Typography, Layout and Colour Research

Typography and Layout Research

Graphic Design, The New Basics by Ellen Lupton and Jennifer Cole Phillips

Symmetry can be left to right, top to bottom or both. Many organisms and naturally occurring shapes have a symmetrical form.Symmetry is not the only way to achieve balance. Asymmetrical designs can be more attractive than symmetrical ones, where balance can be achieved by placing contrasting elements in counterpoint to each other; compositions which allow the eye to wander while achieve a balanced look overall. Beehives are a good example of a naturally occurring symmetrical look. I could break the rules and make a honeycomb look asymmetrical. 

I admire how the typography has been used above, there are different versions of the same text. This could be a route of design I go down with my campaign posters, but I will have to see if this will be viable since I will be creating information graphics. I quite like the typography where shadowing has been used on top of the letters, I think this adds character and makes it stand out. The typographic piece on the bottom left has stirred up inspiration. Maybe I could use a honeycomb effect on top of my main text on the poster? 

Type & Colour by Michael Beaumont

The use of negative space in this typography example is interesting. I think this style could work well if there are two different background colours to base it on. I am not sure if I would use a style like this in my designs but it is interesting to see what I could potentially create. 

I could use different sized letters or play around with the layout of certain letters to create a design for my poster. However, I think this style of typography would be very hard to implement into an information graphic. 

Colour Schemes 

This is a very interesting colour combination diagram I found in the 'Graphic Design, The new Basics' book. When coming up with designs for my roughs I will keep this in mind, especially colours which fully compliment each other. I believe doing so will allow me to create an effective design which captures the viewers attention. 

Colour Scheme's for Nature Poster 

Warm colour pallet 

Cool Colour Pallet 

Natural Colour Pallet

Contrasting Colour Pallet

Sizes and Dimensions

Advertisments and other forms of graphics communication which are seen outside (out of home (OOH)) are all around us. It can be an effective way to get a message across to a lager audience.  

Bus Shelter poster size 

Billboard sizes can range from 1200mm x 18mm, which are posters that you see at bus shelters to larger poster (3m x 12m) 96 sheet billboards which are seen on the side of the road. I will need the dimensions for a bus shelter size poster which is what what the centre for alternative technology and zero carbon britain are want. 

For the bus shelter poster it will need to be 6 sheets (1.8 x 1.2m) these can also be seen at train stations as well as shopping centres. This size of poster will easily get recognised. 

Social Media sizes 

I will be using an Instagram template for my posters as Instagram is one of the most popular platforms of social media in the world. 

In general Instagram supports photos and videos that have a width of between 320px and 1080px. If a photo of video is smaller than 320px, Instagram will increase the size to a width of 320px and if its wider than 1080px it will be reduced to 1080px.