5 09: Hierarchy

Hierarchy is used to help get across the idea of what the artist is trying to convey. I didn’t realize how important hierarchy is in design, probably because I don’t notice it unless it’s done poorly. Text is an important part of hierarchy. It shows the viewer the important information first to clearly communicate an idea or information. Pictures are also used in Hierarchy. This is more subtle to the viewer, but it is just as important in showing the information. I never paid attention to hierarchy in my designs, I just put things in areas that I though looked good. After reading this article I will be able to improve my own designs by keeping the idea of hierarchy in mind and making a clean design that clearly states what I want it to.

Hierarchy in design is very important. It helps guide the viewers eyes throughout the page. I found it interesting that most people think that hierarchy in design is just used with words on a page, but it is so much more. Photos and images can help display hierarchy within a page or the use of images and words can help represent it as well. Most people think that when you set up a page that the most important image, word and or title belong at the top  and the goal is to make the eyes travel downwards. As a graphic designer I find this to be rather boring at times and find it more interesting and a challenge to make the reader start from a different point and make their eyes move in an unconventional way, but also be able to have them understand the flow and not get confused by what is presented to them.

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.