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C.R.A.P.:The Four Principles of Sound Design

By Daniel Scocco

This is a guest blog by Jacob Cass. Be sure to check out his

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As a graphic designer, I could tell you if your website

design is C.R.A.P. Not crap as in crap crap, but I mean C.R.A.P as in the underlying principles of good
design.

C.R.A.P stands for contrast, repeitition, alignment and proximity and these are the four principles of design
that a blog design should adhere to.

The Joshua Tree

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To get your head around the c.ra.p. principles let me tell you a true story aptly named The Joshua Tree
from Robin Williams book, the Non Designers Type Book.
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Once upon a time, Robin received a tree identifying book where you could match a tree up with its name
by looking at its picture. Robin decided to go out and identify the trees in the neighborhood. Before she Blog Design Blog Projects
went out, she read through part of the book.The rst tree in the book was the Joshua tree because it only
took two clues to identify it. Bloggers Face-O Blogging Basics

Now the Joshua tree is a really weird-looking tree and she looked at that picture and said to herself "Oh, we Blogosphere Domain Names
don’t have that kind of tree in Northern California. That is a weird-looking tree. I would know if I saw that
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tree, and I’ve never seen one before. Marketing

So she took the book and went outside. Her parents lived in a cul-de-sac of six homes. Four of those Link Tips Monetize
homes had Joshua trees in the front yard. She had lived in that house for thirteen years, and she had never
seen a Joshua tree. Promotion Q&A

She took a walk around the block – at least 80 percent of the homes had Joshua trees in the front yards. SEO Social Media
And she had sworn she had never seen one before!
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The moral of the story? Once Robin was conscious of the tree, once she could name it, she saw could see Video Posts Web Tools
it everywhere. Which is exactly my point. Once you can name something, you’re conscious of it. You have
power over it. You own it. You’re in control. WordPress Writing Content

The four basic principles

So now you’re going to learn the names of four of the main design principles that can be applied to any
design piece at all. You are going to be in control of your pages and website as a whole.

The following is a brief overview of the principles. Although these are discussed separately, keep in mind
they are really interconnected, rarely will you apply only one principle.

1. Contrast
The idea behind contrast is to avoid elements on the page that are merely similar. If the elements (type,
color, size, line thickness, shape, space, etc.) are not the same, then make them very di erent. Contrast is
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often the most important visual attraction on a page.

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2. Repetition
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Repeat visual elements of the design throughout the piece. You can repeat color, shape, texture, spatial
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relationships, line thicknesses, sizes, etc. This helps develop the organization and strengthens the unity.
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Do you have a consistent theme or brand throughout your site? Do you reuse the same colour,
shapes, blockquotes, formatting for all of your articles? How to Find Advertisers for Your Website

3. Alignment Top 25 SEO Blogs

Nothing should be placed on the page arbitrarily. Every element should have some visual connection with
another element on the page. This creates a clean, sophisticated, fresh took, 101 Blog Tips I learned in 2006

Does everything line up or have you got things centred, left aligned or out of place? 30 Tra c Generation Tips

4. Proximity 6 Ways to Speed Up Your Site

Items relating to each other should be grouped close together. When several items are in close proximity
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to each other, they become one visual unit rather than several separate units. This helps organize
information and reduces clutter.
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 Can you nd everything you need on your page easily? What is it that your visitors are looking for? The Best Website Taglines

Contrast, Repetition, Alignment, Proximity = CRAP What Is Success?

When you gather these four principles of design theory, the appropriate and memorable acronym is CRAP. How to setup a 301 Redirect
Sorry about that.
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How can you use these 4 design principles?

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Look at your website’s design and try to identify each singular principle. If you can’t seem to identify a part, Top 25 Celebrity Blogs
this is an area that you need to x up. ie. If your page has no contrast, you must make contrast. If you need
some inspiration check up on the many design galleries out there. You should also be aware of the 40 What Is A Blog?
Practical Blog Setup tips.
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30 Responses to “C.R.A.P.:The Four Principles of Sound Design”

Hairie on February 28, 2008 2:28 am

good info..thanks

Jacob Cass on February 28, 2008 5:08 am

Thanks Daniel for the post, hope your readers like it!

Daniel on February 28, 2008 5:44 am

Crap is a well known concept, but it is always good to get a reminder, and we never covered it here
before.

PlanningQueen on February 28, 2008 6:39 am

I am relatively new to this blogging thing, but was chatting to someone who was reading my blog – and
who had never read one before. It made me realise that for the demographic I am targeting, maybe my
design is not hitting the target. Have to go check out your 40 tips now.