A Quick Look at Graphic Design:

1. A Quick Look at Graphic Design: Or everything you need to know in a lecture to make your documents look great! Jennifer Bowie, for Business Writing

2. Overview __________________________________ • Typography and Type Elements • Document Design Jennifer Bowie, for BW

3. Typography and Type Elements #1 one thing to remember: Typography exisits to honor content Typography exisits to honor content Typography exisits to honor content Typography exisits to honor content

4. Typography and Type Elements: Font Classifications There are four basic font classifications: • Serif:the oldest type, has serifs on the end of letter to guide reader’s eye, also has thick and thin strokes, considered more “readable” than sans serif. Gives a more formal and traditional feel to documents. Good body text or contrast text. Includes: Times, Garmond, Georgia, Goudy, Book Antiqua, and many more. • Sans Serif:“without serif,” only about 100 years old, has stokes that have little to no variation in width, looks more modern and technical, used a body text in Europe. Makes a good body text or contrast text. Includes: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Tahoma, Century Gothic (and other Gothics), and many more.

5. Typography and Type Elements: Font Classifications con. • Script:fonts that look they they are hand lettered, can connect or not. Should be used in small amounts for fancy documents (invitations), occasionally for headings, titles, logos, and drop caps. Most should never be set in long bodies of text. Use as a display font, or rarely a contrast. Includes: Comic Sans, Gigi, Brush Script (and other scripts), Fine Hand, and more • Decorative:fun, distinctive fonts. Should never be used in long bodies of text. Best used as display fonts. Very powerful so use sparingly. Includes: Goudy Stout, Impact, Algerian, Matisse, Minstral, and many more.

6. Typography and Type Elements: General Categories • Type is used for different things. General categories are: • body text- readable in long blocks of text and smaller sizes (print 9-12 pts, online 12-14 points). Can be Sans Serif or Serif fonts • display text- less readable and not designed to be read in long blocks. Used in advertising, for title or logo, and other display uses. Can be Script or Decorative fonts • contrast text- meant to contrast with your body text. Good for headings, subheadings, titles, and smaller blocks of text. Normally will be Serif or Sans Serif (opposite of body font) but can more more legible Script or Display fonts • Do only use 2-3 different fonts per document, and only from each category

7. Typography and Type Elements: Type Setting • Leading: (space between lines) should be at least 120% for serifed fonts, and 135-140% for sans serif. • greater is better than lesser for body text • display fonts can handle little or even negative leading • typefaces with small x-heights do not need greater leading, but those with large may • leading should increase proportionally as line length increases

8. Typography and Type Elements: Justification • Justified left: flushed left and jagged right, this is the most readable for long segments of body text • Justified right: flush right, jagged left, highly unreadable, use rarely. • Justified: flush left and right so the text forms a box. Can cause rivers in the text. • Centered: ragged both sides. Use rarely and in small amounts, very unreadable.

9. Rivers? An Example Suscipit exerci typicus praesent, tego feugiat amet. Iusto feugiat elit aliquip aliquip loquor modo lobortis dolore interdico lucidus. Facilisis vel ulciscor laoreet abdo metuo velit dolus obruo luptatum, capto uxor. Luptatum tincidunt vel gravis suscipit appellatio. Velit illum in si, persto proprius tincidunt nulla conventio haero, saluto. Os augue sagaciter vel in, fatua.

10. Document Design Communicate, not decorate • Design should always be used to communicate, and not to (just) decorate

11. Document Design Color • Color adds splash and interest to documents, while helping readers locate information • use the same color for the same type of information throughout the document • use color with other devices (white space, …) • use color to communicate, not as decoration • consider readers when selecting colors • use color to unify series of documents

12. Document Design Chunking & White Space • Chunking: elements that are related (like a heading with its paragraph) are grouped and look like they belong together. • White spaceis the empty space on a page. Use it to: • frame elements in the page that belong together, • add emphasis to tiles and headings, • and separate items that do not belong together • help with chunking

13. Document Design Headings • Headings: Most common device to “chunk” with • use no more than 4 headings • use more space above your headings than below • have at least 2 lines of text below a heading before a page break • use differences (size, color, style, font) to indicate levels of headings

14. Have fun and Design well The End Information from Sims 10, Guark & Lannon 8, Web Typography, & Kolin Jennifer Bowie, for Business Writing