5 Building Blocks for Design

This week in PR pubs we have been reviewing the building blocks for good design. Here are five of those building blocks to keep in mind when considering good design:

1. Typography: Typography can be a powerful tool when you are designing anything. The type face you choose says a lot about the message you are trying to convey, and it can determine if your audience takes your message seriously. In other words, you might want to stay away from Comic Sans if you’re designing a business card…or really anything for that matter. Here are some examples of typography on National Geographics found in Hester Hall.
2. Color: Just like typography, your color choice and how you combine colors can also help drive home your message even more. Sometimes color can make your message illegible if you choose a color for text that is similar to the background color like this flier found on campus. You can’t read half of this so #epicdesignfail.  
3. Metaphors and Symbols: Metaphors and symbols, such as the Seed Sower Statue on campus, is a great way to appeal to a community such as the OU community. Symbols and metaphors communicate the values and philosophies of an institution and are great tools for building unity through materials you design. For example, images of the Sower are on all university stationery, business cards and other official print and digital materials. 
4. Balance: Good design is balanced. That doesn’t mean you have to have something everywhere on the page because white space can be a great way to balance your graphic. The photo with #2 is a good example of balance with the text on one side and the main focal point of the image on the other, but the picture below is another great example of balance on the University of Oklahoma campus. 
5. Dominance: Graphic design is just another form of art and in art there is usually a dominant element. Dominance help the eyes know where to look first and helps the reader or viewer know what is most important like the shepherdess see in this little statue.