I found a very simple and accessible book on design at a thrift store recently. It was written by Robin Williams and John Tollett, and it’s called Design Workshop.
If you are a custom printing designer, I would encourage you to make it a regular practice to analyze printed products like brochures and billboards, as well as design books like Design Workshop, in order to maintain and even improve your design skills. Stephen R. Covey (business self-help guru) calls this “sharpening the saw,” and I’ve always been a strong believer in continuously practicing the fundamentals of the craft of commercial printing and design.
Improving Your Photos
I recently reviewed some photos for a print book with a brokering client, and a number of Williams’ and Tollett’s suggestions would have improved the photos. They will be printed on matte coated stock in an eight-page photo signature bound into the middle of the print book. Some of the photos have more of a “snapshot” look. That is, they look amateurish. Fortunately, a lot of Williams’ and Tollett’s suggestions can be applied to these snapshots to turn them into more professional-looking “photographs.”
The section of Design Workshop to which I refer addresses the creative and effective use of photographic images. Here is a short list of the book’s suggestions:
Be Conscious of the Background
Consider where the subject of the photo is placed relative to the background. If a stovepipe in the background appears to be growing out of the subject’s head (i.e., is directly behind her or him), move your vantage point, as the photographer, to the left or right to remedy this. Although this sounds like common sense, it’s very easy, when you’re taking a photo, to only think about the person you’re photographing and to forget the background.
(Design Workshop does not address this directly, but if you have been provided with photos and the only photo you have to work with has a stovepipe or other item behind the subject, consider silhouetting the image.)
Avoid Clutter
Consider the clutter in the background when you’re taking a photo. Keep it simple. Also, if distracting elements like furniture extend into the photo from outside the “picture frame,” move them or change your vantage point for the photo. Even something like a window in the photo can be distracting. The bright sunlight coming into the room can take your viewer’s or reader’s attention away from the main subject. In short, always consider photo composition.
(Design Workshop does not address this directly, but if you use Photoshop’s cropping tool creatively, you can improve images if you only have photos with cluttered backgrounds. Severely cropping into any of the distracting elements in the photos can minimize their impact.)
Consider How the Viewer’s Eye Moves Around the Photo
Think about the reader’s eye movement through a photo. In Design Workshop, Williams and Tollett include a photo of a series of motorcycles riding away from the viewer through what appears to be mud. You cannot see any faces, but the photo is interesting because your eye moves from the largest motorcycle in the foreground (front right), through the middle ground (a smaller motorcycle, due to its distance from the viewer) to the background at the upper left of the image (the smallest motorcycle, since it’s the farthest away from the viewer). In the distance, you can see a line of trees. The photo is interesting because of its great depth of field, from the foreground images to those in the background, and because of the way the photographer leads the viewer’s eye through the image.
Shoot from Unique Vantage Points
Williams and Tollett also encourage you to take photos from unique vantage points. They include a photo of people around a table eating a meal. In this case the photographer shot the image from above, presumably from a balcony. What makes this image work is that it flouts expectations. You expect an image of a dinner to be shot from the same level as the diners. Shooting it from above provides more of a focus on the interactions among the diners and deemphasizes the individual people at the table. It becomes more of a design, or pattern. Also, the angle of the table (diagonal to the picture plane) makes for a more dynamic composition.
Crop Photos Wisely
Design Workshop includes two variations of a photo of a couple in a chair or loveseat looking at a candle. It’s very romantic, but the original photo is also cluttered. By cropping severely into the image (just above the man’s eyes, leaving just a little of his forehead) and leaving the candle just inside the left-most crop of the image, the designer eliminates the clutter while focusing on the two faces and the candle. This is a dynamic balance (and a good way to remedy a busy photograph).
What You Can Learn from Williams and Tollett’s Design Workshop
Photos add drama and personality to a layout for a commercial printing job. Learn to analyze them critically, and look for those specific attributes that will make the images—and the layout of your print book, brochure, or large format print—both striking and memorable.
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