The Complete Guide to 17 Key Principles of Design and How They Can Help You Create a Compelling Design Today Medium
Table Of Content
Some designs use guidelines to create a path users can follow to take in information sequentially, just as the content creator has planned. In a way, proportions are similar to balance, but it is measured more from the human eye than with guidelines and grids on design software. Proportions are realistic estimates and weights you apply to your content. Or is everything concentrated on one corner of the design, leaving the other end vacant with ample negative space?
Pattern
It can be used to guide the user’s attention, highlight important information, and enhance the overall user experience. For example, you can use contrast to make your call-to-action buttons stand out, or to differentiate between different sections of your website. Rhythm is like a combination of pattern, movement, and repetition. Picasso's work used a lot of rhythm, and other artists with a distinct brand or feel are quite rhythmic. Pattern uses a repeated arrangement of elements to create consistency and unity throughout. Patterns can be regular or irregular, symmetrical or asymmetrical balance.
Creating Compelling Designs: The Crucial Role of Contrast
When we’re designing websites, we can make use of a grid for achieving a sense of unity, since elements organised in a grid will follow an orderly arrangement. We do need, however, to introduce some variety in our work in order to strike a balance between a boring and a chaotic design. Texture can be created by a repeated pattern of lines, or by using tiled images of textures. Above, the diagonal lines add a ‘grip’ effect to an otherwise ‘smooth’ rectangle.
Can contrast be used in typography?
While we’ve all seen our fair share of experimental pieces out there, it's important to know the significance of the fundamentals. Every design piece has a structure below the surface that holds up the design and makes it visually interesting and balanced. Once designers understand the usage of the principles, they’ll understand better how to break these rules. We all know what movement means — it’s when something changes position over time! Movement is created when a viewer sees elements moving around in composition (or across multiple compositions). Movement can be created by overlapping shapes or stacking elements on top of one another (like overlapping apples).
Spacing/Negative Space
The homepage employs repetition through a consistent grid layout for displaying artwork thumbnails. This grid structure establishes a rhythm of viewing, allowing users to browse through the art with ease. Designers can strategically use warm and cool tones to emphasize specific elements or to create a particular mood in their designs. It's when every design element and principle comes together as one, creating harmonious flow and tranquility. This beautiful painting feels pleasant to the viewer's eye yet has so much going on.
tips to create contrast in your designs
Understanding how these principles interact can help you create more effective designs. One of the most essential uses for contrast, is to help make your designs are accessible for anyone who has a visual disability. Of the design principles, contrast is one of the most effective techniques for drawing attention to important elements or a key message. When it comes to creating contrast with size, you’ll want to keep scale in mind — the relative size of one design element compared to another.
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Imagine just the white foreground text in comparison to understand the complete impact. Given how important contrast in design is, it helps that there are multiple ways one can choose to employ it in their marketing and advertising designs. You can choose to adopt just one type or go for a combination of more than one based on what the design intent is.
Establishing visual hierarchy is also achieved by drawing upon design principles such as contrast and emphasis. Visual hierarchy creates organization and allows viewers to navigate through your design. White space, also known as negative space, allows for balance, hierarchy, and organization within a layout. It creates breathing room and helps guide the viewer’s eye to the most important elements. By strategically using white space, designers can communicate different ideas and evoke specific emotions in their audience. The eight principles of design are balance, contrast, emphasis, movement, proportion, repetition, white space, and unity.
Repetition
But when you work in the field of marketing, any design knowledge can prove helpful. Besides, it helps you appreciate your designs and your peers’ designs better. This will only result in you creating better output as time goes on.
Offer few options – don’t hinder users with nice-to-haves; give them needed alternatives instead.
The app icon designs in iOS 6 and earlier mimic the glossy texture of glass to incite users to tap them. Later, Apple (in)famously introduced a linen fabric texture to much of its user interface. Franks Spillers’ design checklist is an example of customized design principles for mobile user experience (UX) design. Let’s take a closer look at a real-world example to illustrate the power of contrast within the principles of repetition and rhythm. Imagine a website for an art gallery, dedicated to showcasing a diverse range of artistic styles and periods.
When you are creating your next design, don’t only consider color as the only contrast possibility to create visual interest. Remember that you can also play with the size, the shapes and the typography. At the end, it’s a combination of all these elements that will make your graphic design look appealing.
If your creation is looking a little too classic or plain, adding a gritty texture is a good way to give it more character. After all, if everything was matchy matchy, a design would be monotonous and boring. But sprinkle in some contrast, and you’re much more likely to engage and delight your audience.
Color contrast is often the first thing people think of, but differences in the sizes of elements, their shape, or some other property also create contrast. Be sure to leave some space around elements on your pages, especially the most important ones. This white space makes them stand out more and facilitates a better user experience.
Likewise, dark colors are emboldened when paired with lighter background colors. Color contrast is crucial for maintaining readability on your website. Visitors also need to be able to find relevant links, buttons, and interactive content in an instant.
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