Bad Design, Good Design, & Great Design ( + Two Things I Learned Today)

SOURCE 

Sometime last year, I watched the documentary Objectified*. In it, one of the designers talks about the skill involved in design. Essentially, he said (much, much more eloquently than this) that bad design is obvious, and good design is noticeable. But great design shouldn't be noticed. It's function should be so flawless that it shouldn't call any attention to itself, basically doing its job so well that it slips by, escaping the notice of the person using it. So interesting.

Two things I learned today:

1 // I'm designing the playbill for my school's musical this year. My teacher and I came up with the layout for it this afternoon. We worked from the center out. I never would've thought to do that on my own, but thinking about it now, it's so intuitive! When the playbill is stapled, as I'm sure you know from personal experience, it tends to fall open to the center page. So, start there, putting the most important elements where they'll be seen and appreciated. Doesn't that make so much more sense than starting with the front cover, like I did when I worked on it on my own?

2 // I'm reading about videography, and today I came across a passage that discussed the importance of cuts and edits. It said each time you make a cut from one clip to another, it's a dangerous opportunity to lose the attention of your audience. You're actually redirecting their attention and thoughts; that's why it's so important to make your edits perfect... A few too many extra static frames and your audience may have changed the channel.

Now, I'm not saying I have lots of experience in that area (yet), but I thought it was such an interesting way to approach constructing your film.

*PS, you can stream it for free on that website!