Elements and

Principles of
Design

Henry Dan

Introduction
If youre a designer, then you have probably learned and used
the elements and principles of design. These basic tools are
the fundamental pieces which make up the foundation of
design. Good designers know these elements and principles
well, and make the decision to either use them in their work or
intentionally misuse them.
One issue Ive found with the elements and principles of
design is the fact that it is strangely difficult to find a concrete
list of what exactly these are, leading many young designers to
search the internet for a solution. This search will lead one to
the second issue that Ive found, which is the fact that every
list that can be found varies in some regard. This gives one a
rough idea of what the elements and principles of design may
include but, again, is not comprehensive. While it is generally
accepted that things like color and space are integral parts of
design, not all designers seem to agree on one comprehensive
list.
This led me to search and see what information I was able to
find on the subject, with the hopes of compiling the data Ive
found into one source of information. To do this, I searched
for credible sources who had a background in design who had
compiled a full list of what they found, through their experience, to be the elements and principles of design. I narrowed
down to lists which were specifically geared towards design,
rather than art, and focused on professionals who had experience as designers, or teaching design.
This book consists of what I considered to be the relevant information that I gathered from each scholar compiled into one
comprehensive explanation of each element and principle, and
how they interact with each other. Im not claiming that these
definitions are the be-all end-all resource for this information,
but this covers a more broad spectrum than any one of the
sources do.

Elements of Design
There isnt much question regarding what the
elements of design are. Color, line, shape,
space, and texture are generally accepted by
most professionals as the building blocks of
design.
This section will serve to explain each of
these elements through the words of multiple
designers, with the hopes that you can gain a
more accurate understanding of the elements
that you use in design every day.

THE ELEMENTS OF DESIGN:

Color
Color is easy to understand and surprisingly
difficult to explain.
Color specifically refers to the hue of any
given element of a design. Color can be identified by its intensity, value, and hue. Intensity
refers to the brightness or saturation of a color, value refers to a colors lightness or darkness, and a colors hue is what identifies it as
a certain color. Hue can also be explained as
the colors location on a color wheel.
Generally speaking, color is one element
that relies on other elements to exist. Color
is applied to a line, shape, or space, in order
to enhance a design and add certain things
such as unity or contrast.

Color is
partly
artistry,
but
mostly
science
and
common
sense
-Alex W. White

Image courtesy of artsparx.com

Line
A line is one of the simplest marks that can
be made. It is a device used to represent
something or serve a greater purpose within a design, such as describing a contour or
dividing a space.
Lines can be divided into a variety of categories, including geometric, organic, diagonal,
vertical, horizontal, or contour. Regardless of
how they are categorized, their main functions are dividing space and suggesting direction or motion.
Lines commonly serve a greater purpose
within a design, and are key in the organization of any composition.

Line is a
difficult
concept.
My dictionary
gives
86
entries
for it.
-James T. Saw

image courtesy of
graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/

Shape
Shape is the most basic building block of
all design, and most other elements can be
thought of as or in reference to shape.
A shape is a two-dimensional form that is
separated from the background. Because
of this, the presence of a shape will create
a figure/ground relationship with the space
behind it. This must be used by a designer to
develop an interesting space for the viewer.
As mentioned previously, shape is one of, if
not the key element of design. Color and texture are applied to shape, space is activated
by shape, and lines are used to form shapes.

Design
is,
among
other
things,
the
arrangement of
shapes
-Alex W. White

image courtesy of
graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/

Space
Space plays a role in any and all designs,
and every element of a design must be
thought of in reference to the space it exists
in.
In the most basic terms, space is the background of a design. More accurately, it is the
context that the figure exists in. Most strong
designs will play with these relationships and
activate the space around elements of design to create a more diverse and interesting
product.

The
most
important step
to first
using
space is
seeing
it
-Alex W. White

Image courtesy of
troytempleman.com

Texture
Texture is any arrangement of elements which
implies a surface area.
Texture can be either two or three dimensional, also referred to as implied and actual
texture respectively. Two dimensional texture
usually consists of a pattern of lines and/or
shapes to imply the material of a space or
shape.
Texture is heavily relient on the other elements in order to function. A composition
cannot be produced alone through texture,
however texture can be used to enhance
qualities such as variation and emphasis.

