Category Archives: Design

Typography Matters

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In a major snafu, the wrong winner for the category of Best Picture was declared at the 2017 Academy Awards. As this freeCodeCamp article speculates, if the Academy had paid more attention to typography, they might have prevented this embarrassment. Typography is the art and technique of arranging type to make written language legible, readable, and appealing when displayed. We typically read from top to bottom, so key information – in this case, Best Actress – should be at the top in a large font, and the winner’s name should also be larger than the movie title to make clear that this is about the actor not the movie. Most people aren’t overly concerned with typography, but paying a little attention to the sizing, positioning, and weight of text even in every day documents can help make information more understandable – and even avoid snafus.

 

Creating a photo book but not sure which service to use?

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stack of albums

Some of the services at the consumer end include Shutterfly, Mixbook, Pint Size Productions, and Blurb (for text-heavy books), as well as iPhoto for Mac users. I personally have tried Shutterfly, and have found it to be reasonably good for a basic book. For more detail, check out this cnet review. At the professional end, there is MyPublisher, which offers gorgeous leather covers and thick, glossy paper with layflat pages. The software can be buggy, though, so expect to spend time with tech support.

Idea for a creative Advent calendar

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2015 Adventskalendar

If you are tired of store-bought Advent calendars, consider making an Advent calendar castle for your kids. Paint boxes, cut holes for windows and glue on transparent paper, and then hot glue gun the structure together. To illuminate the ‘houses’, poke a hole in the back of each and insert a bulb from a string of white lights. Magic!