Create a fluent and coherent visual text which develops, sustains and structures ideas using verbal and visual language (AS 91477)
Domain: Create a fluent and coherent visual text which develops, sustains and structures ideas using verbal and visual language - AS 91477, internal, 3 credits. Formats include posters, short films, web pages, infographics, photo essays, comics or animation. The standard rewards a text where image and words work as one argument.
Design decisions to plan, not decorate
- Salience: what the eye hits first, and why. Control it through size, contrast, colour, isolation and placement.
- Layout: grid, alignment, margins, white space, reading path (Z or F pattern for text-led designs).
- Colour: palette limited to two or three colours; connotation and contrast rather than prettiness.
- Type: one or two families, chosen for tone; hierarchy through weight and size; legibility at the intended viewing distance.
- Imagery: framing, angle, symbolism, cropping, repetition of motifs for unity.
- Words: heading, tagline, body copy, caption - concise, in a register that matches the audience.
Worked example
Brief: a water-conservation poster for teenagers. Decision: one close-up of a dripping tap handle against a flat sand-coloured background, condensed sans-serif type, tagline 'Turn it off - before it's someone's turn.' Reasoning: a single focal point reads in three seconds, which suits a corridor poster; the sand background ties to drought without a stock-photo cliché; the tagline's pivot from habit to consequence matches the audience's scepticism better than a scolding imperative.
Traps
Decoration without a message; too much text; competing fonts and colours; messages split between image and words; copyrighted images used without permission; a tone that patronises the audience.