No, I’m not spewing epithets over here. C.R.A.P. is the easy-to-remember acronym  provided to us by the delightful and brilliant Robin Williams* for the four basic principles of design:

Contrast

Repetition

Alignment

Proximity

To give a brief demonstration of how these work, I’m including here some examples from Robin’s The Non-Designer’s Design Book.**

OK, let’s take these principles one at a time. We’ll talk about proximity first. Take a look at the flyer at the right. Notice how the little bold headers are the same distance from the lines above them and the lines below? Each line or paragraph appears to be a separate item.You can’t tell which headline the text belongs to.

And although there’s white space, it’s scattered all over the place, including places where it shouldn’t be, like between the headlines and the text that follows them. (We say this white space is trapped; and trapped white space visually pushes apart the items it’s trapped by.)

Now, look at this version of the flyer. See how the heads and text that belong together are in proximity with one another, with each head-and-text unit separated by white space above and below?

The contact information has been grouped separately at the bottom of the page, so that the viewer can tell at a glance that it’s important. Proximity is an efficient way to immediately communicate to the viewer what he or she should pay attention to.

The alignment here has been changed from centered to left-aligned, so there’s room to make the picture bigger. This further organizes the text, so that the viewer’s eye knows where to go without any confusion, since all the lines begin at the same left margin. (Text that is centered can be difficult to read in large blocks, since the eye has to scan to find the beginning of each line.)

Let’s see. Repetition. Notice how the bold headers (ending in ellipses) are repeated. The typeface used here is also repeated throughout the flyer, as is the color (black, in this case).

And, finally, contrast. In the flyer at the right, look at how the headline is bigger and bolder and in a typeface that contrasts with the body copy.  (This typeface is repeated for “Be a Cowboy” to bring home the message, kind of like a call to action. Repetition.)

The headline type is upper- and lowercase, which also adds contrast. (If you look at a line of text that’s in all caps, you’ll see that the shape it makes is an even rectangle. Using upper- and lowercase gives a line of text more shape.)

The little heads or lead-ins were made bigger to contrast with the text that follows them (but they’re still in the same typeface as the text that follows and still in proximity, so they still look like they belong together.)

The illustration is much bigger and was made lighter so as not to overpower the text.

So, there you have it: C.R.A.P. Granted, I’ve oversimplified here, but this gives a brief idea of how these principles work; to learn more, check out The Non-Designer’s Design Book.

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PS Oh, and you probably don’t need for me to tell you this, but. . . for all you wannabe cowboys out there . . .I’m afraid the flyer is a fake.

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*As I’ve said before, yes, THE Robin Williams (and, no, not the actor)

**Prior to working at Mothering, I had the opportunity to work with Robin on a few projects, including this book. Fabulous, fun, and edifying experience. . .

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