Including interactivity such as buttons and animations in a document can both engage and distract an audience. It makes a piece of informative text more exciting and interesting to read, however, the extra additions could also distract the user from the information given. 

What you need to consider whether the application is too interactive to be distracting. This can depend on what animations/interactive features are used. For example, buttons and navigation in an application can be useful and positive, whereas over using quirky animations can pull the audiences attention from the subject. 

After completing my project, I have found many things from working with both print documents as well as screen files. A more complex description of everything explored below can be seen in my first post linked here.

The main thing, obviously, is that size changes dramatically when moving graphics from print to screen. The graphics now have to fit to a screen rather than a physical sheet of paper, and this brings changes in the sizes of text, images, and other graphics. 

Text needs to change to be more legible on screen- it is suggested that you increase text from print by 2 pixels to make your text user-friendly. 

Images need to be seen clearly, and this is helped by the change in resolution I did when moving to screen- from 300ppi to 130ppi. The colour settings changed as well, from CMYK to RGB on screen. 

Over all I think I changed my graphics, images and text to make the best products I can.

A logo is a vital part of any company's design. It is a representation of the company in it's simplest form, using sometimes just a simple mark to create a recognizable image. This can represent a story, the company values, and much more. Logo's go back in history not only for company, but also for religious symbols such as the crucifix and the Islamic crescent moon and star. 

A good logo is a recognizable image, which means being consistent throughout products and throughout time (like coca cola pictured below). Depending on the company, logo's should be simple and effective, use good typography, all while being relevant to the specific company.

Logo's go back in history not only for company, but also for religious symbols such as the crucifix and the Islamic crescent moon and star. 

Logo and Icons: Local Social

Below are my final designs for my project Local Social.

This is the company's official logo, which will be used on things like leaflets and websites. This has more colour than the corporate logo below, which will be used for more formal stationery like letter headers and business cards.

The final icons that I have designed are for both website and leaflet, showing navigation sections. From left to right: Our Homes, Our Work, and Contact Us.

As this project is based on a piece of informative writing, layout to make the information more exciting and readable is key. In this post I'll be exploring the key steps to creating an effective layout for text publications.

Covers

The front cover of any publication has to immediately attract the intended audience. Newspapers are a good example of this as they use bold, large headlines to encourage their readers to read that particular story. Newspapers use a lot of white space to make their headings stand out, as well as occasionally adding a photo to support the story. This gives the readers more material to decide whether they want to read that particular story, as well as standing out on shop shelves.

Magazines have much more photo-based covers, using photos of celebrities or people of interest to pull in readers, as well as bold typography.

Content

On the inside, any publications content is organised for different paces for different audiences. For example, news publications use thin columns and small paragraphs to give the illusion to their audience that the piece is a 'quick read', as well as leaving enough space for relevant photos and quotes. On the other hand, magazines have more space to spread out their words with larger columns and pictures.

Digital Layout

There are no limitations on space when working for the screen, giving designers a lot more free reign with things that look appealing. However, there are things to consider, such as hierarchy, usability, and colour. Most news publications that have online sites use the 'grid system'. Subheadings are used as links to the stories and occasional featured stories will have more space on the page, including a bigger photo and maybe more information.

There are also interactive elements involved with sites, including social media links, video files and hyperlinks to related content. All of these icons and links are easy to navigate through so the audience can use the site with ease.

Typography is a vital part of the designing process. Deciding on your type-face can change the whole tone of your product.

Different fonts can convey different meaning and tones. For example, sans-serif fonts are a lot more formal than fonts with serif. However, this rule is not always true, as fonts differ even if they belong to the same serif family. Serif fonts can be elegant and modern, while sans-serif fonts can in turn be very plain and formal.

Serif fonts include:

Sans-serif fonts include:

However, styles of fonts can also change the tone of the writing. A bold, large font will be a lot more loud and blunt than a curvy, fun font. Bold, capital fonts are usually used as newspaper headers to grab the readers attention immediately, whereas more fun fonts are used to give the tone of a fun, colloquial relationship between the author and the reader.

When using font in online publishing, it is easier to use a sans-serif font as it is easier to read than the dashes and ticks on serif fonts. The line spacing (or kerning) also has to be more carefully used, as the more space between words means an easier read on a screen. Usually on screens, fonts are a lot larger font, again to make the reading easier.

While serif fonts were developed when the printing press was, we still use the method to convey important messages as well as using serif fonts in newspapers and a lot of other printed publications. It is a lot more formal and professional than the more simple sans-serif fonts, which are used mostly online, and when needed, in a leisurely and informal toned piece of copy.

Throughout these posts I will be exploring a project in which I will be designing advertisement leaflets for both an iPad and a printed booklet. When designing a product that is going both on a digital screen and on a physical printed product, there are things that need to be considered and changed between the two. 

Screen Size

As with paper sizes, products for digital print differ in size depending on the device, but in this case, it's resolution. Print resolution is 300ppi, but the digital resolutions are listed below.

- IPhones range from 234ppi to 806ppi and improves still

- IPad 130ppi

- Retina iPad 264ppi

- Web 72ppi

Text Adaption

As screen size can sometimes be smaller than print, the size of text can be lost on the screen. It is suggested that text on screen is two times the size in print, to allow readability and clarity. For exactly those reasons, a lot of fonts used in digital print use sans-serif fonts compared to the much more formal serif fonts used in the sister print articles. However, digital articles also allow more space to be more creative with typography and titles.

Colour

As with screen size, colour profiles differ between print and screen. For print, the profile is CMYK. This is subtractive which means the light is subtracted from paper by adding more ink.

For screens, the colour profile is RGB, which is additive- the more colour added, the brighter the screen. It is important to choose the right colour profile when designing.

Wired Magazine

As shown in this wired magazine article, shown both in print and on an iPad app, the layout and other elements of the article differ between the two. For a start, as the app involves a scroll down option which allows a lot more room for information, allowing more room for images, as seen by the differences in size above. The text also adapts sans-serif in the app, and the title is more clearly seen through a larger and simpler font. The app's scrolling feature also allows more room for larger, more readable text, compared to the magazines compressed paragraphs. 

While the content of both articles are the same, many features should be changed and adapted to make the most of the screen or printed magazine.