Elements & Principles of Design Terms

Elements of Design the things that make up a painting, drawing, design etc. Good or bad – all paintings will contain most of if not all, the seven elements of design.

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LINE – The linear marks made with a pen or brush or the edge created when two shapes meet.

SHAPE
A shape is a self-contained defined area of geometric or organic form. A positive shape in a painting automatically creates a negative shape.

DIRECTION
All lines have direction – Horizontal, Vertical or Oblique. Horizontal suggests calmness, stability and tranquility. Vertical gives a feeling of balance, formality and alertness. Oblique suggests movement and action

SIZE
Size is simply the relationship of the area occupied by one shape to that of another.

TEXTURE
Texture is the surface quality of a shape – rough, smooth, soft hard glossy etc. Texture can be physical (tactile) or visual.

COLOR
Also called Hue – the property possessed by an object of producing different sensations on the eye as a result of the way the object reflects or emits light.

VALUE
Value is the lightness or darkness of a color. Value is also called Tone
 

Principles of Design What we do to the elements of design

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BALANCE
Balance in design is similar to balance in physics

A large shape close to the center can be balanced by a small shape close to the edge. A large light
toned shape will be balanced by a small dark toned shape (the darker the shape the heavier it appears to be)

GRADATION
Gradation of size and direction produce linear perspective. Gradation of color from warm to cool and tone from dark to light produce aerial perspective. Gradation can add interest and movement to a shape. A gradation from dark to light will cause the eye to move along a shape.

REPETITION
Repetition with variation is interesting, without variation repetition can become monotonous.

CONTRAST
Contrast is the juxtaposition of opposing elements ie. opposite colors on the color wheel – red / green, blue / orange etc. Contrast in tone or value – light / dark. Contrast in direction – horizontal / vertical.
The major contrast in a painting should be located at the center of interest. Too much contrast scattered throughout a painting can destroy unity and make a work difficult to look at. Unless a feeling of chaos and confusion are what you are seeking, it is a good idea to carefully consider where to place your areas of maximum contrast.

HARMONY
Harmony in painting is the visually satisfying effect of combining similar, related elements. ie. adjacent colors on the color wheel, similar shapes etc.

DOMINANCE
Dominance gives a painting interest, counteracting confusion and monotony. Dominance can be applied to one or more of the elements to give emphasis

UNITY
Relating the design elements to the idea being expressed in a painting reinforces the principal of unity.eg. a painting with an active aggressive subject would work better with a dominant oblique direction, course, rough texture, angular lines etc. whereas a quiet passive subject would benefit from horizontal lines, soft texture and less tonal contrast. Unity in a painting also refers to the visual linking of various elements of the work.

Typography Terms

1. Typography  – the art of arranging or designing type or processing data and printing from it

2. Cap Height – the height of a capital letter above the baseline for a particular typeface
3. Baseline – the imaginary line upon which a line of text rests
4. X-Height – the distance between the baseline of a line of type and tops of the main body of lower case letters (i.e. excluding ascenders or descenders)
   
5. Ascender – the upward vertical stem on some lowercase letters, such as h and b, that extends above the x-height
   
6. Descender – The portion of some lowercase letters, such as g and y, that extends or descends below the baseline
   
7. Kerning – the process of adjusting the spacing between characters in a proportional font, usually to achieve a visually pleasing result.
   
8. Leading – the distance between the baselines of successive lines of type
   
9. Serif – semi-structural details on the ends of some of the strokes that make up letters and symbols
   
10. Sans Serif – one that does not have the small projecting features called “serifs” at the end of strokes. The term comes from the French wordsans, meaning “without”.
    

Digital Art Terms to Know

1. Anchor point: A point on a path that indicates a change of direction

2. Resolution: Resolution is the detail an image holds; higher resolution means more pixels (individual, minute areas of illumination on a display screen) in the image, in which more image detail can be achieved; most images are typically 72 dpi (dots per inch)

3. Artboard: Printable portion of the work area, where illustrations can be finalized

4. Clipping mask: An object whose shape masks other artwork so that only areas that lie within the shape are visible—in effect, clipping the artwork to the shape of the mask (the clipping mask and the objects that are masked are called a clipping set)

5. Pen tool: A non-selection tool used in the creation of smooth-edged selections; it creates vector paths that can be converted into selections that in turn can be used to extract or mask groups of pixels

6. Layers: Individual levels in the stacking order of available drawing space that can hold any number of objects

7. Links: A linked image is an image that is linked to an external file, like a shortcut on a computer

Random helpful layering website: http://designmodo.com/transform-duplicate-objects-illustrator/