Graphic design is something that I had to pick up quickly. Editing and producing the internal and external packaging for DVDs and CDs went right along with editing and producing audio and video recordings.
Applying My Earlier Experience
My experience with photography and videography helped me here. I was already familiar with the principles of framing a shot and such concepts as look space, head room, centering, portrait versus landscape orientation, framing by thirds: all these things that I applied very well to my photography and videography I discovered applied to a larger universe of graphic design.
Text in Black and White and in Color
One of the things I learned quickly was to apply the ancient laws for heraldry, most especially “colors on metals” and “metals on colors” when applying text to an image. That meant alternating colors, which are defined as red, blue, green, orange, black and the like, with metals, which are gold (yellow), silver (white) and copper. (I am not getting into the various “furs” which are repeating patterns in alternating colors.) Its a stricture that apples even today, down to sports teams logos (The Indianapolis Colts logo is a blue horseshoe on a white background.) and traffic signs (Yield signs, for instance, are black lettering and outline on yellow.)
I also learned the importance of outlining text (using the Stroke blending option in Adobe Photoshop) to make the text stand out against a varied background. The outlining was primarily of a contrasting color to the text color.
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