Introduction to Graphic Design: Concepts

INTRODUCTION
Introducing graphic design
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- [Tony] Graphic design is everywhere you look. The cover and contents of any
book or magazine, anything you watch on TV or at the movies, the packaging of
your favorite foods and drinks, the designs on T-shirts, the interface of your phone
and devices everywhere. Whether you yourself are an aspiring graphic designer or
someone who will work with designers, you're going to need to learn about the
processes, principles, terminology, and language involved in the industry and this
is where you start. This course has been designed to introduce you to the
fundamentals of graphic design, and there is no particular software requirement to
work through the course. In fact, all you will mainly need would be paper,
pencils, pens, and perhaps some other pretty basic stationary, and that's it. Beyond
that, you'll be observing things around you wherever graphic design is used. So
you shouldn't need to search too far, even from right where you are now watching
this course. Of course, the vast majority of graphic design production work is done
on computers. So if you're a budding graphic designer serious about getting into
the industry, there are a small series of completely optional companion titles to this
course that employ and build on the principles you'll learn here. Using the industry
standard Adobe Creative Cloud design tools. There's a course for Photoshop,
Illustrator, InDesign, XD and Dimension. Some of those you could probably get by
though in your own software of choice if you don't have access to the Adobe tool
sets. My name it's Tony Harmer and my career spans almost four decades in the
creative industry. I'm as in love with it today as much if not even more than when I
started out, you're about to get a jumpstart that is based on my many years of
experience. And I'm thrilled that you're here to begin your journey along with
me. So let's get started and formally begin your introduction to graphic design.
What is graphic design?
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- [Narrator] Well, you may think that Graphic Design is all about layouts,
topography, images and color. This is only partly true as they are indeed the
tools of graphic designers but the business of Graphic Design is actually about
problem solving and the problems that graphic designers are challenged with
solving are associated with communicating messages. So let's start here by taking a
look at a basic model of communication. There is a sender and the sender could be
anything or anyone from an individual, a small business, a large corporation or any
other organization that wants to send a message to an audience. That message may
be, I'm a plumber, hire me to do plumbing work. Eat great food at Sally's
Diner. Buy our amazing products or something like these items are prohibited on
aircraft. If they would just print it as words on a blank sheet of paper like this, they
would be indistinctive and unappealing. The message would most likely be lost or
not understood. So here in my adaption of that model specific to communication
artists that's another more modern way perhaps of saying graphic designers. Where
the problem that Graphic Design solves is either to encode a message in generally
one of two ways to enrich a simple message making it more attractive or to
simplify complex information giving clarity to aid, understanding but both should
be compelling. The audience then has to be able to decode the message
although and especially in Advertising and Marketing there is sometimes an
advantage in not making this easy as we are all problem-solving creatures
ourselves and sometimes cracking the code as it were can be a powerful tool
itself. Now you may, at some point in the future or maybe even now call yourself a
graphic designer, a communication artists, a brand stylist or some other term but
what you will be above all else is someone who works to solve communication
problems, using layouts, typography, images and color.
Keeping a notebook
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- Optionally, it would be a good idea for you keep some kind of notebook as you
worked through this course, particularly as there are a few places where I
encourage you to do some small exercises that will help your
understanding. Something like this will be perfect. You can draw, make your own
notes, and stick reference items into it. The handy guide that you create will be
your own reference that you can use when ever the need may arise. So if you can, I
highly encourage and recommend you to do so.
Question 1 of 1
In order to be a graphic designer, what four fundamental elements must you both
understand and be able to employ?
 layout, composition, color, and typography
Correct
1.
 1. THE CREATIVE PROCESS
The creative process

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- [Instructor] The creative process will vary depending on what you'll
be working on. But a typical process begins with a creative brief, that's
the instructions and parameters you'll use throughout the project
followed by three other stages. Research where you'll gather all of the
necessary information you'll need to refer to when you're working on
the project. Ideation, the fabulous creative bit where you start to
generate ideas and work up various designs until you have a solution
agreed with the client, and production where the designs are turned
into the artwork that will be used digitally in print or both. Now, let's
take a more detailed look at each of those stages. So if you're keeping
notes and I do hope you are, you'll now have the headings for this
section.
The creative brief

