November 2013 Xara Xone Tute: Page Design Part One

[Gare]

Stygg, you did great for two ambitious page designs.

Computer Zone (if you're open to constructive criticism) is that you should weight your text differently, perhaps different alignment, definitely a more interesting but professional typeface, and do me a favor here—look at the above ad and tell me if you don't feel there's too much "air" on the left and the right of the text. Here:



My modification of your ad is very "font aware". I used the heaviness and the size of the text to make the points in a way that draws your eye to what's important in the advert.

This indeed does stick the the grid system, it's just that I didn't fill all the cells, but I think you can see the structure here.

You didn't do anything wrong, mete: I just haven't presented the "Typography" episode yet! Body text has form and shape in addition to the printed message. I'd love to see someone, right now, do an all text ad, and use fonts and font locations and sizes to create motion and graphical substance.

Also, and this is a new one to me, that stock photography, at least on the Web, is ineffective. A real person, or a celebrity, people stop to register, so I think the lesson here is that you can't use stock photography in a gratuitous way to fill up the page, or use someone handsome or sexy to sell your product. The generation of the most heavy consuming people are Generation X and not us Boomers, and they are wise and immune to trying to sell a product with unrelated material.

Your second ad, stygg, is a beautiful accomplishment in black and white. I like the staggered elements and don't mind the somewhat obvious two column treatment at all.

Two column layouts need special care to disguise the grid. They are called "tombstone layouts" (because that's the way a lot of grave markers are made); three columns, or four, or even two uneven columns are good to try out for text-intensive page design.

My Best,

Gare