,Grammar of Shapes in Web Design
Excerpt:
Shapes play a significant role in web design. These help in navigating through your site, putting emphasis
on certain areas, as well as framing components. Check out our guide and learn how to properly use
shapes in web design.
Meta description:
One of the main goals of web designer is making sites easy-to-use and catchy. Alongside will stuffing it
with quality content, you should never forget about the way data is organized. Web design shapes play a
significant role in making your site useful.
Keywords:
shapes in web design
types of shapes
geometric shapes
organic shapes
abstract shapes
Working on your new web project you should focus on each and every detail of its design in order to
make it usable and attractive. Content is the king, nobody doubts that. The more interesting you write,
the more people will come back to your resource. However, shapes also play a significant role in web
design.
What do you feel when looking at a circle, square, triangle or any other geometric shape? Do you have
the same emotions when looking at rounded corners and sharp edges? I really doubt that. Just like lines,
shapes also have meanings and are an important building block in the visual grammar of your site.
Shapes come with an endless variety of characteristics, each delivering its own meaning and impact. No
website can go without shapes and lines. Even if your site is nothing more than written data, you are
laying down shapes on the page. So, what types of shapes should we use in web design? What impact
do these have on your audience? Answers to these and a number of other questions can be found in our
today’s post.
<h2>Types of Shapes</h2>
Before we start talking about the impact shapes have on site visitors, let’s find out what types of shapes
we should better consider when working on a <a href="http://www.templatemonster.com/joomlatemplates.php" target="_blank">new web design</a>. There are three basic types of shapes
distinguished – geometric, natural, and abstract. Each of these can be easily differentiated. To help you
with this, we offer basic characteristics of the aforementioned elements.
<strong>Geometric shapes</strong> include circles, squares, triangles and other easily recognizable
patterns. Being symmetrical, these suggest organization and efficiency. Most geometric shapes on the
web are created through CSS.
<strong>Organic shapes</strong> have more curves than common geometric ones. These are irregular
and represent shapes found in nature, like flowers, leaves, clouds, etc. Honestly, organic shapes make
designs more interesting, conveying the feeling of spontaneity. These are commonly made with images.
<strong>Abstract shapes</strong> have a recognizable form but are not real objects. These are stylized
versions of organic shapes, representing various ideas and concepts. As a rule, abstract shapes are
added through images.
<h2>Effects of Shapes in Web Design</h2>
Web designers use various shapes and symbols to ensure that the right message is delivered to the
audience. These allow to catch the eye, draw attention to some meaningful areas, add value to design
and content, as well as make certain areas of your site more vivid. Let’s now consider the key moods
associated with the most widely used shapes in web design.
<p style="text-align: center;">***</p>
<em>Circular shapes</em> are commonly associated with the sun, wheels, fruits, etc. Being perceived
as feminine they evoke the feeling of love, tenderness, care, support, integrity, and perfection. Circles
help draw users’ attention and motivate to call to action. These are commonly used in icons, social share
and other buttons.
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<p style="text-align: center;">***</p>
<em>Squares and rectangles</em> are the most common geometric shapes. They suggest peacefulness,
security, honesty, and equality. The main purpose of such shapes is not grabbing attention but making
certain fields on your page stand out, adding unexpected twist.
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Group</a>
<p style="text-align: center;">***</p>
Considered to be the strongest shapes in web design, <em>triangles</em> refer to energy, balance,
strength, and power. In web design, you can find triangles stable when sitting on their base or unstable
when not. When they are balanced, they are commonly associated with religion, law, and science. As a
rule, these are not used separately. Web developers tend to combine triangles with more complicated
shapes like squares, rhombuses, and polygons.
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Clarke</a>
<p style="text-align: center;">***</p>
We’ve got used to well-structured site layouts with standard grids using vertical and horizontal lines.
However, you can make your web resource even catchier by adding <em>diagonals</em>. These will
guide the viewer’s eye from one area field of your site to another, bringing the feeling of freedom and
ease.
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<p style="text-align: center;">***</p>
<em>Polygons</em> are often used as a part of website background. Being rather popular in the web
design industry, such elements are also used in making Photoshop illustrations. You will hardly pass by a
website using such shapes since these bring the sensation of depth, making users feel the futuristic
touch of your work.
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I guess you have mentioned that each of the aforementioned shapes serves a certain function in web
design. Depending of the goal you pursue, you can make your web resource attention grabbing by
adding the feeling of depth or simply create focal points by means of various shapes. To sum it up, here
are the <strong>key purposes of adding shapes to web projects</strong>:
<ul>
<li>Organize data by connecting or separating different fields</li>
<li>Guide visitors’ eye from one design element to another</li>
<li>Add the feeling of depth and movement</li>
<li>Put emphasis on certain areas</li>
<li>Create outstanding visual effect</li>
<li>Add some framing components to the design</li>
</ul>
<h2>Web Templates to Get Started</h2>
The amount of shapes and their combinations is countless. If web design is your cup of tea and you
know how to update your site with some handy elements, why not do that right away? In case you are
not a design pro, don’t worry! The web is flooded with millions of cool ready-made templates, which
you can download to set up a new or redesign the existing site without much effort. Check out or
compilation of amazing web templates below and feel free to grab any of these to benefit your web
project.
<p style="text-align: center;">***</p>
<a href="http://www.templatemonster.com/website-templates/21361.html" target="_blank"
rel="nofollow">Basketball Website Template</a>
<p style="text-align: center;">***</p>
<a href="http://www.wix.com/websitetemplate/view/html/883?utm_content=ma_html_fwt_temp_6_4BeautyCare&utm_medium=template_
banner&utm_campaign=ma_fwt&utm_source=freewebsitetemplates&experiment_id=ma_html_fwt_te
mp_6_4BeautyCare&utm_term=health" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Bio Beauty Care</a>
<p style="text-align: center;">***</p>
<a href="http://www.wix.com/websitetemplate/view/html/689?utm_campaign=af_steves&experiment_id=af_steves14" target="_blank"
rel="nofollow">Creative Events</a>
<p style="text-align: center;">***</p>
<a href="http://www.freewebsitetemplates.com/preview/airsportswebsitetemplate/index.html"
target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Sky Adventures</a>
<p style="text-align: center;">***</p>
<a href="http://www.templatemonster.com/wordpress-themes/49548.html" target="_blank"
rel="nofollow">School of Philosophy WordPress Theme</a>
<p style="text-align: center;">***</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">***</p>
In such a way, by applying various shapes to your site, you can create lasting logos, designs, brands, and
what not. Geometric shapes are considered as classics of web design. So, why not picking something
more extravagant and appealing? Abstract as well as natural shapes will add more charm to any website
and make it more remarkable to viewers. What shapes would you like to add to your site? How do you
think what would appeal to your viewers more? We’ll highly appreciate your feedback.
<strong>About the author:</strong>
Written by Katherine Crayon, young but perspective copywriter reporting on tech news and all aspects
of web design industry. Meet her in person on <a target="_blank"
href="https://plus.google.com/u/0/100132269124057836150/posts" rel="author">G+</a> . Looking for
a magic kicker to get your own online business started? TemplateMonster has got the <a
target="_blank" href="http://www.templatemonster.com/wordpress-themes.php">answer</a> what to
begin with!