Today is dedicated to the principles of design. What's the difference between elements and principles you ask? I think the best definition I found came from a homework help site called Jiskha:
The major difference between principles and elements is that principles are rules you have to follow and elements are things that will help you complete those rules for the best project outcome.
If you like watching videos, there's a whole series of them by Arguing Art, a couple of guys sitting in a gameroom, discussing the principles of art (they have a bunch of other videos discussing other aspects of art as well.) Not a lot of visuals like yesterday's podcast and video, but interesting in their own way. I'll link you to the introduction, then you can explore more from there if you'd like.
As with elements, there's a large variety in the list of principles. Again, I'm going with the consensus and definitions from Wikipedia. If you'd like to read a great article on the many of the principles, click here. I also want to point out that these principles overlap. An example for movement could just as easily be an example of repetition.
And here we go!
BALANCE is arranging elements so that no one part of a work overpowers, or seems heavier than any other part. The three different kinds of balance are symmetrical, asymmetrical, and radial. Symmetrical (or formal) balance is when both sides of an artwork, if split down the middle, appear to be the same. The human body is an example of symmetrical balance. The asymmetrical balance is the balance that does not weigh equally on both sides. Radial balance is equal in length from the middle. An example is the sun.
I'm not too good at creating layouts with Symmetrical Balance, I like to play with this principle more than I realized. I have almost done it here, had I not slid everything over to the side, I would have almost made it:
This next picture of rocks is an example of Asymmetrical Balance. It comes from this interesting article by Jason Beaird (from his book The Principles of Beautiful Web Design, 2nd Edition) Why do the rocks perfectly exemplify this elements? He says:
If you were to use a piece of paper to cover any one of the three stones below, the entire photograph would feel unbalanced and unfinished. This is generally the way balance works. It’s as if the entire composition is in a picture frame hanging by a single nail on the wall. It barely takes much weight on one side or the other to shift the entire picture off balance.
Go ahead, try it. He's right, huh? Pretty cool.
PROPORTION is a measurement of the size and quantity of elements within a composition. In ancient arts, proportions of forms were enlarged to show importance. This is why Egyptian gods and political figures appear so much larger than common people. The ancient Greeks found fame with their accurately-proportioned sculptures of the human form. Beginning with the Renaissance, artists recognized the connection between proportion and the illusion of 3-dimensional space.
An example from the world of graphic design, by artists Gina+Matt, where you get the feeling of depth because of Proportion. Those dogs crack me up.
This layout shows how I translate Proportion into scrapbooking. There are three obviously different sized shapes. The large envelope, the medium-sized journaling/title block, and the small photo. Your eye is led down the page, one of the benefits of the principle of Proportion. I'm not sure this is the strongest example, but looking through my work, I don't find a lot of examples...
EMPHASIS is the point of attraction in a piece of art that draws the viewers eye. If something in a piece of art has emphasis it stands out among other shapes, lines, and viewing points of the painting/drawing
Website designer Daniel Martin's home page is the perfect example of Emphasis. You are immediately pulled into the site, aren't you?
So how do you employ Emphasis in scrapbooking? White space and extra large photos are excellent ways to have one thing stand out. (You'll see in a minute that this layout could also work for the principle of Contrast, the principles overlap.)
UNITY is the wholeness that is achieved through the effective use of the elements and principles of art. The arrangement of elements and principles to create a feeling of completeness.
Each piece of packaging is a different size and shape, and each looks slightly different, but they all take bits and piece of this piece, or one similar to it (see the red strip):
My example of Unity comes via the doors of Old Town Zurich. None are alike, but they are all doors, making the layout unified.
MOVEMENT shows actions, or alternatively, the path the viewer's eye follows throughout an artwork. Movement is caused by using elements under the rules of the principles in picture to give the feeling of action and to guide the viewer's eyes throughout the artwork. In movement your art should flow, because you are controlling the viewers eye. You control what they see and how they see it, much like a path leading across the page to the item you really want to be seen by the viewer.
This next picture shows movement in two different ways. The shoes, although subtle show movement because of what shoes are used for: mobility. They are pointed in the direction of moving forward. Were they toe to toe, it wouldn't be as effective. The pattern in the floor also denotes movement. If you want to see some really cool wood floors and art, check out the artist behind this image, Pernille Snedker Hansen, her work is AMAZING!
This layout about my kids exploring uses the felt cirlces between the photos to carry the eye along the photos. There's an obvious starting circle because of how we read from left to right, then the last circle acts as the finishing point of the story.
CONTRAST is created by using elements that conflict with one another. Often, contrast is created using complementary colors or extremely light and dark values. Contrast creates interest in a piece and often draws the eye to certain areas. It is used to make a painting look interesting.
Big versus little (the layout above about the artsy garbage can?). Light versus dark. Anytime you put a color on a black or white background, you get strong Contrast.
This example from the Purl Bee, the pink just pops against the white and grey.
RHYTHM/PATTERN/REPETITION is showing consistency with colors or lines. Putting a red spiral at the bottom left and top right, for example, will cause the eye to move from one spiral, to the other, and everything in between. It is indicating movement by the repetition of elements. Rhythm can make an artwork seem active.
This has nothing to do with design, but it's a cute song, I love the Plain White T's version, but she looks happy, it's my gift to you for sticking with this post. And it's got the word RHYTHM in it :)
Now for a couple of examples for you, this first one from the 3R's blog. It's paint chips. Cool, huh?
And I love this one by Amy Hood, give me a chevron pattern any day. It's gorgeous repitition!
And we are done. Tomorrow's post will be much shorter, I promise. And just a reminder, I've tried to link every original post to give credit to the individual artists. If you pin any of these images, be sure you use the original post. Thanks!