The Design of a Sign

COLOR A significant component to an effective sign is its use of color. Color theory is the understanding of the interaction of colors in a design. THE DESIGN Complementation: How the colors compliment and interact with each other in a given design. The mixture of colors should provide a sense of balance for the viewer's eye. There are three primary uses of complementation (color scheme): OF A SIGN: Engaging the Audience through Color and Composition Compound Colors: In addition to the base col- or, it uses adjacent to its complement. Analogous Colors: Triadic Colors: Colors that are next to each Uses colors that are other on the color wheel. evenly spaced around the color wheel. Triadic two colors They match well and create comfortable and serene designs. color harmonies tend to Allows for more freedom in be quite vibrant the design. Whether you are making a banner for your son's soccer team, or creating a marquee for your daughter's wedding, your sign deserves to have the eye-catching power and brilliance of the world's best advertisements. This is Contrast: Is a method of using color to effectively divide elements on a page. This is particularly useful in choosing colors for text. Vibrancy: Impacts the emotional feel of your sign, brighter colors tend to make the viewer possible through incorporating basic design elements into your sign. more engaged, cooler colors are more somber. COMPOSITION TYPOGRAPHY manipulated The layout of the information is extremely important. You should adhere to certain principles of composition when structuring information visually. Typography is the purposeful arrangement of type. Type can to create emphasis and enhance readability. A A Serif (Typeface): Font types with decorative (Typeface): flourishes. Some popular examples include: Georgia, tive flourishes. Some pop- Times New Roman, Minion, ular examples: Helvetica, Center of Interest: Symmetrical The area that first attracts Balance: attention in a composition. Securing a sense of visual A lack of balance can Use a variety of design Asymmetrical Balance: San Serif Leading: The amount of space Font types without decora- between lines of text. equality throughout the sign with symmetry. also be used to make techniques to direct the eye toward this area. a statement visually. and Baskerville. Veranda, Futura, and Arial. AA Hi Unity: Assuring your sign has a sense of harmony use similar lines, organic shapes and fonts through- out the sign. Contrast: Movement: Tracking: Kerning: The amount of space Flush Left: Creates a visual flow in the The amount of space sign that guides the reader between blocks of words through the information. Purposefully creating A paragraph or block of text which is aligned on its left edge and ragged on its right edge. a visual discord in order between two characters. to create an area of or characters. emphasis throughout the sign. Repetition: Recurring use of certain design elements is another way to engage the viewer. Flush Right: A paragraph or block of text which is aligned on its text which is aligned on right edge and ragged on its left edge. Justified: Centered: A paragraph or block of Text is not aligned to either margin, but is centered both the left and right margins or edges. with an even gap on both sides. Resources: http:/www.incredibleart.org/files/elements2.htm http://webdesign.tutsplus.com/articles/design-theory/an-introduction-to-color-theory-for-web-designers/ http://www.sitepoint.com/principles-of-design-colour/ http://designinstruct.com/tools-basics/the-basics-of-typography/ http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/08/20/typographic-design-survey-best-practices-from-the-best-blogs/ http://www.tigercolor.com/color-lab/color-theory/color-harmonies.htm Sign