Author Archive for Scott

Hi…er…What?

Published by Scott on April 14, 2011 in Design and Strategy. 0 Comments

As a graphic designer, it is my job to be a visual information manager, quickly communicating messages to a viewer in a way that is logical and predictable. Both are necessary in effective visual communication. One of the methods through which designers accomplish this is the development of a visual hierarchy, or order of importance.

People are visual thinkers. However, they don’t take in all visual information at once. Instead, they break it down into smaller, easier to process chunks, typically classifying visual elements in terms of relationships. The more complex the visual message, the more people tend to classify like elements. Size, color, contrast, alignment, repetition, proximity, space and texture are visual cues that help organize visual hierarchies for viewers.

Let’s get down to brass tacks: Why is hierarchy important? The answer is simple. People spend mere seconds, possibly even less, determining whether or not they are going to engage a visual message once it has caught their attention. If the hierarchy of the message is easily understood, the chances of the viewer engaging it increases exponentially. If not, the intended message is lost.

Many factors can lead to a failed hierarchy—client demands, designer inexperience, design-by-committee or a gross overabundance of content.

In an article on webdesign.tutsplus.com, Brandon Jones, Webdesigntuts+ Editor, describes an exercise to test for visual hierarchy success. Here are the steps:

  1. List the key information points that visitors are likely seeking.
  2. Assign values (1-10) according to their importance to the average visitor.
  3. Now, look at the actual design again.
  4. Assign values (1-10) according to the actual visual importance as you see it in the live design.
  5. Consider: Does the expected importance match up with the actual designed importance?

It’s a natural tendency to want every element to “jump off the page,” but it is our job to remember that hierarchy comes first and making every element bigger or flashier isn’t always most effective.

Of sticky logos and octopi.

Published by Scott on December 4, 2007 in Branding and Design. 0 Comments

Recently, SG was tasked with creating a fresh new identity for an established Wichita church. The client required a new logo that would support the new, unified direction in which the church was heading. Before coming to us, the church struggled with numerous, disconnected subministry identities and a logo that had morphed into a hybrid version of its original design.

Previous Eastminster Logo

To ensure that leaders’ voices were heard and opinions counted, we hosted a two-hour, guided ideation session. At the completion of the ideation, we knew that we needed to create an identity that was attractive to a younger crowd, while paying respect to and not offending an older audience.

We launched the logo design process. After a number of sketch rounds, we arrived at a logo that was both strongly progressive and rooted in tradition. By combining hand-lettered, modern type with the historic Celtic cross, we were able to create a look that appealed to a wide age spectrum.

New Eastminster Logo

Our work, however, was not done. We needed to devise a strategy that incorporated 18 distinct subministries into the at-large identity.

This might sound like a strange analogy, but this church identity needed to become a swimming octopus—I know, bear with me. The church’s many subminstries needed to become the tentacles and the logo the octopus’ head. As the octopus propels forward, the tentacles need to work in conjunction behind the head.

To create this swimming octopus, SG created a consistent format for the subministry names in combination with the logo, allowing the subministries to work with the main organizational identity rather than against it. This created a main-brand focus that allowed the smaller ministries to point back to the church’s main identity.

Subministry 1 Subministry 2

When building an identity for an organization that is made up of smaller entities, creating a concise, consolidated logo will help you build a sleek, sticky brand—your very own swimming octopus.

The Elasticity of Successful Design.

Published by Scott on January 12, 2007 in Uncategorized. Closed

Versatility is vital to success. The more a person can do, or know, the greater the potential for success in any discipline. It is no different in the advertising world with graphic design.

A common stumbling block in many advertising endeavors is the desire to focus too heavily on the design of one particular project without consideration for other projects that will directly correlate to the campaign or promotion. While it is common for one project to work as a springboard for others in a campaign this can create havoc down the road. A clear understanding at the outset of the vehicles or mediums the campaign will use to accomplish desired marketing goals is critical.

For instance, it would be one dimensional to focus time and energy on the creation of a visual concept for direct mail only to find out after it has been printed that a TV spot, full-page magazine ad and outdoor board need to follow that visual style. This type of scenario makes it difficult to preserve the design integrity of the campaign.

From a layout point of view there is now a kind of handcuffing that occurs, restricting all of the new projects to a design format that may not translate well to a different medium. Let’s say that the visual selected for use on the direct mail piece is an extremely horizontal photograph that uses the far left and far right areas of the image as necessary focal points for the visual concept. While this image may transform splendidly to the horizontal physical attributes of the outdoor board and a simple pan will accommodate the photo in the production of the TV spot, the vertical magazine ad suffers tremendously. The image has to be scaled down so small to fit the narrow page width. Consequently, it no longer has the visual power to intrigue the viewer. A decision must be made to either take the ad to a two-page spread or reduce the ad to a half-page or smaller ad. Either way results in costs to the client—from production design or lost impact and, therefore, lost revenue.

To avoid potentially aggravating and costly issues like the previous example it is important to always look toward the future, considering how a visual idea will translate to any medium. An effective way to accomplish this is to build a key image.

A key image consists of all of the driving visual elements (photographs, illustrations, typefaces, color palette, etc.) necessary to fulfill the visual concept in any given medium and also sets the overall design style for the campaign. No particular size or format is given to the key image to restrict it. This forces the designer and client to envision how the visual concept could be applied to other vehicles. It stages the most important question: Does this visual concept have legs? If the answer is yes, then there should be no problem in the translation of the visual concept to any medium. You end up with a versatile, “elastic” design platform capable of achieving success.