The Influence of Brand:
- Designing to influence an audience's perception of content so that it resonates with them adds a layer of meaning to the overall content of a publication
- This layer derives from the audience's identity and need and is a fundamental part of the subject concept
- Bias is not always a bad thing - it simply means that a point of view about the subject is being established for the audience
- Branding can be defined as the collective experience of a company's services, public presence, employees or representatives, and visual identity
- The influence of branding on a publication is therefore visual
- A magazine is often considered its own brand because it is widely circulated, resonates deeply with its audience, and differentiates itself from others of its genre through positioning and marketing
- A company's positioning may also have an effect on visual decisions made during the design process
- Because positioning - the relationship of the company or subject matter to others in the same genre - is a direct response to audience identity, its role may be far reaching
- Specific colors may be disallowed (or used exclusively) as a result of trying to avoid association with other publications or even ideas
Evaluating and Organizing: Sections and Sequence:
- The designer faces the task of evaluating the content's editorial form to determine what components or methods will communicate most clearly, as well as the order in which those components ought to be sequenced
- First, the content must be divided into parts relevant to the publication type - whether its an annual report, newspaper, magazine, product catalog, newsletter, or system of brochures
- Editorial publications, including newspapers, magazines, and newsletters, organize their content as articles or stories, supported by images that are generally documentary
- Convention doesn't necessarily mean that the organization of the content is right for a particular publication; it's just a place to start
- Presenting a financial message in an unexpected way - challenging convention - makes a statement to investors
The Many Forms of Content:
- The content of a publication isn't limited strictly to the writing - images, colors, and type (visual support for the writing) are also content
The Meaning Of Images - Literal and Abstract Content
- Images provide a visual counterpoint to the texture of type, helping engage the audience
- The more representational an image, the more objective or documentary the communication - in essence, the closer the content is related to the primary conceptual function
- The more abstract an image, the more subjective, interpretive, or layered the communication - it is closer in relation to the secondary or tertiary conceptual functions of the subject
Alignments, Masses, and Voids
- The division of space creates structure, which unifies disparate elements in a composition
- Visual structure must evolve out of the verbal structure of a language
- A continuous sequence of thoughts will likely be clarified if clustered together; a distinct thought may benefit from being separated from the others
Typographic Color - Contrast and Spatial Depth
- Changing the typographic color of the elements separates them from the surface and introduces the illusion of spatial depth
- Darker, thicker objects come forward - lighter, thinner objects go back
Functions of Weight, Posture, Width, and Value
- Changing posture and weight within text is an invaluable tool for enhancing the "voice" of a text, in the same way that oral communication relies on emphasis and cadence to convey subtle shades of meaning
- A word or phrase set in a heavier weight from surrounding text is interpreted as being louder, more aggressive, or of greater importance
- Lighter-weight text is perceived as more quiet, more revised, less important, or as supporting a heavier-weight text
- Posture also changes the rhythm of text
- Italic type is often perceived as reading faster or having a more intense cadence than roman text around it
- Changes in the width of letters in a text setting can also alter cadence or tempo
- Extended faces are often perceived as reading more slowly, because of the relationship between our linear sense of time and the linear sequence of reading
- Words set in a condensed face stress the verticals and take up less linear space - the sense of time decreases, and we perceive these words at a faster tempo
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