1. Color
Color has an important role in Basic design elements. It has a direct connection with our minds. They play with our emotions. according to studies color affect more than just the mind. color can change our buying habits. Chose the colors for anything can recognize you up to 80%
colors are a form of non-verbal communication but can convey your message loudly. So it is one of the most crucial challenges for designers to choose effective colors for branding. Colors can convince someone to take action. selecting the correct colors is an effective approach to tell the brand story.
Why Colors are important
What do you think about why we will stop our car at red lights and will go on the green lights? Colors evoke our emotions. Whether we like or dislike it, help us in making decisions. As a brand, you may want to convey strong emotions, but you can not tell your description in your logo. But the color of your logo shows everything thing about your brand. If an image is worth a thousand words, an image with recognizable color may worth more them a million words.
2. Shape
All objects are composed of shapes and shapes are combined by all other elements like Line, form, color, and texture The example of shape is a button on a website. It is a type of form because it is lives inside of a computer
Shap is a 2-dimensional object that is next to space. Because of its defined and sharp boundary. A sharp can be found in different places in space with the combination of other elements like line, colors, and texture. There are two types of Shapes Geometric and organic shape.
Geometric Shape
Geometric shapes are a shape that is drawn with the help of compass or another instrument. we can describe these shapes by mathematical terms. It seems like regular objects. Architects mostly use geometrical shapes in their floor plans or any other maps. A geometric shape can be used in texture and pattern design.
Organic Shape
Organic Shapes are the shape that found in nature. It is difficult to describe organic objects because of their irregular shape For Example:- the shape of clouds, trees, leaves, puddles, rocks, and so on. They look like natural and smooth objects these shapes are opposite to the organic shapes
3. Line
One of the most crucial Basic design elements is the line and it should not be underestimated as simple as lines are. They can be quite versatile and be used as crucial elements of design.
Lines can be straight, curved, solid, dashed, thick, or thin. and It can be used to add structure to composition to frame information and to divide information. Used considerably lines can add elegance to the composition at hierarchy and draw the eye to a specific point. With type, lines can be used to emphasise and put stress on a word a phrase or paragraph.
Lines can be used to decorate, illustrate and represent information in infographics If we think about magazines, newspapers and maps one of the most common visual elements is the line as it works very well to structure information.
A line can be made of more than a single stroke it can be made with many individual strokes and even dots. So here are some simple examples of the visual element line. How lines may be used in the design. For the sake of simplicity and to focus on the structure.
Types of Lines
There are two types of Lines Abstract Lines and Concrete Lines.
Concrete Lines
Concrete lines are the lines that you can see in the human eye. we are using these lines in the infographic design to add different elements with each other. or create a connection between two or more elements.
See the example of Concrete Lines. Where line plays the role of building simple infographics and we can see them in the human eye. this is a simple diagram made of lines just to show you the example of how lines work.
Abstract Lines
Abstract Lines are the lines that you cannot see in a human eye but the lines exist there and you can feel by one of your six senses. These lines most used in magazines and newspapers to separate the paragraphs. see the example below to understand abstract lines
In this Example. Lines are used to dividing the sections and draw emphasis to a particular word. or Signs to ignore them these are the concrete lines. If you look at the Separated paragraphs. There are lines between them that are invisible in the human eye. but you can feel it. these lines are called abstract lines
4. Size
Size is the Basic design element that is the most important factor in graphic design and any other design. you can describe an object by its size For Example You want to be sure that it is a heading or title of a product You will increase the size of the particular text. You can navigate the human eyes by increasing or decreasing the size of an objects
5. Space
It’s time to understand what is Space as a visual element in graphic design. We have understood Texture, Color theory, Shapes, and Lines. Suppose you have missed these articles. I highly recommend getting a closer look at the above items. We will understand all the essential aspects of conceptual graphic design after Completing this series. You will be able to produce new ideas. Create more attractive and engaging scenarios.
In this article, I’m going to discuss what is Area a visual element in graphic design. Let’s learn deeper.
