Reading 7

Reading 7 is one of the readings I am to review and critique. It is taken from my University CD reader. The following is the reference to the book which you can find in your library for the full story.

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Wheildon, C, 1990, Communication or just making pretty shapes, 3rd edn, Newspaper bureau of Australia Ltd, North Sydney, excerpts pp4-8 and 11-15.
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1. The Summary
Typography is to communication by designing with printed words. Typography has to be clear, logic, follow the linearity of the alphabet and also the physiology of the reading. Type face also plays a role; it tells how the article is being perceived. There should be room between the lines so that readers do not skip a line. Headlines should be on top with a standard type face on all articles. There should not be interruption when reading. Positioning of boxes or pictures should be balance in order for the page to not look loop sided. The attention grabber should be placed on top rather than at the bottom if you want the reader to continue reading right after the attention grabber. This reading tells a lot on positioning, how to create a reader's attention, and how it is call a good design.


2. The Critique/Response
I agree fully with what the author has to say about positioning, typography and typefaces. A reader always reads in a shape of Z, which is from top left to top right and across to bottom left and lastly bottom right. Therefore if you notice, news in the papers always has their headlines big and filled from left to right of the front page. When you get to other smaller news, you notice that the headline is always above the news, never in the middle of the bottom because the headline guides you to read the news.

Pictures too are not scattered all over. It has great balance and you as a reader to not feel that the newspaper is "heavy" on one side. Wheildon also mentioned of typeface. I agree that typeface plays an important role. It not only differentiates a headline from its news, but it also tells if the message the news is trying to send it serious or not. Most newspapers have Times New Roman as their typeface compared to an advertisement that has a several artistic typefaces to emphasize on different things.

Therefore, to come out with a good design is more than just putting several shapes together as the title suggests.