Ty (00:01.614)
Hey everybody, this is Ty Schwartz. I'm back here with Snap Lens. We're going to finish, well, not finish, but I want to talk about, continue talk about visual design and talk about some of the things that I like about visual design. So we're going to talk a little bit about design principles. So the first thing I always talk about is balance.

I am a so asymmetrical person. I sometimes I just find balance in unbalanced items. But when you're creating things for content and people to read things, you want to make sure that you have balance in how you've distributed the visual weight in your image or your graphic. And it can be symmetrical, but and everything can be evenness even.

But I personally I like asymmetrical. I like to think of things unbalanced. Sometimes I like it on the right. Sometimes I like it on top. Other times I like it on the left. But it also helps create stability and harmony on your design. And I think that's really important because if it doesn't feel like it's balanced, like if you have something really big and obnoxious on the left -hand side and then you have something light and dainty on the right -hand side, sometimes...

that could feel like it's a little bit of imbalance. Other things that I look for is contrast. A lot of people think, hey, that's not really a thing. And some of the things I've noticed with first time designers is, well, I use black and it's a lighter black, so it should have some contrast. When I think contrast, I'm thinking hardcore. If I have black, I'm going white.

I'm going to be using my color triangle. I'm going to be using my secondary colors. But that, you have to have a difference in elements to create visual interest and emphasis. And part of that contrast can be achieved through variations in color, in size, shape, texture, topography. So you have to identify how your things are going to contrast. Sometimes it's really easy if you just make a, not a,

Ty (02:23.31)
Like a 50 % transparent box that's blue with white lettering Sometimes that contrast is enough to get you Noticed if you want somebody to really highlight something you want might want to put it in red say hey This is important. You need to take care of that But you got to have contrast that's gonna tell somebody where the call to action is and how they're gonna use it Something that a lot of people don't like to talk about or they just don't know about

is what we call hierarchy. Hierarchy basically establishes the order of importance within your design. So that's going to guide you through. So you have to think of what's the viewer going to look at? What's the first thing they're going to look at? And where are you going to guide them through to the second thing, the third thing, the fourth thing? So how do you guide and design to get your viewer to do exactly what you need them to do?

So I need you to go from left to right, top to bottom, and I need to do it in a purposeful manner. So I have to have some type of hierarchy in my design. What's the most important thing? What's the secondary important thing? But it also guides the eyes through the content and emphasizes the key elements that I need them to pay attention to while facilitating their understanding of why I created what I created. And then,

When you think about the hierarchy, then you can go right into the emphasis. What am I emphasizing in this design? What's my highlights? How do I create certain, or how do I do certain things with making certain elements to make them stand out and capture the viewer's attention? Because honestly, visual design is about capturing the attention, capturing the emotion, getting the impact. What are you gonna get them to do that you need them to do?

And so you have to have emphasis. This is important. This is my call to action. This is my call to attention. Why is this important in your life? Now, not every single person who ever reads what you do is going to find it the most important thing ever. But you know what? You have to have knowledge of your audience and who you're targeting and how do you get them to do what you need them to do. And emphasis is an extremely important part of that design.

Ty (04:46.946)
And it can be achieved simply through the size of the word or the size of an object. Maybe the color, the contrast or the positioning. Where did you put that shape in that graphic to get somebody to really pay attention to it? Did you bury it? And I've been, I've helped people with websites and they've really, I mean, I call it old school. We call it bury the lead. So,

You know, you might find something three pages deep on a website where it should actually be on the first page, top of the scroll. And so some people don't add or think about that. Hey, no, no, if it's important, they'll find it. No, no, no. I want to make my client or my target audience life extremely easy. I don't want them to search. I want them to focus. And that's really the importance of landing pages, but that's a whole different topic.

So let's move on a little bit. Let's talk about unity. Unity is something that creates a sense of cohesion and completeness in a design. Does my whole design feel like it's all part of it? If I'm using certain colors, is there a color that sticks out or is there a color that doesn't work? Is there a font that maybe doesn't work? And I always say that if I'm a doctor and I'm using

Comic Sans, how serious do you think I am as a doctor? So you have to think about how people are going to react to a font. And if you're using Papyrus, stop it. That is one of those fonts that's just, oh, ouch, it hurts my brain. But you also want to ensure that all your elements in your unity, they're working together, they're harmoniously, and they convey a cohesive message or an idea.

And that's really important. So the design process. We can talk about the design process in the next episode. I think it's really important that we just kind of break things down nice and simple. But at the same time, when I'm talking visual design for my photographers and my videographers, every single one of these elements is needed when you're telling a story. How do you tell your story?

Ty (07:13.166)
Do I use color to tell the story? Am I using that visual impact? Am I using somebody's emotions or colors to tell that story? How do I get somebody to stop scrolling on Instagram and look at the content that I've created and get them to do a call to action without really saying, hey, you need to do this? I want them to do that call to action, and I want it to be natural.

I don't want to be constantly pushing, pushing, pushing, pushing. I want people to be curious. I want them to discover things, but I also want to get my information out. And that does go back into how am I informing, how am I educating, and how am I entertaining my clients or my current potential designated target audience. So that is something that I like to talk about.

So anyway, that'll wrap it up for this episode of Visual Design. So we just talked about a little bit about the principles of design. And the next episode, we're going to talk about design process. How do we go about designing something that people are going to want to take a look at and engage in? All right. Thank you very much. I do appreciate you taking the time to listen to me and my thoughts. You have a good night.

evening. This is Ty Schwartz with Snap Lens and we're talking visual design.