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Helpful Hints When Designing
Here's a partial list of hints that may help in designing. |
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| • Positive vs. Negative Images • Color & Visability • Fonts • Font Manipulation Certain considerations have to be taken into account when designing. Often times, designers will create art that looks great, but when applied, unforeseen obstacles may occur. This page is intended to help provide some ideas to better your design. |
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| POSITIVE vs. NEGATIVE IMAGES | |
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For
maximum visability, contrasting colors work best when displaying your message effectively. Besides black on white or white on black, other examples such as yellow on navy, forest green on yellow, or light orange on maroon provide adqutae contrast. For certain things such as design objects (i.e. lines, circles, etc..) and fonts, this is not a problem. |
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Now apply an image such as a person, place, or thing. A positive image looks great black on white, but not so when its white on black. |
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In order for any image to be reproduced properly on a black (or dark) background it has to be reversed. The first box shows an image thats been reversed and then applied using white ink. The background is knocked out to define the image. The second box shows the same image with a small outline stroke around it. Both techniques helps bring the image to the forefront. |
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| COLOR & VISIBILITY | |
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CHOOSING
THE RIGHT COLOR Each color has certain values or intensities. As with the black on white and white on black model for maximum visibility, each color should be looked at in the same way. A dark color should be contrast with a lighter color and so forth. You wouldn't want to print your design navy on black or yellow on white. The visibilty wouldn't be there. The color box to the left shows what we mean. |
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CAN YOU READ IT? Whether it's a t-shirt, news ad or billboard you need to get your message across. Often times, a customer will spec out a job that doesn't take into account the visibility factor. Can your design or message be read as quickly as possible? |
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| FONTS | |
 Basic Classifications Besides the fact that type fonts come in a variety of styles, almost of them fall under the classifications listed above. Sans-serif fonts are often called "Block" fonts. This means they lack the decoration (flourishes on the header and footers) that a serif font displays. Serif fonts are fonts that have these flourishes at the end of their strokes, parts of which may vary in weight. Slab-Seif fonts are those fonts where all the parts of th font are the same weight. Script or cursive fonts simulate handwriting where letters are connected. Hand are based on a freestyle handwriting look. Blackletter reflect the calligraphy style used by scribes in the days before the invention of the printing press. Decorative or Novelty fonts are special fonts created for all sorts of moods and events. |
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 Font Styles There are millions of fonts in the world today, with new ones created every day. Each one having it's own unique appeal. Block, Serif, Cursive, Novelty, all with the ability to set the mood you wish to convey. |
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Font Manipulation Fonts can be altered to achieve a wide variety of effects. You can use Standard (Upper & Lowercase) or Caps (Uppercase), adjust the width by adjusting the Horizontal Scale, adjust the space between letters by Kerning, or increase the thickness of a font by adjusting it's weight. Other variables you can apply, to name a few, include applying color fills (solid or gradient fills), outlines, a mix of outlines and fills with shadows, or adding an Inline/Outline effect. 
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| Bending,
Shaping, etc... Fonts can be bent and shaped to whatever your liking. Words can be stretched and pulled, letters can be spaced closer together or further apart, or arched above or below an image to deliver all sorts of effects. 
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| We're sure this is a partial list of Helpful Hints. We welcome any additions
that you think would help to make this complete. Call us today: 1-508-481-3811 |
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