![]() ![]() This may mean paragraphing as often as every two sentences - you read that correctly. (Yes, your grade 9 English teacher was wrong.) Give your readers lots of friendly white spaces on which to rest their eyes. Remember good headlines should tell you what the story is about and should have a verb.Ĥ) Indent frequently, remembering that unless you’re writing a book, paragraphing is not a literary tool - it’s entirely a visual one. (Some graphic designers won’t want to give you more than about 15!) I always write headlines after the layout so I can make best possible use of space. By my rules, you need a minimum of 32 characters/spaces to write a meaningful one-line head. What do you notice most? For most people, it’s the black.ģ) Insist that the graphic designer give you enough space to write decent headlines. Take a page in a magazine with different colours on it and squint at the page. Unless the type is massively thick, this is almost always a bad idea. I frequently argue with clients who want to put headlines in red, yellow or blue to “emphasize” them. And I’ve used italics for words only occasionally.Ģ) Be aware that the strongest colour in the world is almost always black. Notice how in this column I’ve used bold intermittently, for no longer than a sentence. Here are five common design issues to watch for:ġ) Save “fancy” type - reverse, bold, italics - for emphasis only. Bottom line? All writers need to learn some of the basic rules of graphics and help guide their clients through the job. So what’s a writer to do? Well, in this case, the design wasn’t ruining my words - I’d done a different piece of writing - but I still thought it was a waste of the client’s money and opportunity. Even though I’m a writer and an editor - and interested in this particular client’s work - I couldn’t bring myself to read it. But here it was used on a veritable clearcut of small type. ![]() There’s no denying that reverse is pretty and it can be very effective used in limited, small areas on a printed page or a website. This typically means the letters are white (often on a black or navy background) but they might also be a very faint colour (say pale green or blue) on a darker background. It was way too small - I’m guessing eight or nine point - and, worse yet, it was in “reverse.”įor those of you unfamiliar with typography, let me explain that type is “reversed” when the letters are lighter than the background on which they sit. Better yet, the site was beautiful - it featured gorgeous photography and was easy to navigate.īut there was one big problem. Quickly, I Goggled him to find the “contact us” page and, fortunately, it contained his street address. I’d worked for him only briefly, by email - we’d never even spoken on the phone - but I knew his group had a website. I was invoicing a client last week and realized I didn’t have his address. If you thought your only job was to write or edit, read on to learn how you can earn more work by becoming a better advisor to your clients! ![]() ![]() Today’s column focuses on the subject of graphic design. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |