraphs—Indenting
Indenting is one way of indicating a new paragraph. It isn’t the most preferred in modern layout design but it is acceptable. Some guidelines with this is that you shouldn’t use space between paragraphs in conjunction with indenting. This example is correct except for one item to avoid. That is don’t indent the first paragraph… Continue reading Indicating New Paragraphs—Indenting
Space Around Subheads
In this example, you’ll see that the designer doesn’t put a proper association with the paragraphs and their subheads. Add space before the subhead would help create the needed space to allow for proper grouping of related content.