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- [Instructor] Ideally the creative brief for a project would be
developed by the client and designer together which is usually the
case, but not always. And you may be given a prepared brief or may
even have to write your own. But it is important as it forms the
definition of the project and gives everyone involved, something to
work to. A typical brief may include things like an overview that will
give a high level view of the project requirements, along with its aims
and objectives. There should be a list of who's involved in the
project especially who will approve the different stages and any other
stakeholders. It must contain the deliverables that will be produced at
the end of the project. We should also include some scheduling
information and if necessary, any milestones. You will need to know
who the audiences are for the project. This is crucial information as
your design should always be created for that audience. The more you
understand your audience, the better. The message itself should also
clearly be indicated. It defines the purpose of the project and may also
be accompanied by some other information pertinent to the
audience. The more detail you get at this stage, along with research
into the target audience, will help make your design more
successful. The budget might also be included in the brief so you
know what you have to work with and there aren't going to be any
surprises for anyone. Always get the budget figure in writing, and if
you're freelance, a written agreement on payment schedules, isn't a
bad idea either.
Research

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- [Instructor] You will need to develop an understanding of your
clients and their audience. From the client, you'll probably need to
know things about their brands, such as if they use particular colors,
typography, and different kinds of imagery. You'll also need to know
their tone. That's the way they describe themselves or the project and
the mood, which is how they want the target audience to feel. Most
clients are only too happy to talk about themselves anyway, so this
shouldn't be too difficult and if not, then the internet should provide
you with everything you're likely to require. How you obtain or
conduct your audience research will vary depending on the nature of
the project, but the aim will almost always be the same, gaining an
understanding of the target audience. Once you have enough
information, it's often useful to turn it into visual resources, such as
charts and graphs for the quantitative and qualitative data and
creating a mind map is a great way to see associative information. If
you have space, stick all of your visualizations on a wall and add sticky
notes with ideas and comments around them, if needed. It's a great
way to see a project developing and having it somewhere you'll see it
often really can be very useful. Creating personas is another technique
that is used to create a picture of typical members of an audience
too. You'll also begin to see them as the people they are and that will
help you to form an emotional connection with them, which is
important. You can then supplement all of this by adding color
swatches, related imagery and any project specific things that will help
you develop the mood that you'll use when moving into the next
phase, ideation.
Ideation

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- [Instruction] Ideation is where the design starts to evolve. You should
start small by creating lots of thumbnail sketches that have very little
detail. They should be the bare minimum to express what is going on
in your head. Then start to create wireframe sketches to develop the
ideas a little bigger. There's a simple vocabulary for wireframing with
lines to indicate paragraph text, wobbly lines to indicate headings, and
shapes containing diagonal cross lines to indicate the placement of an
image or other asset. But you can draw whatever works for you. As
you move through these ideas, you should be discarding what doesn't
work and refining what does until you have something that is
developed enough to be understood by the project stakeholders. So
you can run it by them and confirm you're heading in the right
direction. Just be aware though, that this is almost always an iterative
process so be prepared to make a few rounds of changes before
you're ready to start on producing the final artwork.
Production

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- [Instructor] Production is the final stage of the creative process and
the part where the software tools really do come into play. To create
the deliverables known as artwork or final artwork. If you're producing
artwork or only be used digitally, then that process usually ends when
you deliver the final format files such as JPEG, PING, GIF and SVG
files. Artwork for print though is considerably more involved, and it
requires you to be at least a bit familiar with the process or
processes being used in the print production stage once the final
artwork is signed off. There are four main kinds of commercial
print that you're likely to come across, and it will be useful to spend
some time, investigating these further. Process sometimes also called
offset printing, is perhaps the most common. Using a mix of four base
inks, cyan, magenta, yellow, and black. And sometimes also special
added spot colors that you'll learn more about in chapter three of this
course. Screen printing is where inks are forced through a screen mesh
with a stencil to create prints and you may have even done this at
school as it's relatively easy to have a go at. Commercially though, as
with any system, it can be a little more of a learning curve. Risograph
is something that has had a resurgence in recent years and is if you'll
pardon my crew description, like having a screen printing photocopier
hybrid. It's very popular for short runs of things like posters and
postcards and so on. And there are some incredible colors available in
that process. Finally, flexography is a process that can print on just
about anything. And it's often how labels, plastic bags, corrugated
boxes, milk cartons, and food packaging are printed. So unlike digital,
print production has material and time costs attached to it. Mistakes
can be very expensive. It may be time well spent to what Claudia
McHughs course, learning print production at some later point to
become a bit more familiar with the world of reprographics and
prints. And when you're preparing a job for print, if you have any
doubt at all, always discuss your project with the printer, if possible.
Challenge: Brief yourself

