COMPOSITION AND THE PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN Essay -- Design and Technolog

COMPOSITION AND THE PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN You will apply principles of design and visual organisation to your designs using a combination of balance, scale, unity and proportion, rhythm, symmetry and positive and negative space. By utilising the elements of line, tone, texture, shape, and emphasis, you will achieve visual harmony in your composition and layout. As you develop a working knowledge of the properties of colour, you will apply appropriate colour schemes that reflect the emotions of various consumer markets. PRINCIPLES ========== Balance-an equal distribution of weight. When a design is balanced we tend to feel that it holds together, looks unified and feels harmonious. Understanding balance involves the study of several visual factors-weight, position and arrangement. Weight can be defined as creating the illusion of physical weight on a page and can appear heavy or light. Focal point and visual hierarchy- what do you look at first when you look at a design? You probably look at the point of emphasis, the focal point (part of the design which most stands out). A focal point is chosen by the designer to attract the viewer to look at important points within the design. A main focal point can be established along with supporting secondary focal points, called accents which are not so strongly emphasised. How can you create emphasis? Make it brighter, make it larger, make it go in different direction, position it differently, arrange all the elements to lead to it, isolate it, reverse it, make it a different colour, make it a different shape than other elements, make it clear and the other elements hazy. Rhythm-In music most people think of rhythm as the ‘beat’ a sense of movement from one chord to another, a flow. In design, you can also think of rhythm as the beat, but a beat established by visual elements such as shape, line, colour, texture, than by sound. Rhythm is a pattern that is created by repeating elements and creating a sense of movement from one element to another. When you draw evenly spaced vertical lines on a page you establish a steady rhythm. Movement-Elements should be arranged so that the viewers eye flows from one element to another through the design. Movement and rhythm often go together. Unity-relies on a basic knowledge of the formal elements(line, tone, shape, space, textur... ...ucting the underlying structure of a piece is a bit more complicated — but essential for most designs. Most balanced designs (and even unbalanced ones) rely on a grid. This invisible structure (visible while working in your page layout program) helps ensure that you place all the elements in the right location to achieve balance as well as to help with continuity and consistency of design. Grids can be simple or complex depending on the needs of the design and the designer. Sometimes the use of a grid is obvious. Below: This asymmetrically balanced design uses a simple three column grid to ensure that each text column is the same width and that it is balanced by the nearly empty column on the left. The grid also dictates the margins and ensures that the page number and header appear in the same place on each page. An example of a design with asymmetrical balance and the use of 3-column grid A 5x5 grid keeps this design in line. The grid is obvious along the bottom (each square equals one grid square in this layout) but it is invisibly keeping all those random letters in order in the middle. An example of a design with all over balance with underlying 5x5 grid