å Monday, November 9th, 2015

Hierarchy is an important aspect in design, because it emphasizes the main components of the piece. Hierarchy allows your eyes to run through the design, picking out the most important words, pictures, graphics. This system is used to pull the significant material forward to show the viewer the order of things in the design. The order is so important to a successful design. Using larger font type in a design will draw the viewer in allowing them to see the visual hierarchy of the piece. This reading was a good refresher for me and reminded me that the simplest things in a design can be the most important.

a visual hierarchy is how importance is placed on an image and how that can change the feel of the overall presentation. This is a necessary aspect for graphic designers because that is a lot of ways is what they are paid to do. while everything needs to look nice if the information that needs to be conveyed is not properly conveyed then there is no point.

I never realized how important hierarchy is until reading this article. I have always noticed hierarchy but never realized the significance behind it. This class and project made me much more aware about how hierarchy can be conveyed. Without hierarchy, it would be hard for you to tell apart the most important part of the design and less important part of the design. When you see a poster of some sort, you always notice that the text that is the biggest and stands out to you the most is what the designer wants you to look at first. The rest of the poster is broken down and consists of different sized texts based on the significance and importance of what that text is trying to tell you. Creating hierarchy is important because you need to know exactly what you want to stand out the most and what is most important, but in a reasonable consistent form.

When doing this reading, it really made me understand the importance of visual hierarchy in design. Hierarchy is used every day, not only in design. When looking at a poster, for example, the title is the first thing that should be seen, followed by any subtitles that may be included. If the small details are larger than the title, the important part of the design is being hidden. The way things are positioned, as well, really matters. Ordering things correctly can show the order of importance without having to increase the size of anything. I never thought about, in a 3D setting, how visual hierarchy played such a big role. When taking photos of things, the background really matters when making the other images pop, basically telling you which object needs to be looked at first before the rest of the picture is examined.

Visual hierarchy is a meaningful order designers apply to their work everyday. After reading this article I have a much better understanding of how important the use of hierarchy is not only in everyday life but in graphic design as well. When used in design, visual hierarchy is what guides our eyes to look at things in a certain order based on their importance, it does this by suggesting clear marks of separation to signal a change from one level to another while remaining visually appealing. After reading about hierarchy I have a better understanding of how meaningful order is to a graphic designer in order to properly organize information. Hierarchy is crucial to the design field because as designers, our job is to refine and make sense of the information were presenting, while presenting the information in an attractive and creative way.

Visual hierarchy is an important point in any piece of design. Through this reading I came to realize that the way type is represented through visual hierarchy is also quite important. Type can form itself into something quite incredible through the way that it’s implemented. For example, if one were to use a bigger font on a specific section of a project, the focus point may shift to that piece due to the visual hierarchy associated with larger text.

After reading this article, i feel like i have a much a better understanding of what visual hierarchy is all about. Hierarchy is focused on how a layout can control our attention by emphasizing and organizing aspects in the visual space. Hierarchy can separate lines of text into groups or make everything clump together into a big homogeneous blurb. An example in the text that stuck out was the table of contents page that tried one to many methods of separating texts and ended up looking like a complete mess. Also the page that showed a series of similar hierarchies with slight permutation was useful in showing how different types of changes can affect a hierarchy.

After reading this article, it helped me better understand what hierarchy is. I never thought about how it gives workplace, family, religion, politics, etc. it’s power and position. In graphic design it gives words and pictures structure and meaning. It makes it stand out on a page or product and catches the viewer / consumers attention. It also gives the design flow and conveys a clear message. When we first started our weather report project, I was just placing the information around the page aimlessly. Once I read the pages about hierarchy, I placed the words in an order that had better continuity and was easy to understand. The pages from the book really helped me grasp the meaning of hierarchy and how to use it. Being able to use this information on my own designs will help me become a better graphic designer.

The reading made me really think about text and the format of how things are placed depending on what the designer intended it to do. I then started to look at type around my room and how there are such a huge variation on how letters and words are placed to convey a message. For an example, reading from a simple left to right might convey simplicity and more of an informative feel. Having words jumbled all over the place may convey chaos and more fun. Then words that are written in a certain pattern may make you feel the way that the designer is trying to make you feel and think. Hierarchy Type displays power, emotions, and purposes. It’s interesting how we don’t really think about or second guess the hierarchy and placement of type is displayed to the viewers’ eyes but it influences us so much.