Say No to Helvetica…
and other graphic design rules!
I’m kidding about Helvetica, by the way. This post was brought upon the sheer ugliness of 98% of advertisements that are displayed in the metro and trains, newspapers and magazines- read on, you’ll understand what I mean. These rules are purely from my own experiences and what I have learned in school, having been taught from a more classical side of design.
This is a registration form I made in my 2nd semester. Even though we were able to use 2 typefaces, I opted for just Univers Condensed and it’s different weights. Different colors will come in handy if you want a lot of variety.
1. KEEP THE NUMBER OF TYPEFACES TO A BARE MINIMUM
We don’t need to see your whole font library on one sheet of paper! Keep in mind that there is sometimes no need for a 2nd typeface: a well made font will be available in a variety of weights which should bring variety to a project. If you must use a 2nd font, make sure they compliment each other. A serif and sans serif combo usually works when treated properly. Of course, use more fonts if needed… you just need an editing eye.
2. ITALICS WE’RE ORIGINALLY MEANT FOR TECHNICAL, MEDICAL TERMS ETC.
I hate italics- I guess it’s alright for some headings though c:
3. CONDENSING OR EXPANDING WORDS MANUALLY DESTROY THE LETTERFORMS’ INTRICACIES
Enough said.
4. DON’T BE AFRAID OF NEGATIVE SPACE
Less is most definitely more! It seems as if companies want to squeeze everything they can get from their pennies so they insist on filling up every square pixel of an advertisement- what’s even worse is that these so-called designers oblige. The viewer needs breathing space when looking at a design. Negative space can bring unity to a design and can even be an element that contributes to the overall look.
5. OPT FOR A LEFT OR RIGHT PARAGRAPH ALIGNMENT
This will create natural rags which refers to the uneven vertical margin formed by sentences being broken up by lines versus a straight vertical margin line formed by a justified alignment. Pay close attention to the rag that the paragraph makes- it should be random and not create distracting negative shapes (downward/upward slopes or curved or rounded lines). Once again, this is a more classical approach to text setting- the sky’s the limit when it comes to paragraphs so feel free to create shapes and have fun with it if that’s the approach you are going for! Also, centering should only be used for headings.
6. NEVER USE RESTAURANT TYPE
Restaurant type refers to a heading where the letters are stacked on top of each other. We’ve all been culprits, heh. If you must have vertical set type, rotate the whole word together so that it reads going up the page.
7. HELVETICA IS BORING
Yes it’s beautiful and can be made into pretty much anything you want it to be but it’s overused. Stand out and use another sans serif like Univers (most beautiful when condensed c;) which happened to be released the same year as Helvetica. There’s also the other greats such as Futura, Gill Sans, Frutiger, Avant Garde and so on.
I’ll keep all this in mind when I go into marketing