The term
texture
is often
misused...
All surfaces
have
texture.
-James T. Saw

Image courtesy of
www.wildtextures.com/

Principles of Design
While it is simple enough to form a condensed list of elements of design, there is a
fair amount of disagreement over the principles of design.
This list represents my attempt to consolidate all core principles into a straightforward
source without leaving out anything critical.
This list includes six basic principles of design, and the five gestalt principles. These Gestalt principles stem from a group of theories
about design as a unified whole, developed
by German psychologists in 1920.

THE PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN:

Balance
Balance can be best explained as a feeling
of visual equality in a space. A designer must
consider the distribution of visual interest
and weight in a design, and position the
shapes within it accordingly, to create an accesible and visually interesting design. It can
also generally be divided into either symmetrical and asymmetrical balance.

Emphasis
Emphasis is the practice of directing your
viewers attention within a design. One must
rely on placement, color, and size to intentionally draw the viewers attention to an object or area. Generally speaking, most strong
designs draw focus to one dominant object
in order to convey a clear message, while other elements are less striking, creating a visual
heirarchy within the design.

Movement
Movement, also referred to as motion, refers
to the visual flow of a composition. Similar to
emphasis, the movement of a design dictates
how the viewers eye moves between elements of a composition. Strong design generally has one overall prevailing direction of
motion; the goal being to make information
as straightforward and accessible as possible.

Repetition
Similarly to movement, the main goal of
repetition is to make a composition as accessible as possible to the viewer. Repetition
involves repeating an object or symbol in
order to either create unity (which will be addressed later) or activate a space. Overuse of
repetition, however, can lead to a boring and
monotonous design.

10

Rhythm
I felt that rhythm, while closely related to
repetition, required its own entry due to its
unique qualities. Rather than solely relying on
repeated elements to form a pattern, rhythm
is created by combining repetition with variation in order to develop a predictable but
interesting pattern which engages the viewer.
Rhythm serves to develop a feeling of organized movement within a design.

Unity
One of the most basic requirements of any
good composition is that all parts must
be organized into one related whole. Unity
means that, rather than making every element look the same to form one, all varied
parts of a design feel related and intentional.
This leads to a consistent and professional
product, as well as maximized interest and
minimized effort for the observer.

11

Figure/Ground
Figure/ground describes the relationship
between the space (ground) within a design and the shapes (figure) that inhabit it.
As with any other part of a composition, a
designer must be aware of this symbiotic
relationship and apply it intentionally. Figure/ground is one of the more commonly
broken principles of design, as ambiguous
figure/ground relationships can lead to very
interesting and dynamic compositions.

Similarity
As with many principles of design, the main
purpose of similarity is to achieve unity without sacrificing variety. The human mind will
try to understand multiple objects by grouping, leading viewers to associate similar objects with one another. Three main means of
acheiving similarity are size, shape, and color.
These qualities can serve to control visual
information and direct the attention of the
viewer.

12

Continuation
Continuation can be thought of as a more
direct form of movement. While movement
can suggest the viewer addresses the composition on way, continuation directly pushes it. This principle is based on the concept
that once your eye is directed one way it will
continue to move until it reaches a stopping
point. This can be used to associate elements of a design, or directly influence how
your design is read.

Closure
Closure is a principle based on the psychological concept that some things are implied, and based on collected information
our minds are able to fill in these blanks.
This allows incomplete lines or shapes to
be perceived as complete, and allows one
to simplify and refine a design by removing
extraneous elements without losing meaning
or readability.

13

Proximity
Relationships based on proximity are potentially the strongest in any design. The closer
two objects are located to one another, the
stronger the association is between them,
despite and dissimilarity or variety. There are
generally four types of proximity. In order from
most least to greatest proximity: close, touch,
overlap, and combine.

14

Sources
White, Alex W. The Elements of Graphic Design: Space, Unity, Page Architecture, and
Type. New York: Allworth, 2002. Print.
Bartel, Marvin. Composition and Design
Principles. Composition and Design Principles. N.p., 2000. Web.
The Gestalt Principles. The Gestalt Principles. Spokane Falls Community College, n.d.
Web.
Saw, James T. Design and Composition. 2D
Design Notes. Palomar College, 2003. Web.
Understanding Formal Analysis. N.p.: n.p.,
n.d. The J. Paul Getty Museum. J. Paul Getty
Trust, 2013. Web.

15