// C.R.A.P. - Explained & Exemplified

// Apr 23rd, 2008 & filed under Design

Have you got a C.R.A.P. design?

(I tried hard to resist beginning with that question, but I just couldn’t).

Some of you may be aware for the acronym (or is it an acrostic?) C.R.A.P. which outlines four solid principles for design:

  • Contrast
  • Repetition
  • Alignment
  • Proximity

It’s nothing new. However, it’s a powerful base from which to judge and polish up a design, and I highly recommend you to take the principles on board if you do any sort of design work.

Below is a video I put together today, which discusses C.R.A.P. in further detail, and gives examples of it used well.

It has been quite some time since I created a video. While I was on Windows, I was using Sony Vegas, which I must admit, is totally awesome! It’s nowhere near as resource hungry as Adobe Premiere, and easily just as powerful.

When I got on a Mac, I imagined making videos more often. Far from it. Video editing has been the single most powerful reason why I’d think about going back to Windows. Yes, you read that correctly!

iMovie 08 is absolutely guff!!

So I bought Final Cut Pro. Boy oh boy…you’d need a freakin’ degree to figure out how to work that programme!

Anyway. That’s the rant over. Very unprofessional of me, but I think I just had to get that off my chest! I’ll not give up FCP yet. It’s too expensive to give up on. Any tips?

Here’s the video. I should have zoomed in on the websites I used as examples, but I’ll do it next time.

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3 comments...What do you think?

  1. Posted by Jacob Cass 23rd April, 2008 at 3:55 pm

    Hey, I wrote an article similar to this on Daily Blog Tips with a bit more of a summary.

    http://www.dailyblogtips.com/crapthe-four-principles-of-sound-design/

    Your blog design is crap :)

  2. Posted by Curtis 23rd April, 2008 at 7:13 pm

    I love crap…I mean C.R.A.P. It really does improve designs by following those simple rules.

    FCP from what I know takes some time to learn, but it should be well worth it.

  3. Posted by Armen 24th April, 2008 at 12:02 am

    Jacob - Yeah, I remember reading that article, Jacob. I forgot it was you who wrote it though. Something made me think it was Steven Snell.

    Curtis - It does. It cannot be over-emphasized.

    I hope so. I’ll have to browse YouTube for some video tutorials. This video could have been better if I was working with Vegas, or if I just knew how to use FCP.

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