April 6, 2012

Splendor Says: Rules of Design #1

In our new Splendor Says: Rules of Design series of posts, we’ll give a little insight into some of the guidelines that influence our design process. These are meant to be fun and loosely interpreted! So without further ado…

Rule #1 – Understand the Rules of Design BEFORE Breaking Them

Having a solid base understanding of color, composition, typography etc. is absolutely vital to a designer’s success. Drawing from the established collective knowledge of generations of designers of the past and the entire industry means you respect the history of design, and appreciate the trials and lessons learned by all who have already been here (and put in their time and work!)

What’s important here is that the knowledge of how things work visually, and understanding when and where a typeface or color is appropriate is precisely what fuels a good design. What path or form the design eventually follows is up to both the designer and the client, but it always comes back to basic principles and reasoning.

Armed with this knowledge, a skilled and experienced designer can then exercise his or her own personal style, and make judgements and decisions about which rules can be bent and even broken. But the fundamental design will still be based on a strong set of rules.

Without this basic understanding, a design (or any art form) usually gets haphazardly thrown together with little or no direction or respect for good design sense. As a business owner, you need to be WARY of the amateur or would-be designer who has no regard for the rules. Your design, budget and business can all fall victim, with no reasonable solution except to scrap it all and start from scratch with a better design team.

Splendor is a NJ based award-winning design studio that produces successful design work for website design, logo design and print design campaigns for small and medium sized businesses. Contact Us to learn more about our services.