How important are laws of design?
Where graphic design is concerned, just how important are rules and laws? Should you conform to set standards, break away from the norm, or strike a balance between the two directions?
Marc Rapp at Uniquely the Epitome recently asked some creative type people (me included) about their own rules for design, with the aim of building a design resource of rules and laws.
A lot of what Aaron at miLienzo had to say (what are the laws of design?) resonated with me:
People can make recommendations and best practice tips that they’ve picked up through years of experience, and these are worth learning if you’re young and inexperienced like me. But as soon as these start becoming laws and rules, limitations and constrictions are put in place, and worse still, people’s expectations are funnelled to a narrow perspective.
Hopefully I’m not taking the tangent too far away from Marc’s original plan.
Kevin Roberts, CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi gave a similar interpretation in his recent blog post – Changing the Rules:
Breaking rules brings up one big challenge though: you just end up being defined by the rules you tried to break in the first place. These days I don’t want to just break the rules. I want to change them.
So here (similar to Michael’s design guidelines) I’m going to offer up three short tips of my own that I live and work by, rather than laying down the law. Besides, I am but a humble designer, learning new things every day. Far from the finished article.
Patience isn’t only a virtue
I’m not sure who said first labelled patience as a virtue, but in the world of design clients, it’s not only a virtue – it’s an absolute necessity too. Exercise patience in everything you do and I believe that you’ll be a much more employable designer.
Step away from the computer
Almost all design work nowadays is done using a computer. That’s not to say our methods of idea generation have changed. I take time out every now and again to get myself outdoors, carrying a sketchpad and digital camera with me.
You can find inspiration in the most remote places, and I’m fortunate to have Arthur’s Seat (the highest point in the photo above) overlooking my city.
What can you remove?
Edit, edit again, and when you’ve finished, edit a little bit more. You might begin your design work using grids, then find you’ve moved away from them, but whatever your course of action, clean and focused works for me everytime.
There are many more things I could list, but I’ll refrain from rambling.
Have your say
Are design laws important to you and do you have a set of rules you design by? Perhaps you make a rule of neglecting rules, thus contracting yourself. Whatever your take, I’d love to know.
The ‘have your say’ heading is an idea borrowed from Jon at SmartWealthyRich. Thanks Jon.
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19 appreciated comments to “How important are laws of design?”
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Very interesting vista. Do you live under that big white canopy? ;)
I do actually! If you look very closely at the entrance in the centre you’ll see me waving to the camera.
I really should force myself to get away from the computer more often when I’m designing. I tend to find good ideas pop into the head at the most random times – I could be out shopping with the girlfriend for instance, and spontaneously come up with some interesting logo or melody (being a musician, too) :)
I think good design is governed more by guidelines, rather than set rules. Theres a simple reason why certain styles or layouts work – they’re effective, and therefore are good guidelines to go by when working on similar projects.
Corporate design, cubism, graphic novels, renaissance art – they all have loose but well formed guidelines that define their respective styles.
Ahhh, King Arthur’s seat. The last time I was in Edinburgh (in fact, the only time I’ve been to Edinburgh) I took it upon myself to climb that hill to clear my head after a wine too many the night before.
To be honest, it didn’t help.
I thought that this article on DO was very interesting and has a lot to do with your commentary on the laws of design. It is by Richard Turley of The Guardian.
http://www.designobserver.com/archives/026488.html#more
Cheers,
Igor
After I read this, I couldn’t help but wonder, do designers spend a lot of time studying other peoples work? Do they study ancient design? Do they read about the lives and practices of some of the old/ancient designers?
Just wondering my friend. Studying design in different cultures, in different centuries would be intriguing I think.
I wasn’t aware that you’re a musician too. I’m curious, do you find your musical tastes defining the design style you use?
Aaron,
I’ve also climbed Arthur’s Seat in the hope of banishing a hangover. Regardless of the curative properties, the view from up there is spectacular! I love climbing on a clear day.
Igor,
That’s an interesting read. Thanks for linking to it. This sentence asks a question that got me thinking:
Armen,
Good question. I do spend a fair amount of time reading articles from other designers, and also looking through a lot of different design projects.
In my previous article, When do you consider you are a successful designer?, I touch very briefly upon how I look with admiration on the work of others, and how it helps motivate me to improve.
With that said, I don’t spend as much time reading as I’d like to. So many books, so little time. ;)
How about you?
You know that old cliche: you have to first know the rules in order to break them. You’d be surprised at the amazement of non-designers who see how something looks once everything in a flyer (for example) is properly aligned and sized (and things aren’t randomly huge because they think Thing X is IMPORTANT). Plenty of people take Graphic Design 101 for granted (esp those of us who see it easily) but it’s still important to get the basics down (thou shalt not capitalize everything in sight… thou shalt not use a different complicated background on every page that’s also full of text just because you think it’s pretty…) If I had a dime for everything I saw that almost made me cry :)
I started to write a comment, but it got too long and became a post:
http://jit.nuance9.com/2007/07/design-activist-or-design-delinquent.html
In the meantime Renata responded. Totally agree with her that “you have to first know the rules in order to break them”.
CRAP is a good starter:
Contrast
Repitiion
Alignment
Proximity
Use C.R.A.P. or produce crap.
Renata it is super funny that you mention that rule because it is specifically the one that the boys at Guardian broke for the feature they describe on DO and it came out fantastically well. It is important to remember that those people knew all the rules and so in turn knew how to break them. This is key.
It might be a cliché, but like Justin I completely agree.
Justin,
You create very valid scenarios on your article. Thanks for continuing the discussion.
Igor,
What you say is made clear in Justin’s article too. I think that’s the most important point that has been mentioned about the overall question.
Thanks everyone.
The thing I struggle with most is color schemes. How do I choose sets of colors and how do I decide the right amount of white space?
Cade, have you not yet discovered http://kuler.adobe.com ? It is a wonderful, addicting graphic design dork cheat (or resource, to be polite). You can download all kinds of color schemes other people have uploaded (you need Illustrator CS2 or CS3 to use the library). If you’re stuck for a color scheme, see what others are doing and be inspired!
The “rules” I kinda stick with whenever I’m designing are…
1) Don’t be afraid to go a different direction than what you had originally planned. Being too fixated on that initial approach or idea can sometimes put a lid on your creative capacity, and make you miss a potential better solution to the problem.
2) Know when to STOP working and call it a finished piece. Like all designers, I can be a little bit OCD with my designs. Sometimes that extra line or gradient really isn’t necessary.
3) And most importantly, but unfortunately the one thing that I sometimes forget about, HAVE FUN! Although, sometimes that’s easier said than done especially when you have a project in front of you that you’re not very eager to begin work on.
I can relate to PG’s comment above. Creative people are often picky and perfectionists (I know I am!), and its sometimes easy to just keep tweaking a design forever. Maybe if I add this, or change that font, or…
David, yes I find that my musical tastes do affect the way I design sometimes, as well as the particular style of music I have on at the time. When I work on websites for music artists I’ll ensure to have their music on in the background so I can “tune in” to their feel, and design accordingly.
I work with high energy music professionally (production, and remixing for others) so I tend to find that fast background music energises me to work better. Can’t say if it’ll work for others though :)
Hey David, you’re welcome! :)
It’s cool you got this “have your say” heading there
I’ve just launched my first ever WordPress theme (for personal use) and would love it if you had any suggestions.
[...] David Airey asking “What can you remove? Edit, edit again, and when you�ve finished, edit a little bit more.” Be your own critic, look at your work objectively to see if the elements of “what in it for them” are there. [...]
David,
Send me an email when you get a chance. :)