Basic Principles of Design to Help You Create Awesome Graphics

In the visualage of the Internet it’s relatively easy to create your own graphic designs, but they don’t have to look homemade.

Whether you’re designing a logo, an event announcement, a social network banner, a letterhead, or an email newsletter; you absolutely need to know basic principles of graphic design. Graphic designer and bestselling author Robin Williams explains these principles in her classic book, The Non-Designer’s Design Book.

Today we will be providing an overview of these principles using a few contemporary examples.

Proximity

Proximity means grouping elements together so that you guide the viewer/reader to different parts of the message.  Though at first the elements may appear scattered, their proximity adds unity and continuity to the page. Even if you intend on sticking to templates, it still helps to know design principles for the purposes of customizing an existing design.

Alignment

Another important design principle is aligning elements in a visual and readable arrangement. Most amateur designers start off by aligning everything in the center of the page, but that’s not the only way. Again with the “scattered” looking design, we can see the alignment of elements that helps keep the design balanced.

It’s important to be consistent in the alignment of elements. When you look at the design and something doesn’t feel right, play around with the alignment and see if the design can be improved.

Repetition

Like the use of repetitious hooks in a song, repeating elements in a graphic design can be visually appealing. In the two examples below, a numbered list is used, but there’s also the repetition of the blue circles that make a bolder statement.

Repetition puts emphasis on particular elements of a design, and it draws the reader’s attention to those elements.

Contrast

Contrast between design elements can make a presentation stand out and get noticed. Adding color contrast makes the design pop, and it draws attention to important parts of the presentation and message.

White Space

Depending on the presentation, the use of white space can be very powerful in design. It’s useful when you want to make a direct message, to stand out above the clutter found in many graphic designs. The white space provides room for the clean font style of the title, the graphic elements, and the grouped text. Don’t be afraid of leaving white space in your design. As Robin Williams points out, white space can also be a form of contrast.