IM 101 - Basic Graphic Design

May 29th, 2008 · No Comments

An aspect of Web site design and construction that I don’t often see discussed, at least in IM circles, is graphic design concepts. I find this kind of strange. After all, we are dealing with things like shape, balance, color all in 2 dimensions. I suppose that no one eager to start earning money online really wants to hear that they need to take a course in Graphic Design 101.

Actually, I did take a course in graphic design many years ago. In fact, I took a few courses in it along with courses in drawing, painting, sculpture, and art history. Four years worth. I was a painting major my first time through college and obviously that didn’t stick.

Did it help with my Web site designs?

Maybe a little, but some of my sites are downright ugly. That’s why I now rely on templates, and in particular, WordPress and the myriad number of themes available for that platform.

What most people don’t realize is that they probably already have a pretty well-developed eye for graphic design. They just assume because they couldn’t draw well back in the first grade or failed art classes, that they have no sense of what’s visually appealing in 2 dimensions.

Hogwash!

We tend to forget the numerous things in our lives that require us to draw upon our visual organization skills:

Coordinating our daily wardrobe
Decorating our homes and arranging furniture
Planting gardens
Wrapping gifts
Pimping our rides

Granted, a very small minority of the population can’t properly dress themselves. Just take a look at some of Hollywood’s finest at a Red Carpet event. But the rest of us do just fine, thank you very much.

Since I’m presenting this IM 101 series as if it were offered in the context of a college curriculum in IM, I would still pencil in a few sessions in basic graphic design during the second semester of Web Design 101. Actually, I would put the IM students in the position of being art students for a couple of classes.

It may have the effect of putting things in a context other than just making money.

The reverse side of the Web design coin is usability issues such as navigation design and designing for accessibility for impaired visitors. This in itself could probably be expanded into a complete upper level course along with designing for the mobile Web, which has an entirely different set of constraints.

At this level, if students can understand the importance of using fonts correctly, the importance of white space, and that simple almost always wins out over flashy, then a solid foundation has been set for future study.

And of course, why not leverage the work of people skilled in graphic design and just use the beautiful templates and themes they have lovingly created?

I’ll wrap up this Web Design session in a future post on CSS and scripting languages.