Principles of design

Principles of Design

10 Principles of Design Theory

balance weight symmetry

• bilateral symmetry - the design is mirrored along a central dividing line making the weight of the image equal on both sides.

• radial symmetry – the design is repeated around a central point, the design is weighted in a cyclical rather than a linear way.

• approximate symmetry – dissimilar figures grouped around a central line which spreads the weight equally through the design.

• asymmetrical balance - elements are repeated equally on either side of a bilateral divide but are not an exact mirror of each other

• asymmetry or lack of balance, imbalance: the elements of the design are not harmonious and equally weighted, leads to an uncomfortable, off balance design

proportion size scale• the relative size and scale of the

various elements in a design• often the bigger an object or element

is in a design the more notice it demands

• this principle has been used with some irony by Breugel in his “Fall of Icarus”, and by Magritte in his apple painting

In Breugel’s “Fall of Icarus”, Icarus is a tiny splash and a pair of pale scissoring legs, almost completely eclipsed by the pastoral scene in the foreground.

Magritte’s giant apple expands across the page almost touching the sides, and occupies all the space available in it’s little room. In this picture Magritte plays with our conceptions of proportion and scale. Is the apple enormous? Or the room very small?

The extreme foregrounding of the apple in this photograph makes the apple appear to be the same size or bigger than the man’s head. Except that the artifice is made obvious the sense of real proportion has been warped.

This woman observing this giant head is made to appear Lilliputian by the interplay of scale and proportion.

The slumbering giant’s “Marigolds”.

A gratifyingly magical and humourous trick of scale and proportion using distance and foregrounding.

repetition rhythm pattern

• repetition – rhythm: regularly timed movement of object through space, emphasis lies on pattern, repetition can become very tedious without some kind of variation

• linear rhythm: an artists distinctive personal regularized placement of line guiding the viewers eye through the design

In Gauguin’s “Three Puppies” ones eye is guided in a sloping S-bend following the curvilinear shapes up to the puppies and back down to the pears.

• gradation: a series of repeating motifs developed as a gradual movement of an object across a page or image

• repetition: a repeated motif, a regular invariable pattern

• alternation: a repetitive, various or cyclical pattern alternating between one design object and another or others

dominance

• an object within image or an element of a design is emphasised.

• It counteracts the confusion of too similar images and monotony.

• It gives an image a focal point• Can be created by using proportion,

colour, shape, placement

This sculpture dominates the scene through sheer size and it’s placement dead centre in the picture.

No one colour dominates in this sculpture, but the dominant material of the sculpture is clothing. The sculpture as a presence occupies the corner of the room in a dominant manner.

The red of the two pieces of tomato are a pleasantly dissimilar highlight to the dominance of neutral tones in the photograph.

The colour yellow dominates in this painting, in the yellow of the young girl’s hair and dress and in the fields in the background. The girl is the dominant figure in the composition

contrast• the juxtaposition of opposing

elements, used to draw the eye, but too much dissonance scatters attention making the image chaotic

Contrast of cold and warm colours.

Contrast between the abstract and the figurative. Represented here by the vertical linear strips of colour in the neon light installation and the figure in the foreground and those within the display.

Dissimilarity in colour and pattern.

The paleness of the faces of the woman’s face makes the contrasting red of her lips emphatic, as the rich dark black of these figures’ clothes throws their paleness and the stark purity of the white parts of their clothes into sharp contrast.

Emphasised contrast, dissonance, chaos.

direction movement• the path the viewer's eye follows

within a design or image, how the eye is drawn or carried – often created by use of perspective in image or design

The thick white sweep of the arrow drags the eye to the right.

The line of sculptures leads the eye to the church building in the right side of the frame. The architectural upsweep of the building carries the eye heavenwards.

The eye is follows from the angled leg down the body of the falling Icarus, drawn by the gravity of the wide-swept wings and down inevitably to the horizon line on which rests a boat.

The diagonal lines of the image draw the eyes here and there and back again.

Linear perspective causes the eyes to be drawn to the central focal point of the arched windows at the far end of this massive hall.

harmony unity• the satisfying effect of combining

similar, related elements .• It creates a feeling of coherence and

wholeness through the agreement of the elements or objects

The book-shelf design of this library shows harmony in the repeated books and in the unity of concept (the humourous echo of form and function).

This image, harmonious to the eye, is created through the balance or mirroring of the colours, each colour is repeated an even number of times.

This image is an example of the combination of disunity and harmony of concept. Each of the elements of the image either confirm or contradict the illusion of upright three dimensional space.

variety• Variation or occasional difference

within an image or design brings interest and an alleviation from tiresome sameness

This musical instrument building is an example of variety and unity. The two parts of the building are made up of representations of different instruments but are united through the fact of their similarity to each other as representations of classical musical instruments.

This image shows a variety of attitudes , the variation between pure colours and neutrals and between complementary colours.

The variety of action, attitude, form and colour in this painting borders on chaos but is balanced by the unity of the strong vertical figure in the centre of the piece and the bright yellow areas in the extreme left and right of the frame.

symbolic meaning• The cultural interpretations which

have been ascribed to certain iconic images or elements within design

The visual representation of Yin and Yang, the masculine and feminine elements. Shown here to lie in opposition to but also to be found within each other.

Road signs are strongly symbolic and communicative of meaning. Turn right.

To Gauguin the women in this image and the one following stood for naturalism, and freedom from the restrictions and repression of European concepts of politeness and etiquette.

This calm trio further portrayed for him the ideals of femininity and motherhood.

Its lotus shape imbues this Ba’hai temple with the lotus’s iconic qualities of blessedness and divine purity.

composition• How an image or design is held together• how it sits and is framed by the form in

which it is found, on paper, within the viewfinder of a camera, in a piece of sculpture or jewellery

• how it occupies space • The use of the elements of design

harmoniously or disharmoniously to create a contained piece of design

The echoing and contrasting of analogous and complementary colours, as well as the repetition of colour and shape in this gentle picture by Chagall holds his compositon in harmonious balance.

Degas ties this painting together by carrying similar colour through the image causing the occupied and the empty space to mirror each other , balancing the weight of each in relation to the other.

This “Death of Marat” is a similar example of the equal weighting of occupied and empty space. In this case the largely dark unoccupied space heightens the impact of the floodlit figure.

In this “Death of Marat” the composition is hugely altered by the interplay of the two figures. The interpretation of the event has been been fundamentally changed by the presence of Marat’s killer Charlotte Corday. The focus is on her vital upright figure in stark contrast to the prone figure of the dying Marat.

In this image by Picasso Marat’s delicate dove-like pure white figure is entirely dominated by the enormous swooping monster of Corday. The billowing of his blood creates a third figure having as much weight in the image as the other two.

Death of Marat• All three of the previous images are

highly political and communicate deep symbolic significance through their various compositions.

• Although each piece is very much a product of it’s time (all date from different eras, one from the 18th, one the 19th and one the 20th Centuries), they are all still currently legible to us through our understanding of the principles of design.