Effective Layout for Illustration
Product Design Sketching
Characteristics of Product Presentation
Not very stylistic when compared to other design disciplines
Allowance of certain level of vagueness and uncertainties during earlier stages of the product design process
Increasing level of realistic sense towards the later stage of the projects, especially at the pitching stage
Use of limited graphical instruments, which only serve to organize but seldom dominate the presentation
Great focus on how the product is used
Major Considerations
Focus of Interest Prominence of an object (due to size, tone or color) may
attract first attention and thereby determine how the viewer looks at an illustration
Common Conventions and Notations There may be certain common conventions that guide
the viewer in reading the illustration
Reading Sequence Sufficient visual hints should be given to suggest a visual
path, and thereby prompt the viewer your intended reading sequence
Guiding Principles
Visuals in a verbal design presentation should Support your communication objective Enhance your verbal message, not distract from
it Set tone and emotional contents of verbal
message with the use of colors and images Be succinct but adequate to convey the
necessary information
Use of Text
Avoid too much textual informationUse different font sizes to suggest
hierarchy of importanceHeadings or title texts should be legible
from a distanceCheck you spelling before outputting your
boards!
Universal Convention:From the Upper Left Where no explicit hint is given, it is natural for a viewer to start
reading a series of illustrations from the upper left But then, it would become uncertain as to which direction to proceed
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Gestalt Principle:Proximity One way to make the reading sequence obvious is to
apply the proximity principle
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Gestalt Principle:Proximity
Another example of applying the proximity principle
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Human Intuition:Clockwise Notation When drawings are organized in a circular manner, it is
by intuition that the viewer will look at them in a clockwise direction starting from the 12 o’clock position
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Beyond Intuition
If however it is intended to be read with a different starting point or in different direction, visual hint(s) may be added to prompt the viewer
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Instructions
Human Intuition: From Big to Small Sometimes a larger drawing is used to portrait the overall outlook of
the product (e.g. an exploded rendered view). Its larger size may have dominating effect on the reading sequence
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Cultural Factor
Some language systems adopt a right to left and top to bottom reading convention
Special attention should be given to using such layout for international readers, who may find this sequence confusing
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Equivocal Layout
As a rule-of-thumb, avoid using layout that lacks visual hint or that is against human intuition for graphical illustration of event sequence
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Two-board Presentation