Principles of Design
Principles of Design
The Principles of Design are a set of guidelines
artist’s use for two main reasons…
To help them create artwork that is both pleasing to
the eye and that communicate what the artist wants.
To help the artist create more variation on a theme,
additional ways to change the composition of the
design.
Balance
• Balance is the principle or concept that keeps
your design units evenly distributed throughout the picture plane.
• You do not want all your images crowded into
one area and other areas empty looking.
• Design units are your subject matter, the images that
make up your design.
• The picture plane is the design area, the piece of paper or
the computer screen or whatever else you are working on.
The edges of this work surface define the size and shape
of picture plane.
There are three main types of Balance...
• Reflective
Symmetry
• Symmetrical balance is
an image that is exactly
the same on each side.
It has the same
elements.
• Symmetrical balance is
visually more rigid and
formal.
Think of Balance as a scale…
if you have five on one side you need five on the other side.
Symmetrical balance is exactly the same on each side.
Balance ?
Reflective
symmetry
There are three main types of Balance...
• Rotational
symmetry
• Rotational symmetry is
balance that is
symmetrical, but instead of
being “reflective” (or the
same from side to side)
the image is rotated
around a central point.
• Radial symmetry is a bit
more interesting.
Balance ?
rotational
symmetry
There are three main types of Balance...
• Asymmetrical
• Asymmetrical balance
is an image that is
equally weighted on
each side, but with
different elements.
• Asymmetrical balance
is more active visually.
Think of Balance as a scale…
if you have five on one side you need five on the other side.
Asymmetrical still needs five on each side,
but it no longer has to identical.
Asymmetrical design can have different design
units as long as they have the same visual weight
(or impact).
asymmetrical
Balance
asymmetrical
Balance
Balance ?
asymmetrical
Balanced ?
• To much “stuff”
on the right hand
side, creating an
uncomfortable
feel.
• Could this image
become
Balanced?
symmetry
vertical reflective and horizontal
reflective
symmetrical
radial
The “Rule of Thirds”
symbolism
• Communicating through images
What is a sign?
• A sign is an image or a symbol specifically
created to express a known meaning
without words.
• Signs are designed to convey complex
information or concepts in simple or fast ways.
What is an icon?
• An icon is an image that actually looks like
the objects they are supposed to
represent.
What is a symbol?
• Something that on the surface is its literal self but which also
has another meaning or even several meanings. For example,
a sword may be a sword and also symbolize justice.
• A symbol may be said to embody an idea.
• There are two general types of symbols:
– Universal symbols that embody universally recognizable
meanings wherever used, such as light to symbolize
knowledge, a skull to symbolize death, etc.
– Constructed symbols that are given symbolic meaning by
the way an author uses them in a literary work, as the
white whale becomes a symbol of evil in Moby Dick.
What is a symbol?
What is symbolism?
• The creation of meaning or the expression of
ideas (telling a story) through the use of
symbols, signs or icons instead of words
(or by using words for their symbolic value)
What is symbolism?
• The creation of meaning or the expression of ideas (telling a story)
through the use of symbols, signs or icons instead of words
(or by using words for their symbolic value)
Is symbolism universal?
Do the symbols at left seem
universal in their meanings?
Could anyone understand
them?
Symbols and their interpretation
can vary from region to region,
culture to culture and especially
from time/era to time/era.
• Most people (we assume) would recognize these
symbols, and what they stand for.
• However…
– Would people in non-industrialized countries recognize these
symbols?
– Will people in a thousand years, digging up the remains of Usa,
recognize what these symbols mean?
POP QUIZ
• What are the following – sign, symbol or icon?
Images of Peace
• A exercise in symbolism/combination.
The life and death problem
• A exercise in symbolism.
• You will be creating a design that symbolizes
the idea of life and death on the truck
worksheet provided.
– What is the symbolism of the truck?
The design can be conceptual
or more and less representational.
The best of the
sketches will be
reproduced in the
large size truck.
ILLUSTRATION
What is it?
How is it different from
“design” or “fine art”?
ILLUSTRATION
Illustration is a pictorial representation that has a specific
purpose…
1 - To decorate or embellish.
With text or without text.
2 - To communicate…
To clarify text.
To supplement text.
ILLUSTRATION
Illustration is a pictorial representation
that has a
specific purpose…
1 - To decorate or embellish.
With text or without text.
2 - To communicate…
To clarify text.
To supplement text.
Illustration has been with
humans ALWAYS
Since early man first began using
language, imagery has been of
huge importance.
The most important people in early
civilizations were those that could create
images and move peoples emotions –
the shamans, the high priests.
Those that could – in today’s terminology…
“control information”.
Mans first written languages
were languages of pictures.
With the growth of
technology,
the printing press
and mass
production
of books,
imagery
took a back seat
to text.
Books went from this…
…to this.
UNTIL…
With the birth of advertising, computers,
the internet, and the “information age”…
…imagery in the form of still images, moving
images and sound has become as important
as it once was.
Most people today access information through what
Dr. Jason Ohler calls the “multi-media collage”…
Civilization has done a
360 degree turn.
Today’s designers, illustrators and artists have become
the “digital high priests” of the 21st century.
A brief history of Illustration 1…
•
During the 15th century, books
illustrated with woodcut illustrations
became available.
•
The main processes used for
reproduction of illustrations during the
16th and 17th centuries were
engraving and etching.
•
At the end of the 18th century,
lithography allowed even better
illustrations to be reproduced.
–
The most notable illustrator of this time period
was William Blake who rendered his
illustrations in the medium of relief etching.
A brief history of Illustration 2…
•
The British humorous magazine Punch
was one of the magazines responsible
for brining illustration as an applied art
form to the masses.
•
Punch employed an uninterrupted run
of high-quality comic illustrators,
including Sir John Tenniel, the Dalziel
Brothers, and Georges du Maurier,
into the 20th century.
–
It chronicles the gradual shift in popular
illustration from reliance on caricature to
sophisticated topical observations.
LIFE and DEATH
A study of the pictorial representations or the
personification of the concepts of
Life and Death.
Life and Death.
Two opposite sides of the
same coin – without one,
you cannot have the other
– both are necessary.
Since the beginning of
time, when man realized
he was mortal, people
have been obsessed with
life and death.
Artists as well, have been
obsessed with creating
pictorial representations
of these concepts.
Virtually every culture has
some sort of representation
of “death”.
Usually this is a religious
figure, sometimes a god,
others just a character.
Most (but not all) also have
a pictorial representation of
“life”.
Anubis – Egyptian god of death
Shiva
Yama
Aztec god of death
Western culture has what is known
as the Grim Reaper (usually shown
as a hooded figure bearing a scythe)
– an attempt at a pictorial
representation of the angel of death.
However, since everyone has a different
belief or idea – there are different
versions and many resemble the
traditional winged angel (of Christian
and Muslim tradition).
There are also many less traditional expressions of the
concept…
Sadly, there are fewer
pictorial representation of
the concept of life.
(Is this an insight into mans outlook
on the world or an insight into his
creativity?)
However – the bright point
is that while there are
notably fewer, they tend to
be much more original and
wide ranging.
Brahama – Hindu god of life
The dove is the traditional Christian
representation of the concept of life.
Notice the immediate
change in the color
palette – or in the way
the colors are used?
Quetzalcoatl – Aztec god of life
What sorts of
nonrepresentational imagery
can be used to show the
concept of life and death?