Design is the process of creating an item or product for a specific purpose. It is always a process in that there is seldom an occasion where something is created and the last iteration is exactly the same as the first. There is almost always a process of refining, correcting, and altering before the final item is ready. This is also true in the signage industry.
Whether you are printing, vinyl cutting, laser cutting, using a CNC Router or Heat Press, it is vital that your design meets the requirements of the job.
Every single person is capable of coming up with an idea, whether very simple or very complex. However, taking the idea and turning it into something useful requires a number of steps.
One definition of design is as follows: “to create, fashion, execute, or construct according to plan”. That is a very general definition and does not really speak to design as used in the signage industry. There are a number of factors which have to be considered or which go into designing signage. Design is as much a subjective process as it is about the item being created. The personality or character of the designer is built into the item.
That is why it is be better to consider the importance of good design. This can focus more on the techniques used rather than the creativity of the designer which would be more subjective and difficult to break down into technical elements.
One of the things that needs to be considered when looking at the technical aspects of design is measurement. Is a consistent unit of measurement used throughout? There are a vast number of measurement units which can be used, some modern and others more historic. The fact that they are historic does not mean they are not accurate, in fact in some cases they are more accurate due to the small size of the measure. Some of these older systems include Picas and Points. There are 12 points in a Pica, but 1 Pica is equivalent to 4,233 millimetres. Due to the smaller scale it is easy to see that picas and points can be more accurate than millimetres. That said, the millimetre has become the most common unit of measure. There are others including inches and centimetres.
When designing it is imperative to determine the unit of measure and stick with it throughout the entire process. Switching between units can cause untold problems.
Colour is another important element in good design. Ensuring that colours are reproducible and can be displayed is important. Selecting a colour which is difficult to reproduce can become a problem. An example of one such colour is orange. Orange is notoriously difficult to reproduce accurately. Not only from screen to print, but also from screen to screen and from one device to the next. Even from one print run to the next on the same device with the same inks, orange can come out looking different. Also how colours react in different lighting settings.
Another factor that must be considered is the production technique. Will the sign be printed, cut with a laser, manufactured on a router, output on vinyl or some other substrate and whether that substrate is solid or flexible. Taking the production method into account from the outset can prevent issues where the design cannot be produced because of the limitations of the technology selected. As an example, it is easier and more efficient to produce rounded corners on a router than to produce square-cut corners which would have to be sharpened or cleaned by hand, while a vinyl cutter may be able to produce sharp corners more easily.
Another important element is readability or legibility. This applies as much to the image elements as it does to the type. In terms of image elements, they need to be clean and clear, so that there is no trace of ambiguity. Type should be readable from the chosen reading distance, that is the design must take into account whether the item will be viewed close up or from a long distance. Is the type big enough, is the selected font clear and legible?
Something which is often overlooked is Typography. In essence this is how the letters of a font react to each other and affect the overall appearance. As an example, look at the letters A and V and how they sit next to each other. Do the A and V have a big space between them – AV?, or does the dot above the ‘i’ in the word “it” disappear into the crossbar of the t? Typography is largely overlooked these days with designers relying on the software to handle all aspects. Sometimes the software does not take into account the spacing and placement of letters in relation to each other.
How the file is saved or designed must also look at things such as raster or vector files and when it is preferential to use which format. Raster files are commonly used for editing images, photos, and graphics. Vector files work better for digital illustrations, complex graphics, and logos. That is because the resolution of vectors remains the same when resized, making them suitable for a wide variety of printed formats. It is also important to know whether the output device can handle raster or vector files. There is little point in designing a file that has a lot of images if the printer or cutter cannot handle raster files.
Design is a very complex aspect to address in a textbook. This is due to the fact that, while the technical aspects of design can be taught, the creative elements cannot, and then aligning the creative and technical takes time and experimentation to achieve a level of sophistication.
A good design – one which takes all the elements into account – can be easy to implement, while a poor design can result in any number of problems or snags along the way.
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