Below you will find some answers to common questions,
some tips and tricks as well as some general
information regarding the online world.
You find answers for the beginners all the way to advanced users.
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What is Graphic Design and why do I need it?
Graphic design surrounds us everyday and appears in many different forms.
From the morning paper you read, advertising on
TV or in magazines through to the messages
which are targeted towards you on your way to work.
Chances are if something got your attention today it was carefully designed to do just that.
More than that, the message behind the design was designed to create a feeling and perform a task.
That could be to persuade you to watch a particular television program, eat a specific meal or join a club.
Many of these messages are designed to bypass your conscience mind and react directly with your sub conscience.
What are the elements and principles of graphic design?
Elements
1. Art | Illustration | Photography
They say a picture tells a thousand words and many powerful reasons.
Our brain craves information and if this information is provided over multiple platforms then the message is reinforced and retained.
Images can tell a story on their own, support ideas and be used to instantly grab our attention.
2. Colour
Imagine a world without colour. Boring.
Graphic artists and designers
bring life to their designs with this important element.
Colour can be used to make something stand out,
evoke emotions and sometimes mask.
This element is unique as it can be applied to all of the other design elements to enhance and complete them.
3. Copy | Type | Words
Deliver your message clearly with carefully chosen copy.
Words are all around us everyday. From the moment we wake up till we fall asleep we are bombarded with words.
A cleaver design will use copy to create interest, relationships, buy in and ultimately result in sign off and closure.
4. Shapes
Shapes are the basis of most designs.
They direct, influence and
train our minds whilst defining layouts within a space.
Creating the right shapes can make or break a design. Start your design plan here and build on layers of other design elements.
5. Lines
Like shapes, lines are a basic element od design.
They can divide and
direct the eye to essential areas.
This can be done blatently or more subtly depending on the context and general mood of the design.
6. Texture
This element can be actual or implied.
Actual textures can evoke a strong emotive response in an audience.
Implied textures can be created by the use of layers, visual textures and the use of light & shade.
Principles
1. Balance
Balance is the concept of visual equilibrium, and relates to our physical sense of balance.
It is a reconciliation of opposing forces in a composition that results in visual stability.
Most successful compositions achieve balance in one of two ways:
Symmetrically and can be described as having equal "weight" on equal sides of a centrally placed fulcrum.
Asymmetrically is more complex and difficult to envisage.
It involves placement of objects in a way that will allow objects of varying visual weight to balance one another around a fulcrum point.
It is possible to balance a heavy weight with a cluster of lighter weights on equal sides of a fulcrum.
Unequal weights can even be balanced by shifting the fulcrum point on our imaginary scale.
2. Proportion
Proportion refers to the relative size and scale of the various elements in a design. The issue is the relationship between objects, or parts, of a whole.
3. Rhythm
Rhythm can be described as timed movement through space; an easy, connected path along which the eye follows a regular arrangement of motifs.
The presence of rhythm creates predictability and order in a design. Visual rhythm can be created in a number of ways.
Linear rhythm refers to the characteristic flow of the individual line.
Repetition involves the use of patterning to achieve timed movement and a visual "beat".
Alternation is a specific instance of patterning in which a sequence of repeating motifs are presented in turn.
Short/long; fat/thin; round/square; dark/light.
Gradation employs a series of motifs patterned to relate to one another through a regular progression of steps.
This may be a gradation of shape or color.
Some shape gradations may in fact create a sequence of events, not unlike a series of images in a comic strip.
4. Emphasis
Emphasis is also referred to as point of focus, or interruption. It marks the locations in a composition which most strongly draw the viewers attention.
Usually there is a primary, or main, point of emphasis, with perhaps secondary emphases in other parts of the composition.
The emphasis is usually an interruption in the fundamental pattern or movement of the viewers eye through the composition, or a break in the rhythm.
Emphasis can be achieved in a number of ways.
Repetition creates emphasis by calling attention to the repeated element through sheer force of numbers.
Contrast achieves emphasis by setting the point of emphasis apart from the rest of its background. Various kinds of contrasts are possible.
The use of a neutral background isolates the point of emphasis.
Contrast of color, texture, or shape will call attention to a specific point.
Contrast of size or scale will as well.
Placement in a strategic position will call attention to a particular element of a design.
Prolonged visual involvement through intricacy (contrast of detail) is a more unusual form of emphasis.
In this case, many points of emphasis are created that are to be discovered through close attention to the intricacies of the design.
5. Unity
Unity is the underlying principle that summarizes all of the principles and elements of design.
It refers to the coherence of the whole, the sense that all of the parts are working together to achieve a common result; a harmony of all the parts.
Where do I start?
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