In an earlier post, I wrote about why familiarity with design concepts is important for marketers and went over some design elements.

Design elements are the most basic parts of design. They are the foundation on which any design rests. They are best likened to the parts of speech that make up a sentence. The design elements are not the whole sentence, but language couldn't exist without them.

This post will review the next step up in complexity &mdash principles of design. The principals of design are the structures that designers use to form a whole composition. They are the underlying principals that pull disparate parts together into a coherent whole.

As with design elements, everyone has a different idea as to what should be included, but the following seemed a good place to start. I have also included some links at the bottom of this page for more in depth reading.

Proportion

Proportion is a straightforward concept; it is when relative sizes of the elements in the piece are consistent with one another. For instance, if it is a picture of a tree and an apple, side by side, the tree would be bigger than the apple.

Balance

Balance is when the elements of the composition are equally weighted against each other. Balance is almost easier to understand by thinking of something out of balance. Imagine a banner ad which had all the text and images pressed up against the left side and was just empty space on the right. It would look strange; the piece would not be evenly balanced between the right and left halves of the ad.

There are several different types of ways to balance a composition. I have included examples of a couple here: symmetrical and asymmetrical balance.

Symmetrical balance is weighted evenly on each side. In this case there are two identical ladybugs on each side of the dividing line.

Asymmetrical balance can take more than one form. For instance, a large object could be balanced by several smaller objects. In the example below, I used a large white object and balanced it against a small dark object. The reason this works is because dark objects appear to have more "weight" than light ones and so a small dark object can balance a large light one.

Emphasis (Dominance)

Emphasis is the part or parts of the design that most strongly draw the viewers' attention. In the example below, the flowers in the foreground draw the eye. To heighten the effect, I used red for the flowers and a weaker background. The causes the eye to gravitate to the flowers, the point of emphasis in this illustration.

Unity

Unity is produced by the use of repetitive themes that pull the whole composition together. Common ways to produce unity are through repetitive uses of color or images. When used effectively it creates the sensation that all parts of the composition relate to one another.

This image is an extremely simple example of unity — even though each of the three birds has a different plumage, a feeling of unity for the whole is produced by the repetitive use of the bird image.

Rhythm

Repeating elements in a regular fashion produces a sense of rhythm. Rhythm in a design works in the same way that rhythm in music works: it is a repeating element that gives the brain a framework to understand the piece as a whole.

In design, rhythm can give the eye a path to follow and also helps the brain to understand the overall pattern of the design. Regular rhythm, which occurs when the elements are roughly the same size and evenly spaced, produces a feeling of stability. A flowing rhythm, in which the distance between the shapes is irregular, creates a sense of motion.

Below is an example of progressive rhythm. In progressive rhythm, a shape (in this case trees) changes in a regular manner. As the trees fade from the left to the right, the eye is drawn in that direction.

More Information

Art, Design and Visual Thinking: A useful on-line resource that goes through the basics of design. This is written for a college art class.

The Principles of Design: An article from Digital Web magazine. A good overview, especially for design on the web.

Principles of Design: This page from Picturing Books has some useful and simple illustrations.