5 09: Hierarchy

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.

The reading showed that everything deserves a purpose, even the way words are grouped on a page. Everything you see is influential and this benefits a graphic designer but they need to know how to use it. Using hierarchy in your work makes it interesting for the eye, even if they are small changes such as placement, size, or color. These changes enhance and can make a message come off clearer or greater then intended.

Reading this article helped me clarify the meaning of hierarchy. I never thought that deep into the layout of things and how a certain advertisement reads and the organization of it. Once I read this article I decided to take a look into things like magazines, advertisements, and even the label on my lotion bottle. I quickly noticed how the designer of the product wants you to read the label, things that are most important and they want you to read first are the biggest, and the least important information is in the smallest point font. The designers work through the layout to pull your eyes around the way they want them too, they take the time to create a layout that will work best for what you are trying to get across to the viewer.

When the article started with information about the design of table of contents I had to think about how often I had looked across leader lines to get to the page number of a specific chapter. It finally struck me as annoying once the example of the more modern table of contents was shown. Type should be something thats easy to look at and not be an annoyance or a strain to the eye. The dimensional hierarchy also struck me as interesting. I was amazed to see that there are companies that are willing to have important product information subordinate their logo or name. The design in turn looks more distinguishable and their company will be associated with the hierarchy of the package rather than the actual product logo. It just goes to show that the accessibility of important information and visual communication is one of the most important aspects of design.

I would have never related type to hierarchy before reading this article but now the idea of order of importance makes perfect sense in relation to this. By using different scales and styles in type, it shows the viewer what they should be paying attention to and where their eyes should be going to see the most important parts of the piece. If the piece is poorly designed and doesnt include different scales or styles or good placement, the viewer can get confused and the piece can fail. It’s also important to keep in mind not to go over the top with scales and style and to keep it to a minimum or else it could be even more confusing than not including them at all. I really enjoyed the page that showed the series of iconic snacks with the stripped down hierarchy that displayed the architecture of the snacks. The designs were so simple but modern looking.

I really enjoyed this reading and it really helped me clarify hierarchy in text. In the beginning I really thought this exercise was monotonous, but after doing more with it and reading this excerpt, I had more respect for it. As a person who wants to work for magazines in the future, text hierarchy is super important. The covers of magazines are what catch your eye along with what headlines are emphasizes and placed. I loved the examples of the menus, I thought they were beautiful and innovative. I find it quite an art form how text can be arranged and changed in ways to manipulate the viewer’s eye. Sometimes, the text still needs to be readable which can impose an issue if you want to make it in this intricate way. It’s really crazy to think how much power a graphic designer has over their work. Back to my magazine example, many just carelessly see the fact the headlines are there, but they were put there for a reason by a designer.

I thought this reading was very interesting. Hierarchy never really became consciously aware to me until we started talking about it in this class. I’ve always noticed it in design work before or in drawings of my own, but I never really noticed that I was doing it or that I was classifying one object with a higher importance than another. Hierarchy is extremely important because it establishes to the viewer, the audience, the client, or whoever is examining the design the order of importance of the information in the design. I’m beginning to notice more and more throughout the course of this class that design work is not necessarily so much about the actual artistry and the beauty of a piece, but more about the clarity of the image. There is more to say about simplicity because there is more readability, and that’s something the reading touches upon. Scale and style of the fonts are extremely important because they determine whether or not the design can get the point across to the viewer. This being said, I’ve also realized through this project just how difficult it can be to achieve simplicity and readability within a design. They will make or break the design, but they can also make or break the designer depending on how much time and effort the design requires.

This article was very interesting to me because it compared hierarchy in the mid-evil days to hierarchy in graphic design. It explained how hierarchy back then described a basic ranking system in which a king was the highest and the peasants were the lowest and hierarchy in graphic design separates the more important text from the least important. This example really helped me grasp the concept of hierarchy in graphic design and now I am definitely going to look at the layout of text differently when thinking about that.

The reading on Hierarchy was pretty interesting to me. Hierarchy within design is something that I have been noticing and looking out for fairly frequently and it is, just like many other things, a factor that can make or break a design. It’s what gives a design it’s flow and readability. If someone was to look at a design, they would most likely want to look at something that clearly conveyed what parts of the design are most important and what parts of the design are not as important. For example, think about an event flyer. An event flyer is normally filled with a good amount of text, and that text needs to be broken up somehow or else nobody will even bother reading it. People passing by that flyer want to know what the event is and when it takes place at first glance. If that information draws them in, then they’ll care enough to look further and find the other details. Creating a hierarchy within a design can be pretty difficult, though. You really have to take the time to think and make decisions about what is TRULY the most significant in your case. I, myself, am hoping to better myself at it.

After reading about hierarchy I realized how important the layout of the page or advertisement is for the designer and viewer. Although the consumer may not realize it, the way information is advertised often affects whether they will buy an item or not. Using typographic and photographic information, you can express the product design in a million different ways. Scale, placement and alignment are used to create order and it makes the piece look neat and creative at the same time. Hierarchy determines the impact a message has on a viewer or consumer and this is all manipulated by the designer. Hierarchy is a way the designer can control its’ viewers and manipulate what catches their eye first by using scale and style. This reading was very interesting and opened my eyes to the possibilities hierarchy gives you in a design.