Finamore Design

Part 2

The process of design­ing is the abil­ity to con­trol the inter­ac­tion of ele­ments within a defined space. Under­stand­ing the prin­ci­ples of how to orga­nize ele­ments within this space is the sec­ond step to becom­ing a graphic designer. (The first is to be able to define the struc­ture of the ele­ments themselves.)A sin­gle image within a sin­gle defined space exerts a cer­tain amount of inde­pen­dent force. It instantly cre­ates pos­i­tive and neg­a­tive space. It defines itself and what it is not. The design­ers goal is to achieve an aes­thetic order within the space that makes visual sense for the over­all goal of the piece. The more ele­ments you intro­duce the more dif­fi­cult this task becomes. Below are five visual con­di­tions that an artist needs to be aware of when design­ing, mak­ing sure that the proper amount of each (or lack of) is not only appro­pri­ate, but also con­tributes to the mean­ing of the piece.

1. Pro­por­tion
   Pro­por­tion refers to size rela­tion­ships. The rel­a­tive visual ratios can be com­pared within one image or between mul­ti­ple images through con­trast­ing line, shape, color, and size and the amount of each. Some artists use ‘cor­rect’ pro­por­tions in order to depict real­ism while oth­ers use exag­ger­ated pro­por­tions in order to express moods and feel­ings.
   
2. Empha­sis
   Empha­sis is the cre­ation of visual impor­tance through the use of selec­tive stress. Through the use of empha­sis a designer can cause one ele­ment or area of a piece to be the most impor­tant part of the page. This point is usu­ally called the ‘focal point’. By using con­trast­ing color, size, tex­ture, etc., a designer can use empha­sis to draw a view­ers eye to the focal point of the piece. Con­trast, iso­la­tion, loca­tion, con­ver­gence and the unusual can all be used to cre­ate empha­sis.
   
3. Move­ment
   Move­ment describes the way the eye trav­els on a piece. The sequence in which the viewer sees the parts of a work of art and the rel­a­tive impor­tance of each is con­trolled by empha­sis.
   
4. Bal­ance
   Artists use bal­ance to achieve dif­fer­ent expres­sive qual­i­ties. Bal­ance can be affected by place­ment of objects, use of colour, direc­tion of line, use of pat­tern, etc. Some artists inten­tion­ally cre­ate visu­ally unbal­anced works to evoke a spe­cific emo­tion. There are three dif­fer­ent types of balance:
   • Formal/Symmetrical Equi­lib­rium
     one half mir­rors the other
   • Informal/Asymmetrical
     Visual weight is the same on op[posing side but they are not iden­ti­cal in layout
   • Radial
     Parts grow out­ward from the cen­ter (spi­der webs, flow­ers, bicy­cle spokes, snowflakes)
     
5. Rep­e­ti­tion
   Rep­e­ti­tion devel­ops a rhythm within the piece. Through rep­e­ti­tion, sim­i­lar­i­ties in a work are accented to cre­ate an uncom­pli­cated, uni­form appear­ance through orga­ni­za­tion of images, colour (mono­chro­matic or anal­o­gous), shape (rep­e­ti­tion of related shapes) and space (equal space between objects).Note: Some works are inter­est­ing because of the artist’s delib­er­ate cre­ation of a chaotic effect.
   • Sim­ple Reg­u­lar­ity
     con­sis­tent shapes and inter­vals (picket fence)
   • Alter­na­tion
     the rep­e­ti­tion of two images (cir­cle, square)
   • Inver­sion
     rep­e­ti­tion where the posi­tion of the unit is reversed or turned upside down
   • Radi­a­tion
     units fan out from a cen­tral point
     

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