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I have a technique that I will try on almost every job I do, especially jobs that I'm starting
from scratch, and that is to make an object just super big on the page! Doing that gives
you drama, it gives you some theater, it certainly creates a focal point, it's a point of interest
on the page. And often it'll just give you beautiful results very quickly. Let me show
you what I mean.
I have here a small assortment of Zapf Dingbats. Dingbats are picture fonts. They're used in
text. They're used for ornamentation. But the thing is, they're so small that you would
normally just overlook them. But you don't need to.
Let's just isolate one of these, and then enlarge it to super size. And when you place
this on the page, you get this great result very quickly, very easily.
Giant object is what arrests your eye pointing straight down the page. A single line of type.
We have Campus Writers Guild in bold, red type. The date and the place in light, black
type. Terrific contrast. Very handsome result, very simply.
Another example: this clock face. Just an ordinary, eight-inch clock face, but it has
been made artistic by writing the name super big. And you'll see that it's so big that
it doesn't fit the space. That's the key to it.
At this size, you can see that type really is artwork, although it doesn't have to be
a scrawly face like this. In this case, we're using Helvetica Neue Black, just set straight
across the page. But as before, the key is that it's so big it doesn't fit the space.
And that really turns it into a design element, a point of interest . . . really handsome
result, very easily.
Another example: We have a page and the only thing on it is the "48 billion jars recycled
in 2011." There's no artwork, there's . . . there's no nothing. Solution is to simply make that
48 gigantic. It becomes the focal point, the point of interest, the design element.
Add the text, a supporting photograph, color the 48 to pick up one of the colors in the
photo, and just like that you have a page.
Very easy, very . . . you'll find all kinds of results this way.
One last example: We have two images on the page here; we have a geisha and a fan. They're
basically the same size.
We have a favorite design instructor who will tell her students to make one object on the
page big and the other one small. And often as not they'll just come back with this . . .
And it's certainly . . . you know we have one object bigger and one object smaller.
But what we really mean is this: you have gigantic picture and a tiny one. And notice
with the geisha, she's so big that she doesn't even fit the space that she's in.
In this case move the fan onto her, and add the text to the bottom of the page, and you
have this gorgeous poster. Everything is centered right here. All the lines converge right down
on the type including the lines of sight.
What's cool about this is that the fan really becomes a visual point of interest for the
text. And so it's almost like you have two posters in one. You know, you have the big
picture for viewing across the room, or across campus! And the small one for viewing and
reading up close.
So . . . handsome result . . . make an image big. And that's what I do. Try this on every
project, and see where it takes you.
I'm John McWade at Before & After magazine.