Design shapes the word that we see in ways we don’t even recognize. Book covers, movie posters, advertisements, buildings, and even utensils we use on the daily. Everything around us is carefully crafted and designed by someone. The things we use in our every day to day life from our cars to our coffee-makers were all designed by someone.
I learned a lot from this week’s readings. My favorite two are The Vignelli Canon by Massimo Vignelli and A Kid’s Guide to Graphic Design by Iconic Designer Chip Kidd written by Maria Popova.
I learned that appropriateness plays a big role in design. Even before beginning a design one should know specifically what type of product they want. Design should encapsulate a product’s theme or goal so the concept of appropriateness and knowing what overall product you want to create will allow a creator to select the “appropriate” media, materials, colors, fonts, etc. For example, if there’s a children’s movie coming out and a designer creates a movie poster with neutral-colored visuals and serious fonts as opposed to a more playful and vibrant design that would be “inappropriate.”
Another concept of design I learned about is timelessness. Fads and trends are unappealing to us when it comes to design. Temporary art that appeals to the present trends is unappealing to the general population. A good designer or a good creator is someone who can create something timeless.
Lastly, an important concept to think of when designing something is simplicity. Some designers go overboard with incorporating all the skills they know and bombard a product with so many unnecessary things that take away from the product. Design can be overwhelming if designers and creators don’t follow the principle of simplicity.
After reading the articles on design, I started noticing all the things around me and started analyzing how they were designed.
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