Week 2: CRAP! Design Principles

I feel that this poster uses some of the CRAP principles in a very effective way. For starters, there is contrast this exists on this poster. That contrast exists through the different colors that are used, and how they are presented. That distinction is highlighted when the white of the condom is placed in between the red background and chess pieces. This makes the white stand out immensely. Another CRAP principle that is easily noted is the alignment of the three main objects in the poster. They are all of equal height. I feel that this is a good tactic in order to attract the eye. They are also perfectly symmetrical across the poster, which creates the same attention grabbing effect. The other CRAP principle I see in this poster is proximity. Not only have they made the king and queen chess pieces look just like chess pieces, they’ve made the condom look like chess piece as well. They accomplished this while it’s still very obvious that it is, in fact, a condom. I feel like this would be a very effective poster to make sure people practice safe sex. These CRAP designs work well for this poster. It not only attracts the eye, but also has a fairly easy concept that the younger generations can understand. This is good because the youth today need to be encouraged to practice safe sex more than anyone.

This second poster here also offers some very interesting design that fall under the CRAP principles. To begin, the repetition in this poster attracts the eye. All of the umbrellas that are easily seen in the poster all have the same few colors (blue, yellow and a not-so-bright orange).  All of those colors all affiliated with general beach colors, giving it an inconspicuous look. However, we all know it’s for Jaws, so there’s a level of eeriness that’s presented. With that, we see the contrast aspect in this poster. When most people think of Jaws, they’ll immediately think of a picture of an actual shark. But in this poster, the appearance of the shark is slightly less obvious, and may be missed by some people (In case you missed it, the black panel on the umbrella that’s front and center represents a shark’s first dorsal fin). For these reasons, this poster fits under the CRAP principles.

The most intriguing part of the smashingmagazine.com article to me was the pop art section. One poster that it reminded me of is the iconic Barrack Obama poster that was so popular during his initial campaign. The pop art was a good approach by the current president as he used the classic red, white and blue colors that represent the American flag. I feel that these posters helped his campaign in a positive way.