Layout

3 Key excerpts on "Layout"

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  eBook - ePub

  Design School: Layout

  A Practical Guide for Students and Designers

  • Richard Poulin(Author)
  • 2018(Publication Date)
  • Rockport Publishers

    (Publisher)

  Section 5

  Layout Characteristics

  T he visual characteristics of compositional Layout, like written and verbal communications, involves analysis, planning, organization, and ultimately problem-solving. When you write, or speak, you intuitively choose which words to use and how to use them together to effectively commu-nicate your message. With Layout, the same end result can be achieved; however, a graphic designer needs to be as intuitive.

  Compositional Layout is one of the fundamental elements or the “what” of a graphic designer’s visual language, whereas design principles such as Layout characteristics are the “how.” When carefully considered and used together, they allow you to “speak” in an accessible, universal, visual language.

  We never think of writing a sentence as an unusual or extraordinary act. We are taught at an early age about the elements and principles of written and verbal commu-nications. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for graphic design. However, as we were taught the basics of spelling, grammar, and syntax, we can be taught the same basic fundamentals of graphic design, including the visual elements and characteristics of compositional Layout.

  Layout characteristics such as pacing, sequencing, pattern, form, rhythm, flow, space, alignment, emphasis, hierarchy, and scale are all part of a graphic designer’s vocabulary and grammar for giving a “voice” and, ultimately, meaning to a compositional Layout in any visual communication. Ultimately, your use of compositional Layout as an effective and communicative design tool is solely dependent upon your historical knowledge, technical expertise, and a thorough understanding of its functional and aesthetic characteristics.

  Pacing and Sequencing

  Pacing is an essential visual and experiential characteristic that you need to carefully consider when designing multiple sequential Layouts in a book, publication, or website. Print material and the digital world of websites, apps, and interfaces all require careful attention to pacing, so that a reader or user can comfortably and intuitively engage with the material presented. Compositional Layouts, especially in continuous pages of publications and websites, should maintain a meaningful and thoughtful pace and sequence, so that a reader can comfortably interact with the information being presented. If it is irregular or overwhelming, a reader will most likely become tired and frustrated and will ultimately stop reading.

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  eBook - PDF

  Punctuation as a Means of Medium-Dependent Presentation Structure in English

  Exploring the Guide Functions of Punctuation

  • Sebastian Patt(Author)
  • 2013(Publication Date)
  • Narr Francke Attempto

    (Publisher)

  A standardised and relatively stable appearance of the written presentation facilitates efficient decoding, and it allows for a more facile access to the me-dium-independent linguistic information encoded in writing. With its spatially arranged symbols, the written expression system allows for surveyability, a feature by which it differs from the temporally arranged sounds in spoken language, cf. Vachek (1948: 68). “Written language […] can be inspected at will […]” (Kennedy 2000: 195). Crystal (2005 [1995]: 270) writes with regard to the chunks of text one is usually confronted with: The complex interaction of typeface [font plus eventual additions such as bold print, italicisation, underlining, etc., SP], type size, letter and line spacing, col-our, and other such variables combine to produce what has sometimes been called texture – the dominant visual quality of the typeset text. The macrosetting in which a typeset is presented may be called ‘Layout’. Broadly speaking, this describes the configuration of (chains of) letters on a page, including the specification of type-area, i.e. positions of margins plus text (body), and decisions about spacing, i.e. between words and lines, as well as about lineation, e.g. ‘justified’ vs ‘unjustified setting’, and coloura-tion, cf. e.g. Esser (2006: 98–102) and also Bringhurst (2005 [1992]: 143–179). One of the few linguistic approaches to written text that include macro-level elements such as Layout features or other typographic components is proposed, for example, by Waller, cf. e.g. Waller (1980; 1982; 1985; 1987). In a similar vein, Levenston assesses in how far certain physical aspects of the written expression system (including macro-level features like typeface and Layout) relate to, support and/or bring about the meaning expressed in liter-ary texts, cf. Levenston (1992). Furthermore, however, Crystal’s quotation makes it clear that also on a smaller scale, i.e.

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  eBook - ePub

  Multimodal Stylistics of the Novel

  More than Words

  • Nina Nørgaard(Author)
  • 2018(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  In my analysis, I will consider the meaning-making of conventional Layout choices as well as of more unconventional ones which deviate from the norm and play with readers’ expectations. It should be noted that the meaning created by Layout in the novel is first realised when the author’s verbal narrative is given physical form in the production of the novel (cf. Kress and van Leeuwen’s (2001) four strata of meaning-making). In some of my literary examples, the Layout choices have clearly been devised by the author, while the more conventional choices have simply been made by those involved in setting the novel. Both types of choice may have semiotic implications. In the following, I will present and discuss the compositional principles of Kress and van Leeuwen’s “grammar of visual design” and van Leeuwen’s approach to linking. This will be followed by analysis of text units of varying length (i.e. paragraph, section, page and chapter), other types of text block (e.g. notes, letters, iconic arrangement of characters to form visual images), different uses of spacing (i.e. letter spacing, line spacing and blank space), as well as of the meaning-making involved in the linking of elements in the Layout of the novel. 5.2 Kress and van Leeuwen’s Systems for the Analysis of Layout In the work by Kress and van Leeuwen (e.g. 1996, 2006), the Layout of semiotic space is treated under the heading of compositional meaning – the visual counterpart to Halliday’s textual metafunction that concerns the organisation of verbal text (cf. Chapter 3). Just as language is organised in terms of thematic structure (Theme/Rheme) and cohesion, Kress and van Leeuwen argue that a number of (partly similar) organising principles go into the composition of visual Layout. This view is supported by Machin (2007: 129–130), who refers to Kress and van Leeuwen’s compositional meaning as “visual syntax”, thereby enforcing the parallel to language

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