THE WEEK IN DESIGN 08

There's been a lot of talk this week about how we give direction to design.

There are 2 key things to remember here:

• If we are too restrictive in direction, then we are inflexible and graphics stand out too much (rather like the 'here come's the science bit" in shampoo adverts).
• If we are too flexible, then we dilute the brand, lack ownership and have no consistency.

So we operate a design ethos, where direction  is like a series of buzzwords and we achieve success by referencing good examples

The Key Buzzwords for our design going forward should be:

Remember:

Information is King

Keep your Design:

Clean Clear Crisp Confident

It needs to:

Communicate

Keep text in:

Clear space

Think of:

The Concept to tell a story

The Idea to represent figures

Think:

Premium, Sophisticated, Aspirational

The Brand colours:

White, Blue, Black, Red

Use:

Font, Depth, Light

Do Not:

Confuse, Complicate

It would be a mistake to think we can or should attempt to tick all these boxes and with all this direction there are caveats:

Think about the relevance of the treatment to the story and subject. If time is tight, keep it simple. Depth can still be achieved on a flat surface. There can be justifiable reasons for using colours outside the core brand.

All of this weeks successful work demonstrates this ethos, but the variety and the ability of the work to suit the story should be self evident.

The breast cancer graphic was hugely successful. Information is King, it is Clean Clear Crisp Confident. It Communicates.  Text is in Clear space. It is Premium, Sophisticated, Aspirational.  It does not Confuse or Complicate

The fact that it utilises colours alien to the brand in no way negates Sky News ownership of this design. It belongs.

I loved the Warhol conceit for the supermarket graphic.  It takes the mundane and draws us in to the information, but it doesn't take the idea too far.  The focus is still on the information which is clean and legible

There is a wonderful simplicity to this design.  The drinks paraphernalia becomes the brand and the story detail, it is at times indicative and unobtrusive, allowing for clear communication.

A piece of communication such as this could easily have become overcomplicated, utilising drinks labels, bar set-ups, liquid; there is time and place for this within our communication,

but the amount and complexity of detail required a more stripped back approach.

Compare the designs above with the two below:

Our comparison has nothing to do with the darkness in these final two designs; only with how they communicate, but these are easily fixed.

In the first, there is nothing wrong with the split screen comparison with a clear information divide, but the full frame image background and split colour treatment confuse rather than aid.

We could have easily found a place for subject images which would have benefitted the communication rather than negating it.

In the second, the pretence of 'text as object' at an angle in the scene degrades legibility. The image selection itself struggles to benefit the story.  Had we removed all but the 

figure with the walking frame and cleaned the space for information, it would have been much more successful.

Finally this week, a couple of frames from the iPad infographics.  When we communicate in non-linear fashion, allowing the user to explore at their leisure, we face different challenges.

Where clarity is still required, interest is key to the User Experience – we need to retain their enthusiasm and let them explore.

These pieces of communication require much greater resource and a key investment in a collaborative approach.  It is the closest we come to creating design/journalist hybrids.

Celebrate Design Excellence.

Chyaz