Design Basics

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Design Basics
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Objectives

• Learn the formal elements of graphic design
• Understand the principles of design
• Examine visual hierarchy
• Learn about scale
• Comprehend mathematical ratios and proportional
  systems
• Grasp illusion and the manipulation of graphic
  space

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The Formal Elements of Design

• Any graphic designer must have a foundation in
  two-dimensional design and color.
• The formal elements are the building blocks of
  two-dimensional design.
• Line
• Shape
• Color
• Texture

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Line

• A line is an elongated point, considered the path
  of a moving point it also is a mark made by a
  visualizing tool as it is drawn across a surface.
• Lines can be straight, curving, or angular they
  can guide the viewers eyes in a direction.
• A line can be implied by the arrangement of
  shapes.

(TOP) LINES MADE WITH VARIOUS MEDIA (BOTTOM)
MARAGRITA MIX PACKAGING LOUISE FILI LTD., NEW
YORK
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Shape

• The general outline of something is a shape it
  is created either partially or entirely by lines
  or by color, tone, or texture.
• A shape is essentially flatmeaning it is
  actually two-dimensional and measurable by height
  and width.
• All shapes may are essentially derived from the
  square, the triangle, and the circle.
• Each of these basic shapes has a corresponding
  solid form the cube, the pyramid, and the sphere.

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Shape

• There are some basic types of shapes, including
• geometric
• organic, biomorphic, or curvilinear
• rectilinear
• curvilinear
• Irregular
• nonobjective or nonrepresentational
• abstract
• representational

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Figure/Ground

• Figure/ground, also called positive and negative
  space, is a basic principle of visual perception
  and refers to the relationship of shapes, of
  figure to ground, on a two-dimensional surface.
• The figure or positive shape is a definite shape
  it is immediately discernible as a shape.
• The shapes or areas created between and among
  figures are known as the ground or negative
  shapes.

HOPE FOR PEACE POSTER RONALD J. CALA II
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Color

• Additive color system
• When working with light, the three primaries are
  green, red, and blue.
• Primaries are also called the additive primaries
  because, when added together, they create white
  light.
• The color system of white light is called the
  additive color system.

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Color

• The subtractive color model is built on the
  subtractive primary colors.
• The subtractive primary colors in pigment are
  yellow, red, and blue.
• In printing, yellow, magenta, and cyan are the
  colors of the process inks used for process color
  reproduction.
• A fourth color, black, is added to increase
  contrast.

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Color

• Designers should have a basic awareness of color
  print production, ink mixtures, and screen safe
  colorsand their problems.
• Basic color knowledge should include awareness of
  the printer primaries of CMYK, the process of
  layering dots of ink to produce color, and the
  Pantone color system of ink selection.
• The Pantone color system is a standardized color
  matching set of inks used in printing processes.
• Designers should be aware that colors on the web
  can be unstable therefore a palette of 16
  web-safe colors was standardized.

PANTONE MATCHING SYSTEM SWATCH
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Value

• Value refers to the level of luminositylightness
  or darknessof a color, such as light blue or
  dark red.
• To adjust the value of a hue, two neutral colors
  are employed pure black and white.
• Black is the darkest value and white is the
  lightest.
• Value contrast is most useful for purposes of
  differentiating shapes. The value contrast most
  clearly differentiates the figure from the
  ground.
• Hue contrasts alone have less impact and
  therefore may not be as effective for
  differentiating between the figure and ground
  images or between elements of a single composition

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Texture

• In the visual arts, there are two categories of
  texture tactile and visual.
• Tactile textures have actual tactile quality and
  can be physically touched and felt they are also
  called actual textures
• There are several printing techniques that can
  produce tactile textures on a printed design,
  including embossing and debossing, stamping,
  engraving, and letterpress.

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Texture

• Visual textures are those created by hand,
  scanned from actual textures (such as lace), or
  photographed they are illusions of real
  textures.
• Using skills learned in drawing, painting,
  photography, and various other image-making
  media, a designer can create a great variety of
  textures.

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Pattern

• Pattern is a consistent repetition of a single
  visual unit or element within a given area.
• In all cases, there must be systematic repetition
  with obvious directional movement.
• If you examine patterns, you will notice that
  their structures rely on the configuration of
  three basic building blocks dots, lines, and
  grids.
• In a pattern, any individual small unit, whether
  nonobjective or representational shape, can be
  based on the dot or point.
• Any moving path is based on lines, also called
  stripes.
• Any two intersecting units yield a pattern grid.

