Principles of Design

https://www.inzonedesign.com/blog/6-principles-of-design/

According to an English dictionary, 'Principle' simply means 'a fundamental assumption or guiding belief.’ Another dictionary says, 'a basic generalizatin that is accepted as true and that can be used as a basis for reasoning or conduct.'

These definitions simply means there are always a set of things governing a task, work or event. According to mantra of Human-centered design, we are humans before being designers.

Just as every humans have variety of ideals and principles guiding their mannerism and actions, there exists guidelines guiding design. Although, there are designs in everyday life. The scope of this article regards visual design.

For every design - that works - there are a set of guidelines that must be followed (at least, majority of it). These guidelines are called 'The Principles of Design’. They are numerous and sometimes separated into elements and principles, but every designer accepts these:

• Typography
• Color
• Images
• Composition
• Contrast
• Balance
• Alignment
• White space, amongst others.

Let’s pick these and expantiate one after the other. you might feel the ones you need aren’t here, read on. you never know what you might bump into. Let’s move!

N.B: These principles are sometimes intertwined e.g. typography can be used to achieve heirarchy, alignment and contrast. white space, to achieve balance and layout. color, to achieve contrast.



Typography
Typography simply refers to design involvments relating with texts. Some elements of typography (usually referred as part of the elements of design) include typeface (serif, sans-serif etc.), weight (bold, bolder etc.), size (16px, 18px, etc.), tracking (also referred as letter spacing), leading (also referred as line height), style (italic, regular etc.), among others. these elements help make your text readable.
Similar to other principles of design, less is more.

You can achieve contrast not by only using different fonts but also by using one font in different styles or weights (also, to achieve heirarchy).

Besides, not all fonts are suitable to be used together. To relieve yourself of little stress, visit Google fonts, choose a font and scroll to the bottom of the page to check other fonts that compliment it.

This article is not enough to talk all about typography. Stay sharp to see my typography manual.



P.S: I didn’t slander Comic Sans because I feel for it. Though, avoid it. (-_-)



Color

Color can make or mar your design. Before I begin anything on design, I need to tell you what a mentor told me - 'Endeavor to always design in greyscale before adding color.'

Yes, we are humans before being designers and colors influence our psychology (or better still, modifies how we percieve a design), but design has likely failed if it doesn’t resonate to the user without colors.

Color is mainly made up of three elements: hue, saturation and value.

As I mentioned at the beginning of this article, there might be deviations as to what each principle is called. Some people refer to color as hue, others not. I refer to color as color and hue as the color in its pure form. A color is affected by its hue (e.g blue), saturation (i.e. how vibrant it looks) and value (i.e. how dark/light the blue is).

As I stated earlier, less is more. Make/check for color palettes before adding colors to your design.

Use color to establish heirarchy (through the accent color) and most importantly, contrast (between text and their backgrounds).



Useful resource:

• https://happyhues.com
• https://toolness.github.io/accessible-color-matrix/?ref=tiny-helpers (contrast checker)

Alignment

Alignment is the form of arranging items in a line (usually imaginary). It can be made to the left, center or right.

Alignment can be achieved with typography (texts) and images, amongst others. It helps organise the different elements of your design. Putting your alignments in order is like stretching out an helping hand to the composition and layout of your design. At least, they are supposed to work hand-in-hand in your design.



Balance

This explains how stable your design is. Once attended to, it make your design look even.
Every element of your design carries a visual weight and fights for the attention of the viewer. It is up to you - the designer - to guide the viewer’s eyes with the help of alignment, heirarchy and finally, balance.





White Space

I’ve been between designers who were in disagreement about the difference of white space and negative space. Some believed the use of either term should be contextual. This article doesn’t clarify that, but aims to put in plain English that 'Make your design elements breath.’



I further reiterate that these principles are there to help each other. Just as typography and color can help establish heirarchy and contrast, alignment can help in making your design balance. So, can images guide the viewers eye.



Happy application. Kindly leave a clap. Thank you.