This stands for Contrast, Repetition, Alignment, and Proximity, hence C.R.A.P. These for design elements are the basics that you need in order to have a stunning poster, magazine cover, business card, you name it. Understanding these principles can change your work from looking amateur to professional in minutes. These changes are simple and easy once you have a trained eye.
ConTRast
Contrast is the principle of difference between items. This can come in the form of difference in size or color or different types of font. The use of bold or italics is one common form of contrast — the difference in shape makes the bolded or italicized text stand out from the surrounding text. Increasing the size of headers and titles, or using ALL CAPS or small-caps are other ways of distinguishing text. These techniques only work if used sparingly; a document typed in all capital letters has less contrast than one typed normally, so is harder, not easier, to read. Contrast allows certain things to stand out on the page and helps to make your page look more interesting and less boring. Bland pages with the same font have a place in literature such as novels where gray text with the same 12 pt times new roman font is prevalent but pay attention to any magazine cover and look for contrast. Contrast draws your eye in and creates a visual experience that is exciting and fun. Contrast is what captures your readers attention right away and draws them further into the content.
Repetition, Repetition, Repetition
The headings in this article are all bold letters with a highlight. This creates a consistency and repetition that connects them together. Information that appears on every page should appear in the same place on every page. Design elements — like horizontal rules between sections or corporate logos — should appear the same whenever they are used throughout the document. Repetition of design elements pulls the document together into a cohesive whole, and also improves readability as the reader comes to expect text that looks a certain way to indicate certain qualities (e.g. the start of a new section, a major point, or a piece of code.) Repetition is the principle of design that creates cohesion within your document and design as a whole. It tells your reader that each part is connected to the whole piece and draws the eye from each section to the other.
Alignment
Alignment
Alignment is the principle of design that creates strong lines and a cohesive appearance. Columns within a page makes it easier to scan horizontally. Newspapers use this to great effect. Aligning a
whole bunch of elements with one another
makes them scan faster. Alignment makes things
easier to read. Alignment should be done on purpose. Take a look at magazines and newspapers, look at how the text is aligned with the strong left or right edge of a picture to create a clean line that is appealing and easy to read.
If you look at the alignment for this blog, all of the text has a strong left alignment, this creates a clean edge on the left side of the page. Most people thing that in design, centered alignment is the best thing to do. But centered alignment looks lazy and amateur. A strong left or right alignment can be just the change that you need to create or design a clean fresh look that helps you stand out. "Alignment as an effective design principle allows us to make conscious decisions about how and where elements are placed on the page. Taking advantage of strategic placement helps us to craft stronger and more compelling compositions and utilizing a grid system provides a standard guide for element placement. Without an alignment strategy we would end up with arbitrarily placed elements, with little or no connection to additional or similar features. Without alignment, the look and feel of your website would be a haphazard assortment of open-ended disorder." I have been able to utilize alignment to create a dynamic brochure that stands out and looks clean. alignment creates an organized crisp look and allows the information to flow smoothly on the page.
Pro xi m ity
If you look at the business card examples above, you will notice that a simple use of proximity allows
items to be grouped together according to their relevance. A simple change in proximity cleans up the
look of the business card and allows the information to be portrayed in a clear and linear
manner. The principle of proximity calls for related items to be grouped visually, creating less clutter
and making for a more organized layout. Items unrelated to each other should be placed further apart,
to emphasize their lack of relationship. By utilizing proximity I have been able rearrange items in my own designs in order to keep information grouped in a meaningful way. Proximity also allows space to be freed up and allows white space to not be trapped among other elements.
Dont fear white space
The first step to properly implementing the principle of proximity is understanding the importance of white space in design.Lack of white space is a common problem in amateur designs. Design is a means of communicating information, and when amateurs attempt to convey a message through design, their natural inclination is to spread out the content evenly to fill the space, without giving much thought to the potential of well-organized white space.White space can affect the user’s behavior as much, if not more, than the actual content on the page. White space guides the user’s eyes in the intended direction, creates contrast and makes a lasting impression.
"Content that is organized into a hierarchy and logically grouped is easier to read and scan."
If you want a clear, organized, professional look to any designs that you can create, put into practice these four simple elements of design. If you make your designs look C.R.A.P py then you will see immediate results and notice a more clean look that helps you to stand out from the multitude of designs out there. If you are interested in learning these principles in more detail, I highly recommend the book The Nondesigners Design Book by Robin Williams. This is a straightforward easy to read book with lots of examples to get your juices flowing and allows you to think critically and develop a designers eye.
These principles have helped me out in my current design projects and allowed me to feel more accomplished when designing. Even though I don't have formal design training, I feel confident because these basic principles let me create meaningful designs that I can be proud of. I am more aware of these principles and have a better eye for recognizing what makes something stand out or blend in with all the rest. For future projects I look forward to utilizing these principles and having fun creating new and impactful designs.
More information @
http://www.webdesignerdepot.com
http://www.techrepublic.com
http://www.thinkaroundcorners.com
http://www.lifehack.org
