- In my Foundation of Layout course,
I define harmony as the combination
of simultaneously sounded musical notes to produce chords
and chord progressions having a pleasing effect.
In design, a designer creates the sense of harmony
when many disparate elements work together
and produce a pleasing solution.
So why would I want to create disharmony?
Isn't that jarring and uncomfortable for the viewer?
Yes. Disharmony is uncomfortable
but that can be necessary to get the viewer's attention
as a response to a subject that isn't harmonious
or as a way to challenge the status quo and command change.
If we create harmony with a similarity
between shapes and proportions,
we can generate disharmony by using unrelated forms
and no sense of proportional consistency.
The audience expects a comfortable experience
a printed or screen based design will be functional,
easy to use and not make too many demands on us.
But we lead to viewer's attention
by throwing a wrench into that soft experience.
The effect is benign and forgettable when
I create a grid of consistent tile patterns
but by changing the individual tiles to dissimilar forms
the viewer will stop and pay attention.
A page of information in one-type face
of the same size and weight will be undemanding.
I may read it to find specific information
but when the information becomes dissonant,
each element attempting to be different,
I'll look more closely to find what I want.
If the effect it too jarring and dissimilar
I won't try, it's just a mess.
The content needs to be composed
structurally with one commonality.
Disharmony is also appropriate when
the subject matter is not harmonious.
A poster series about an exhibition of war photography
designed with a comfortable and polite manner
is a disservice to the content.
The information calls for gravity
and the reflection of the chaos and tragedy.
By modifying the proportions and scale of images
and typography I can create an unpleasant effect.
I can increase this emotional response by working
with the typography to create issues with legibility.
Even rotating a headline just slightly
will generate a response that is hard
to identify but somewhat unpleasant.
I design the poster with this approach not to be mean.
It's to replicate the experience
of the content, conflict and anxiety.
Simona Szabados designed a book
about farm life in the United States.
She created two books, the first symmetrical
and classic layout with a pleasant experience
of life on the farm in the 1940's.
Next, she designed a book about
the migrant immigrant experience
with editorial photography and newspaper-like type.
She cut each book in half horizontally
and bound them together.
The result, is an uncomfortable communication
between the tow radically different perceptions.
The disharmony of the forms defines the message.
Juxtaposing images that are dissimilar in content
is another process to reach the audience.
Too strong illustrations or photographs
will demand that the viewer solve the message.
Let's imagine I have a hotel in Hawaii as a client.
For the magazine add, I show a
photograph of the beautiful setting.
The solution is nice, well behaved and entirely forgettable.
Now I juxtapose an image of a sterile office.
This will jar the viewer into the communication
about the positive attributes of a holiday.
Don't attempt to design with disharmony
until you have a good handle on harmony.
There is a fine line between a solution that uses discord
to attract attention and communicate and real mess.
Like learning how to compose music,
the best Jazz musicians who successfully use dissonance
and disharmony are masters of skill.