ELEMENTS OF DESIGN - VIRUZDESIGN

The best designers sometimes disregard the principles of design. When they do so, however, there is usually some compensating merit attained at the cost of the violation. Unless you are certain of doing as well, it is best to abide by the principles.

William Lidwell stated in Universal Principles of Design

Design elements are the basic units of a painting, drawing, design or other visual piece and include:

Line

A line is a fundamental mark or stroke used in drawing in which the length is longer than the width. Two connected points form a line and every line has a length, width, and direction if it is straight.

Uses

A line that defines or bounds an edge, but not always the outside edge, could represent a fold or color change.
A line that defines the edge of space can also be created by a gap of negative space. Many uses include to separate columns, rows of type, or to show a change in document type.
Lines are used in linear shapes and patterns to decorate many different substrates, and can be used to create shadows representing tonal value, called hatching.

Color

Color can play a large role in the elements of design with the color wheel being used as a tool, and color theory providing a body of practical guidance to color mixing and the visual impacts of specific color combination.

Color star containing primary, secondary, and tertiary colors.

Uses

Color can aid organization so develop a color strategy and stay consistent with those colors.
It can give emphasis to create a hierarchy

Attributes

Hue
Values and tints and shades of colors that are created by adding black to a color for a shade and white for a tint. Creating a tint or shade of a color reduces thesaturation.
Saturation gives a color brightness or dullness.

Shape

A shape is defined as an area that stands out from the space next to or around it due to a defined or implied boundary, or because of differences of value, color, or texture. All objects are composed of shapes and all other ‘Elements of Design’ are shapes in some way.

Categories

Mechanical Shapes or Geometric Shapes are the shapes that can be drawn using a ruler or compass. Mechanical shapes, whether simple or complex, produce a feeling of control or order.
Organic Shapes are freehand drawn shapes that are complex and normally found in nature. Organic shapes produce a natural feel.

Texture

Meaning the way a surface feels or is perceived to feel. Texture can be added to attract or repel interest to an element, depending on the pleasantness of the texture.

Types of texture

Tactile texture is the actual three-dimension feel of a surface that can be touched. Painter can use impasto to build peaks and create texture.
Visual texture is the illusion of the surfaces peaks and valleys, like the tree pictured. Any texture shown in a photo is a visual texture, meaning the paper is smooth no matter how rough the image perceives it to be.

Most textures have a natural feel but still seem to repeat a motif in some way. Regularly repeating a motif will result in a texture appearing as a pattern.

Space

In design, space is concerned with the area deep within the moment of designated design, the design will take place on. For a two-dimensional design space concerns creating the illusion of a third dimension on a flat surface :

Overlap is the effect where objects appear to be on top of each other. This illusion makes the top element look closer to the observer. There is no way to determine the depth of the space, only the order of closeness.
Shading adds gradation marks to make an object of a two-dimensional surface seem three-dimensional.
Highlight, Transitional Light, Core of the Shadow, Reflected Light, and Cast Shadow give an object a three-dimensional look.
Linear Perspective is the concept relating to how an object seems smaller the farther away it gets.
Atmospheric Perspective is based on how air acts as a filter to change the appearance of distance objects.

Form

Form is any three dimensional object. Form can be measured, from top to bottom (height), side to side (width), and from back to front (depth). Form is also defined by light and dark. There are two types of form, geometric (man-made) and natural (organic form). Form may be created by the combining of two or more shapes. It may be enhanced by tone, texture and color. It can be illustrated or constructed.

Sourceshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Design_elements_and_principles – Wikipedia entryhttp://www.paper-leaf.com/blog/2011/02/elements-of-design-quick-reference-sheet/ – Image

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