Visual Design: Ninety-five things you need to know. Told in Helvetica and dingbats.

Chapter 4. Delivering Visuals

26 Graphic Simplification

It doesn’t take much to convey the idea of a star. Or a flower. Or a cat or a car. A few lines—straight and/or curved—could be all that’s needed. Or maybe just a simple combination of basic shapes. You could always do more if you wanted, but when you get right down to it, it doesn’t take much simply to communicate the visual essence of a person, place, or thing.

Simplified depictions of subjects are often used as elements within logos or informational graphics. Depending on how they’re crafted, basic renderings of this sort might come across as utilitarian, fanciful, childish, crude, or elegant.

Apply everything you know about composition every time you work on a graphic image of this ...