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Format

• The format is the defined perimeter as well as
  the field it encloses the outer edges or
  boundaries of a design.
• In addition, designers often use the term format
  to describe the type of applicationthat is, a
  poster, a CD cover, and so on.
• Format examples
• CD cover (square shape)
• Single-page magazine ad (vertical rectangular
  shape)
• Two-page spread (horizontal rectangular shape)
• Size is determined by the needs of the project,
  function and purpose, appropriateness for the
  solution, and cost.
• No matter what shape or type of format, each
  component of the composition must form a
  significant relationship to the formats
  boundaries.

FORMATS RECTANGLES, SQUARE, CIRCLE
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Balance

• Balance is an equal distribution of weight.
• A balanced composition can be symmetric or
  asymmetric.

• Symmetry is the arrangement of all identical or
  similar visual elements so that they are evenly
  distributed on either side of an imaginary
  vertical axis, like a mirror image.
• When you arrange dissimilar or unequal elements
  of equal weight on the page, it is called
  asymmetry.

NEW YORK TIMES STYLE MAGAZINE COVER NEW YORK
TIMES MAGAZINES
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Visual Hierarchy

• One of the primary purposes of graphic design is
  to communicate information, and the principle of
  visual hierarchy is the primary force for
  organizing information and clarifying
  communication.
• To guide the viewer, the designer uses visual
  hierarchy, the arrangement of all graphic
  elements according to emphasis.

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Emphasis

• Emphasis is the arrangement of visual elements
  according to importance, stressing some elements
  over others, making some superordinate (dominant)
  elements and subordinating other elements.
• Emphasis is directly related to establishing a
  point of focus the focal point (the part of a
  design that is most emphasized or accentuated).
• Position, size, shape, direction, hue, value,
  saturation, and texture of a graphic element all
  contribute to making it a focal point.
• Once past the establishment of a focal point, a
  designer must further guide the viewer.

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DESIGN TURNER DUCKWORTH, LONDON
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Emphasis

• There are several means to achieve emphasis
• Isolation
• Placement
• Scale
• Contrast
• Direction and pointers

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Rhythm

• A strong and consistent repetition, a pattern of
  elements can set up a rhythm, similar to a beat
  in music, which causes the viewers eyes to move
  around the page.
• Timing can be set by the intervals between and
  among the position of elements on the page.
• A strong visual rhythm aids in creating
  stability.
• Rhythma sequence of visual elements at
  prescribed intervalsacross multiple-page
  applications and motion graphics, is critical to
  developing a coherent visual flow from one page
  to another.
• Equally important is incorporating an element of
  variance to punctuate, accent, and create visual
  interest.
• Many factors can contribute to establishing
  rhythmcolor, texture, figure and ground
  relationships, emphasis, and balance.

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Unity

• There are many ways to achieve unity where all
  the graphic elements in a design are so
  interrelated that they form a greater whole
• all the graphic elements look as though they
  belong together.
• An ideal layout might be viewed as a composition
  of graphic elements so unified as a whole that it
  cannot be described merely as a sum of its parts.
• Most designers would agree viewers are able to
  best take in (understand and remember) a
  composition that is a unified whole. 

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Perceptual Organization

• The mind attempts to create order, make
  connections, and seek a whole by grouping
  perceiving visual units by location, orientation,
  likeness, shape, and color.
• Methods of perceptual organization
• Similarity
• Proximity
• Continuity
• Closure

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Correspondence and Continuity

• When you repeat an element such as color, value,
  shape, texture, or parallel directions or
  establish a style, like a linear style, you
  establish a visual connection or correspondence
  among the elements.
• Continuity is related to correspondence. It is
  the handling of design elementslike line, shape,
  texture, and colorto create similarities of form.

FLAMING LIPS POSTER MODERN DOG DESIGN CO.,
SEATTLE
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Alignment

• Various structural devices can aid in unifying a
  static page or multiple-page applications.
• Viewers will perceive a greater sense of unity in
  a composition when they see or sense visual
  connections through the alignment of elements,
  objects, or edges.
• Alignment is the positioning of visual elements
  relative to one another so that their edges or
  axes line up.

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LONDON
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Flow

• Elements should be arranged so that the audience
  is led from one element to another through the
  design.
• Flow is also called movement and is connected to
  the principle of rhythm.
• Rhythm, in part, is about a sense of movement
  from one element to another.

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Scale and Proportion

• Control scale for the following reasons
• Manipulating scale can lend visual variety to a
  composition.
• Scale adds contrast, dynamism, and positive
  tension to relationships between and among shapes
  and forms.
• Manipulation of scale can create the illusion of
  three-dimensional space.
• Proportion is the comparative size relationships
  of parts to one another and to the whole.