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- [Presenter] Welcome to your first chapter challenge. Imagine that
you had to market yourself as a brand. What would you call it if it was
not your actual name? What characteristics would your brand
have? What colors type an imagery with the brand of you have? What
would your mood and tone be in your messaging? Try to write a brief
as if you are going to give it to another designer for a full page
magazine advertisement about the brand of you. And if you feel up to
it, try creating that ad yourself, sticking to the information in your
brief. You only need to draw it, you don't actually need to produce
anything unless you want to but just scribbling it out will be fine but
do try to stick to your own rules.
Question 1 of 7
What are the core four digital delivery file formats?
 JPG, PNG, GIF, SVG
Correct
Question 2 of 7
What does this image represent?
 a mood board during the ideation phase of graphic design
Correct
Question 3 of 7
Why is it important to have a creative brief for a project?
 It forms a framework for the project, so that everyone knows the aims and scope
of the project, their role within it, what is expected to be delivered, and when.
Correct
That’s correct—you could think of it like a map and guide for everyone involved
in the project.
Question 4 of 7
What is the most complicated and difficult part of the graphic design production process?
 design for print
Correct
Question 5 of 7
Which of the printing formats would be best suited to a large print run of brochures?
 process printing (also known as offset printing)
Correct
Question 6 of 7
The most important thing in your creative brief should be _____.
 the audience
Correct
Question 7 of 7
What are the four stages of the creative process?
 brief, research, ideation, production
Correct
 2. TYPOGRAPHY
The language of type

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- [Narrator] An understanding of type and typographic is central to
graphic design. And here we're going to look at some essential
terms that you'll really need to know. Starting with this word here is
set along a baseline, all type has a baseline. And although we only see
it when we're working with type on a computer, it is always there and
is the foundation of all type faces. And that is the name of the design
of the letters often mistakenly called fonts, which is actually, the
software that delivers the typeface. But in practice, that word is used
interchangeably, unless of course, you're talking to other
designers. The first glyph, that's how we refer to the graphical
representation of a character or letter form is in upper case, and that's
what we call capitals or caps for short though their proper name is
magic skill. Although hardly anyone uses that word, so I wouldn't
worry too much about that upper case all caps will do fine. The
lowercase letters or mini skill, if you're interested in technical
words, follow on from that. The type of graphic way to describe
numbers is as numerals of which there are two forms, lining
numerals, which are drawn along the baseline and old-style, which are
sometimes used in text and headings for their attractive qualities, but
not in tabulation as they often don't align well as lining numerals
do. As now we're back to the baseline, let's take a look at some other
lines associated with type that you may come across, such as the x-
height, which is the line that dictates the size of the lowercase
letters, and the cap-height for the upper case. The ascender line sets
the limit of the characters that have ascenders and the descender line
does the same for descenders. And that will do us for now, it's a lot to
take in if you're new to this, but when you're ready to learn
more, perhaps check out courses by Ina Saltz and Charles Nix to dive
in deeper.
Type anatomy

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- [Instructor] It's useful to know a few of the anatomical terms
associated with type so that you can more accurately describe what
you're looking for if you're seeking help. Plus, it does make you sound
boss clever in front of your designer mates. Okay, let's start with the
ones you most likely know already like the seriph on the ends of some
strokes. But this C glyph has a terminal on the lower end. Letters like
lowercase, Ks and Hs is have ascenders, while a lowercase P has a
descender. And actually, the lower case Y has one too, but G, that also
has an ear, has a loop if it's closed to form a bowl which is actually the
name for pretty much any curve stroke that creates an enclosed
space, which is then known as a counter. Apart from in the case of the
G, which is known as a loop. But there you go, vertical strokes are
generally known as stems and horizontal, mostly known as a bar or
crossbar like the one in an uppercase A. And with that, I think we're
good for now, but there are lots more to learn if you feel so inclined.
Basic type classifications

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- [Instructor] There is an international standard of type
classification which is based on an initial definition by Maximilien Vox
back in 1954. But as it requires a lot of historical context and
more what we're going to do is use some simpler, basic type
classifications so you have an idea of the different kinds of typefaces
that exist. We'll begin with Serif typefaces, which have the small
extensions at the end of some of their strokes. Known as Serifs, these
are good typefaces to use in body text for print, as the Serifs help to
guide the eye. Sans Serif letterforms do not have any extensions. And
this will probably make sense when you learn that Sans Serif actually
means without Serif. Sans Serif typefaces are particularly good for
screens which is why you'll see them used on lots of websites and in
apps. Slab Serifs are heavier, bolder Serifs, which make for great
headlines and poster text, which is, I believe, where their origins
lie. Lesser forms that are based on calligraphic strokes are known as
Script, and have some that are formal and others less so, which are
referred to as casual. Script fonts are used in several different
contexts, but never as the main text of a document. Blackletter
letterforms are based on some of the earliest printing typefaces, and
they themselves were based on the decorative lettering of medieval
scribes. Although through time, many versions have become highly
stylized. Monospaced typefaces have characters that are all equally
spaced, just as the output from typewriters would have been. All
characters in a font are actually designed using a box that is invisible
to us, and it varies between letters. These are known as proportionally
spaced, but with monospaced fonts, this is not the case. You'll find
these fonts used a lot in technical situations such as displaying code,
for example Handwritten typefaces are designed to emulate hand-
drawn letterforms to varying degrees. And finally, decorative
letterforms are mostly designed to be used as large display fonts. They
may share some of the characteristics of other classifications, but often
pushed to an extreme.
Type measurement

