Elements and Principles of Design
- 2. What is Design? In general, it is a plan or drawing produced to show the look or function something. GRAPHIC DESIGN is the process of visual communication through the use of fonts, space, images, and color.
- 3. Elements vs. Principles We’re going to talk about ELEMENTS of design and PRINCIPLES of design. Elements Principles Line, shape, color, value, texture, size, and space. These are the materials you build designs with. Contrast, repetition, alignment, and proximity. These are rules that help you organize and place the materials.
- 4. Elements vs. Principles Elements Principles These are the materials you build designs with. These are rules that help you organize and place the materials. hello
- 5. Elements of Design: Line Lines can be used for a wide range of purposes: stressing a word or phrase, connecting content to one another, creating patterns, dividing up space, and much more. Options: Straight Curved Horizontal Vertical Thick Thin Dotted Broken Lines can create a sense of movement or direction in your design.
- 6. Elements of Design: Shape Put lines together to create height and width, and you have a shape. Shapes can be used to create patterns, organize and divide space, and draw the viewer’s attention. Options: Geometric (triangles, circles, squares, etc.) Natural (plants, animals, people, etc.) Abstract (icons, freeform graphic representations)
- 7. Elements of Design: Color Color is used to generate emotions, create unity, make something stand out, and generally create visual interest. Options: Warm vs. Cool Bright vs. Muted Primary vs. Secondary Neutral Colors Complementary Colors + +
- 8. Elements of Design: Color Blue-orange complementary colors in movie posters is overdone
- 9. Elements of Design: Value Value is how light or dark an area looks. Use value to create depth and light, to lead the eye, or to emphasize. A gradient helps us visualize value: Any color has a range of value.
- 10. Elements of Design: Texture Texture refers to what the surface of an object looks and “feels” like. In graphic design, you can mimic the look of different textures to add depth, contrast, and visual interest. Options: Wood Cement Glitter Fabric Paint Glass Metal Paper
- 11. Elements of Design: Size Size is how small or large something is. Interesting choices regarding size can attract attention or define the importance of an element in the design.
- 12. Elements of Design: Space Space is the area around or between elements of the design. It can be used to separate or group information. Used effectively it can lead the eye through a design. Options: Positive Space: the space the subject takes up. Negative Space: the space surrounding the subject.
- 13. Elements of Design: Text Different texts have different moods. They can be clean and modern, classic and professional, Casual and fun, aggressive, mature, immature, historical, futuristic, and so on. Try to match fonts together that you believe complement each other. Options: Serif fonts: hello hello (have “hooks”) Sans-serif fonts: hello hello Script fonts: hello hello hello Artistic fonts: hello hello
- 14. We just saw elements of design: the materials! Next we will look at principles of design: the rules! TEXT
- 15. Principles of Design: Contrast Separate elements in a design should stand apart from one another. Think of contrast as a noticeable difference between elements. You can achieve contrast using different colors, textures, and sizes next to each other. Color contrast Value contrast Texture contrast Size contrast BAD GOOD
- 16. Principles of Design: ContrastFaux-pas! When an element of your design (like text) should be clearly visible to the viewer, make sure to create high contrast!
- 17. Principles of Design: Repetition Repeating elements helps to create patterns. When you repeat the use of any design element, it also creates cohesiveness. For example, if you use a blue border on one image, using blue borders on the other images creates unity.
- 18. Principles of Design: RepetitionFaux-pas! No repeating fonts, no repeating colors, no repeating shapes!
- 19. Principles of Design: Alignment Alignment means that objects in the design are visually connected so that nothing feels out of place or disconnected. Objects “line up” with each other when they are supposed to. The elements on this page are not in alignment.
- 20. Principles of Design: Alignment The elements on this page are now better aligned! Alignment means that objects in the design are visually connected so that nothing feels out of place or disconnected. Objects “line up” with each other when they are supposed to.
- 21. Principles of Design: Alignment Alignment means that the spacing around objects is EQUAL, EVEN, or SYMMETRICAL on all sides. The space between objects is EQUAL. The space on the outer margins of the page is also the SAME on both sides.
- 22. Principles of Design: Alignment Alignment means that the spacing around objects is EQUAL, EVEN, or SYMMETRICAL on all sides. The space between objects is equal on all sides.
- 23. Principles of Design: AlignmentFaux-pas! Margins are all different sizes. None of the objects are “lined up.”
- 24. Principles of Design: Proximity Proximity is how close or far away objects are from each other. If two elements are related, they should be placed in close proximity to each other. Doing so increases viewer comprehension of the design. Imagine how strange it would look if you put distance between and image and its label… My Dog
- 25. Principles of Design: Proximity Proximity is how close or far away objects are from each other. If two elements are related, they should be placed in close proximity to each other. Doing so increases viewer comprehension of the design. Imagine how strange it would look if you put distance between and image and its label… My Dog
- 26. Principles of Design: Proximity Group related things together. What order are you supposed to read this text in? Group related text together. Faux-pas!