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As I mentioned in my last blog, I consider the principle
of unity to be the most important principle of design. I want to reiterate that
it extends beyond the unity of shapes to include color, typography, visuals,
copy and other factors. I should also point out that these principles affect
all art forms; painting, drawing, sculpture, architecture, industrial design and of
course, video design. The principles of design are to the artist what the
rules of grammar are to the writer.
By stating that unity is the most important principle, I
did not mean to detract from the importance of the other principles -- they are
all critical to good design and if any of these principles are violated, the
overall design will certainly suffer. In addition to evaluating unity, the creative artist should make
a decision as to which design element will be emphasized. Emphasis can be provided by singling an element out, moving
it away from the clutter of other elements, making it bigger, bolder or more
colorful. The emphasized element might be placed at optical center to ensure
its being seen, but it may also be placed elsewhere. The most important rule
about emphasis is that all emphasis is no emphasis. Separate elements should
not compete for primary attention. Where
several items get equal billing, emphasis is cancelled out. In a poorly designed layout, the elements fight for attention.
One challenge in creating proper emphasis can involve dealing with
the
tendency of clients to want their logo and/or phone number to be
enlarged so that it ends up visually fighting with everything
else in the ad. David Ogilvy even wrote a poem about this -- “If the
client moans
and sighs, make the logo twice its size…” While you might have to
struggle with the client over this issue, it is your job as the
designer to
explain what should be emphasized to enhance the effectiveness of the
work. In these cases, I try (Lord knows) to convince the client
of the need to put the benefit forward as the most important item (see
previous
blogs). If you are successful in convincing your target market of the
benefit,
and that the benefit is substantial and worthy with regard to the
competition,
they will find the phone number all by themselves. The best clients
will leave design decisions to the professional designer.
This brings me to one of the reasons I decided to take
this little side trip in the first place. While many designers work in a vacuum, good designers understand that their work is an extension of strategic planning. The purpose of advertising is usually to sell the
benefit via the creative promise (I'll talk about the creative promise in a later
blog.). Or, the purpose might be to position the product
or service, to enhance the image of the client, and/or to brand the image in
the mind of the target market. The principle of emphasis plays a major role in
helping to achieve these goals.
Emphasis applies to all design work…including collateral...and video.
The designer should evaluate which element has the highest priority in the
design and make it the primary element. As I noted in the last blog, emphasis is closely related
to unity. Emphasis is also very closely related to the principle I will talk
about in my next blog... Sequence (eye travel).