Information

Design In My Life
Rebecca Yu

Supratextual Elements
The information on this page is presented in columns,
which are part of a grid pattern (Samara 25). The design
of the page has also partially been guided by “artefactual
constraints” (Waller 4). That is, words and pictures have
been arranged in this way because of the page dimensions.
The newspaper belongs to level 3 of Waller’s scale of ty-
pographic genres. Newspapers are generally organized in
similar formats but the design still lacks more sophisti-
cate design elements. Furthermore, the important title is
placed in a prominent position at the top of the page.
The buttons along the top are shown to be part of a group
through alignment as well as format (Lipton 25).

The title of the set of brochures is emphasized at the top

where the reader will naturally begin his reading. At the
very bottom of the cover is the sub-title of the specific Caution Sign: Color contrast and symbols
brochure topic. Thus the reader will be prepared to con-
tinue on with his reading with the sub topic in mind.
Color
In approaching this project, we wanted to make the
design simple but also interesting. Furthermore, we
wanted to have a common layout to tie all the different
categories together, without making all the brochures
appear identical. According to Kostelnick, page color is
a supra-textual element that is often overlooked, but it
very important.

This sign uses plain language so that any reader can eas-
ily understand the message. The big, bold “caution” and
use of contrast emphasizes the importance (Lipton). The
symbols on the sign are small, but have been designed to
“read small.”

USA Today Spread: Waller’s Typography Genres
Creating contrast
For this reason, we experimented with a wide range of
colors for the background before choosing the one we
thought best fit our brochure. We wanted to use a color
scheme that would make the words legible, but did not
want a simple black and white. We decided to settle on a
crème-colored off-white. This mild color was light enough
to make the black type contrast strongly with the back-
ground. The color choices also prevented the “shimmer
effect” caused by the use of complementary colors at
equal intensities.
Information Design in My Life - Page 28
 Apple iPod Ad: Use of color and repetition
Symbols
The information on the poster has been placed in a limited
area for easy readability. It follows Hedrick’s suggestion that
a line should contain no more than 45 to 75 characters.

Originally, the uppercase and lowercase letters were

arranged in a wave pattern. However, this distorted the
shape of the letters and was not representative of what
the font is like in print. Instead of trying to create a
picture with the letters, I decided to present it simply to
get the information across. Also, the original design used
different sizes for the various letters. Since they were
equal elements, though, I decided to keep all uppercase
letters in the same size and all lowercase letters in the
same size as each other, but different from the size of the
uppercase letters
Using Small Symbols
When searching through samples of Gill’s artwork, I want-
ed an image that was simple to fit the design of the poster,
but was also representative of Gill’s work. Many of Gill’s
pictures were too erotic or too complicated for the poster
design. Of the available images, I felt the one used was
the most appropriate, but not really ideal. The image is
clear and provides a decent frame for the text. Also, it is a
good example of the kind of artwork that Gill created.
In the example poster,
the emphasis is placed on
the image. Text has been
added to the image as a
kind of secondary feature.
In my poster, I attempted
to draw more attention to
the text. The images on
my poster are simple and
used for framing, rather
than as the central focus
of the design.
Pandora.com: Small symbols should read small
MBTA Subway Map: Know your users
Audience
The design team for this map made use of pre-existing
symbols (Lipton 33). The association symbol and name
has been placed noticeably at the top of the map. This
map has been made accessible by the omission of less
important places (Baer 29). Instead it only shows places
of interest and the relation to other places.
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Rat.
On the example, the letters are displayed as part of
the body text and not separately as the alphabet. This
results in the omission of some letters. It also causes the
design to lack a representation of both the lower and
uppercase form of each letter. Also, none of the numbers
are included in the example.

Information Design in My Life - Page 29