CHAPTER 2

2.0 PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN

Four basic principles
 Proximity
 Alignment
 Repetition
 Contrast
 Emphasis
 Balance
 Flow

2.1 Proximity
 The basic purpose of proximity is to organize. By simply
grouping related elements together into closer proximity,
automatically creates organization. When the information is
organized, it easier to be read and more likely to be
remembered.

 Items relating to each other should be grouped close together

to become one visual unit rather than several separate units.
This helps organize information and reduces clutter.

 Items or groups of information that are not related to each

other should not be in close proximity (nearness) to the other
elements.

 When several items are in close proximity to each other they

become one visual unit rather than several separate units. As in
life the proximity or the closeness, implies a relationship.

 Page becomes more organized, will understand where to begin

reading the message and you know when you are finished. The
white space (the space around the letters) becomes more
organized as well.

1
 2.1.1 What to avoid?
 Avoid too many separate elements on one page.

 Don’t stick things in the corners and in the middle.

 Avoid leaving equal amounts of white space between

elements unless each group is part of a subset.

 Avoid even split second of confusion over whether a

headline, subhead, a caption, a graphic etc, belong
with its related material. Create a relationship among
elements with close proximity.

 Don’t create relationship with elements that don’t

belong together! If they are not related, move them
apart from each other.

2.2 Alignment
 The basic purpose of alignment is to unify and organize the
page. It is often a strong alignment (combined with the
appropriate typefaces) that creates a sophisticated look, or a
formal look, a fun look or a serious look.

 Nothing should be placed on the page arbitrarily. Every

element should have some visual connection with another
element on the page. This creates a clean, sophisticated and
fresh look. When the items are aligned on the page it creates a
stronger cohesive unit.

 Be conscious of where you place elements. Always find

something else on the page to align with, even if the two
objects are physically far away from each other.

 Unity is an important concept in design. To make all the

elements on the page appear to be unified, connected and
interrelated, there needs to be some visual tie between the
separate elements simply by their placement.

 Lack of alignment is probably the biggest cause of unpleasant-

looking documents. Our eyes like to see order; it creates a calm,
secure feeling.

2
 2.2.1 What to avoid?
 Avoid using more than one text alignment on the page.

 Please try to break away from a center alignment.

2.3 Repetition
 The principle of repetition states that you repeat some aspect of
the design throughout the entire piece.

 The purpose of repetition is to unify and to add visual interest.

 The repetitive element may be a bold font, a thick rule (line), a

certain bullet, color, design element, particular format etc.

 Repetition can be thought of a “consistency”

 Repetition help organize the information. It helps guide the

reader through the pages; it helps unify disparate parts of the
design. Even on a one-page document, repetitive elements
establish a sophisticated continuity.

 Repetition is very useful on one-page pieces and is critical in

multi-page documents (where we often just call it being
consistent).

2.3.1 What to avoid?

 Avoid repeating the element so much that it becomes
annoying or over whelming.

2.4 Contrast
 Contrast is one of the most effective ways to add visual interest
to your page – a striking interest that makes people want to
look at the page.

 Contrast on a page draws our eyes to it, our eyes like contrast.
Contrast is kind of like matching wall paint when you need to
spot paint.

 The first purpose is to create an interest on the page and the

second purpose is to aid in organization of the information. A
reader should be able to instantly understand the way the
information is organized, the logical flow from one item to
another.

3
  The contrasting elements should never serve to confuse the
reader or to create a focus that is not supposed to be a focus.

 The important rule to remember is that for the contrast to be

effective, it must be strong. Contrast is created when two
elements are different.
 The principle of contrast states that if two items are not exactly
the same, then make them different. Really different.

 Contrast can be created in many ways. You can contrast large

type with small type, a graceful old style font with a bold san
serif font, a thin line with a thick line, a cool color with a warm
color, a small graphic with a large graphic etc.

 You cannot contrast 12-point type with 14-point type or contrast

dark brown with black.

 The easiest way to contrast is with typefaces but don’t forget

about rules, colors, and spacing between elements, texture etc.

2.4.1 What to avoid?

 If you are going to contrast do it with strength.

 Avoid contrasting a sort-of-heavy line with a sort-of-

heavier line.

 Avoid using two or more typefaces that are similar.

 If the items are not exactly the same, make them

different.

2.5 Emphasis
 The principle of emphasis states that the most important
element on the page should be the most prominent; the second
most important element should be second to the most
prominent and so on.

 Emphasis the most important elements provides a foundation

that you can build the rest of the layout on and is the quickest
way too draw attention too your message.

 The primary focus of emphasis is the intellectual analysis of your

message to determine which words and phrases and graphics

4
 are the most important, therefore should be the most visually
prominent.

