1. DEISGN FUNDAMENTALS
DEFINITIONS
VISUAL ELEMENTS
visible characteristics contributing to the appearance of a form
IMPLIED LINE
•A series of points that the eye recognizes as a line; a perceived line where areas of
contrasting color or texture meet.
CONTOUR LINE
•An actual line or implied line that defines the outer limits of a three dimensional object or
two-dimensional shape; used synonymously with “outline”.
GESTURAL LINE
•Line that conveys the energy of the artist’s hand as it moves across the drawing surface.
SHAPE
•Geometric or Organic
•Figure and Ground
•Positive and Negative
Shape
•Amorphous Shape
•Three-dimensional
Shape
POSITIVE SHAPE
•A dominant shape on a ground.
NEGATIVE SHAPE
•A shape “left over” or around a dominant shape.
FIGURE
•A shape on a background.
GROUND
•A background on which marks, shapes, or figures are placed.
MASS and VOLUME
•Mass: the physical bulk
•Volume: the measurable area that an object occupies
•Mass and volume can be actual or implied
MASS
•An actual or illusory three-dimensional bulk.
VOLUME
•The measurable area that an object occupies-its height, width, and depth.
SPACE
•An expanse of three-dimensionality in which objects and events occur.
ILLUSIONAL SPACE
•The appearance of depth, height, and width on a two-dimensional surface.
SIZE
OVERLAP

2. TRANSPARENCY
PLACEMENT
PERSPECTIVE
•The illusion of space on planar surfaces, created by techniques for representing three
dimensions on a two-dimensional surface.
LINEAR PERSPECTIVE
•A system of rendering the appearance of three dimensions on a two- plane by making
objects appear smaller as they recede and by making parallel lines converge in the
distance at a vanishing point on a horizon line.
VANISHING POINT
•Where converging lines drawn in linear perspective seem to disappear into a distant dot
on the horizon line.
ORTHOGONAL LINES
•Lines or edges in a picture that lead the viewer’s eyes to the vanishing points in an
illusional three-dimensional space.
ISOMETRIC PERSPECTIVE
•A means of rendering three-dimensional objects without reliance on vanishing points or
converging lines; scale of objects remains the same regardless of the distance from the
foreground and
background.
ATMOSPHERIC (AERIAL) PERSPECTIVE
•The technique of representing dimensional space by making objects close to the viewer
appear crisp and vibrant and making them fuzzy and less intense in color and tone as
that recede.
KINETIC ART
•Artifacts that are designed to move.
VALUE
•The relative degree of light or dark.
CONTRAST
•The degree of value difference in an image; high contrast is a wide separation between
dark and light; low contrast is a narrow range of values in an image.
HUE
•A name of a color family or an area on the color wheel.
SUBTRACTIVE COLOR PROCESS
•The mixing of pigments and dyes so that all colors of light except the color are absorbed
(subtracted).
ADDITIVE COLOR PROCESS
•The mixing of colored lights so that they shine on a surface, they combine (add) to make
other colors.
PRIMARY COLORS
•In a color system, the basic colors that cannot be broken down into other colors and that
can be combined to create other colors.
SECONDARY COLORS

3. •The product of mixing two primary colors.
TERTIARY COLORS
•The products of mixing a primary and adjacent secondary color.
KEY
•Used synonymously with value. In a scale of values, high-key colors are lighter than
colors in the middle of the scale; low-key colors are darker than the colors in the middle
of the scale.
TINT
•A color that has white added to it.
SHADE
•A color that has black added to it.
INTENSITY, SATURATION
•The strength or weakness of a color.
TONE
•A color that has gray added to it.
OPTICAL COLOR MIXING
•Placement of different colors in such a way that the human eye mixes them to form new
colors.
MONOCHROMATIC COLOR SCHEME
•Variations in color based on one hue.
ANALOGOUS COLOR SCHEME
•Variations in color between hues adjacent to one another on the color wheel.
COMPLEMENTARY COLOR SCHEME
•Variations in color based on colors opposite each other on the color wheel.
SIMULTANEOUS CONTRAST
•An effect achieved by placing highly contrasting colors (complements), values, and
intensities next to each other.
TRIAD
•Three colors that are equidistant from one another (form an equilateral triangle) on the
color wheel.
TETRAD
•Four colors that are equidistant from one another (form a square or rectangle) on the
color wheel.
TEXTURE
•INVENTED TEXTURE: The illusion of tactility through the arrangement of lines, colors,
and other design elements.
•ACTUAL TEXTURE: The tactile quality of the material used to make an artifact.
•IMPLIED TEXTURE:The tactile quality of elements in an artifact rendered in a way that
gives the impression of texture.

4. DESIGN PRINCIPLES
•Compositional means by which artists arrange design elements for effective
expression.
UNITY
•The feeling that a composition holds together well visually and is designed to be
experienced as a whole.
VARIETY
•Visual diversity to avoid an unintended monotonous composition and to hold the viewer’s
interest.
BALANCE
•An equilibrium of weight and force; distribution of weight enabling someone or something
to remain upright and steady.
•Actual Balance
•Actual Weight
•Visual Weight
Visual Balance
Symmetrical
Asymmetrical (Informal)
Radial
VISUAL BALANCE
•The appearance of equilibrium in a work of art.
Achieving Visual Balance:
•Size
•Color
•Shape
Frequency or Repetition
ASYMMETRICAL BALANCE
•Visual or actual equilibrium that is almost but not exactly symmetrical.
SYMMETRICAL BALANCE
•Visual or actual equilibrium of visual elements in size, shape, and placement.
BILATERAL SYMMETRY
•Symmetry in which similar anatomical parts are arranged on opposite sides of a median
axis so that only one plane can divide the individual into essentially identical halves.
RADIAL BALANCE
•Equilibrium achieved by elements emanating from a point, usually the center, in a
composition.
DIRECTIONAL FORCE
•Arrangement of elements that can move the viewer’s eye in, around, or through a work
of art.
EMPHASIS/SUBORDINATION
•Arrangement of elements of art to make some areas the primary focus of a viewer’s
attention.
FOCAL POINT
•An area of an artifact that grasps and holds a viewer’s attention.

5. VISUAL HIERARCHY
•Arrangement of design elements in terms of their importance to the expressive purposes
of the work. This may be accomplished through the use of hieratic scale.
REPETITION
•Use of any element or object more than once in an artifact in order to structure a
viewer’s experience of that work.
RHYTHM
•The movement, fluctuation, or variation marked by a regular recurrence of related
elements.
IRREGULAR RHYTHM
•A rhythm that omits expected stresses or adds unexpected stresses.
PATTERN
•A systematic repetition of an element in a work.
SCALE
•The comparative size of an elements of art or object in relation to other elements or
objects and normative conventions.
PROPORTION
•The relationship of the sizes of parts to each other and to the whole.
GESTALT
•An aspect of cognitive psychology developed in the early twentieth century by German
psychologists and philosophers investigating hw the mind seeks unity and closure. The
“gestalt” of an artifact is the general feeling it evokes in viewers-the sense of a whole,
complete object.
PROXIMITY
•The relative distance between elements in an artifact.
CONTRAST
•The use of opposing aspects of the elements of art to produce an intensified effect.
•Visual Contrast
•Degree of visual difference among elements of art in a composition as a means
of emphasis.
•Conceptual Contrast
•An implied opposition of ideas to emphasize unexpected differences.