November 22nd, 2008
graphic design . principles
Design 101: Four Basic Principles
Before I get into any more web design stuff, I want to put out there some important basics about design in general, so I will start with four elements: contrast, repetition, alignment and proximity.
Contrast. This is what makes a reader (or user) look twice, and if often the most important principle to adhere to. The biggest problem with many designs is the lack of contrast. If two things are supposed to look different, then go for it and make them look different, because if there is only a minor difference between the two it just looks like a mistake. With contrast it’s better to go too far, and then pare down later than to be a wimp and have to go big later. Go big or go home.
Repetition. Repetition is another important design principle, but is too often abused. Repetition creates consistency, but should not be overdone. It is good to repeat a certain element throughout say, a book, but maybe this element let’s say, a stylized chapter name, appears only on the intro page to the chapter. It would be overdone to repeat this on every single page. Use repetition, but with great restraint. Repetition should be used to unify a design, for example, use the same logo and typeface on all pieces of stationary design, but there is no need to show the same logo multiple times on each piece.
Alignment. The lack of alignment is a sure sign of an amateur designer. Experienced designers know that there is no randomly placing items on a page, everything is in it’s place for a reason and it aligns with something else on the page. The use of grid systems on layouts ensures proper alignment, on the final product, invisible lines form where the gridlines once were. This brings a cohesiveness to the layout.
Proximity. This basically means to group related items together. It’s an organization system for information. When you go to the grocery store all of the pasta is in one aisle, and pasta sauce is placed near the pasta. The cereal has it’s own aisle also. It wouldn’t make sense for spaghetti to be in aisle one, bowties to be in aisle three and elbow pasta to be in aisle ten. The same goes for design, categorize the information in a way that will make sense to the user (or reader) and physically separate the different categories.
Use these four principles in each layout and website to create strong and lasting designs that are visually appealing and understandable.
In the next few days I will be posting good and bad examples of each of the four elements.
