CRAP! or... Contrast, Repetition, Alignment and Proximity.

This week's blog is a little later than it is supposed to be and I take full responsibility for that. However, I do live in the great north and it has snowed like crazy here and I happened to not have power for a little while causing this blog to be past it's due date. I will however prevail and post regardless. Today's or rather, this weeks blog is about C.R.A.P. otherwise known as Contrast, Repetition, Alignment and Proximity. These are the four basic design principles when it comes to designing anything. In my cause it directly relates to the website I am building for COMM 350 at WWU.

The first website that I found t be really useful (and one that I actually printed for my portfolio) was this one:
http://www.presentationzen.com/chapter6_spread.pdf  This website gives a pretty good rundown of what these design principles are and I thought it gave really good visual aids.

The second website that I found to be useful was this one:
http://www.plu.edu/~scotttj/designkiosk.pdf
I'm pretty sure this was done by a student, but regardless it still has very good information. The information presented on this website comes from The non-designers design book by Robin Williams, Not the celebrity in movie Robin Williams, it's an actual author. =]
I actually have this book and find it to be really useful with it comes to design. There are tons of great tips and visual aids to help you when it comes to designing anything that you need in the professional, or personal world for that matter.

The last website that I recommend for this concept is:
http://www.lifehack.org/articles/communication/design-better-with-crap.html
This website gives a pretty good rundown of what Contrast, Repetition, Alignment and Proximity is and talks about how they work together to make something successful.

Overall these are pretty important concepts to understand because they can aid in making effective visual aids and make your website, or anything else that you use professionally successful. These concepts make sure that you get your point across, but at the same time do it in a way that is visually appealing and catches the eye of the reader or viewer.

Once again, my sincere apologies for the late blog, it will never happen again as log as this quarter lasts.!