Principles of Design
Design is all around us. As human beings, we interact with design on a daily basis whether we realize it or not. From your favorite band’s album cover, to the poster of that movie you can’t wait to see. Everything man-made you touch has been designed.
What makes good design? Aesthetically, design can be just as subjective as art hanging in a museum gallery, but looks aren’t everything. Yes, beauty draws the viewer in and can retain some attention, but design’s main purpose is to serve a function, solve a problem, or both. The aesthetics merely drive the point home.
These principles of design highlight the fundamental aspects of what makes design not only appealing to the eye, but functional and useful for our everyday use.
The principles of design combines the elements to create a composition, they are the guidelines used to arrange the elements. Each principle is a concept used to organize or arrange the structural elements of a design and it applies to each element of a composition and to the composition as a whole. Again, without turning to a specific discipline.
The Top Design Principles include:
— Balance: Balance refers to the visual weight, or the impact, of the elements of the composition. One common type of balance is symmetry, where parts of the image mirror itself. Balance is how the elements within a composition are arranged either symmetrically, asymmetrically, or radially to create the impression of equality in weight or importance.
— Emphasis: It brings attention, It highlights important parts and make them standout. This is when a specific element is given to a distinguishing feature to separate it from a certain element or group. Emphasis is how apparent things are made in the composition. Hopefully, the parts you want to be prominent are made clear and impactful. When the emphasis is done right, it’s not noticeable.
— Movements and Rhythm: Movement is how the eye moves throughout the composition; leading the attention from one aspect to another. This can be achieved by using repeating or alternating elements or patterns. How often something repeats and the intensity of its contrast creates rhythm. It directs the eye, It leads users to the focus area in a design. Using movement as a part of your design process has an added benefit: it helps viewers feel connected to what they’re seeing.
— Pattern: It builds course. It builds familiarity and organizes design for trouble-free viewing. Pattern is the repetition of specific visual elements such as a single unit or multitude of forms. Patterns can be used to create balance, organize surfaces in a consistent manner. Pattern happens when an object, image, or symbol is uniformly repeated throughout a visual composition. Anything can be turned into a pattern, though some classic examples include intersecting lines, shapes, and spirals.etc
— Repetition: It makes design aware. It brings consistency and flow to the design. Repetition is an important design basic because it helps strengthen the overall look of the design. It also ties together different elements to help them remain organized and more consistent.
— Unity: The way elements are arranged so that the image is seen as a whole and overall, creates a visually compelling composition is unity.
Everyone has seen a website or other design out there that seemed to just throw elements on a page with no regard for how they worked together. Newspaper ads that use ten different fonts come to mind almost immediately.
Unity refers to how well the elements of a design work together. Visual elements should have clear relationships with each other in a design. Unity also helps ensure concepts are being communicated in a clear, cohesive fashion. Designs with good unity also appear to be more organized and of higher quality and authority than designs with poor unity.
— Proportion: It conveys stability. It involves scaling of various elements to create a coherent design. Proportion is one of the easier design principles to understand. Simply put, it’s the size of elements in relation to one another. Proportion signals what’s important in a design and what isn’t. Larger elements are more important, smaller elements less.
— Variety: It reaps attention. It adds flavor to the design, making it more interesting and engaging. Variety in design is used to create visual interest. Without variety, a design can very quickly become monotonous, causing the user to lose interest. Variety can be created in a variety of ways, through color, typography, images, shapes, and virtually any other design element.
