How does repetition fit into design?

Repetition is consistency. It’s bringing one to three of the same elements into all of your designs to make it obvious to your viewer that the designs are 1) related, and 2) similar in purpose. These elements can be anything: colors, fonts, objects, etc.

Let’s return to Apple as our example. They have some of the best designs around. Go to their website: apple.com. Take a second to look at the home page. Notice the background and menu colors, the font styles of the featured product, and the hand interacting with the product (if you’re seeing the ad about the iPad2).

Now, click amongst the various tabs on the site. do you see these things repeated on each page? Let’s explore what they’re doing.

Every background is white.

Apple uses white in their TV ads, on their products, and on virtually every PR piece they’ve put out in the past decade. If they’re not using white, they’re using that grayish-silver.

Color attracts a lot of attention, even if the color is simply white. Colors carry associations to real life things like brands or events. Every debate in the presidential primaries, for instance, has a backdrop with the respective political party’s primary color: blue for the Republicans and red for the Democrats. Viewers who merely glance at the TV know immediately what party is debating based on the color of the set, not by the names of the people.

Color makes association easy. If you’re trying to brand a series of announcements, an event, or a company with your design, choose your color wisely and use it consistently.

Fonts are repeated.

Apple uses two main fonts for the things that you glance at quickly (ie. their ads). Their fonts consist of one simple, bold serif they use to advertise their products (iPod, iPad, ,iTunes, OS X Mountain Lion, etc), and another thinner font—that is more than likely of the same family—for all of their subtitles and catch phrases (“The new iPad,” “iCloud stores your…,” etc). The shape of the letters cue your mind to a product or description of their product. This happens all the time with a variety of simple and complex fonts. Don’t believe me?

Harry Potter of course. Not a single capital “h” or “p” was used , and yet certain features of this font (aka the lighting shaped base of the “T”) help you remember the font of Harry Potter’s book and movie title almost at once. You can almost see this words coming out of the clouds toward you can’t you?
Each font is unique and easily recognizable to one who is familiar with it. Fonts are a powerful repetition tool. Pick one you won’t get tired of.
The Hand
Repetition is found in the form of a bodiless, generic hand they use to show you how to use their products. They picked a simple, consistent medium that doesn’t distract you with the image of a person. (Notice that even when they first introduced the iPod, you never saw the details of the people dancing with them, they were merely silhouettes against a solid color.) It’s obvious that a person, such as yourself, can play with this product just as easily as they could with the original iPod Classic.
Thus you can see the power of repetition. If you were to see an ad for any product with one of these three elements, you would likely be reminded of Apple in some way. If Swiffer mops were to imitate all three elements, they wouldn’t sell a single mop. The viewer would only be thinking “this ad is a rip off,” or “How can I get my hands on the new iPhone 4S.”

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