Design Tips Part II
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The best designed layouts will grab the viewer's interest and sustain it long enough to get the message across. Cluttered, poorly designed layouts will not get a message across as effectively as a well-designed sign because it may even repel viewers. Think about it this way: who wants to spend a lot of time looking at an eyesore? Creating Visual Hierarchy When designing your sign, it is important to begin by establishing what elements of your design you will choose to focus on. Instead of making every element of the sign compete with each other for attention, choose one or two things that you want to have stand out to the viewer. For example, if you were making a magnetic sign for your pizza delivery van, one of the most important pieces of information you would want to convey to the viewer is the phone number. If your business is delivery based, even the address of your pizza place might be secondary the phone number, a mouthwatering shot of pizza might be more appealing than your logo, and so on.Once you have decided what element is to be the dominant element in your layout, creating visual hierarchy is easy. The dominant elements should be bigger or bolder than the rest of the information on the sign. It should act in the way a headline on a newspaper grabs your interest. The dominant element DOES NOT need to be centered on the sign. Be creative! Placing the dominant element away from the center often times leads to a more dynamic design, while centered designs can appear static or boring. Centering the main element also may leave little usable space for other pieces of information. Once you have placed the dominant element, place other pieces of information around the sign accordingly, keeping the visual hierarchy in mind. The additional pieces should not compete for attention with the main pieces, and try and edit any information that does not need to be on the sign. |
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| In this sign, the main element, the pizza is simply centered on the sign, forcing the rest of the information to cram around the picture. There is quite a bit of wasted white space, and there is no visual hierarchy. A viewer drawn in by the picture finds little else to captivate their interest, and because there is no other visual hierarchy, no element stands out or is memorable. |
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In this sign, the picture and the font are the same, but the visual hierarchy is established. The main elements in this sign are the picture of the pizza and the number of the pizza delivery place. Though the picture has been cropped, its placement off to the side allows for a larger picture and more room for the rest of the sign elements. The bold red of the phone number, along with the size, make it pop off the sign. The rest of the information takes a backseat, but the well-considered design makes it easier for a reader to quickly digest the information.
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