The Science Behind Design

A biologist recently asked me about the science behind graphic design. How many studies have been done? Where is the evidence? What are the quantifiable reasons behind the choices you make? Isn't it subjective?...

Well, gosh darn, it isn't!

It may be true that certain choices don't have factual evidence to back them up. For example, you wouldn't put a flashing LCD billboard in downtown Whitehorse, a town of 23,000 people. Not because it wouldn't command attention. But because many people living in the North prefer the visually quiet landscape of the natural environment to the loud skyline of a city filled with marketing. There’s no study to back this up. We know it because we live here too.

There is, however, a heap of scientific data that does inform a designer’s choices. Here are a few examples to give you an idea of the scope of thinking that goes into intelligent design.

Colour has considerable impact on human emotions.

Associations that accompany a colour – its hue, lightness and chroma – give a rationale for choosing a strong and reliable blue in corporate business card or a somewhat garish colour combination for a campaign about germs. Here's an interesting site all about colour emotion! 

People focus their eye on things that stand out.

Visual Hierarchy is the order in which most people will see and identify objects. Designers use size, colour, contrast, texture, shape, position, and orientation to lead the audiences’ focus through the hierarchy of importance on every design.

Eyesight degrades with age.

Commonly known but pertinent when designing a book on Grizzly Bear management that will be used by elders in Canada's north.

I'm out of time for writing, but biologists, take note: If scientific theory is meant to be disproven, and designers are experimenting with forms of communication constantly, then I'd say the science behind design is alive and evolving…. and best of luck to the analysts keeping up with our new ideas!

right-to-left vertical lunch

I had lunch with my Japanese friend today, and it turned into an unexpected, eye-opening typography/communication lesson. Let me explain…

With his usual enthusiasm, he proudly revealed his newly acquired Japanese book from the 50’s about Alaska, only to become sooooo sad when he realized I wasn’t in a position to fully share this treasure since I can’t read Japanese. But I am not so easily deterred, and immediately grabbed the book out of his hands…my designer mind finding TONS of treasures in the ultra-simple typography hierarchy, the oh-so-elegant covers, and in our animated conversation that followed.

We went from that book to a Japanese magazine, to a pocket pock, to his translating tools online…I even got excited about online vertical field forms. I was suddenly aware of the depth of our language differences and the opposite angles of our perceptions. But mostly I was absolutely impressed by the acrobatics of his brain, juggling without difficulty phonetic Japanese symbols (Hiragana & Katakana) and semantic Chinese symbols (Kanji), reading sometimes vertically from right to left in the traditional way, & sometimes reading left-to-right and top-to-bottom the same mixture of Asian symbols, all juxtaposed with the English alphabet. And all this in the same layout!

He mentioned he thought this chaos served design purposes. This being a new world to me, I did not have a ready opinion…but upon reflection I suspect it had its origins with politics, globalization, computer-friendly writing, and Internet coding, since design always serves a function. I read a bit more about it here: Explanation of the Japanese Writing System (Wikipedia).

Since I’m currently working on a social inclusion awareness campaign, this directly connected me to the countless layers of differences that surround us, enriching and strengthening our community. Thanks 本山直人

Shawarma anyone?

Who doesn’t like free stuff? I love it. I am the type of guy who takes everything at showrooms and will always jump on a competition if I think I may have a chance to win something. Just last week I was engaged by Yukono’s Facebook page in a competition, which resulted in two free shawarma combos from a restaurant in town. I can’t help myself. The idea of gaining something for what we would consider almost nothing has always appealed to me.

So what makes a good incentive to engage your audience? Do you remember back when the banks would offer you a free toaster to open up a new account? How about the ever-classic McDonalds Monopoly contest? Or for us in Canada, I will skip my regular non-chain coffee joint for Tim Horton’s when “Roll up the Rim” is on.

Some incentives are to just get your audience in the door and others are to gain customer loyalty. When developing or choosing incentives, the needs and wishes of your audience are very important to take into consideration. Timing is also important. Positioning incentives during slow seasons or when releasing a new product can be a very useful tactic. Incentives can also be very effective when trying to get your audience to engage in a specific survey. When done appropriately the data you receive will be priceless compared to the expense of your carrot of choice.

Do you remember any old incentive programs that hooked you in? I know I will definitely be enjoying my shawarma this week.

the North rises higher

Yellowknife based Up Here magazine won Magazine of the Year at the National Magazine Awards this month. Acclaimed for being the magazine that most consistently engages, surprises and serves the needs of its readers, the judges described Up Here as "distinctive, fresh and unpredictable with engaging and accessible content that crosses both disciplinary and geographical boundaries. Its commitment and passion are very evident—and contagious."

A few other mentionables include:

- Best Magazine Cover: for Report on Business, art directed by Domenic Macri, designed by Julie Dickson

- Illustration: Roxanna Bikadoroff for "Floating Like the Dead" in Vancouver Review.

- Website of the year: dogsincanada.com A lighthearted-feeling site with enticing puppy videos and piles of easy to find information, all about dogs

- Best visual design in web: lametropole.com Slick and cool without being convoluted, this site is all in French if you're looking for news that way.

- Best art direction for an entire issue: Janine Vangool for the launch issue of Uppercase, Spring '09. I'm particularity excited about this new magazine because it's all about making, curating and publishing visual culture.

For the complete list of winners, visit the National Magazine Awards website. 

some healthy redundancy

Here at Aasman, we take pride in quality. It's a core value. It's part of our brand. We apply numerous strategies to keep ourselves to that task, from creative brainstorms to Photoshop wizardry.

But not long ago, a less glamorous tool came to light, and boy did it shine brilliantly: our archival backups.

Earlier this year, one of our backup systems went down. No worries, we thought, we'll just run the backup manually until we get this sorted out. The next morning, everyone was panicking as their last 2 weeks of work had suddenly disappeared.

It didn't take Paul and I long to see that we had inadvertently over-written both our backup and our working files. Ooops. It took significantly less time for our hearts to sink to our guts. An hour later (including a dreary staff meeting asking everyone to start re-creating files) we remembered about that 3rd redundant archival backup we have.

In a snap, we had everything back up and running. Man I love that 3rd redundant archival backup!

We maintain a digital archive of all the work we've done. And we back it up. Of course we also back up our current working files. Then we back it up again, every night. Then we send another backup home with Paul. After all, how would our brand reputation stand up if we lost all our work to a tired hard drive? Our primary backup drives step in and protect us from the possibility.

What if someone accidently hits the delete button on that system, you ask? As has been proven, our redundant backups protect us even from that.

Crisis avoided, reputation in tact.