Graphic Design and Advertising Art
What this domain tests
Layout logic, identity design, print specification and advertising strategy vocabulary.
Core rules
- Hierarchy: one dominant element, then secondary, then supporting. The viewer should read in one planned order.
- Grid and margins: columns, gutters and a consistent margin; keep type off the trim and inside the safe area.
- White space is an active element, not wasted paper.
- Contrast of scale, weight, colour and alignment creates entry points.
- Logo types: wordmark, lettermark or monogram, pictorial mark, abstract mark, mascot, combination mark, emblem. A workable mark survives at 16 px and in one colour.
- Advertising: AIDA (attention, interest, desire, action), USP, benefit rather than feature, one single-minded proposition.
- Print specification: CMYK, 300 ppi at final size, 3 mm bleed, crop marks, PDF/X. Screen: RGB, 72–150 ppi, sRGB.
Worked example
A one-page newspaper advertisement for a handloom co-operative. Proposition: woven in Bargarh, worn everywhere. Layout: top 60 per cent is a photograph of the loom in raking light; a clear band across the bottom 40 per cent carries a two-line headline, one 12 pt body line and the logo at the outer corner. Reasoning: the image carries the appeal, the clear band guarantees legibility on newsprint where ink spreads, and the logo sits at the eye's exit point.
Traps
- Designing at screen resolution and sending RGB to press.
- Placing text over a busy photograph without a scrim, shadow or clear band.
- Centring everything and calling it balance.
- Listing features in the headline with no proposition and no call to action.
- Stretching a logo out of proportion.