Document Design

Document design is a field that involves creating texts mainly for books, brochures, posters, magazine and others that incorporate with words that helps people to accomplish their specific goals (bastoky.com, 2012). Writing and designing are the most crucial elements in structuring and highlighting the content of the document in order to fulfill the reader’s needs. Furthermore, according to Reep (2006, pp 135) stated that there are four principles of document design that are balance, proportion, sequence and consistency. These design principles are applied by qualified designers to determine the layout of their document they want to be at the end of the result. Images that are posted below are the comparisons of document design which was taken from slides presentation in IPD class.

 Based on the image above,  the slides presentation created by this group is simple and not attractive at all. The background of the slides is presented in plain white with no themes added. Besides that, font sizes are all the same which the readers may not able to distinguish which one is the main topic.  Another point is that the document did not applied Kress and van Leeuwen (2006)  theory which emphasized on the three signifying systems in layout which are information value, salience and framing. Therefore, this document design will not grab the readers/viewers attention as it is not organized in a proper and attractive manner.

On the other hand, the image above however was taken from my group’s presentation. The designs of the slides are more attractive in a way that the font color compliments the with the theme of the background. It also includes images in the slides to furthermore grab the audiences attention. There is also balance in terms of the colour combination and the arrangement of the texts that is according to salience.

As a conclusion, from what I have learnt about document design is that one some identity and product recognition is needed to  produce their documents.  A document can be designed with refinement and good taste. As a result, the readers are aware of the product’s origin and able to communicate with them.

References

Kress, G & van Leeuwen, T 2006, 'Chapter 6: the meaning of composition', in Reading Images: the Grammar of Visual Design, 2nd edn, Routledge, New York , p. 175-214

Reep, DC 2006, 'Chapter 4: principles of document design', in Technical Writing, 6th edn, Pearson Edu Inc, New York, p. 173-190.

Bastoky.com, 2012, ‘Fundamentals of document design’ [online] Available at: http://www.bastoky.com/DocDesignDef.htm Viewed: 15th September 2012