Whether or not you consider yourself a designer or even ‘design-savvy’, you’d be surprised to find that you are influenced by the psychology of form and content. It’s the designer’s job to ensure that the form (how a design looks) appropriately coordinates with the content (what the message is). Sometimes it’s quite easy, but other times it’s downright difficult. If the designer gets this wrong, the design suffers.
I often struggle to explain the importance of this concept to both clients and students. It’s certainly a skill every designer must master though many times I find that simple intuition will guide the visual learner to success nearly every time.
Not too long ago, my oldest son brought home a small piece of paper that had these two objects crudely illustrated on it. As part of an impromptu quiz, he explained that the class was asked to name each shape either ‘BOBO’ or ‘KIKI’. Surprisingly he told me that the class unanimously voted the same way. Curious? Take the quiz yourself and see how you fare.
