Shadow Breaks

Even when limited to the claustrophobic confines of a two-dimensional page, turning potential reality into graphic representation has never been insurmountable by a crafty pack of designers. Over the years, the traditional and signature move of any designer worth their salt has been to create a line-break when one element briefly passes beneath another. Excising a clean piece of a line from the mark just before it passed beneath another gave a visual signal of layers intermingling without one layer merging into another. And despite the appearance of this in a portfolio signaling a designer’s coming of age, replacing the gaping hole with an abrupt shadow is a much more normal course of action.

These Shadow Breaks are generally managed without slow gradation. A flat tone, a step or two deeper in value achieves everything a line break could but moves a mark one step closer to a natural representation and not just a symbolic representation of dimensional layering. This technique demands an additional tone as opposed to flat color, but that’s seldom a deal killer. I can’t imagine line breaks are ready to shuffle off the mortal design coil, but at least this fresh way of expressing hierarchy of levels will allow us to mix it up a bit. Shaking up the status quo is always worth a second consumer glance.

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GARDNER DESIGN, SWPLUS
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UNIPEN, DOUBLE DIFFERENT
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DAMIAN KIDD, UNUSED
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ALMOSH82, BOTANIKA
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