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- [Instructor] Whatever measurement systems you use in your day-to-
day life and work, when you're specifying text sizes, most of the time,
you're likely going to be using points for print and pixels for
screens. When specified, points are abbreviated to PT and pixels to
PX, but there the similarity ends as variable pixel densities of the world
of screens mean that pixel based measurements often use relative
systems instead which you'll need to investigate later. Back in the
world of document design, another type measurement you may see is
the Pica which is equal to 12 points and the abbreviated form is simply
the letter P. Instead of saying 36 points, you could say three
Picas. Instead of saying 30 points, you could express that as two Pica
six. You wouldn't need to say points after that as in the same way, if
someone asked you how tall you were you may say I'm five foot
10. Very rarely do people say I'm five foot 10 inches because you know
what the next smallest unit of measurement is. There are times
though where you'll need to change the physical units of the
world and if you were designing a huge piece of type for an
exhibition, you'd be much more likely to specify it as eight feet for
example, rather than 6,912 points. Let common sense prevail beyond
the boundaries of the document is my advice.
Challenge: Poster

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- [Instructor] In this Chapter Challenge, take a quote or phrase that
you like from maybe a movie or a book or something like that, and
turn it into a poster, rendering as well as you are able the
typefaces that you think will bring the words to life. Now normally in
documents you're trying to limit yourself to a maximum of three
typefaces. But for this poster, you can have as wide a selection as you
like. Have fun.
Question 1 of 9
What is the name of the most important line relating to type?
 Baseline
Correct
Question 2 of 9
When would you be able to see a visible representation of the baseline?
 while working in a design software, such as Illustrator or InDesign
Correct
Question 3 of 9
How would be another way to express the measurement of 78 points?
 6p6
Correct
Question 4 of 9
One pica is equal to _____.
 12 points
Correct
Question 5 of 9
How do you best define the typeface you see in this image?
 It is a proportional serif type style.
Correct
Question 6 of 9
What are the two kinds of numerals?
 lining and old style
Correct
Question 7 of 9
Why is it important to use the correct type terminology?
Using the correct terminology makes communication relating to type easier.
Correct
That's absolutely correct—especially if you're reaching out and asking for help or information; other
members of the design community—type nerds or not—will have a better chance of understanding
your questions (this is also true if you're the one giving the answers).
Question 8 of 9
The design of an individual character in a typeface is known as a _____.
 glyph
Correct
Question 9 of 9
When specifying type sizes for a print document, what unit would you be most likely to
use?
 points
Correct
 3. COLOR
Color components

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- [Instructor] In many ways, color is the life force of graphic design. It is
a powerfully expressive component with almost infinite variations and
a language of its own. So developing an understanding of color is
essential. Here, we will begin by looking at the basic terminology you
will need to get started. There are three factors that determine the
appearance of colors. Hue is a generic name for a color such as red,
green, yellow, blue, and so on. Saturation is how much of the color is
present or its intensity. And value is the relative lightness or darkness
of a color. You may also find that in practice, this would be referred to
as tints, making colors lighter and shades, making them darker Colors
are visually expressed mostly in the form of a wheel with the purist
most discernible being known as primary colors that cannot be
created by mixing any other colors. In the design world, our primary
colors are red, yellow, and blue which when mixed with each
other give us the secondary colors of green, orange, and purple. And
when any primary color is mixed with its nearest secondary color, we
get the tertiary colors. And we see all of these together expressed as a
color wheel that also shows us the final concept we need to be aware
of at this stage, color temperature, with those closer to red being
described as warm and closer to blue as cold.
Color harmonies

