Document Design Principles - Contrast
While in the 21st century these are great design principles on showing contrast, computers weren’t a thing of the early 20th century. Designers had to get a little more creative when creating contrast design elements. Looking at Bulletin number 41 of the Trade and Industrial series no. 11, Coal-Mine Ventilation published in November 1919. While the concept of serif versus san serif fonts hadn’t been invented yet, the authors of this document used contrasts of large type with small font to show the importance of the articles covered. The topic being addressed, “Coal-Mine Ventilation,” is the main focus of this 67-page document. The words are in all capitals versus the upper and lower case words that are less important and more the supporting information to the document cover. The goal of contrast is to allow “a reader [to] always be able to glance at a document and instantly understand what’s going on,” (Williams 72) or what information is being presented in the document.
Now that a basis is formed on contrast, looking at the second page of this Coal-Mine Ventilation document, is there a lot of contrast in the information being presented? There is larger font to point out the fact that the reader is looking at Federal Board for Vocational Information. Then there is a contrast between the committee members and their job titles. The member’s names are in all upper case to create emphasis while their job titles are in an italicized to create contrast between the name of the board member and their job title. There are two horizontal lines drawn to separate the members from the title on the page and the executive staff. Then toward the bottom, there is a double line to contrast additional information unrelated to the board members. With these different contrast principles in play, a reader can quickly glance at the material on this page and separate out the different bits of information being presented.
A cover and an index page make it relatively easy to present different bits of information quickly to a reader through contrast methods, but what about a main page of an article? Main pages of articles present a lot of written text that isn’t nearly as easy to distinguish. One way to use the concept of contrast is to create headers that allow a reader to know the overall general topic that will be discussed in a given block of text. The other way to create contrast on a page of text is to indent paragraphs. This allows a reader to know that this block of text is related and when the next block of related text starts.
In a letter dated June 20, 1924 from William Green to Hearl Maxwell regarding acknowledgement of joining a local labor union, William Green wrote the letter to Hearl Maxwell on letter head. William Green was the Secretary-Treasurer of the United Mine Workers of America. The pertinent information on the letter head stands out in large font so it is quickly accessible. William Green’s information is located in the left hand corner in smaller font than the United Mine Workers of America logo as is the information in the right corner about where to send money. The letter to Mr. Maxwell has been moved down the page and the typewriter font is different than the letter head information to help set the letter to Mr. Maxwell apart from the letter head.
Hagen and Golombisky say the seven principles of good design are focal point, contrast, balance, movement, rhythm, perspective, and unity, (Hagen 44). In both the educational document as well as the letter from Mr. Green to Mr. Maxwell the seven principles can be spotted. Each document has a focal point, the name of the document or the letter head that focuses on the United Mine Workers of America. Contrast is seen in the font styles chosen. Balance is seen more in the way the document has been laid out symmetrically, which is a concept seen more in more than one of Williams’ other principles as well as contrast. Movement is what draws the eye down through the document. The rhythm is seen in pattern which can be regular or irregular (Hagen 53). Perspective is seen in the set up and alignment of the pages both horizontally and vertically. And finally the unity of the documents is seen as each document compares to itself or to like documents.
Williams’ concepts all work together in harmony. Contrast is just one piece to Williams’ design concept. All the pieces work closely together and are intertwined; seldom do you see just one concept by itself. While no set order is defined in the way to analyze Williams’ concepts, the next topic to look in depth on will be Repetition.