 Emphasize in your page depends on two major points; the

content of the message and which part of the message are
most important.

 The advantage of using emphasis in page designs is that critical

information is more prominent, which makes it easier for the
quickly scanning reader to pick out vital information from the
body of the design.

 An additional benefit to emphasizing elements on your page is

that they are more visually interesting to look at. Successful
emphasis of an element is achieved by making it look different
from other elements on the page, such as making an
emphasized word bigger or bold it.

2.5.1 Decide What Is Most Important

 Begin by deciding which words of phrases or graphic are
the most important. Also consider what pars of your
message might attract the largest amount of your
audience.

 After that, you need to develop a visual hierarchy plan

for your page. Visual hierarchy simply refers to the
arrangement of visual elements such as type and images
on the page according to their order of importance.

* please refer page 22

 When analyzing what you should emphasize, ask yourself

the following questions:

1. What is your primary message?

2. Which element best communicates this primary
message?
3. Is there a secondary message?
4. Which visual element is the most interesting?

2.5.2 Emphasis Techniques

 Professional graphic designers use a number of visual

techniques to emphasize key elements and establish a
strong visual hierarchy. To emphasize an element you
can try:

5
  please refer page 25

 When analyzing what you should emphasize, ask yourself

the following questions:

1. Making it biggest
2. Making it boldest
3. Using contrasting color on it
4. Adding drop shadow
5. surrounding the element with lots of white space

2.6 Balance
 The principle of balance is concerned with the distribution of
visual elements on a page in order to achieve a pleasing and
clear layout. The purpose is to avoid clumping elements in one
location on the page, which can result in one section of the
page looking overloaded or busy.

 People are more comfortable with balanced design and are

more likely to stick around to read the page. A balanced
design is one in which the visual weights of all of the elements
are equally dispersed throughout the layout.

 Visual weight is the illusion of physical weight of a visual element

on the page. E.g. A bright red graphic will have more visual
weight than the same graphic in gray.

 Before attempting to achieve a good balance, you need to

have decided which words, phrases, and graphics you should
emphasize and which elements belong together.

2.6.1 Symmetrical vs Asymmetrical Balance

 You can achieve balance through either symmetrical or
asymmetrical layouts. A symmetrical balanced layout is
one in which visual elements are mirrored from side to
side or from top to bottom. Using symmetrical balanced
layout works just fine when you are trying to convey a
sense of dignity, history or formality.

 In an asymmetrically balanced layout, the words,

phrases and graphics are arranged unequally on either
side of the imaginary axis, yet the focus is still on
achieving a harmonious balance.

6
  In a symmetrical layout, if there was an image of an
animal on the lower left side of the page, it would be
balanced out by a same size image of an animal on the
lower right. In an asymmetrical layout the animal could
be balanced out by one or more pieces of type, photos,
shapes, color etc.

 This open-ended variety of choices makes creating an

asymmetrical layout more challenging. Asymmetrical
layouts often, but not always have one or more strong
diagonal elements in them with type, graphics, lines,
photos and other visual elements placed at an angle on
the page.

2.7 Flow

 Flow simply refers to the visual and verbal paths of movement in

which the reader’s eye track through a page or pages. A page
with good flow will visually lead the reader from one element to
another element in the layout, carefully presenting information
to the reader.

 To develop strong flow in your message, you will have first

understand the message and analyze how any graphics you
have available may support the message.

There are two types of flow, verbal flow and visual flow. Verbal
flow is the order in which the reader reads the text on the page.
Visual flow is the order, which the viewer looks at the images
and graphics on the page.

2.7.1 Verbal Flow

 Verbal flow is how the text is arranged on the page and

the order in which the reader reads the material. In
western culture people read text from left to right and
top to bottom.

 Good verbal flow is achieved primarily through

consistency in typographic by set up the typographic
master plan. Typographic master plan should include
such details as the typefaces, size and color you will use
for the headlines, subhead, body text, picture caption
etc. that your document will use.

 A consistent typographic master plan helps reader clue-

in to the plan, know what to expect and it will be easier
for them to follow the text through the document.

7
Techniques to Enhance Verbal Flow (please refer page 133)

1. Place headlines near their articles.

2. Choose an easy to read typeface and use it consistency

through an article.

3. If articles flow onto other pages, keep text consistent in term

of typefaces, size, color etc.

2.7.2 Visual flow

 Visual flow is the order in which the viewer looks at the
images on the page. On pages where text and images
are intermixed, view’s eye tracks in a backward ‘S’
pattern.

 This is useful to know because you can pick images to

control or enhance the visual flow through the page. You
can deliberately place images to point toward important
information, encouraging the viewer to read it.