Getting Started in Graphic Design: Part 1

Design is all around us. The shapes, the lines, the colors; the concepts we are exposed to everyday whether consciously or subliminally. Design is about communication; forming a bond between the audience and the design medium and getting the message across.

While there are endless ways to get the message across, there are a few basic rules that every designer should know. While all rules are made to be broken, it’s best to show that you know the rules and understand them, so that when you break the rules you can do so intentionally and for the benefit of the design. Also, design is art, and the old belief still holds true that those who know nothing about art make art about nothing.

As Jim Krause points out in Design Basics Index, there are three C’s to design:

• Composition
• Components
• Concept

Composition is how the elements of the design are arranged. Every design starts out as blank space. The placement of the components within this space make up the composition. A well-designed composition will be aesthetically pleasing and have a visual flow that’s so that the viewer’s eye goes where the designer intends.

The components of design are any visual elements included in the composition. This can be text, photos, illustrations, borders, and even white space. When we add a component to our design, we must question its relevance to the message, its relationship to the other elements in the design, and the overall quality of the component itself.

The concept is the overall meaning, theme, or message behind the design. What thought, feeling, or message are you trying to get across with a particular design?

The placement of your components has an effect on the aesthetic energy and attitude of your design. Take a look at the image to the right. The point at the top is centered inside the rectangle, whereas the lower point is placed off-center and at a position where the distances from all sides are different.

It is often said that dead center is deadly. When you place a key element in the dead center of your layout, it tends to lose all energy and therefore your viewers may lose interest. Positioning the component so that its distance is varied from the borders of the frame of view creates a certain energy and interest for the viewer and is therefore the goal of many successful layouts.

This is not to say that centering a component can’t be effective. On the contrary, you may find that some cases will require the component to be in dead center to have the most impact on the viewer. This comes down to a question of personal taste and style.

A good way to get more familiar with placement would be to get a piece of paper and divide it into 4 parts. On each separate quadrant, draw a dot or circle in a position so that its distance varies from all sides of the paper. Try your best to make each quadrant noticeably different.

Now go back and add a second dot to each quadrant keeping the same objective in mind. This exercise will help develop an awareness of the placement of your components in relation to the frame of view as well as other components in your design.

Next time we’ll take a closer look at component placement and start adding in lines.