Category: Illustration

These are posts featuring illustrations designed by John LeMasney. In general, unless otherwise noted, they are licensed CC-Attribution, cc-by lemasney, and should contain a citation and linkback.

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7 of 365: Archetypes #design #principle

7 of 365 - Archetypes design principle by John LeMasney via lemasney.com
7 of 365 - Archetypes design principle by John LeMasney via lemasney.com
7 of 365 - Archetypes design principle by John LeMasney via lemasney.com
7 of 365 – Archetypes design principle by John LeMasney via lemasney.com

Archetypes allow designers to make good design decisions about the alignment of the emotional content of a design and the best use of color, line, fonts and other design elements. Archetypes can be classic ones, such as good and evil, sweet and bitter, happy and sad, but can also be much more subtle. Nike tends to make use of the battered hero archetype, using photos of athletes in heroic poses and stark visual conditions. Coca Cola makes use of the happy stereotype, always showing people in the best of moods. These brands could go against archetype, but because there is a certain kind of alignment between those types and the brand, it should not.

In my illustration here, I used a Zen, minimalist archetype to illustrate the traditional zen quote “Catch the vigorous horse of your mind”. I might have chosen to go with a pop approach, or an angry type, but the message and its treatment would have been in conflict.

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6 of 365: Anthropomorphic #design #principle

6 of 365 - anthropomorphic design principle by John LeMasney via lemasney.com
6 of 365 - anthropomorphic design principle by John LeMasney via lemasney.com
6 of 365 - anthropomorphic design principle by John LeMasney via lemasney.com
6 of 365 – anthropomorphic design principle by John LeMasney via lemasney.com

Anthropomorphic design is a method by which a designer makes use of angles and curves that are inspired by the human form to evoke certain emotional responses from the user of the design. For example, the classic Coca Cola bottle makes use of anthropomorphic design and reminds the user of the curves of the female body. One might also play with the proportions and silhouette of a form to remind the user of babies or men to evoke reasonable emotional responses to those ends. Designs that have content that is aggressive, safe, loving, stable, or kind might make use of anthropomorphic forms to evoke those responses in a subconscious way.

In this illustration, I decided to start with 4 female silhouettes, using half of each to create a form that repeats and reverses the half. Then, I created a container inspired by the result of the silhouette experiment. There is no clear connection between the end results and their inspirations, but each of them has a character to them that speaks to the original forms.

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brand consulting curriculum vitae design principles Illustration portfolio professional activities research interests teaching teaching experience

5 of 365: Alignment #design #principle

5 of 365 - alignment design principle by John LeMasney via lemasney.com
5 of 365 - alignment design principle by John LeMasney via lemasney.com
5 of 365 - alignment design principle by John LeMasney via lemasney.com
5 of 365 – alignment design principle by John LeMasney via lemasney.com

Alignment is a design method for maintaining order, readability, and sense. Horizontal and vertical alignment in design allows for easier reading, a more aesthetic layout, and more sensible use of the designed object. Unless the designer is specifically trying to create visual chaos for effect, alignment should be implemented well. By using visible or invisible grids, tables, or other visual underlying structures to guide the placement of items in a design, the designer can improve the understanding of the design, no matter the content.

“”Should I Stay or Should I Go” is a song by the English punk rock band The Clash, from their album Combat Rock. It was written in 1981 and featured Mick Jones on lead vocals. It became the band’s only number-one single on the UK Singles Chart, a decade after it was originally released. In November 2004, it was ranked at 228 on Rolling Stones “The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time” list.[1] In 2009 it was ranked 42nd on VH1’s program 100 Greatest Hard Rock Songs.” ~ Should I Stay or Should I Go – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia – http://goo.gl/iFwdF

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4 of 365: Affordance #design #principle

4 of 365 - affordance - place setting by John LeMasney via lemasney.com
4 of 365 - affordance - place setting by John LeMasney via lemasney.com
4 of 365 - affordance - place setting by John LeMasney via lemasney.com
4 of 365 – affordance – place setting by John LeMasney via lemasney.com

Affordance is the design principle in which a designer considers the ease with which the user can make use of the design, in comparison to other solutions. A design with high affordance is valued because it makes more logical sense than other solutions. It allows for more understanding, and less misunderstanding. An example is a door with a handle on one side and a push plate on the other, in which the suggestion to pull is clear from one side and the suggestion to push is clear from the other. Another example is that both a round wheel and a square wheel will roll, but one clearly makes easier work of rolling. Good design that incorporates affordance considers the clarity and ease with which a task is done.

I recently attended a lovely lunch with a friend, and it seemed as though there was no design to the layout of the table, that anything could go anywhere. In learning about affordance, I thought that designing a placemat in which places were predetermined for the various dishes, drinks, and accoutrement would have been helpful. Since there is a shared central dish in the design, all of the places would be connected by it. The design could work in a round table, a long table, or a square table. By suggesting actions, the design considers affordance. In the same way that you can push on a handled door, you could place dishes anywhere on this place setting, but the most sensible action suggested by the design brings ease and order. This placemat would be reversible, in the event that a left handed person was seated.

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3 of 365: Aesthetic Usability Effect #design #principle

3 of 365 - aesthetic usability effect by John LeMasney via lemasney.com
3 of 365 - aesthetic usability effect by John LeMasney via lemasney.com
3 of 365 - aesthetic usability effect by John LeMasney via lemasney.com
3 of 365 – aesthetic usability effect by John LeMasney via lemasney.com

The Aesthetic Usability Effect is a design principle and theory that says that a design that is more aesthetic (e.g. attractive, visually appealing) is more likely to be used, chosen, or be interpreted as better. Aesthetic designs are also more likely to be perceived as easier to use that less aesthetic designs, even if that is not actually the case.

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2 of 365: Expository and Comparative Advance Organizers

2 of 365 - advance organizer on serif vs sans serif by John LeMasney via lemasney.com
2 of 365 - advance organizer on serif vs sans serif by John LeMasney via lemasney.com
2 of 365 - advance organizer on serif vs sans serif by John LeMasney via lemasney.com
2 of 365 – advance organizer on serif vs sans serif by John LeMasney via lemasney.com

Advance Organizers are a design method where an audience is given new information in one of two ways to become oriented with a new concept. In cases where the audience is newly introduced to the topic, we might use an expository advance organizer. If an alien was trying to learn about the way that a human hand functions, for instance, we might use an expository advance organizer in the form of a description of the look, feel, uses, and functions of the hand. If the alien had hand like appendages, let’s say 3-pointed claws, we might use their understanding of that in the form of a comparative advance organizer that showed the similarities and differences between the alien claw and the human hand. The purpose of either would be to grant the audience a better understanding of the new concept before going into deeper detail, training, or demonstration.

Above is an illustration of the comparative visual anatomy of serif typography and sans-serif typography, in which the letter A is used in a comparative advance organizational method, since you, the audience, is likely familiar with the letter A.