Critique the Design


In this project, you'll develop your critiquing skills by comparing and contrasting two excellent professional designs. Learning to evaluate how and why a design works (or doesn't work) is a critical step in any designer's development.

This chapter has given you a foundation in essential aspects of graphic design work and the roles of imagery, color, typography, and composition. This written assignment will challenge you to assess how these elements are handled by the pros.

Project Brief: The Big Crit

A major design and advertising magazine is preparing for its annual award ceremony. You are a lucky design journalist employed to help the magazine critique hundreds of cutting-edge designs to identify this year's winners.

To help the panel, you need to put together an intelligent critique that addresses not just the details of the visual design but also how creatively the designers addressed the client's overall business challenge. Critical questions are provided to guide your thinking (Figures 1.23 and 1.24).

Figure 1.23. This ad for a new product line of Champion Athletic apparel exhibits masterful composition and use of negative space. Strong lines pull the eye to the top of the page, reinforcing a sense of the athlete's poise and well-being.


Figure 1.24. "A Delicate Balance," a poster developed for Seattle Repertory Theater by Cyclone Design.


Figure 1.25. Poster for the Cascade Festival of Music in Bend, Oregon, developed by TBD Advertising.


Project Summary
  • Write down your initial emotional (noncritical) reaction to each piece. Try to see the designs through the eyes of an average person, not a designer.

    STUDIO SESSIONS

    www.studiosessions.net/portfolio

    Post this chapter's project online for feedback from professional designers.

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  • Critique each piece in terms of imagery, color, typography, and composition.

  • Think about the project brief for each work, and critique how each piece addressed the company's business challenge.

  • Post your critique in the online class area, and compare your thoughts with those of other students.

  • Extra credit: Find two comparable designs in another medium, and repeat the process!

Project Steps

1. First Impressions

Put aside everything you know about design, and write down your raw first impressions:

  1. What is the first visual element that you noticed in each piece?

  2. What was your initial emotional response? Write down the first ten words (adjectives, nouns, or verbs) that popped into your head.

  3. Look at each piece out of the corner of your eye, with other pieces, and from a distance. How eye-catching is it?

  4. How easy is it to figure out the message of the each piece? Is the point immediately apparent, or does it take a few moments to click? Why?

2. Design Critique

Now put on your designer hat and think about how each element in the design contributes to the overall message:

  1. Summarize what you think the purpose or message of the piece is.

  2. Comment on the designer's choice of imagery. Why do you think the designer chose a photograph as opposed to an illustration, or vice versa?

  3. PhotographsDid the designer do anything with the scaling, cropping, framing, or treatment of the photograph to bring out its emotional message?

  4. IllustrationsDid the use of illustration contribute to a sense of creativity, a symbolic message, or a sense of play?

  5. ColorDid the choice of colors evoke any strong emotional associations? How would you describe the mood evoked?

  6. TypographyWhat emotions are evoked by the typefaces used? Did the designer do anything unusual with the text layout? What is the information hierarchyin what order is the text intended be read?

  7. CompositionHow does the placement of lines, points, or objects guide your eyes through the page? Which elements are the subject (positive space) and which are background (negative space)? Does the composition feel balanced or unbalanced?

  8. Does the design (your answers to questions 28) support the apparent purpose of the piece (your answer to question 1)?

THE BIG PICTURE

Now try to think about the designer's project brief. Considering the project's likely goals, think about how well each piece meets these business objectives:

  1. Does the design communicate a specific message quickly and memorably? How?

  2. Does the design support the brand of the company or organization? How?

  3. Does the design try to connect to a target audience? Can you guess what the target audience is, and will the piece also be understandable by the general public? Why or why not?




Sessions. edu Graphic Design Portfolio-Builder(c) Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator Projects
Graphic Design Portfolio-Builder: Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator Projects
ISBN: 0321336585
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2005
Pages: 103
Authors: Sessions.edu

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