Photos and Artwork in Designs

Unless the most important information you have for readers
is visual – such as a picture of a new product – graphical
elements detract from everything else on the page. If you find a layout
lacks visual impact, try textual effects.

Good alternatives to bad graphics include sidebars and pull quotes.
If you find a layout still lacks visual appeal, try shading effects or
other creative solutions.

Never overuse graphical elements. Graphical elements are powerful magnets
in a layout. Designers sometimes lack self-control. These designers follow
the philosophy that any art is better than none.

Photos

Designers often rush to include terrible photos in a
layout. There is a belief that if you have some photos available you
should use them. Not always. Photographs included in a layout should
meet several criteria:

• Worthy of appearing in print,
• Active – avoid poses and stills,
• Cropped and scaled intelligently, and
• Aimed carefully.

If these conditions are met, then the photo is probably effective. The
first item is self evident. You do not want to include a washed-out,
dark, or blurry photo in a layout. The other traits require more explanation.

Worthy of Printing

A photo must be worthy before you include it in a design.
Do not even attempt to fix truly bad pictures. Darkroom wizards might
correct minor problems, but some photos deserve the round file.

Use Action Shots

Many beginning in-house designers assume there are times
photos must be passive, such as stills of a product. Publish photos of
a product being used. Make sure that whoever is using the product positions
the label so that it can be read. You want photos to appear spontaneous – even
when they are not. Remember, you are not a journalist so posing a picture
is not a mortal sin.

Car dealerships often fall into the still photo trap when designing
print ads. Still photos of cars might be necessary due to time and space
limitations, but at least one larger photo should be of a car moving.
Clients feel better about a product they
“see” in use.

Another example of habitual still photo use is real estate ads. If possible,
request photos of people living in the house. Exterior photos should
also have people doing things – like playing with a dog or gardening.
You want clients to think of how any product can be used, not just looked
at.

Crop Aggressively

Most photos require cropping, scaling, or both, before
they can be merged into a layout. Professional designers disagree which
to do first, design a layout or crop and scale photos. It is our belief
that a good photo is so rare that it should always be given precedence.

When you crop the photo, remove any dead space or extraneous content.
Always crop photos electronically – never damage the original print.
Dead space is easy to identify in most photos. Extraneous information,
however, can be tougher to identify. Sometimes, what one designer considers
extraneous images, another considers important.

On the Level

Crop photos after adjusting for any definite vertical
or horizontal lines in the picture, not before. Straighten horizons,
flag poles, building walls, et cetera. Align on a subject only when artistic
license permits.

Scaling a photo allows you to fit the photo to a layout.
Some publications, such as catalogs or newsletters, must contain a given
amount of text. In these cases, scaling a photo is a necessity. Before
scaling a photo, determine the level of detail required. Some photos have
to be enlarged for clarity, while others can be easily reduced without
losing affectiveness.

Never scale a photo before cropping it. In most cases, you will have
to perform a secondary cropping on photos. Always scale photos to fit
the widths of text columns. In scaling a photo to fit the proper number
of columns, you will change the photo’s depth. The change in depth
may force a trimming of the photo.

Aim Carefully

Photos are directional. It is the rare photo where objects
or people are not clearly favoring one direction. Photos, due to their
inherent power, must be aimed carefully. Always aim photos either toward
the bulk of body copy or toward the center of the page.

Size it Up

Readers expect large headlines to denote important articles.
Likewise, large photos generally indicate importance. If you design a
company newsletter and the big news is a new product, then run a big
photo of the product in use.

Scale mug shots fairly small, no matter how important the individual
is to a story. If you can, replace mug shots with action photos of the
people mentioned in articles.

Many, Various, and Different

Effective use of photos requires that you vary the sizes
and orientations. Some art should be vertical, other horizontal. Also,
avoid symmetrical placement of photos.

Border Patrol

Photos with light backgrounds tend to blend into the
page. To prevent a light sky or white product from becoming invisible,
all photos should be bordered. Look at any good newspaper and notice
how the designers use thin boxes.

Artwork

Artwork attracts readers
– like almost every other element in design. Most in-house designers
use artwork in the majority of their layouts. Artwork, traditionally, is more
flexible than photographs.

Like a Photo

For the most part, artwork should be used according
to the same rules XE “rules”  as photographs. The three
suggestions we have for artwork are:

• Use only good artwork,
• Aim to associated copy or page center, and
• Vary sizes, shapes, and orientation.

If the quality is lacking, do not bother. Bad artwork is laughable.
While bad photographs are more noticeable, bad artwork draws intense
scrutiny. Readers study bad art – at least they forget bad photos.

Consistency

Maintain a consistent art style. If you like humorous
cartoons, use the same style in all of your layouts. If you want serious
illustrations, standardize the format. Readers like to know what to expect
from a publication.

