The word composition is not only due to the art of music or creative writing.
It is also due to graphic design.
A composition in design is the layout of the elements on the plane, these can be of different types (shapes, lines, points…) and must be subject to a functional character at a visual level.
Functionality is a detail that we have been working on in recent texts, in which I have repeated that it does not exist design neither pretty, nor ugly, nor attractive… but functional.
Which corresponds to certain standards and fundamentals that designers and artists have already studied and exposed to the public light of how a good design works at a communicative level.
So beyond the concepts that we have worked on before, which are a little simpler, here I want to give you the basic notions of the principles of visual composition.
They are standard principles that can be applied in the plastic arts as well as in the visual or audiovisual field.
In fact, in the cinema the classic shots that have dynamism or create tension before the viewer are maintained. They are the same principles, but applied to a different format of two-dimensionality.
7 Principles of visual composition
There are other principles that we can talk about in various informative posts. Today, specifically, I want to talk to you about the most basic of all compositions.
It should be noted that sometimes you can play with two or more principles in a single plane, but when you are at zero it is recommended that you first soak up each one of them to distinguish them and then practice with resources that you have at home that are easy to use. .
For example, try to take pictures with fruits with your cell phone camera, school materials or elements with organic and non-repeating shapes.
You don’t need to start hitting yourself with programs editing if you are still at zero.
For everything there is a solution.
Dynamism
Dynamism in design has the same connotation as the word that defines it, and describes movement. Not from a stage, but from the element with which the composition is being created.
There is a possibility that you have the conception of the idea that in order for movement to exist in a two-dimensional plane, it must have a format such as GIF. But this is not necessarily the case, here you play a little with visual perception.
This, if we work on the design.
But the dynamism is recurrently present in action movies like Fast and Furious.
Balance
This principle goes hand in hand with compositional harmony.
When all the elements of a composition are in balance, none is the protagonist, they are all equal to their peers.
Strain
Have you ever painted the walls of the living room of your house and it has given you a severe headache when you see the edges near the ceiling uneven?
That feeling is called eye strain. and in design it can be achieved when two or more elements of a plane are arranged in an unconventional way before human perception.
To create tension, you can place a point at the corner of a plane.
Or you may see a shape bleed to the edge of the plane that has a disproportionate silhouette.
Tension can also be created with color by placing a single item that is in dissonance with the colors of the other items.
It should be noted that the objective of this principle of visual composition is lead the viewer’s gaze to a single point on the plane.
Rhythm
When there is a compositional rhythm in a shot, it means that all its elements are in a continuous repetition to create lines of movement.
It is not necessary for the elements to be ordered symmetrically in space, but rather for consecutive repetition to be respected.
It may well be elements such as color, point, line or shapes, the ideal is to repeat at least one of these elements.
How to know when a rhythm is fast or slow?
When the elements are repeated with a very close distance, the perception of a fast rhythm is created, on the other hand, if the elements are arranged with a considerable distance from each other, it is a rather slow rhythm.
There is rhythm by symmetry, which is the repetition of symmetrical forms within a space.
There is also the alternating rhythm in which different elements are used but which respect an order of direction within the shot.
Motion
This resource is frequently used in painting, photography and illustration.
Within the design, a sensation of movement is created when the elements that make life within a plane are made up of lines that resemble that sensation or by blurring techniques on the edge of the forms, or it may be by establishing a circular shape in the direction in which which the elements are arranged.
Today there are many techniques to apply this principle of visual composition to the final arts of a designer.
Ratio figure background
With the figure-ground relationship, the viewer’s visual perception is played with.
With the intention that it cannot be perceived which is the main element of the composition.
It’s a relationship that has to workthat is to say, that although the shapes are arranged independently of the other, it does not mean that there is no relationship between them that makes them functional.
Repetition
Last but not least of this list of principles of visual composition in graphic design, we have repetition.
It is the principle that is applied to the creation of mandalas or fabric patterns or patterns that you can download to your computer and set as wallpaper.
With repetition you will take a single element (modules, shapes, colors, sizes, colors, textures, directions…) and it is the one that you will make it repeat continuously and equidistantly.
When it comes to principles of visual composition, you are the one in control of the message you want to convey.
At times, the images They can convey much more than words if a composition is made coherent with the message and the objective.
When a good design achieves its purpose and also manages to convey an emotion to its recipient, it has become a work of art.
Here’s the difference between a novice designer who doesn’t have that perception and a novice designer who have all of which are to design effectively based on the principles of visual composition.
Although, there are still resources to explain in this section, you already have enough wings to fly on your own.
Now tell me, did you already know any of these principles of visual composition in design?
You tell me that in comments.
A hug.
This text has been written by @soyamandarebeca for .
