Why We Need (TO BREAK) the Rules

As Peter Bilak once quoted, “Right and wrong do not exist in graphic design. There is only effective and non-effective communication.” Peter Bilak is graphic and typeface designer responsible for designing mail stamps for the Dutch Royal, he teaches typeface design at the Royal Academy of Art, and he also contributes regularly to international publications. So, I have to say I’m with him on this one. In school, designers are provided a set of design guidelines which were set into place to assist aspiring designers. BUT they are not rigid, punishable-by-death, career-killing, commandments. If you don’t have confidence in your skills, if you want to design boring pieces, if thinking outside the box haunts you… just stop reading this and stick to these guidelines like gum on a sidewalk. Seriously, stop reading; go back to Facebook.

Rule #1: Use fewer fonts. This rule is important because you have to keep everything consistent. If all your sub-headings are different fonts, you will confuse your reader and probably lose them altogether. However, fonts can be used to establish hierarchy in your page. Bigger, bolder fonts that are closer to the top will be perceived as being the most important, while smaller and finer fonts will be perceived as being secondary. You also wouldn’t want to write a whole paragraph in Arial Black just for the sake for keeping it the same as your header; it would be difficult and annoying to read. For example, check out this poster:

This follows all the rules, but its so boring that I don’t really want to even read it. My eyes glazed over and I fell asleep just then. This next one, however, uses MANY fonts, and it looks amazing. Even though you can’t read everything, you get the idea instantly. You get the message. It creates an emotional response.
Pretty cool right?

Rule #2: Avoid center alignment. This next piece avoids center layout like its the plague. Here we see right alignment, left alignment, and even justified text. It follows the rule, but its still ineffective. Just because a design follows all of the rules doesn’t mean it is effective.

The following design uses all center alignment, but it still rocks. Because the graphic is symmetrical, any other alignment wouldn’t be as effective.

Rule #3: The more white space, the better. This next magazine advertisement has LOTS of breathing room, so that means it’s great, right? Not so much. It’s a snooze fest.
A lot of magazine ads from the 80s and 90s featured a BIG photo and little teeny tiny text at the bottom or thrown over the top of the image. If your design starts to looks like this, try doing some creative thinking exercises. This design uses only a pinch of negative space, but the small amount that is used really adds to the piece. This artist breaks the convention of using negative space to point to the focal point; instead, the negative space IS the focal point.

These are just a few examples of graphic design guidelines and how to break them. Don’t let anyone tell you your design is wrong because you used 3 fonts. Like Bilak says, there is no such thing as right and wrong; there is on effective and ineffective. If those 3 fonts helped to establish a hierarchy in your piece, added visual interest, and satisfied your client, then it was an effective design. As a designer, it is important to understand the rules so that you can break them gracefully. So, go forth and kill those guidelines, crush them, kill them, turn them upside down, invert them, erase them…but only as long as the result is a creative and effective design.

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