Design Terminology
General Composition and Design
Terms
Concept: A comprehensive idea or generalization that brings
diverse elements into some basic relationship.
Composition and Design: The arrangement of the visible elements
or parts of a work of art. Often used interchangeably to refer to the
organization of elements. Composition implies the assemblage of
existing parts. Design suggests a more intentional arrangement,
often to a point.
Form: The total interrelationship of the elements in a work of art.
Content: Material that has meaning, shaped by an artist's concept
or intent, and expressed in symbolic, abstract and concrete form.
Design Principles:
Unity: The whole or total effect of a work of art that results from the combination of all of its
component parts. Typically, a unified work is one in which the elements all work harmoniously
together in support of the concept.
Proportion: There is a comparative fitness in the interrelationship of parts.
Scale: The proportional relationship among parts.
Contrast: Change of stress and accent or emphasis to set off elements against each other.
Sequence: Change or movement producing a progression; rhythmic tensions and transitions
between linear and spatial movements.
Harmony: The adaptation of parts to one another so as to form a coherent whole.
Rhythm: Regular recurrence or alteration in sequence.
Balance: The equilibrium of all forces involved.
Distortion: Any change made by an artist in the size, position or general character of forms
relative to how they normally appear. Almost all art necessarily involves a degree of distortion,
simply through the process of artistic selection.
Texture: The surface feel of an object or the representation of surface character.
Organization:
Design: A framework or scheme of pictorial construction on which the artist bases the formal
organization of his total work. In a broader sense, it may be considered as synonymous with the
term form.
Composition: The act of organizing all the elements of a work of art into a harmoniously unified
whole.
Pattern: Repetitive use of an element or elements.
Interval: Distance or space between elements in a composition.
Accent: Any stress or emphasis given to elements of a composition that makes them attract more
attention than other features that surround or lie close to them. Accent may be created through
color, tone, size, or any other means by which difference may be expressed.
Dominance: The relative importance of certain elements above others in the same composition. It
establishes focus and supports unity by subordinating some elements or ideas in relation to
others.
Tension (pictorial): Dynamic interrelationships of force as seen in the interaction among the
qualities of the art elements. Contrasting elements in terms of size, color, shape, etc., can
characterize the space between them in terms of forces and tension.
Approximate symmetry: Arrangement of elements that are similar on either side of a vertical
axis. They may suggest exact equity but are varied sufficiently to prevent visual monotony.
Asymmetrical balance: Arrangement of the visual units on either side of a vertical axis that are
not identical but are placed to create a “felt” equilibrium of the visual space.
Line and Shape:
Size: The extent of a shape, or length of a line.
Shape: The specific spatial character of an area or line.
Volume: A shape having three dimensions or one that gives the illusion of solidity or
mass.
Linear or lineal: Usually used interchangeably, pertaining to a line. All lines are
linear.
Curvilinear: Stressing the use of curved lines as opposed to rectilinear, which
stresses straight lines.
Outline: The demarcation between one area and the next, or the edge of a shape.
Contour: The outline or edge, and those lines that move across a shape or volume.
Attitude: Position or posture of a shape or line, its directional quality if it has one.
Amorphous: Without clarity of definition; formless; indistinct and of uncertain
dimensions.
Biomorphic shapes: Shapes that are irregular in form and resemble the freely
developed curves found in organic life.
Spatial
Space: Extension in any direction.
“Deep Space”: A sense of voluminous recession or distance among the elements of
a picture, as compared with a relatively two dimensional or “flat” treatment.
Plane: A flat or even surface, either actual, represented or suggested.
Picture Plane: A plane of reference for spatial organization. Typically it is placed like
a window pane, vertically and perpendicular to the line of sight. Objects appearing in
space behind (or through) the picture plane can be marked or represented on the
picture plane and will appear in perspective.
Value pattern: The total effect of the relationships of light and dark given to areas
within the pictorial field.
Two-dimensional: Value relationships in which the changes of light and dark seem to
occur only on the surface of the picture plane.
Three-dimensional: The value relationships that are planned to create an illusion of
objects existing in depth back of the picture plane.
Perspective: The device of representing on a plain surface, objects in space as they
appear to a stationary eye.
Colour
Spectrum: The band of individual colours that results when a beam of light is broken up into its
component hues.
Colour: The character of a surface that is the result of the response of vision to the wavelength of
light reflected from that surface.
Hue: This designates the common name of a colour and indicates its position in the spectrum or
in the color circle. Hue is determined by the specific wavelength of the color in the ray of light.
Intensity (chroma): The saturation or strength of a color determined by the quality of light
reflected from it. A vivid color is of high intensity, a dull color of low intensity.
Tone (colour): A term used in a general way to include the factors of hue, value, and intensity.
Value: The characteristic of a color in terms of the amount of light reflected from it. It refers to the
lightness or darkness of tone, not to its color quality. There are an infinite number of variations in
value between white and black, but a scale of 7 equal gradations is useful, named High Light,
Light, Low Light, Middle, High Dark, Dark, and Low Dark.
Tint: A hue at a lighter value than the one at which it appears at greatest intensity, i.e., a color with
white added.
Shade (colour): A hue at a darker value than the one at which it appears at greatest intensity, i.e.,
a color with black added.
Objective colour: The naturalistic color of an object as seen by the eye.
Subjective colour: Colours chosen by the artist without regard to the natural appearance of the
object portrayed. They have nothing to do with objective reality but represent the expression of the
individual artist.
Colour II
Achromatic: Relating to differences of lightness and darkness; the
absence of colour. Analogous colours: Those colours that are
closely related in hue. They are generally adjacent to each other on
the color wheel.
Complementary colours: Two colours that are directly opposite
each other on the pigment color wheel. A primary color would be
complementary to a secondary colour, which is a mixture of the two
remaining primaries.
Colour Triad: A group of three colours spaced an equal distance
apart on the color wheel. There is a primary triad, a secondary triad,
and two intermediate triads on the twelve-colour wheel.
Neutrals: Surface tones that do not reflect any single wavelength of
light but rather all of them at once. No single colour is then notice
but only a sense of light or dark, such as white, gray or black.
Colour tonality: An orderly planning in terms of selection and
arrangement of color schemes or color combinations. It would
concern itself not only with hue, but also with value and intensity
relationships.
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