The Basics of Design - Creative Strategy in Advertising

I'm working my way through a dead helpful book at the moment called Creative Strategy in Advertising by Jewler, A & Drewniany, B.

Throughout the course, we've been told a few bits and pieces about art direction. But more often than not, we've been told that you learn by looking at award winning work, disecting why it works visually and then ingraining the techniques into your mind. I've found however, that Chapter 7: Designing to Communicate has given me the basic principles of design that wasn't consiously aware of beforehand. Some techniques (i.e. proportion - 'Golden Mean') link to those that I've previously learned in Photography (i.e Rule-of-Three).

The following are a few examples of techniques that I could apply when analysing the aethetics and art direction in future case studies.

Negative Space - the space that isn't filled.
A border of negative space should be left unless purposeful.
Lots of negative space creates a feeling of 'exclusivity'.

Gestalt - the whole is greater than the sum of it's parts.
Our eyes are drawn to these patterns, so we respond in predictable ways.
When an item is dissimilar to the objects around it, it commands attention.


Balance - Symmetrical balance can be static - something advertisers seek to avoid.
Things that are bottom-heavy   ...reader tempted to turn the page.
Things that are top-heavy   ...reader discouraged from continuing.
Text is considered the lightest element of a layout.
Heavier = darker, bigger, thicker

Rhythm - Created through repetition and consistency across a campaign.
E.g. headline, visual, logo, endline all in the same format/size.

Movement - our eyes naturally move in a Z shape across a page.
Shape and direction of images should guide the eyes through an ad.