WASSCE SHS
A graphic design has a message, an audience, and an order the eye can follow. Lettering has to be readable. A symbol has to mean what you claim it means.
Visual hierarchy is the order in which the eye reads. The most important words are usually larger, heavier, or stronger in contrast. A poster for a school event should let a person see the event, the place and the time without hunting. Space around a title is part of that order. Cramming every fact into one size makes no hierarchy. The audience changes the choices. A poster for children can use a simpler sentence and a larger letter than a notice for teachers. Say who it is for.
Lettering is judged on whether it can be read, and on the spacing between letters and between words. Decorative letters that cannot be read have missed the job. When you use an Adinkra symbol, name it and give a meaning you can defend. Adinkra symbols come from Akan cloth, and each one carries a saying. Gye Nyame speaks of the supremacy of God. If you are not sure of a symbol's meaning, do not invent one. Kente is woven cloth, often of the Asante, and its colours carry meaning that depends on the cloth. Name the people and the cloth. A meaning you cannot defend should stay out.
The Visual Arts tips guide sets out the papers, how to answer a theme, and the mistakes that cost marks. WASSCE Visual Arts tips
Hierarchy is an order, not a decoration. Name what is read first and why. Lettering that is only pretty loses the legibility mark. An Adinkra answer needs the symbol and a meaning, or an honest refusal to guess. Do not treat every Ghanaian cloth as the same pattern. Kente and Adinkra are different.
These are practice questions in the style of the paper, with a model answer and a mark scheme. They are not a promise of what your paper will ask.
2 marks
What is visual hierarchy on a poster? (2 marks)
It is the order the eye reads. Size, weight or contrast makes the most important words come first.
2 marks
State two checks for lettering on a poster. (2 marks)
The letters must be easy to read. The spacing between letters and words must be even enough that the words do not crash together.
3 marks
A poster uses an Adinkra symbol. State three things the answer should make clear. (3 marks)
Which symbol it is, the meaning you can defend, and that you will leave the meaning out if you are not sure. Gye Nyame, for the supremacy of God, is an example of a meaning a student can defend.
More questions on this topic are inside glearn, marked as you answer, with the reason written out. The first ones need no account.
Practise Visual Arts freeIt can be read, and the spacing supports the words. A decorated letter that the audience cannot read has missed the task. Say who the poster is for.
No. Use a meaning you can defend, such as Gye Nyame for the supremacy of God. If you are not sure, leave the meaning out. Do not treat Kente and Adinkra as the same cloth. All WASSCE Visual Arts past questions