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- [Instructor] A color harmony is a group of colors that work well
together and there are various types of harmony, but we will take a
look at some essential and you can always explore more later. In this
diagram, we have a color wheel that I've expanded to include some
tints and shades. This is going to help us with our first harmony,
monochrome. If we choose a hue, let's go with this purple. We can
choose from tints and shades of that hue to create a monochrome
theme. In practice, we'd choose between three and eight tones to
work with as we have trouble distinguishing individual tones beyond
that. So there you go, top tip. Analogous harmonies use neighboring
hues along with their tents and shades, which you can do with
anything, by the way. And complimentary hues are opposites on the
color wheel. When complimentary colors are placed close to each
other, they can be really, really striking, but should be used carefully as
they can optically vibrate. So not a good choice for smaller type,
ideally. There are some variations on complimentary colors, such as a
split complimentary that uses hues either side of the direct
compliment. Pushing that a bit further, we create a triad or a triadic, to
be correct, harmony. This is technically colors that are 120 degrees
apart on the color wheel as the primary colors are and if we add a
fourth hue to the mix, we have a tetrad or triadic, made of four
points that could form a square or a rectangle. Now another top tip is
tetrads always include too warm and too cold hues. So take care to
choose the values of the hues that you do select. Five hues forms, a
pentagram, and as you can see, there are plenty of choices there
already and far more to be found also. The interaction of colors has
been the subject of much investigation over time, so we've got lots of
research on our side.
Colour associations

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- [Instructor] What does the color red mean to you? If you're British
like me, it has associations with pillar boxes, Valentine's Day, love,
passion, the guards at Buckingham Palace, double-decker buses, stop
signs, traffic lights, heat, danger, clown noses. You may share some of
those things but if you're from some parts of the world, the color red
is also the color of death and mourning. In China, it's the luckiest
color. People give red envelopes as gifts. When we're choosing colors
for our projects, we need to make sure that we've researched any
cultural associations with them that may be relevant to the
audience. Color is great for making an impact, but it needs to be the
right impact for your message and your audience.
Color as information

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- [Tutor] Color can be used to organize information. Here in this
diagram, as an example, I use color as a way of showing supported
asset types by Adobe Creative Cloud Libraries and of course transit
systems. The inspiration for this diagram, charts and graphs,
navigation systems, both physical and virtual and more, use color to
simplify information. It's a very useful tool, but it is important to
consider that some of us see the world very differently. Color vision
deficiency, or CVD affects one in 12 men and one in 200 women in the
world. So it's a good thing to make sure that any system using color as
its basis has supporting elements such as shape, icons, or text to make
the message clear. There are also various services and features in
some apps that allow us to check to make sure our work is CVD
friendly. So, do make sure that your work is checked and you're being
as inclusive as possible.
Digital and print colors

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- [Instructor] A color model is a way of describing how colors can be
reproduced, and the two we will look at here are the most
common, RGB and CMYK. RGB is an energy-based model and where
you'll come across that most obviously is actually right in front of
you, right now, on your screen. RGB is said to be an additive model as
increasing the energy of its three primary colors, red, green, and blue
in various combinations gives us around 16 3/4 million colors. Let's
take a look at that with these three sliders, "Star Trek" style, of
course, but you'll have to make your own sounds. And the resulting
colors will be shown in the diagram above which we'll now make
completely black. At the moment, all the three circles are black as
there is no light energy at all, but if we increase the red slider you can
see how the top circle is becoming more red until we hit its maximum
energy. Now we'll increase the green slider and you'll see that as the
intensity there increases, where it overlaps we're heading towards
yellow, which is achieved when we reach both at maximum energy. As
we repeat that with the blue slider, you'll see that the overlap with red
is giving us magenta, with green, cyan, and all three together at
maximum intensity gives us white light, so that's the maximum RGB
values. And by the way hex colors are just RGB values expressed using
base-16, which was a necessity back in the early days of the web as six
numbers we're faster to process than nine. But let's switch now to
CMY, where the background is based on the white of paper. What
we're doing this time would be subtracting from the paper's whiteness
by adding ink. And you'll see that once we meet full density on all
three, our secondary colors are red, green, and blue. In the middle we
have a weak black. So now we'll take a look at four color plates of an
image, so you'll understand where the K, which actually stands for key,
comes in. As we add ink to this paper you'll see that each pass
increases the number of colors we see in the image. Black boosts the
range by adding depth to the darker areas which changes our
perceptions of the other tones in the image.
Process and spot colors

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- [Instructor] The CMYK printing process achieves great results, but it
is a perceptual illusion. Just as RGB only shows us a fraction of the
colors. we can actually see, the CMYK process is even more
limited. And just so you know, the range of colors available in any
model is known as the gamut. Here's an illustration of the total gamut
of colors that humans can see and as a disclaimer, I ought to say, this
is not accurate. It is just for the purposes of illustration. Actually, let's
make that really clear. And maybe just one more. There we go.
Good. One more. Okay, good. So all of that space using a very popular
RGB working space, we have the ability to reproduce about this
much. And as you can see, CMYK is less than that. Now, what you've
got to do is keep in mind that everything else here is based on light
transmissions. So going directly to your eyes, but with CMYK, you're
seeing reflected light bouncing off the paper. So you can perhaps
understand those limitations. Let's take a look at this poster
design, which looks really exciting and vibrant. It's a great image, but
we're seeing onscreen being projected directly at us. If we look at a
simulation of how this might look when printed, keeping in mind, of
course, that you're still seeing a brighter version on your screen. You
can see what the results would be like in CMYK, but sometimes we
want to use colors that are outside of the CMYK gamut. And for that
we can use specially formulated inks, such as those from Pantone,
which can be used on top of CMYK to exceed its gamut, where they're
known then as bump plates, but spot colors can also be used in what
is known as a special or a solid color because they are so
distinctive, which may or may not be used in conjunction with process
printing. but many brands and organizations are prepared to bear the
cost of using these special links in their identity for exactly that
reason that they stand out on a really distinctive and we can actually
perceive that and that makes it worth it.
Challenge: Map

