Jamie Eby

Recently, I designed new business cards for myself. I was pretty pleased when they arrived, and immediately stuffed some into my wallet. Very few were ever unleashed upon the world, however, as I took a Document Design class that forever changed how I work with text on a visual level.

As a writer, my job is to pass information to readers. This class taught me that great writing is not enough. Apart from Braille readers, we read with our eyes, meaning that design choices affect comprehension. Good design helps readers understand.

There are many, many principles of good document design, but I will mention just two. As an example, here is my original business card design.

It works, but it could be much better. For one thing, there is an extra space between my first and last name. I wasn’t sure if this was the case, but as my instructor said, “always trust your eyes.” If it looks wrong, it is.

Besides that obvious issue, what else can be done? Let’s start with the concept of contrast. Though it sounds like a negative term, in document design, it’s a good thing.

When we design a document with contrast, we purposefully draw the reader’s eye to certain things. It’s a way of organizing a document. Chapter titles are usually bigger and bolder than body text, right? That’s contrast created by different typeface sizes and weights. Writers and designers can also add contrast by using very different typefaces. (Color adds contrast too, but I will leave the very interesting topic of color theory for another post).

I created some contrast in my business cards, but not enough. My name is the most important element, so it should stand out. I fixed this by choosing a sans serif typeface. Since the body text is serif, the typefaces contrast. I also increased the typeface size and weight. Here is my new business card.

Much better! One trick: squint your eyes when checking a document for contrast. If the text melts away into blurs of grey, you likely need to add more contrast.

Finally, I want to mention proximity. In addition to contrast, proximity is another element of great document design. It’s a simple concept: place like items close together. Readers understand documents better when information is “chunked.” In my business card example, I have three chunks:

• Who is Jamie?
• How can I talk to Jamie?
• How do I learn more about Jamie?

 
Contrast and proximity are just two elements of great document design. To learn more, check out this excellent book by Robin Williams. It’s the text we used in class, and I highly recommend it.

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