Elements and Principles of Design

When creating your designs it is important to understand and keep in mind the elements and principles of design. These principles will help you create a design that is simple and visually appealing to the viewer.

The five important elements to always remember are:

Hierarchy
The less levels of hierarchy the better! Hierarchy is in relation to the importance of things placed on one page. Hierarchy can be altered through size, colour, typeface and positioning. For example, in a design for a magazine you would want the title of the article to be larger than the article itself.

Contrast
Contrast is often compared by; big or small, serif or sanserif, light or dark.

Balance
When designing you do not want to have one side of the design to be outweighed by the other unless you have good reason for this. Balance on a page helps guide the viewers eyes throughout the design.

Repetition
Some of the best designs have repetition shown. This is by repeating a particular aspect of the design. For example, using one font throughout the whole design can be effective. Using the same colours or a particular pattern could also show repetition.

Alignment
Alignment is one very important aspect of design. This element is used to have particular aspects in your design line up to allow for a final project that is not cluttered. Alignment can also be used to show a negative area.