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- [Instructor] In this chapter challenge you're going to make a
map. Using only a pencil or a single color of pen, try drawing a map of
a journey you frequently make in your local area. Plot all of the
necessary points of interest that someone would use to confirm they
are following the map correctly, such as local shops, or gas stations, or
mailboxes, anything like that is fine. And it's okay to use words to
support your drawing. Once you've added all of the necessary
details, redraw the map, try adding color to replace some of the
words and try removing as many words as possible. You might need
to add a key or a legend for it to make sense, but see if you can make
the map easier to understand using color.
Question 1 of 11
Which color model is additive?
 RGB
Correct
Question 2 of 11
Which concept in color mixing is shown in this image?
  the pure colors that cannot be created by mixing any other colors
Correct
Question 3 of 11
Hex colours are shorthand for _____.
 RGB
Correct
Question 4 of 11
Which choice is NOT a primary color on the Artist's (Pigment) color wheel?
 green
Correct
Green is a primary color of the digital color wheel; the pigment color wheel primaries are
Red, Yellow,and Blue.
Question 5 of 11
RGB is a subtractive color model.
 FALSE
Correct
CMYK is the subtractive color model.
Question 6 of 11
What is the value component of a color?
 the relative lightness or darkness
Correct
Question 7 of 11
In the CMYk color model, the K stands for:
 Key
Correct
Question 8 of 11
Your company sells its "EarlyWarning" virus protection software worldwide. Before you invest
in making your website graphics fire engine red (for "warning" in the product name), what
should you do?
 Determine whether red is associated with something other than warnings in
other countries.
Correct
Question 9 of 11
On the color wheel, colors directly opposite one another will create what kind of harmony?
 complementary
Correct
Question 10 of 11
The range of achievable colors in a model like RGB or CMYK is known as a _____.
 gamut
Correct
 That's right. Remember also that the color gamut of RGB is wider than that of CMYK,
which loses out as it's colors are reflected back to us from the paper and they are reduced
by passing through ink. We'd need to use special inks and processes to achieve anything
like the super-bright colors in the RGB gamut.
Question 11 of 11
The color orange is a _____.
hue
Correct
Yes. The hue is the name of a colour, or—as in the digital color wheel—a position expressed as it's
location around the wheel in degrees. Orange would be at 30º
 4. IMAGES AND ILLUSTRATIONS
Images and illustration

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- [Instructor] I can't think of many design projects that aren't centered
in some way around images, photography, and illustration, at least to
a degree. They're a significant part of many and indeed, I'll go out on a
limb and say most graphic design projects. If you want to sell a
product, show someone how to use something, create a connection to
tell a story, you're going to need some sort of image, photographic or
illustration. Photography is likely to come from one of three sources, a
professional photographer, a stock image library, or you'll have to do
it yourself. Real pro photographers seem to be actually quite
rare these days. And those that are around tend to be very good and
expensive. Not every client has the budget to hire one even if they
should. Stock images are very cost effective but there's a trade off as
you don't exclusively own the rights to the image you're using, and
imagine how awkward it would be if you discovered that your
competition were using exactly the same shot. Oh dear. Doing it
yourself may be an option I've had to do so on a number of occasions,
but it's not for everyone. Illustration is much more personal with so
many styles there is something to fit everything. Some things that
would be difficult or impossible to achieve with photography, are
probably possible with illustration. If you commission an
illustrator, you'll probably have a great deal of influence on the
result because you'll negotiate that with them. It can be pricey but
you'll be getting something custom made for your project and it's
hard to overestimate the value of that.
Composing and cropping images

