To make a great graphic design work, you must first understand and apply its basic elements. Artworks like that might have sprung out from your imagination. But, it takes a plotted strategy to create a wonderful representation of that design idea. Whether it’s a logo, website design, or marketing material, you need a basic grasp of what graphic design is.
Design Elements
We delve into graphic design elements and why you should care to use them for your marketing materials.
Colour
Colour helps businesses in their branding because it creates emotions, and identity. More so, it creates visual interest to the public. Colours have different meanings and personalities. For example:
Blue: calmness, peace, and heaven. It also signifies intelligence, confidence, business-like, power, and integrity.
White: purity, innocence, and simplicity. In businesses, it connotes minimalism, ease, and safety.
Black: fear, death, and mystery. But, in companies, the use of black often leads to formality, elegance, and power.
Green: growth, fertility, and health. It’s also associated with wealth, protection, healing, and ambition.
Orange: joy, success, and determination. It also evokes prestige, tropical delights, and encouragement.
Yellow: happiness, intellect, and energy. Companies integrate the colour in their operations for attention, caution, and spontaneity.
Red: vigor, passion, leadership, and courage. Connotes love, warmth, willpower, and visibility.
Line
Lines act as dividers, movement, and composition. They form the underlying foundation or architecture of your work. A line can also achieve a particular mood if used in a way.
Shape
Shapes are the forms of an object particularly their external features. People often break down marketing images to their simple geometric shapes. They first see circle, triangle, and rectangle.
Texture
Texture is the feel or appearance of a substance or surface. You can describe it as smooth or rough, matt or glossy, and more. Texture can be two categories: tactile and visual.
Space
Space is the area within, above, and below objects. Graphic designers create space by modifying size, placement, shading, and linear perspective.
Size and Scale
Size and scale are all related concepts, but, their functions are different. Size is the physical dimension of a product. Meanwhile, scale is the relative size of the object to its standard dimension. Also, there’s another element relevant to size and scale – proportion. To put, proportion is the harmony of scale.
Principles of Design
After applying the elements of design into a piece, a designer adheres to these principles. He brings all elements on the design board to make a sound design.
Balance
Balance is the state of equilibrium in graphic design. It can be symmetrical, asymmetrical (informal balanced), or radial (arrangement in a circle).
Emphasis
To attract attention to the viewer’s eyes, a designer must give emphasis to the object in his graphic design. He does this by contrasting different elements to make a valid point. Also, he can achieve emphasis by isolating or placing an element away from the disarray.
Unity and Harmony
Unity and harmony is the pleasing arrangement of different elements in a composition. Harmony happens through monotony or variety. Visual interest is best pique by placing different elements in the design.
Contrast
To put, contrast is two elements of design placed in opposite ways. The goal is to achieve a focal point where the design draws the viewer to glance at that particular element.
Alignment
Alignment helps the designer organize the elements in the composition. It gives the design a more definitive structure. Examples of alignment are center, horizontal, and vertical alignments.
Repetition and rhythm
Repetition is the recurrence of line, shape, or object in a design that results in a pattern. Meanwhile, rhythm is the combination of elements repeated with different variations.
Making a sound graphic design
By playing these elements, you can come up with a great graphic design your customers will love. But, okay, so it’s not that easy. If you need help in generating an excellent piece, contact us on how we can help you.
We have a fantastic team of designers that can come up with design pieces you will love. Leave your customers in awe today!