What is Space
In this article, I’m going to discuss space or area as a visual element in graphic design. So the area creates the visual essence and dynamic of a composition. In design, there are two types of space: Positive space and negative space. It can be open or closed, simplistic or profound, and Multi-dimensional or having depth. In many cases, you can’t identify the area clearly, but It appears.
Positive Space
Positive space can be two-dimensional or three-dimensional. It refers to the shapes of objects. It usually refers to anything that is considered the main focus or subject of the page. For Example, It can be the face of a person, Or a Tree on the hill. In other words, If we have an empty white sheet. It is the negative space, but we draw a subject on that sheet space where we have drawn a matter is known as positive space.
Negative Space
Negative space is the white area or area, which is the part of the design that is not there; the distance between the visual elements. It can also be the background color of a structure. Negative space can be just as integral to the design as positive space. Negative space is vital because it helps frame and contains a composition. An inconsiderable area connects or disconnects shapes to suggest relationships between bodies. It avoids visual clutter and looks clean, helping balance a piece and focusing the viewer on something specific.
What creates positive and negative space is the arrangement and visual appearance of shapes within a composition. In two-dimensional design, proximity, overlap, opacity, light, and shadow and perspective can be applied to shapes to create visual dynamics—the illusion of depth or area in a composition.
6. Proximity
Proximity is simply the distance shapes are from one another far apart or close together, proximity suggests relationships between shapes. The overlap is the effect where shapes are arranged to appear to be on top of each other. This illusion makes the top element look closer to the observer.
7. Opacity
Opacity is when objects appear transparent. Degrees of opacity can make elements like heavy or light to suggest dominance, and order of closeness in an object opacity blurs the barrier between positive and negative spaces. Overlapping transparent elements can create dynamics in composition and an illusion of 3D and perspective.
8. Light and shadow
Light and shadow can give an object a three-dimensional look, shadow can create the illusion that an object is on top of another and suggest how far apart they may be. Perspective is created through the arrangement, creation, and manipulation of shapes to look like they appear in real life. This is the effect where shapes appear to get smaller the further away they get. we can also achieve perspective through the use of relative sizes of objects overlapping objects and blurring and sharpening of objects. In design, there is no way to determine the depth of the area, only the order of closeness. In design, we could use positive and negative space to create a focal point, create balance, set a visual tone, and define a look and feel.
9. Texture
Textures are one of the essential elements of visual design. They are useful to adjust tones. You can give a 3D look to your figure by adding the 3D texture in your model. Don’t you worry! We will discuss more 3D texture letters in this article.
I expect you have read my series of beginners’ guides to graphic design. In case, you have missed it. I highly recommend you to read these articles to understand the most basic elements of visual design Here are my previous articles, Shapes, Colors, Lines.
In this article, I will discuss the critical visual element “Texture”. We will also deep into dive at what is texture? And How It works? As a visual element in graphic design.
What is Texture?
The texture is the way the surface feels or is perceived to feel. The texture is used to create a visual tone and influence the look and feel of a piece of graphic design work. And it is used to attract or repel interest to an element depending on the pleasantness of the texture. Now in design, there are two types of textures. we will discuss some of these: Image textures and pattern textures
Image Textures
Image textures are generated from a combination of organic or geometric shapes and colors. It can be simple or complex and generally appears random to create a distinct look and feel. Image textures tantalize the senses. The eye likes to look at the image texture. Image textures can be like the sense of smell and touch, you can’t see anything in particular in it, but overall, it triggers feelings of emotions and sensations of touch. Now image textures can be environmental, biological, or man-made.
Environmental Texture
The environmental Textures can be wood, grain, sand, water, stone to the stars in the sky. That is related to the environment like holiday there is some type of textures that will use for holiday because these look like a professional graphic design. A greater approach to relate with your customer is to design an artwork that they feel your have for them and they share your design with others.
Image textures can be used to engage and add distinct visual tone to a piece of graphic design work.
Natural Textures
Natural textures can be skin, fur, feathers, and animal prints. The human-made surfaces can be paintings, illustrations, dyes, cloths, papers, typography, photographic effects, and soon. Because of image textures, abstract nature can trigger feelings, emotions, and excite the senses.
