Just kidding…not even close, but here I am trying. Throughout this lesson, I have gained some knowledge on design. Here are some basic concepts of design and examples to go with them.
Form/function/message: This means a few different things. For the design to meet this criteria it must stay on message, it must be visually appealing, it serves its purpose, it is easy to read and it is
executable for printing, etc. These are only a few that fall under this category, as the list could go on. A good example I found of this is the Huggies “One and Done” Campaign. T
his is just one of the many ads Huggies put out, but they are all similar in trying to convey the same message and they all have the correct emotional appeal. They show dads with their babies in a Huggies diaper or using Huggies wipes (as this one). This shows that even a Dad can notice the difference between Huggies and other brands and they vote Huggies to be a better brand for easier clean-up, less leakage, etc. They are all visually appealing and they have the emotional appeal for men and women in the correct way to get the parents to buy Huggies.
Color: Learning the psychology of color is something that most people probably don’t pick up on as the consumer. However, there is a lot that designers put in to making the colors of an advertisement convey the message 
they want it to. For example, black on white and white on black is usually successful because of the color contrast of the two colors. Another example is how different colors have different meanings. For example, blues convey trust, loyalty, compassion, etc. So brands typically like to use blue as their color or at least in certain ads because they want you to trust them.
Typography: Typography is basically referring to the text of a design. These examples are found all around us;
from street signs, to print ads, to social media, the list goes on obviously. However, typography is one of the most important elements of design. Not only the words but also the fonts, etc. Without the correct typography, an advertisement can be totally lost. My uncle works in marketing and one of the biggest ‘no-no’s’ in putting out a catalogue or ad at his company (or any for that matter) is to not put your brand on the very front of the ad. As you can see, this ad has no brand name or any information on it about where to get these deals. So, most likely this ad would not be effective because the consumer has no way of knowing where these sales are happening.
Balance: There are different types of balance that are used in design. Since design is meant to be creative, there is obviously no one right
way to do it. However, these three types of balance are the ones typically used for a good design. 1.Symmetrical 2.Asymmetrical and 3. Radial. Symmetrical is when everything is evenly distributed on the page. So for example, there are three columns all exactly the same size. Asymmetrical is basically an illusion of inequality. For example, if there are three columns, two are filled and one appears to look half-way empty; it is still balanced because the half-way column is just filled with white space instead of color. Make sense? And finally, radial balance is when everything is focused around one object in the middle. This Coca-Cola ad is an example of radial balance where the logo is in the middle and the coke bottles are surrounding it.
Proportion/proximity: Proximity is how items are grouped and spaced in a design. Typically, in a good design you 
should group like items together and separate them from items that are different. This goes along with proportion in that you should proportion these so that it isn’t heavy on one item than the other. Proportion also means that the sizes, fonts, colors, etc. all line up and are proportional to one another. This Adidas symbol shows the importance of proximity in a logo or design. Without it being in the right place in proportion with one another, it completely messed up the entire design.
Images retrieved from: Feeling/Form/Message, Color, Typography, Balance, Proportion/proximity
Information retrieved from here
