Design and its principles are an integral part of any artist’s repertoire. It influences practically every form of art that exists; logos, products, characters, worlds, art pieces, and more. The impact of design principles can be seen everywhere you look. Here are 7 integral tips that any aspiring designer should keep in mind.
Show, Don’t Tell
Perhaps the most important quality of design is its ability to communicate without words. This is how many of the most successful designs are able to clearly get across what their subject is like without having to write anything out for you. Before you get started on designing, take a moment to think about what you are designing for. What are its clearest qualities? What strengths does this subject have compared to others? Once that’s done, how can you communicate these strengths through visual design?
No matter what other good principles you might apply to your design, it will ultimately end up hollow if there are no qualities to communicate. It might be pretty, but it will lack substance and meaning. Thus, understanding how design is meant to represent a subject or topic is crucial.
Order of Importance
What is the most important part of your design? If you are creating a logo, is the name or the icon more integral? If you are creating an art piece, where do you want viewers to be drawn to first? These are the questions that must be asked when trying to establish the hierarchy, or order of importance, of your design.
Hierarchy can be achieved in different ways. You can place the most important part of a design in a place where you think people will view it first, such as above the rest of your design elements. You can separate it from the rest of the design elements to make it stand on its own. You can place emphasis on text or other elements by making it larger, bolder, or a different color compared to the rest of the design. How you build hierarchy is up to you, but it is important to establish where the most crucial aspects of your design lie and how to make that importance clear to viewers.
Alignment
Alignment refers to the way that elements of a design are positioned. Consequently, this has an impact on where the most crucial parts of your design are located. If you don’t pay attention to alignment and throw design elements wherever you choose, an onlooker’s eyes may be drawn to various parts of a design at once. This creates a sense of clutter and confusion.
This is not to say that the orderly centered alignment is always the best option. Sometimes, breaking symmetry can improve the design. In this very article, for example, having left-aligned writing makes the lines easier to read through. Breaking symmetry wisely can be used to create visual interest towards a certain area of your design. Once you understand the rules, it becomes easier to bend them for your benefit.
Negative Space
What you leave out of your design is just as important as what you put in. Negative space, also known as white space, is the term used to describe any space that isn’t touched by a design. Negative space is important because it gives your design room to breathe. Rather than cluttering your canvas with every little detail you can, negative space can help bring out the strength of what already exists.
Some particularly crafty designers can actually use negative space as a way to add extra depth to a design. For example, the negative space that exists around one shape on a design might form another shape entirely, tricking our eyes into believing it is a part of the design naturally. Furthermore, negative space can be used to influence other design principles such as alignment or hierarchy by encompassing what is the most important part of a design. Next time you try to add another element to a design, stop and think to see if it is really more important than the negative space that exists.
The Importance of Color
The look and outline of a design is one thing. However, once you consider the realm of color, it can become something else entirely. Even with the exact same design, different colors can have a drastic effect on the perception of your creation. As such, nailing color is an important aspect of any design that doesn’t intend to be monochromatic.
As a general rule of thumb, it’s best not to get too crazy with colors. Having a lot of clashing colors can make the design stick out negatively. As such, it’s best to stick with a few key colors at most. This will comprise your color palette, and build a strong association between your design work and your colors.
It is also important to consider the psychology of your colors when choosing a palette for your design. Color psychology is the study of how color can influence our thoughts and behaviors. Every color, tint, and shade has some meaning associated with it. If you're looking for more information on how color psychology works, I've written an article on how it can be used in good design.
Balance Is Key
Don’t confuse balance with alignment. Alignment refers to how the elements of a design are aligned, but balance refers to how the design as a whole is coherent and stable in its execution. Good alignment is one thing that can contribute to balance, but it is not the only contributor; in fact, poor alignment can be offset by other attributes to restore balance. Consider one large element to grasp your attention on the left side of a design, and many smaller elements that follow up on the right side of the same design. This still creates balance!
Balance can be achieved through many of the other design principles that have been discussed so far. Utilizing hierarchy and alignment properly can create a smooth “flow” to your design instead of making it feel scattered and fragmented. Contrasting colors can help to highlight or separate elements of a design. Without balance, someone looking at your design might interpret it as clunky or hard to understand. Make sure that there is legibility and clarity in your design!
Understand For Yourself
The last piece of advice I have is to learn what works in design for yourself. Of course, the principles above are incredibly important and useful to start off with making good designs. However, understanding how these principles are applied is just as important, if not more so, than simply being aware they exist.
Consider taking a look at some of your favorite designs. Try and identify what makes them work, and what could use improvement. Take lessons from the world around you, and experiment with designs to see what effect they have on other people. Once you get better at designing, you can even try bending the principles to create something unique and stylized. The art of design is a matter of creativity, after all!