Basic skills in graphic design

First of all, when I hire an assistant, no computer obstacle is my first requirement. This must be a basic skill. I have seen many computer-proficient designers, but I think their technology comes from word of mouth, and I will plant bombs for my work at any time, the confidence of these designers will undoubtedly send bosses who do not understand computers to the path to financial loss. Of course, every day I ask my designers not to rely on computers. It doesn't mean we can't understand it. After all, in our work, every process from design to printing needs the help of computers. Today, the problem is the same as that of painters who do not use a pen.

Secondly, the lack of printing knowledge hinders the development of many graphic designers. Because I don't know, many designers think that their design is on the computer screen, which is very dangerous. Due to technical reasons, there is still a big gap between it and the actual output effect. I am not familiar with the characteristics and defects of printing. It is silly for many designers to make trouble and set obstacles when designing. Print designers need to know a lot about printing, for example, the performance of various brand printing presses, the performance of different specifications of the same model, the performance of different brands of ink, the characteristics of four-color ink and special ink, the performance of different brands, specifications, varieties of paper, Special Technology, post-processing and binding, etc, these are all issues that designers need to consider for customers when designing. So, can I understand the computer and the printing process as a graphic designer? It may not work yet. After all, the above is not directly related to the "design. In terms of graphic design, there are still many special patterns that I am more interested in.

A. Uneven plane

Over the past 20 years, I have had many Lucky things. For example, I bought a bunch of "time" magazines at my old book stall at the beginning of my meal. This is a record that will always make me feel excited. At that time, I was fascinated by the dazzling design. There was no teacher to go from. These old magazines opened my eyes and saw the point. Read the Time magazine carefully. All the skills related to graphic design are included. They are not arrogant, gentle and elegant, and provide a lot of room for the attacker to change his face. Many of my understandings of graphic design come from these old magazines.

"Uneven plane" is a kind of understanding of the graphic effects in graphic design. Many people call it layout, composition, structure, and form... Yes. I like to make it simple. After reading a lot of good designs, I feel that designers are intentionally or unintentionally pursuing "unfair" results. That is, the visual space is stretched by using a variety of plane elements on a plane material (such as paper. In this theory, we started to try this theory in one hundred years, and we have already done our best. I am amazed at the Art revolution that caused the most uncommercial human panic one hundred years ago. After one hundred years, it became the most commercial graphic art.

This space concept outlines natural space feelings and conflicting space feelings. With the designer's hobbies, layout requirements, visual impact requirements, and free choice. No one is surprised now, but the skills (or elements) used by designers are regular, no matter how natural space is displayed or how contradictory space is felt. There are also a lot of ideas. For example, drilling holes, exaggerating shadow effects, using highly authentic and textured images, comparison between physical elements and painting elements, contrast between colors, and stacked effects between lines and bars; use the stacked effects of text and graphics, text and text, and compare the size and proportion of text. Due to space limitations, we will not elaborate on it. In the future, we can compare the sample works with the theoretical texts for a clear view.

B. Music in color

Color is the soul of a flat work. If you want to use it well, you must understand some knowledge of paper and ink. The combination of different paper and different ink will produce absolutely different results. However, the difference between us and painters is that there are only four tubes of paint in the hands of a graphic designer, but it can reconcile all the colors that we can perceive by relying on the dense features of the outlets. This is a magical invention. We are grateful to the Germans for the originality of printing technology. We can make the ink appear more even, bright and clean with the combination of Dot and paper (white. However, this is only a technical matter. Designers need to rely more on spirituality in their design work.

I often hope that the designers and friends around me can learn some music. This is not just a mystery. It is really simple and straightforward to use the theory of music to parse the color. This is my discovery.

A. first, people who know music know that they cannot find a fixed sound on the instrument. The notes are "mutates" and change positions with the adjustment. Different adjustments convey different feelings, it is suitable for different musical instruments and voices. This is the same as our use of color. The tone and emotion of the entire screen are conveyed through the warmth and warmth of the screen color. However, from an early age, the relationship between colors and warmth is fixed. Red is warm and blue is cold. This is an incorrect concept.

Like a note, the color changes with the changes in the surrounding environment to tonality (relationship between temperature and cooling ). Knowing this, blue can also be rendered as warm. Because of the relationship between screens, graphic designers are no longer used to naming colors in the form of literature, such as foreign red, group blue, and lake blue. Instead, they use four numbers that are simpler and more direct. This is good. It is a mechanical requirement that meets the requirements of the business or digital era. The understanding of color tonality is a spiritual training for graphic designers.

B. secondly, the application of the concept of chord and melody in graphic design the friends who play the instrument know another truth. It doesn't matter which sound is nice or hard to hear. The notes must be put together to be called music, otherwise, it must be noisy to say "" and "mi" and "" will become the chord "C ". This is like a combination of red, blue, and white in color. It is always harmonious. You can add new notes to a chord. For example, you can add a "come" chord to change your mood and change it to a 7-chord. If we change "mi" to "mi", we will go to the blues very differently, just like in the combination of red, blue, and white, the visual experience with purple or orange colors is completely different. A chord can always be added to a 9 or 13 chord ...... In terms of color, it is like the advanced gray that we often say.

After understanding this principle, we will better understand that colors should be grouped. The basis of these combinations should be the chord C, D, E, F... In the same way, there is a primitive combination. If the designer wants to keep changing, change it in these combinations. You must put the irrelevant colors together, just like "fat" and "Greek". No matter who they are, your picture must be dull; if you must put the hostile colors together, it will be ugly. Using the principles of chords to understand colors, you will immediately jump out of the misunderstanding of poor colors and find that there are too many available colors. A reasonable combination of colors keeps the visual space of the screen stretched, making the screen not only beautiful but thick. This is the role of color chords.

But can it be music with just a chord? No, music still needs music. Music without music sounds bad. So what is the melody of a flat work? It is the process of watching a work with our eyes. Either a poster or a brochure has a question about what people first see, what they see, and what they need most. These constitute the melody of the flat work, which makes the audience's eyes nervous, when to rest, and where to stay. This is the question that designers need to think about most.

C. According to my suggestions, my designers have been summing up and recording various color combinations for a long time.

From the famous works, from the patterns of various nationalities, from the natural scenery, and then we use these colors in actual work. For example, the group of colors that we use in the small tabs made for the "good lunge" pizza shop are found in vegetables and fruits. Because we need a set of colors that make people look hungry. But the problem is coming soon. Many of the color combinations we have summed up in the good design of famous masters have changed after we use them. Why? It really upset us for a while.

At first, we thought we had a problem with the color record. We found that the color was not accurate enough, and many subsequent experiments failed, fortunately, we have been confused for a long time and have found the cause. The original color usage is the same as the rhythm in the music, which requires a ratio. Many nice-looking color combinations also require reasonable color proportion control. under specific conditions, the area of a color must be large, a certain color is about to be small, some are just for air, some are for press sinking, and then I don't have the confidence to continue searching for the regular, it is really changing. However, it is certain that flat works must be controlled by a certain rhythm. There are many elements that control the rhythm. They are commonly used in color, picture and text arrangement. As I said at the beginning of the article, we have been searching for an answer without laws. It is precisely because of the absence of laws that graphic design is interesting and challenging and stimulating. Many opportunities are born out of disorder.