Thursday 2 August, 2007

Graphic Design: Attention getting device


Have you ever wondered why some things get your attention than others? When you see an advertisement, brochure or any other such material what grabs your eyeballs? Surely the answer is ‘Design’. When a design has the more or less a perfect blend of all the ‘Laws of Design’ it becomes noticeable. So what I’m trying to say is that Design is nothing but an attention getting device.

‘Design’ whatever it be about, has deep psychological roots. It has to do something with the way we perceive things. Perception in psychological terms means finding meaning between different things that comes within our sphere of interaction. Literally speaking it means - ‘to assess’ or ‘to experience’. It is really interesting to find out how different people interact with each other. In other words, ‘How people communicate’? We all know that people communicate in different languages. Not just verbally but Non-verbally too. And ‘Design’, as I said earlier, is visual communication (which falls under the category of non verbal communication).

When we draw a layout for an advertisement or any such thing we are actually creating a pattern. We arrange different visual elements:

  • Color
  • Drawings
  • Images
  • Text
  • And most importantly space

If the arrangement has proper balance, symmetry, proportion, rhythm, emphasis and unity the design becomes visually pleasing and conveys some meaning.

But for a design to be really successful it needs something more! And that is ‘Appropriate’ content. Content of the layout is equally important as the design is. If the content is about baby foods and you have placed an image of a man using a hair styling gel which perfectly suits the background color and font style…pure blunder what else! It would be better to say this other way round. That content needs an ‘appropriate’ design.

A successful design is thus one which basically serves the purpose of ‘drawing attention’. Not just for visual pleasure but to pull the target audience towards the contents.

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