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Mathematical Proportion

• Most designers prefer to rely on their learned
  and innate sense of proportion however, some
  employ graphic devices that can aid in
  establishing harmony, such as Fibonacci numbers
  and the golden section, among others.

(LEFT) FIBONACCI SQUARES (RIGHT) GOLDEN
RATIO (8.5 x 11 PAGE)
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The Picture Plane and Depth

• When you set out to create a design on a
  two-dimensional surface, you begin with a blank,
  flat surface. That surface is called the picture
  plane.
• The illusion of spatial depth means the
  appearance of three-dimensional space, where some
  things appear closer to the viewer and some
  things appear farther awayjust as in actual
  space.

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The Picture Plane and Depth

• We tend to see graphic elements in terms of three
  main planes
• the foreground (the part of a composition that
  appears nearest the viewer)
• the middle ground (an intermediate position
  between the foreground and the background)
• and the background (the part of a composition
  that appears in the distance or behind the most
  important part)

DIRECTION MAGAZINE COVER PAUL RAND
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Summary

• Design principles underpin every effective visual
  solution. Without a complete understanding of
  two-dimensional design, a designer creates
  primitively rather than with design
  intelligence.
• The formal elements of two-dimensional design are
  line, shape, color, and texture.
• A line is an elongated point, considered the path
  of a moving point.
• The general outline of something is a shape it
  is a configured or delineated area on a
  two-dimensional surface.
• Figure/ground, also called positive and negative
  space, is a basic principle of visual perception
  and refers to the relationship of shapes, of
  figure to ground, on a two-dimensional surface.

31
Summary

• The figure or positive shape is a definite shape
  it is immediately discernible as a shape. The
  shapes or areas created between and among figures
  are known as the ground or negative shapes.
• The colors we see on the surfaces of objects in
  our environment are perceived and known as
  reflected light or reflected color.
• The digital colors seen in screen-based media are
  also known as additive colorsmixtures of light.
• Value refers to the level of luminositylightness
  or darknessof a color.
• The actual tactile quality of a surface or the
  simulation or representation of such a surface
  quality is a texture.

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Summary

• Pattern is a consistent repetition of a single
  visual unit or element within a given area.
• The basic principles of design are absolutely
  interdependent.
• The format is the defined perimeter as well as
  the field it enclosesthe outer edges or
  boundaries of a design.
• Balance is stability or equilibrium created by an
  even distribution of visual weight on each side
  of a central axis as well as by an even
  distribution of weight among all the elements of
  the composition.
• Symmetry is a mirroring of equivalent elements,
  an equal distribution of visual weights, on
  either side of a central axis.

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Summary

• Asymmetry is an equal distribution of visual
  weights achieved through weight and
  counterweight, by balancing one element with the
  weight of a counterpointing element, without
  mirroring elements on either side of a central
  axis.
• To guide the viewer, the designer uses visual
  hierarchy, the arrangement of all graphic
  elements according to emphasis.
• Emphasis is the arrangement of visual elements
  according to importance, stressing some elements
  over others, making some superordinate (dominant)
  elements and subordinating other elements.
• In graphic design, a strong and consistent
  repetition pattern of elements can set up a
  rhythm, similar to a beat in music, which causes
  the viewers eyes to move around the page.

34
Summary

• Repetition occurs when you repeat one or a few
  visual elements a number times or with great or
  total consistency.
• Variation is established by a break or
  modification in the pattern or by changing
  elements, such as the color, size, shape,
  spacing, position, and visual weight.
• Unity occurs when all the graphic elements in a
  design are so interrelated that they form a
  greater whole.
• Alignment is the positioning of visual elements
  relative to one another so that their edges or
  axes line up.
• Flow is also called movement and is connected to
  the principle of rhythm.
• In a design, scale is the size of an element or
  form seen in relation to other elements or forms
  within the format.

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Summary

• Proportion is the comparative size relationships
  of parts to one another and to the whole.
• Some designers employ graphic devices that can
  aid in establishing harmony, such as Fibonacci
  numbers and the golden section, among others.
• A form can give the illusion of having weight,
  mass, or solidity.
• Volume is the representation of mass on a
  two-dimensional surface it can be bound by
  planes and has position in space.
• The illusion of spatial depth means the
  appearance of three-dimensional space, where some
  things appear closer to the viewer and some
  things appear farther awayjust as in actual
  space.