1. Basic Principles
of Design

2. Design Basics
Content & Form
Content: subject matter, story, or
information to be communicated
to the viewer.
Form: purely visual aspect…
manipulation of various elements
using principles of design.

3. Process includes:
1. THINK. BRAINSTORM. PLAN.
CREATE CHOICES
2. LOOK. THUMBNAIL SKETCHES.
DIFFERENT VIEWPOINTS
3. DO. EXPERIMENT. TRIAL & ERROR

8. 1. Unity (Proximity)
 Making things belong together
 Achieving congruity
 a composition does not become cluttered
or confusing.
 a concept can be communicated more
clearly.
 a design evokes a sense of quality and
organization.
2 Ways to Achieve this:
1. Similarity
2. Alignment

9. Similarity
2 ways to achieve Similarity:
1. Repetition
 Repeating colors, shapes, values,
textures, or lines creates a visual
relationship between elements, called
correspondence.
2. Proximity
 Placing objects on your page closer
together or overlapping making them a
total, related pattern.

10. Alignment
2 ways to achieve Alignment:
1. Placement:
 Placing objects next to each other
leaving very little “white space” (like
fitting puzzle pieces together)

11. 2. Continuation:
 The eye moves smoothly from one form
or shape to another (image is
organized into a pattern)
 When and element is placed in a
composition, it creates an implied
horizontal and vertical axis at its top,
bottom, center and sides. Aligning
other elements to these axes creates a
visual relationship which unifies them.

12. Implied axes Align to an axis Unified alignment

17. 2. Focal Point
 Emphasizes elements in the design
 “Catching the eye” of the viewer

21. 3. Balance
 Balance is the distribution of visual
weight. There is an assumed vertical
axis and the eye expects to see equal
distribution of visual weight on either
side.
Types of Balance
1. Symmetrical
2. Asymmetrical
3. Radial Balance
4. Crystallographic Balance

22. 1. Symmetrical Balance
 Is when shapes are repeated on
either side of the vertical axis
 A mirror image

24. 2. Asymmetrical Balance
 Balance is achieved on either side of
the vertical axis using dissimilar
objects.
 This can be done with colour value,
shape and texture, or by position
and eye direction.

27. 3. Radial Balance
 Can be either of the above but it
assumes that objects are distributed
around a centre point

29. 4. Crystallographic Balance
 Is a continuing pattern throughout
the picture but it can be either
symmetrical or asymmetrical

31. 4. Scale and Proportion
 Scale is size (an object is large, an
object is small)
 Proportion is relative size (One
object is larger than another object)
 Importance of an object in a
picture is often related to its size.
 A larger object often commands
greater attention than a small one

32.  Since we expect certain objects to
be bigger than other objects, we
can play with that idea to make an
object more important than it would
normally be.
Ex. By playing with perspective
(the angle at which we look at
things), we could make the
smaller object LOOK bigger than
the larger object making the
smaller object more important.

35. 5. Emphasis
 Emphasis is attracting attention or
“catching the eye” of the viewer
by making certain element of the
design the focal point or point of
interest.
There are 3 Components of
Emphasis:
1. Contrast
2. Placement
3. Isolation

36. 1. Contrast
 Contrast can be achieved by
having:
 dark vs light areas in your design
 natural images vs abstract images
 large vs small images
 same vs a different shape
 many objects of the same or similar
colour vs one of a completely
different colour

38. 2. Placement
 Making some objects on a page
“point” towards a particular object,
making it the centre of interest.

40. 3. Isolation
 Placing an object away from the
group or having a feeling that
“something is missing” are
examples of creating emphasis
through Isolation