Design Elements
A Graphic Style Manual
Understanding The Rules and Knowing When To Break Them - Second Edition.
By Timothy Samara
Contents
Chapter One: Form and Space
Chapter Two: Colour Fundamentals
Chapter Three: Choosing and using Type
Chapter Four: Image
Chapter Five: Putting it all together
Chapter One: Form and Space
Seeing Form and Space
All graphic design and image making is manipulating form. No matter what medium is chosen or the intention. It is about making something look good, organized, and helpful for people to understand what it means to them.
Form is: lines, shapes, textures, words, and pictures. It can be abstract or simple.
The form should be considered and chosen carefully because it carries meaning. Our brain uses form as messages to identify things. A circle can represent a sun, moon, earth, coin, etc.
In addition, form has to be resolved and decisive to elevate design.
Resolved: The form’s parts and elements are all related to each other and no part is unconsidered or alien.
Decisive: The form feels confident, credible, and on purpose.
Form works with space, whether that be a two-dimensional surface such as a business card, a poster, a web page, a television screen, the side of a box, or a glass window, to become a three-dimensional space.
Positive and Negative
Form is considered a positive element, a solid object.
Space is considered negative.
The relationship between form and space is complimentary and mutually dependent. Each one would need to be altered. They create a visual activity, movement, and sense of three-dimensionality perceived by the viewer. These qualities are communicative - they need resolving and organizing to create a simple, overarching message about the content of the designed work before any images and content is present.
Organizing form is one of the most important visual aspects of any design because it affects the emotional response to informational hierarchy. It must be understandable and logical to the viewer and composed in such a way that the compositional and visual logic is perceived as appropriate to the message the designer is trying to convey.
The logic of composition, the visual order, and relationships of the positive and negative is abstract and depends greatly on how the brain interprets the information that the viewer sees.
Visual logic can carry meaning
Clarity and Decisiveness
By resolving and refining composition, it creates clear, accessible visual messages. It means understanding what kind of message is being carried by a given form, what it does in space, and what effect the combination of those aspects has on the viewer.
The Shape of Space
The format (the proportional dimensions) of the space needs to be thought about, where form is going to do its thing. When considering the message within a piece, consider the perception and size of the format space compared to the form.
For example, a smaller form with a large format will have restraints. Whereas a larger form in a large format will be perceived as confrontational.
The shape of the format is important to consider because a square format will have neutral, equal sides of length, so there will be no emphasis in any one direction and the viewer will be able to concentrate on the interaction of forms without paying attention.
A vertical format is highly confrontational because its shape produces an upward and downward thrust that a viewer will optically traverse over and over again.
Horizontal formats are generally passive, they produce a calming sensation and imply lateral motion that is relatively inert.
Positive and Negative
Needs to be read and continued.