We recently talked about how paying attention to an item’s Visual Weight can help make your final products more beautiful. I’d like to delve a little deeper into that concept.
When a designer makes a product, he’ll often pay attention to it’s ‘3 reads’. The first read will be the thing the viewer sees very first because it has the most visual weight. (If you have no idea what I’m talking about, check out this post) The second read is what you see next, and the 3rd is what you take in last.
In the baby announcement above, you’ll see the 3 reads labeled. When you first glance at the announcement, you see the big photo. Next, your eye moves to the second read, or the blue box full of graphics. And third, your eye notices that there is a bit of information in the box.
Having three reads is an important way to get a lot of information onto one item. You allow the viewer full access to all the information, but because the pieces of information have different levels of visual weight, the viewer is not overloaded with too much to take in all at once. You can also direct the viewer to the most important part of the design first. That’s great when designing something that will only be seen for a moment, like a billboard on the side of a free way. A driver might drive by the sign 50 times and never have enough time to read all the small print, but they’d likely recognize the main photo or phrase used.
Choosing 3 reads for projects beyond Graphic Design as well. It’s a rule I think of all the time when picking out fabric for a project.
Above is an image of some bunnies I designed I designed last month. I made up a couple in the process of perfecting the pattern, and took this picture to ask my Facebook and Instagram followers which they liked best to be used on the pattern cover. I got a lot of votes, and they all came in unanimous. The green bunny in the middle was the definite winner.
Now, I’d like you to pay special attention to the idea of having 3 reads. The bunnies on the two ends have a busier print for their faces and bodies. Because the busy print is used on so much of the bunny, your eye gets overwhelmed. The print distracts from the face, and your eye tends to rest on the plain fabric used on for the belly. So, the belly is the 1st read, and the rest of the bunny including the face is a crazy 2nd.
The green bunny, however, has 3 clear reads. Because a plain fabric was used for the head, the eyes and nose stand out with lots of contrast, creating the 1st read (hooray! a 1st read on the most important part of the bunny! Just what we want.) Next we’ve got the busy print on the belly and ears. And 3rd, we have the green fabric that makes the rest of the bunny. This combination allows the eye to take in the most important information first, and then gradually see the rest. The effect is a more pleasing experience.
Here’s another example of choose fabrics that will give you that ‘3 read’ effect. The body of this rocket is made with a very busy, star print material. With a material this busy, it’s important to make sure nothing else competes for ‘First Read’ placement. By picking fabrics with subtle patterns, this rocket got a nice, 3 read effect. The red wings with the subtle star print serve as a 2nd read, and the plain navy blue fabric works as the 3rd.
So, how do you get this effect with your project? First, decide what is the most important part of the item you’re making. If it’s a stuffed animal or doll, the most important part will likely be the face. If you’re not sure what is most important, you can often go with the largest part of the project (like how I used the body of the rocket).
Once you know the most important part, figure out how to make it stand out. You can use a bold fabric choice, like I did in the rocket. Or you could choose to go for contrast, like I did with the bunny. (contrast is a great way to go if you’re making something with a face! Choose a nice, simple fabric for the back of the face and pair it with eyes that are either much lighter or much darker. If choosing a simple fabric for the face doesn’t work- if you are sewing a spotted leopard for example- you can add some white felt behind the eyes. This creates a nice ‘whites of the eyes’ effect and also gives the eyes a simple background so they stand out).
Once you’ve got your 1st read figured out, just tone down the rest of your choices. Since the bunny’s first read involves three-dimensional, shiny black buttons for eyes, you can get away with a fun printed fabric for the 2nd read, because it’s still a step down. However, if you start with a fun printed fabric for your first read, like in the rocket, you’ll need to tone down from there and choose a couple fabrics with less visual weight.
This might all sound a bit stressful, but in time your eyes will get used to seeing the 3 reads. Next time you see a product you like, take a second and try to find how many reads it has and how they were created. In time, your eyes will be trained, and you’ll be picking your ‘reads’ without even realizing it!
Did you enjoy learning how real design principles can improve your sewing projects? If so, check out our other Craft Design University posts for more tips!