Las Vegas & CRAP ... quelle suprise ...

The CRAP principles: Contrast, Repetition, Alignment and Proximity, and the kooky little places I’ve found them since Laurie's lecture.

London Calling, The Clash: Poster.

The most prominent design principle in this poster is Contrast. The text in the upper left hand corner especially embodies this principle with its bold white colouring against the black background, and its sharp edges compared to the soft edges of the fuzzy images in the rest of the print.

This poster is up in my apartment, placed even more in contrast against a bright green wall. My eyes always are drawn immediately to the bold typeface, then lead down into the more abstract silhouette. I feel that this is the purpose of contrast here: to be a primary layer, leading the viewer subtly into the rest of the picture.

NYLON, March 2009: Magazine Cover.

The design principles that are most prominent in this magazine cover are Alignment and Repetition. The story line titles are split and aligned down each side of the page, making the surplus of words simple and clear to read, and leaving a clear space in the centre for the cover model.

Repetition is used in the typeface of the story line titles. The typeface becomes a consistent through line, as well as giving a clear indication that words with this typeface are associated: they all represent features inside the magazine.

Repetition is also shown through the pink, orange and yellow colour highlights found both in and around the text. These highlights create a bright, modern, dynamic and yet unified layout.

Tara McPherson: Graphic Illustration.

The design principle that is used creatively in this illustration is Proximity. I say that Proximity is used creatively, because with it the illustrator has made an element of her drawing that would otherwise feel totally out of place, seem a like a perfectly cohesive part of the story: the black balloons. By grouping these three, seemingly random characters together, a sense of story is given to the image. A living balloon does not make much sense in this setting (which I see as outer-space) but by placing these three related elements together, the illustrator creates a sense of organization that causes he viewer to trust her vision of the story.

I Changed My Name, 1988, Richard Prince: Acrylic, Silkscreen on Canvas

The design element that is used most cleverly in this contemporary art piece, while originally seeming to be Contrast, is in fact the artist’s use of Alignment. It is the off-centre alignment of the two canvasses that makes this piece so intriguing. Without the separation, or if the two canvasses were to be separated evenly and aligned at centre, the piece would be spectacularly boring.

What I find most interesting is that here, unlike with the NYLON Magazine cover, the use of alignment is more about the empty space than that which is filled. It is the empty borders that make this piece interesting: the elements outside the art that are the outcome of creative alignment which make this piece so deserving of note.

Final Observations

The CRAP principles are fundamental in designing for an audience. They are a simple and clear guidelines to creating a cohesive, attractive and captivating product that will make a decisive statement to a viewer-base.

The shortcomings of the CRAP principles lie in that they are largely mathematical and emotionless. They are blank guidelines that, in being intended for captivating an audience and keeping things simple, give no deference to a designer’s prerogative and story. Sometimes chaos is necessary to make a point, and the CRAP principles leave no room for this.

Math in art can only go so far, and the shortcomings of the CRAP principles are a perfect example of this.

Acey