Graphic design principles

There are four basic graphic design principles:

1. Contrast: the idea behind contrast is to avoid elements on the page that are merely similar. If elements (type, color, size, line thickness, shape, space, etc.) are not the same, then make them very different. If the two elements are sort of different, but not really, then you don’t have contrast, you have conflict. Contrast is often the most important visual attraction on the page – it’s what makes a reader look at the page in the first place.

One purpose of contrast is to create an interest on the page; the other is to aid in the organization of the information.

Sometimes it is better to use caps/lowercase than all caps. This gives more room to make a headline (or headlines and subheads) bigger and bolder, which adds contrast to your piece.

2. Repetition: repeat visual elements of the design throughout the piece. You can repeat colors, shapes, textures, spatial relationships, line thickness, fonts, sizes, graphic concepts, etc. This develops the organization and strengthens the unity.

The purpose of repetition is to unify and to add visual interest. Don’t underestimate the power of the visual interest of the page – if a piece looks interesting, it is more likely to be read. Repetition is very useful on one-page pieces, and is critical in multi-paged documents: it helps guide the reader through the pages.

At first, simply find existing repetitions and then strengthen them. Sometimes it is necessary to take a look at the possibility of adding elements whose sole purpose is to create a repetition.

Repetition is like accenting your clothes. If a woman is wearing a lovely black evening dress with a chic black hat, she might accent her dress with red heels, red lipstick, and a tiny red corsage.

Avoid repeating the element so much that it becomes annoying.

3. Alignment: nothing should be placed on the page arbitrarily. Every element should have some visual connection with another element on the page. This creates a clean, sophisticated, fresh look.

Unity is an important concept in design. To make all the elements on the page appear to be unified, connected, and interrelated, there needs to be some visual tie between the separate elements. Even if separate elements are not physically close in the page, they can appear connected, related, unified with other information simply by placement. The basic purpose of alignment is tounifyand organize the page.

Acentered alignment creates a more formal, sedative, ordinary and sometimes dull look. If the text is aligned on the left or the right, the invisible line that connects the text is strong because it has a hard vertical edge to follow. This gives left- and right-aligned text a cleaner and dramatic look.

Avoid using more than one text alignment on the page (that is, don’t center some text and right-align other text).

4. Proximity: items relating to each other should be grouped close together. When several items are in close proximity to each other, they become one visual unit rather than separate units. This helps organize information, reduces clutter, and gives the reader a clear structure. The white space (the space around the letters) becomes more organized as well.

How to get it. Squint your eyes slightly and count the number of visual elements on the page by counting the number of times your eye stops. If there are more than three to five items on the page (of course, it depends on the piece), see which of the separate elements can be grouped together in to closer proximity to become one visual unit.

Avoidtoo many separate elements on a page. Don’t stick things in the corners and in the middle. Avoid leaving equal amounts of white space between elements unless each group is part of a subset. Don’t create relationships with elements that don’t belong together. If they are not related, move them apart from each other.

Date: 2016-04-22; view: 638