Lesson 1 of 7 · 10 min
Make something in two minutes
Goal:Design a poster before you learn a single rule.
Studio 4 needs a poster for its Design Night. Make it. Change anything, and watch the checks below the poster.
Design Night
Friday · 7pm · Studio 4
Free evening workshop. Bring a laptop.
RSVP- ✓The headline leads
- ✓Text is readable (6.2:1)
- Bigger and bolder gets read first. That's hierarchy.
- Squint at it. If nothing stands out, nothing leads.
- Text needs contrast with its background to be readable.
Designers call this order hierarchy. A good poster decides what you read first, second and third, so nobody has to work it out. Here's the path your eye takes on one that works:
Design Night
Friday · 7pm · Studio 4
Free evening workshop. Bring a laptop.
RSVP- What is it? The headline is biggest, so it's read first.
- When and where? Bold and bright, so it's found next.
- What do I do? The button is last, where the eye lands.
- Everything else is quieter on purpose.
Size isn't the only lever. Weight (bold or light), color and space around something all pull the eye. Use one or two of them on purpose, not all of them at once.
Now train your eye. Which of these three gets read in the right order? Turn on Squint to blur them, the way you'd see a poster from across the room.
Which poster gets read in the right order?