Wall Street Journal readers encounter line-art sketches instead of photographs, for example. These old-fashioned sketches resemble wood carvings. The Journal looks very conservative, as a result.

Computing Creativity

In-house designers are more productive when as much work
as possible can be done using computers. True desktop publishing does
not involve cutting out artwork and running to a photocopier.

Create Your Own

Original artwork gives a publication a distinctive personality.
There are several different file formats for computerized artwork. For
the best results, create artwork using a program such as Corel Draw, Illustrator, or FreeHand. These programs use vectors – mathematical equations – to store images.

Scanning in artwork limits your ability to scale and crop artwork accurately.
Try to limit scanning to photographs. Scanned artwork is stored as a bitmap, meaning a collection of dots. These dots produce jagged images when scaled to a larger size.

Resorting to Clipart

Prepacked artwork is known as clipart. The quality of clipart has improved greatly in the last few years, but much of it is still unacceptable. Remember, quality counts.

When purchasing clipart, verify that the artwork is in a vector format.
Art stored as vector data scales without degradation. You can recognize
vector-base art if the retail package mentions Encapsulates PostScript (EPS), Computer
Graphics Metafile (CGM), Windows Metafile (WMF) or any of the major vector illustration programs. Search for Illustrator, Corel
Draw, or FreeHand formats.

Artistic Text

Artistic text effects add pizzaz to a layout without
highly specialized talents – to be polite. Most computer software
features automated text effects. Avoid relying on effects. Because
they are easier than ever, almost every in-house designer uses too many.

Distorting

Distorting text is a form of scaling type – but
not in proportion. Tall, skinny text or short, fat text can add visual
impact to an otherwise dull layout. Distortion is an easy way to force
text to fit within borders.

Node Manipulation

Node manipulation uses properties of scaleable fonts
to allow wild distortions. Scaleable fonts are composed of a series of
connected nodes. Programs such as Corel Draw can display the nodes of every letter. Moving individual nodes gives designers a lot of flexibility.

Reversing

Color and shading effects bring attention to a headline,
but can also make it harder to read. Use stark contrast to ensure that
the text element reamins legible. The safest reverse is white letters
on black, but any light-dark combination is acceptable.

Rotating

Rotating text allows a headline or other text element
to run sideways, uphill, or upside down on a page. Anytime you rotate
text, you lead a reader’s eyes in a new direction. Make sure the
destination is appropriate.

Aligning to Paths

Most illustration software supports the ability
to align the baseline of a line of text to any shape. The letters are
not distorted, but each letter is rotated slightly to fit the path closely.

Fills & Screens

Shading letters can be accomplished using screens or
fills. A screen is a pattern of dots. Dots are used in printing to simulate
shades of a solid base color. Screen patterns are described in terms
of percentages. A 100 percent screen is a solid fill, while a 20 percent
screen results in a light shade of the fill color.

Gradients

Gradually changing color is known as a gradient fill. Gradients are also used to give letters a metallic appearance. When using a gradient, we suggest maintaining a solid outline. Without an outline, a light gradient makes letters look like they are in a transporter beam.

Patterns

Pattern fills apply wallpaper or texture effects within the outlines of letters. A common pattern fill is “brick.” Fill with patterns that do not interfere with reading the text. For example, a pattern of repeating circles can make the eyes and counters of letters difficult to see.

Three Dimensions

Three dimensional effects are a fad. While nice when
used sporadically, 3D is everywhere. Headlines cast shadows, look like
stone carvings, and leap off pages. Clearly these designers saw a few
nice layouts and followed it off a cliff.

Subtle 3D effects have appeared in printing for two hundred years. Now,
every major publication contains at least one sample of 3D addiction.
As with any effect, 3D works best when used rarely.

Extrusions

An extrusion effect has text “zooming” to or from a reader. Extrusions appear frequently in advertisements. Looking back through old magazines, we notice that extrusions caught on among designers in the 1950s. Yes, the same decade as car fins.

Embossing

If you place a penny under a page and rub your finger
on the paper, the result is an embossed image. Embossed letterheads and business cards were popular in the 1980s. Now, computer programs can give the same visual effect, without a real indentation.

Embossing is subtle. Ideally, the reader feels like the image is part
of the page. Embossed text, including fonts designed to appear embossed,
are good for business logos and image materials.

Shadows

Place a solid line of text just a point or two off-center
of the same line in a lighter color. Viola
– a shadow. Shadows are another advertising gimmick from the 1950s. However,
we like shadows a lot more than extrusions.

Summary & Tips

• Use photos and artwork only when they add to a design.
• Crop and scale photos based on the image, not the layout.
• Avoid trendy effects — trends pass.