There are SEVEN elements of design that will form the basis for all of our work.
Click on each of the seven collapsible sections below to learn about them and see examples.
A mark between two points.
- Used to emphasize text, visually connect or divide
content in a layout, create patterns and detail. - Can be straight, curved, jagged.
- Also known as a “rule”
- The thickness of a line or rule is called its “weight”
Height + Width = A Shape
- Basic: Triangles, Circles, Squares, Rectangles
- Odd shapes can be used to draw attention
- Three Types: Geometric, Natural, Abstract
How light or dark an area looks
Used to create depth, lead the eye, and emphasize
How an object is perceived based on how light interacts with its surface
Used to generate emotions, define importance, and
create visual interest
- For Print: CMYK – subtractive
- For Digital: RGB – additive
The look or feel of a surface
Used to add depth and visual interest to a composition
Can also make something feel imperfect, and therefore
more real
Types: Rough, Smooth, Woven, Scaly, Leathery,
Cracked, and many many more.
Texture Resources
- lostandtaken.com/
- www.textureking.com/
- we.graphics/graphics/textures/
We Are Surrounded by Textures. Capture Them to Use in Your Work!
You don’t need an expensive camera. If you have a smartphone, you can most likely take high-resolution photos whenever you want. Use this to your advantage by taking photos of interesting textures and patterns—natural and artificial—that you see in the world and compiling them into your own personal texture library. That way, you won’t be left with just doing a web search for the same free-to-use images everyone else is putting in their work.
At the very minimum, by doing this you will start to become more aware of your environment and gain a better sense of our shared, tactile world. As designers, we want our users/viewers/readers to connect with our work. Therefore, we always want what we create to reference and make associations with ideas, concepts, and objects that we all understand and relate to.
How large/small something is
Used to attract attention, define importance, and create
visual interest
Used in typography to draw the eye to important text
The area around or between the elements in a design
Used to separate or group information
Can break up a dense layout
Helps lead a viewer’s eyes through a design