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- [Instructor] In this movie, we're going to take a look at cropping, just
a few different things that will help you when you need to make crops
with images. And actually to a certain extent, when you're taking an
image yourself as well. Now, while I'm in Photoshop, this could be any
software at all. And this isn't an exercise where you need to get
involved with any software. It's really the concept rather than where
I'm actually working on the image. Okay. So here I'm using a crop
tool which has as I move it around, you'll see it's got a really handy
rule of thirds grid. And the rule of thirds is a compositional
arrangement that has existed for a very, very long time. And basically,
you're aiming to have action areas or something leading to the
action at one of the intersections. But it's nice and handy to divide this
up. Now, if I was cropping at this particular point, and this isn't a good
crop, just here, I've actually got, even though it's a background
element here, what's known as an unfortunate amputation. And we
can clearly see that this is a mountain going to a peak. But having that
cropped off, like so, actually ruins the image. When you bring it back
down so that that is more inside of this section, just here, you can see
how that's a much more successful crop. Now, if I go across to another
image here, okay, this is a very similar thing. But you can't go in too
tight here, like so. And you may have a particular ratio, by the way, to
work to because it starts to get boring. Now what I'm doing just here
as well is using the horizon line in this top section here. I could bring it
down if the subject wasn't right there. So it's around about that
region. But you see, it's towards the middle and the subject there as
well, is disappearing into the bottom. And of course the subject here is
the main event. So I'm just going to take that slightly over to the side
like so. And again, there's another slightly unfortunate amputation just
there because there's a yak just coming into the edge of the
frame. But that one might be slightly less critical. They don't always
have to be in the image like so. And if I wanted to, and if it really was
destroying the image, I would clone that one out afterwards. And
finally, if you're cropping people, we form an emotional connection
with faces. So making the focus of the image the face is a good
idea. And this is actually already pretty much the case in this picture. If
I bring the grid in, you can see here that that eyebrow is just leading
us in to the section just underneath it, everything there
happening. And the baby is the center of attention. But I could
perhaps get away with being a bit tighter on the crop like so, bringing
that in just a bit and then just bringing that up. So I've got the same
thing happening. I've got action in the form of the eyebrows, bringing
everything in to this section here. And the baby's face is nicely in the
middle of that line. And these are only a guide. They're not a rule
set, but they will help you to divide any space up if you're taking a
picture into these nine sections, or if you're working on a page, into
these nine sections in here, making a crop like so. Your tools might
also have something like this. So if I'm rotating the image
here because this is another common problem that people have,
where the image is just at a slight angle. Okay. And you're trying to
get align, then you should get a finer grid like so. But do investigate
that. And at the bare minimum, use the rule of thirds grid to assist you
with your composition.
Question 1 of 1
Which cropping tool is the designer using in this image?
 Golden Spiral
Correct
 5. LAYOUT AND COMPOSITION
Form and space

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- [Instructor] Let's take a look at the elements of layout
designs starting with form and space. A form is a positive element like
this dot here and the space around it is the negative. Space is an
important consideration in design and as a demonstration, if we make
the dot here smaller rather than becoming less important, actually in
this context with it being surrounded by the large negative space, the
opposite is true. It's the relationship between the positive and
negative space the weight of the dot and the space around it that is at
work here. The power of space is not to be underestimated and
populating the space with dots and lines, the basic building blocks of
design is how layouts are designed. Dots which do not have to
necessarily be circular and don't in fact have to be a literal
shape, create focal points. Their placement in a layout is how you will
attract attention and or guide a viewer through a design. Many points
together form a line and lines can be connectors or dividers between
elements that can also imply direction or even dimentionality beyond
the flat surface of a layout. The shape of lines themselves can suggest
different things too. Look at the wavy line and notice that it appears
calming and gentle, but when it becomes zigzagged, it becomes
tense. Repeating lines can form patterns and textures that introduce
the appearance of dimension and you can change the effects by
varying frequency, orientation, weight and color.
Principles of layout

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- [Instructor] We have six basic principles to work with in arranging our
elements in a layout and other designs. The first of these is
balance. We should make sure our designs are visually balanced but
this doesn't always mean symmetry as asymmetry using negative
space or other design elements can be used to create
balance. Alignment within a design either to the page or other
objects creates order and allows elements to be visually connected to
one another. Proximity is about the spatial relationship between layout
elements and items close together are perceived as related where
those spaced apart are seen as unrelated. Proximity along with other
principles can be used to create hierarchies which are another design
consideration in layouts. Contrast can add visual interest to a
design and can be created using various attributes including size, color
and typography. Repetition can be used to create consistency in a
design layout and within a hierarchical system or used to create
patterns and texture for interest. Space is an element of design and
the human brain is really good at filling in the blanks. Think about the
Rubin Vase. Most of us have seen this illusion and it is described as
our other principles of design in the Gusto principles of the earliest
20th century as the figure ground relationship. There are many
examples of this relationship in graphic design, along with others such
as completion that play with our perception.
Building a layout

