EXAMPLE OF A BAD LAYOUT
At first glance it looks like quite a good layout. But can you actually see if there is anything wrong with it? And if you can - what would you to to make it better?
So why this layout example is a bad one?
Although it might look pretty and you might think, "Isn't this layout looks good?", however it has couple of flaws that need corrections. If you won't follow the rules of a good layout and "arrange it randomly", you will end up with a layout like this.
First of all, I want you to recall that the people who this design is made for are women in their 30s and 40s. It should be a poster that communicates an event to enjoy bread and coffee while walking in the forest. So the the tagline under the event name doesn't look like it was created for women because the typeface (Helvetica) is very masculine and lack that graceful touch. However, although we cannot change this typeface, but we can make the size smaller and give it an "elegance" that will suit our target audience:
Secondly, the position of the even opening time under the admission fee looks quite confusing because the admission fee is free for the whole period, not only from 7:00am till 2:00pm. So we will move opening time and place it together with the event date.
Next, we have too much empty space in the middle - it seems it isn't used wisely, considering the relationship of the event with the image.
EXAMPLE OF A GOOD LAYOUT
After making changes we have redesign the layout based on the flaws mentioned above. How do you think it is different comparing to the first version?
What does good layout look like?
In order to create a good layout, we must understand the difference between a good layout and a bad layout.
✓ Good layout: communicates the message to its target audience
✖ Bad layout: doesn't convey the message to its target audience
Placing it large in the middle makes it look like a title. You can make it a bit smaller, but it should be a moderate size considering that this element is a title and goes first in hierarchy:
Important information such as date, time and location are placed under the title and grouped together:
We also can take advantage of the background photo - it gives a sense of depth of the forest and resembling the road leading to the festival:
