I’ve read this piece about design by Dean Allen multiple times and yet I can’t appear to shake it. Every time I read it I find something new that perfectly summarizes that moment in my career. Here’s a list of design rules from the piece that is, right now, effectively my life:
An Entirely Incomplete List of Things a Non–Illiterate Designer Should Know Before Being a Designer:
- That text will inevitably be read before it is looked at
- That words themselves make remarkably effective clip art
- That the self-conscious layering of messages usually subtracts more value than it adds
- That the practical value of white space towers over its value as a design element
- That the physiobiology of reading is one that demands easy points of exit and entry
- That simply paying attention to the design of type, or distinguishing it as “fine” or “invisible” or “classical” is like making a big deal about putting salt on a boiled egg
- That letters are not pictures of things, but things
- That words are not things, but pictures of things
- That arbitrarily altering (or allowing software to alter) the shapes of letters, and the spacing between letters and words, is done at one’s own risk
- That emphasis comes at a cost
- That overstating the obvious can be effective, but not all the time
- The knowledge to back up design decisions clearly without falling into a fog of hidden meaning, or so–called “creativity”