Pattern Texture
Pattern texture is again generated from organic or geometric shapes and colors though pattern texture is mostly manufactured. Patterns can be simple or complex but unlike image texture that generally appears random, patterns appear more structured.
Repeating a formation of shape and color will result in a pattern texture. Repeating a logo in a formation will result in a pattern texture. Like image texture, pattern texture also tantalizes the senses but in a different way. Patterns trigger our visual senses rather than emotional senses. Perhaps because the pattern is more structured and less abstract. The pattern is more about visual recognition due to the shapes that repeat themselves, because of this in design pattern texture is used and works well as decoration.
A good example of this is branding. The pattern creates a very distinct look and feel. And because of it’s repetitive nature a brand can use this visual design element as a way to decorate and make you remember their brand.
Another example is gift wrapping paper. Now have you ever asked yourself why is gift wrapping paper mostly patterns rather than just a single image and why do people spend so much money on it?
One could conclude that the repetition of bright colors and images excite the visual senses. Often a gift may layout in an environment for a while waiting to be open such as under a Christmas tree. The decorative nature of gift-wrap serves as a prelude to the excitement of opening a gift. So the gift wrap could be considered as necessary as the gift itself.
3D Textures
Sometimes you can see the rectangles arranged as the bricks, and it shows us the bricks feel rough. But If you touch these brick, these are very smooth. Similarly, have you seen the diagonal lines that Intersect each other? It Appears like a Basketvaw effect. These textures can be a wooden object that is drawn by paint And looks like 3D objects or 3D surface.
10. Form
Its time to understand the visual depth. The most essential element of visual design. If I’m using the word visual depth I’m basically talking about the form. Form can be achieved by adding shadows and lights. It helps us to feel the depth in our design, create a 3D look and helps us make our design more realistic and accessible.
What is Form
Basically, the form is any three-dimensional object. It is equivalent to 3D shapes and we can measure it by their height, width, and depth. We can illustrate and construct these forms and can define by the presence of shadows on services or faces of an object and can be enhanced by tone, texture, and color. The form provides depth by adding visual dimension and can be pleasing to the eye due to its realism and depth that draws you in. The form provides depth by adding visual dimension and can be pleasing to the eye due to its realism and depth that pulls you in.
Form adds a 3D quality that will trigger sensations of touch, rough, smooth, hard-soft, hot or cold, round, or pointy. Forms are often required to design to create a certain look and feel due to this visual dynamic. So in design, Forms can be divided into two types: Geometric and Organic.
Geometric forms
Geometric forms are the forms that are manmade. Whether simple or complex these forms produce a feeling of control and order. They Appear clean and sterile.
Geometric forms can be derived mathematically such as pyramid, cube, cylinder, cone, and sphere. The simple shape of a circle can become a sphere when it converts to a 3D object. Similarly, If we convert a triangle into a 3d object, it becomes a pyramid.
Organic forms
Organic forms are forms that appear more natural. These forms whether simple, complex produce a natural feel. This is one of the most crucial types of Forms.
We can see the organic form in the shape of the leaves, animals, flowers, puddles, branches, clouds, animals, human figures, etc. The organic form can be found in bold and bizarre architectural structures.
Example Of Forms in Drawing and Painting
We can convey the appearance of three dimensions in our drawings or painting through the lighting and shadows. Due to which shape can be defined as an object. Shadows make it easy for us to identify the objects.
For Example, Assuming light on a simple image, the highlights are where the shining source hits directly; the mid-tone is that the middle value on the sphere where the shine doesn’t hit directly; the core shadow is that the area on the image the light doesn’t hit in the least and is that the darkest part of the sphere; the cast shadow is that the area on surrounding surfaces that’s blocked from the light by the thing; reflect highlight is light that reflects copy onto the object from the encircling objects and surfaces. With these guidelines on light and shading in mind, any simple shape can be drawing or paint to make the illusion of a three-dimensional form.
If your design has an excellent value of contrast your design looks more 3d dimensional, real, and engaging in the human eye.