A designer’s ingredients (graphic design elements)
Key points
Topics
Like a cook, a visual designer has 5 ingredients at their disposal to fulfill the job of layout creation
These ingredients are: shapes & lines, text, images, icons, videos
Shapes & lines separate content and draw attention
Text is the foundation of all media
Images are highly engaging and humanize a brand
Convey things & ideas in a space-efficient manner
Videos are the clearest way of conveying ideas
Digital designers have 5 information-carrying content formats at their disposal. These are the true graphic design elements. Any other principles (like color) are mere attributes used to facilitate the consumption of these content formats.
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Visual design can be boiled down to two things: Elements and strategies. The elements are the pieces of content that you place on a blank canvas to create a layout. Strategies (like visual hierarchy or colour contrast) are then applied to manipulate the way viewers consume these components. A good graphic designer is aware of both the elements and strategies at their disposal. Today we're talking about elements of which there are 5: Text, shapes & lines, icons, Images, and videos. Do you know the strengths, weaknesses and nuances of each content format? Let's talk about it.
A cook's most common ingredients
This is not a cooking blog but analogies are great when it comes to Facilitating comprehension:
A cook uses ingredients to fulfill the job of food preparation.
A cook’s most common ingredients consist of the following:
Salt & pepper: Enhances taste
Eggs: Adds tenderness
All-purpose flour: Holds ingredients together
Olive oil: Allows food to cook quicker (and enhances taste)
I’ve learned that no amount of coaching, fancy apps, “creativity hacks & tips” etc, will make up for:
Subpar sleep
Low vitamin D3 (lack of direct sunlight exposure)
Lack of movement (sports, resistance training, cardio)
Poor diet (macro and micronutrients)
Nonexistent stress management
Get these right first.
They are the highest impact things you can do.
Ignoring these is like a student ignoring the fundamental concepts needed to ace an exam and instead focusing on color-coding their notes, using fancy study apps, and organizing their study space with intricate decorations.
Master the basics. Everything else falls into place.
Most nonfiction books should've been 1000-word articles.
I find myself abandoning a lot of books right around the 25-30% mark.
Not because they're bad, but because I fully get the gist by that point and it's right around when the repetition of examples and ideas begins.
I'm okay with abandoning a book midway now. Just a couple years ago, I would power through the whole thing in fear of missing out on some crucial ideas in the later chapters.
Now, I just have fun with it. If it piques my interest, great – I'll buy it, read the chapters that seem interesting, get what I came for and move onto the next one.
I think a lot of these authors are just trying to meet some sort of quota. I dunno.
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