A Sign I Love
When I first saw this sign, my immediate reaction was that I liked it. A lot. I snapped the picture and then went about the rest of my day. Coming back and looking at it, I can start to dissect what it is exactly that makes me like it. I think one of the largest design principles at play here is contour bias. Even the mountains have curves to them instead of all sharp edges, or a flat line beneath them. I very much like the way that the curves of the bottom of the mountains is echoed by the curve of the white lines, it gives the design a sense of unity and continuity. With the mountains and the lines, I think that the design principle of closure is also at play in this sign, because the green shapes are interpreted as being a whole entity – a mountain in this case. I also appreciated that the text in this sign was large enough to read the names, but did not make the design feel cluttered.
A Sign I Hate
This sign, on the other hand, was my least favorite of all of the ones that I saw this election season. What first strikes me about this sign is the fact that the “Educator Approved” piece appears to be covering up a pre-existing design, which gives the feeling that the “Educator Approved” text was slapped on last minute and that it was not really incorporated into the design. I think that this makes the design, and therefore the sign, feel cheap and rushed. This is the design principle of Horror Vacui in the real world – the cluttered appearance of this sign, with multiple lines of text and a design partially covered up by more text makes the sign, and thus its candidate, seem cheap and poorly planned. Interestingly enough, the candidate was there when I took the photo, and when I explained I was using it as a real life example to discuss design principles, he immediately started telling me the things that he would change about the design, including making the text for his last name bigger so it was easier to see from farther away, and re-positioning the “Educator Approved” text. It was interesting to hear that many of his thoughts overlapped with my initial ideas on why I had a negative reaction to the sign.
It seems like the politician did not have a collaborative working experience with his campaign sign designer, haha. I think creating these signs is a challenging task – you really have to know the one big key message. It never helps to put too much information, I would agree to reposition and amplify “educator-approved” rather than leaving it as a last minute change.
I laughed so hard when I read that the politician was there while you were photographing his sign. And then he participated in the critique with you! That’s too perfect. Do you think you can say that your post is now “Candidate Approved”?
I was caught so off-guard, I was also a bit embarrassed because I was using it as a “bad” example! Luckily, I managed not to say that part, and he seemed genuinely interested in the project. Haha, I think so! I check Wednesday morning and he ended up winning his election, so clearly the design wasn’t too terrible.