When you include a photograph in a design–say for a brochure or flier or billboard–you communicate something to your audience. Obviously photographs need to be relevant and purposeful (don’t just include random images). But beyond that, there are a few critical rules and guidelines for making photographs work well within
Read moreOne of the best ways to improve visual literacy and visual communication skills is to analyze a visual artifact of some kind. If you haven’t done one before, a visual analysis can seem kind of overwhelming. Doing one requires you to think about a visual artifact of some kind, whether
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Whether you’re writing a research report or you’re in argument with your girlfriend, if what you’re claiming doesn’t have much logic to it, you might just look silly, ignorant, or just plain out-of-the-loop. Avoid committing a logical fallacy and you’ll be in much better position to persuade the person you
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With as much trust as the average American puts into the news media, it probably goes without saying that the organizations that distribute the news have an ethical obligation to be as accurate and detail-oriented as possible. Unfortunately, the competition to get viewers often causes media outlets to skew news
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The two syllabi below have the exact same content, word for word. So is one better than the other? Without hesitation, I would respond: yes, most definitely. And I could bet that most people looking at these documents side-by-side would be close to unanimous in deciding which is better (or,
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Feeling confident about your understanding of punctuation? Brace yourself. The questions on this quiz will push even the self-reported grammar nerds to the outer extremities of their punctuation peripheries. This isn’t a quiz about grammar or spelling or writing theory. Just punctuation. But it ain’t easy. The good news? If you
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At the root of all good writing lies an understanding of how sentences are built. In kindergarten, we learn the fundamentals of grammar and the basic concepts of how sentences are constructed. For most of our elementary and secondary training in writing, we are taught simply to improve those grammatical
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Warning: this grammar and punctuation quiz isn’t for the faint of heart. Think you know your grammar and punctuation like the back of your hand? The questions on this quiz aren’t anything tricky but many college graduates don’t do well answering them. How do you measure up? Grammar and Punctuation
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A few months ago I identified 18 rules for using text, clarifying a few fundamental rules we all should follow when it comes to using text and creating documents to be readable and enjoyable. The document was a handy guide, but it didn’t cover other important basics about using fonts:
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I love getting submissions and requests from designers to show their infographics on my website. Infographics are a fun, creative challenge and they appeal in so many ways to online readers; displaying others’ work is a great way to promote the challenge of communicating in this burgeoning medium. This is
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