Principles of Design

Graphic Design incorporates 2 main ideas:

  • Elements of Graphic Design - The individual pieces of an image.

  • Principles of Graphic Design - The general guidelines for putting the pieces together in a way that conveys meaning and/or is appealing.

In the last lesson you learnt about the elements of design. In this lesson you are going to learn the principles of design. Imagine that the elements of design are the ingredients for a cake and the principles are the instructions. So you may have all the ingredients to bake the cake but now you'll know what to actually do with them.

Part 1: Recapping the Elements of Design

  1. You have 3 minutes to write down the elements of design we learnt lesson. We learnt about five of them.

  2. If after 3 minutes you cannot remember all five elements, re-watch this YouTube video explaining what they are.

  3. Now look at the at the Kodak poster below. Make a note of how the elements of design have been used.

Part 2: Principles of Design Theory

There are lots of principles of design. During this lesson we are going to focus on just four of them. However, if you want to learn them all, there are links to YouTube videos at the bottom of this page.

The four graphic design principles we will focus on are; contrast, repetition, alignment and proximity. Watch the following YouTube videos which explains how these principles are used in design. There are four videos to watch. Make brief notes either on paper or Google docs as you watch each one. Jumpt to 1:30 on each video to cut out the beginning:

contrast, repetition, alignment and proximity

Part 3: Describing the Principles of Design

Looking at the following leaflet, briefly describe how the four principles (contrast, repetition, alignment and proximity) are used. Have a look at the WAGOLL to get an idea of how I want you to complete this task. You will need to go back to Google classroom and make your notes on the 'principles of design' docs attachment.

Photo by Matt Ridley on UnSplash

WAGOLL

Have a look at how I have descirbed the principles of design for the poster below. This is how I want you to complete this task.

Photo by Libary of Congress on UpSplash

  • Contrast – The red text clearly contrasts with the light pink background.

  • Repetition – The people in the middle are repeated (even though they are all different people).

  • Alignment – Clear alignment with both pieces of text at the top and bottom and the people all running parallel with each other. All are evenly spaced across the page.

  • Proximity – Clear grouping of elements. All the people are together. Clear gap (white space) between them and the text at the top and the bottom.

Part 4: Finding your own examples

By now you should have good understanding of four of the principles of design. I now want you to find some real examples of each of them around your home or school. Look for products such as menus, flyers or leaflets that have been posted through your door. Or you may have access to magazines or newspapers to look through. If you can't find any printed examples you could search Google for posters, newsletters, magazines, leaflets etc.

  1. You need to find one good example of each of the four design principles or one really good example displaying all four principles.

  2. To evidence your findings you now have two options:

Option 1: Take a photograph of them or if searching the Internet, save them to your device. Describe on a Docs where you can see the design prinicples.

Option 2: Draw the design on paper, pointing out where the four principles of design have been used.

  1. Go back to Google classroom and upload the images you have found to the assignment (or keep your hand drawn research in your class workbook).


WAGOLL

Below are two examples of how to approach this task:

Option 1: Photographed and typed description

Option 1: Repetition is evident when you flick throught he whole magazine. Bright, sunny and large photographs are used on most pages. The same font is used across all pages. Quotes are formatted the same. Repeating pattern of graphics occur on the bottom of this page. Alignment can be seen with the grid pattern payout for the text and images. The main body text is left aligned. Headings are always centered. Contrast can be seen used with the title and text on the white background. The logo at the bottom right draws the eye. Proximity of the graphics at the bottom create a group.

Option 2: Hand drawn and written description

Part 5: Practicing the principles of graphic design

In this part you will practice using both the elements and principles of design to rearrange some images and text that I have taken from our school website. G

Go back to google Classroom and open 'Part 5: Practicing the Principles of Design' Slides to complete this activity. Watch the video below to learn how to do this:

WAGOLL

Below is one example of how the elements and principles of design can be used to organise the page. This is just one way. I want you to see you think of a completely new solution to this. Try and be creative with your ideas.

Want to learn more? Watch the full YouTube playlist in this series: contrast, hierarchy, alignment, balance, proximity, repetition, simplicity and function.