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- [Instructor] When you build a layout, the first option you're likely to
decide on would be the live page area and the margins. And once
you've established that, columns are a good way to divide up the
horizontal page area, and the number you choose is entirely up to
you, but I think six gives you quite a bit of flexibility and I'm a big fan
of 12, which gives you even more. Between each column, you'll have
gutters to give the flow a little room and incidentally, the area
between margins on a spread that's two pages or two pages to
view as it's referred to, that's called the page gutter. Once that's done,
you're ready to start placing content, and now hopefully you'll see why
I'm such a big fan of the 12-column layout, as it's equally divisible by
two, three, four, and six, and it gives you a lot of options for placing
content. Here's an example of one of my workbook layouts which uses
the 12-column grid, and you'll notice I've got an asymmetrical
arrangement here to accommodate a sidebar. And finally, here's a
poster built on the same layout. If we lower the opacity, you'll see how
the columns assisted my positioning decisions. The important thing to
remember though, is that these things are a guide and you don't have
to adhere to them strictly.
Using grids

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- [Instructor] There are various different grid systems that can be used
to assist with your layouts. The simplest of course, is the just stick stuff
wherever single column grid that is really meant for novels and text-
only books. We follow that with a slightly better two column grid and
then a three column and a six column. Now you can make these as
column dense as you like, to be honest, but my personal go-to is the
12 column because it's divisible by two, three, four, and six. The three
column grid is actually the foundation as well for the asymmetrical two
column grid that you see here, which I use for some of my technical
textbooks. Hierarchical grids may be split into several rows, but this
example is actually using the golden rectangle which I find most useful
for postal work. But there are many other uses, of course. Modular
grids are I think the hands down favorite of the day because they are
so flexible and the horizontal flow lines are a great help. You break
things down into modules and chunks and spread them across the
different modules there. Let's not forget the world of the web where
grids are very prevalent. Modern grid systems make responsive design
much easier than it used to be too, which is handy if you think
about all the different device sizes and aspect ratios around these
days.
Challenge: Layout

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- [Instructor] Now you've learned a bit about layout and page
construction, here's your chapter challenge. Choose a newspaper or
magazine that you like and carefully remove two or three
spreads. Remember, that's a left page and a right page to view. Use a
pencil and ruler to try and work out the construction of the pages. See
if you can work out how many columns we used and the gutter
between them. Try and work out if any kind of other grid was used on
other pages. Also examine if different layouts schemes were used on
the pages, or were they all using the exact same grid. This is an
exercise that can be applied to other design spaces too, such as
websites and so on. So start looking for grids at work in the world
around you.
Question 1 of 7
What are the six basic principles of layout?
 balance, alignment, proximity, contrast, repetition, space
Correct
Question 2 of 7
Why are layout grids useful in design spaces?
They give visual cues to the division of the design space, making it easier to position elements within
it.
Correct
That's correct, and remember they are guides, not rules!

Question 3 of 7
Layout should establish a hierarchy in your design. Why is this important?
It allows a viewer to be guided around your design in a way that is both functional and pleasing.
 Correct
Question 4 of 7
What are the basic building blocks of layout?
 dots and lines
Correct
Question 5 of 7
Which of these is a principle of layout?
 Proximity
Correct
Question 6 of 7
Which of the following are guidelines for dividing up a design space?
 Rule of Thirds, Golden Section, Golden Spiral
Correct
Question 7 of 7
Which design theory centers on the figure/ground relationship?
 Gestalt
Correct
CONCLUSION
Creativity tips

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video
- [Instructor] Everything you see, everything you hear, and everything you
taste gets stored inside that lovely head of yours within the labyrinth of that
gorgeous brain you have. Creativity is the ability to go beyond traditional
concepts, patterns, rules, interpretations, and relationships to create or
synthesize something new and meaningful as a result. The more and varied
information you are exposed to, then the more your brain has to work
with. Read, watch, listen, and taste as many different things as you
can. Explore the world around you. Make new friends and listen to their
stories and ideas. Challenge your thoughts. Mix and remix what you already
know with new discoveries. You're going to make mistakes, but learn from
them. It's an important part of developing your creativity, and you wouldn't
be doing it right if everything you did was a success. Creativity is not a secret
sauce. It's a way of thinking that can be learned, and you should never stop
learning, exploring, and experimenting.
The companion courses

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video
- That's it. We're about done for this course. I do hope that you've enjoyed
it. And if you're going to go on and work with the companion courses, that
would be fantastic, but what you might also do is join the Introduction to
Graphic Design group, or I2GD, as we call it. There, I'm going to try and build
a community of people who've worked on this course, almost like an alumni,
where you can share work and you can talk about the development of your
career path using the great skills that you've learned here and in other
places to develop your knowledge of graphic design. So come along, join
that group. It's easy enough to find and the link is right there.