Whether designing with Adobe Creative Cloud, Microsoft PowerPoint, or Paint, some design just works. And some very clearly doesn’t. What is it that makes a design effective or ineffective? That is what we will seek to explain in this series of posts.
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One of the basics the beginners learn in art classes is what artists call the elements and principles of design. These are the components and rules that every design and every designer must take into consideration when creating a design. The elements of design are the basic pieces that an artist uses to create a design. The principles are the rules by which every piece of art is deemed to be more or less effective.
Elements
According to dictionary.com, an element is “a component or constituent of a whole or one of the parts into which a whole may be resolved by analysis.” What this means for us is that an element is one of the basic pieces, or building blocks, of which a design or piece of art is made up. There is variation on what the basic elements of design are, but I believe they can be boiled down to five main components: line, shape, space, color, and texture.
Principles
A principle is a general law or rule from which all other rules or guidelines come. As such, if the elements are the “building blocks” of a design, a principle of design is the contract by which these building blocks must abide. A principle of design is not itself the blueprint, but rather the “best practices.” These can all be summed up in one word or idea also: balance, perspective, emphasis, movement, unity, and variety.
BUT WAIT! What about those people that say rules are meant to be broken? I hear artists say that all the time! All this talk about elements and principles…what’s the point of talking about them if the rules are meant to be broken anyway?
While I will not vouch for that statement outside of the realm of art, there is effective art that does not abide by conventional principles and in many cases, the effectiveness of a piece of art can be very subjective. Often, this can go back to the artist’s goal in creating a particular design or piece of art. In that case, the art’s effectiveness would be for the artist to determine. However, I believe there is much merit in knowing these principles before one can effectively break them.
Over the coming weeks we will take these elements and principles a few at a time. We will discuss what they are, and how to effectively use them so that you can better know how to recognize them or incorporate them into your art.
