The basic element of graphic design has an important role to play in improving the visual efficiency of the designs and giving a clear message to your target audience. Let’s explore how these seven essential elements of graphic design that every brand design agency follows to make their project more effective and visually appealing.
Lines
Lines are the first basic element of graphic design. They are not two dots connected together. It is something more than that. It depends on the design pattern, width, length, and context. Lines help you refine information by highlighting them and defining shapes, which implicate movement and convey interaction with the users.
Lines always have a variety of options that are selected while graphic designing projects like-
- Lines can be vertical, horizontal, perpendicular, parallel, or diagonal.
- It can be straight, zigzag, scribbled, curly, or curvy, solid or dotted.
- Sometimes it can be visible or invisible
- It can be used to create other patterns too
Each form of line conveys a different message and has a different meaning with it. For example-
- Solid lines highlight important information areas
- Scribbled lines may portray excitement.
- Zig-zag lines might express electricity.
- Wavy lines may mean beauty, elegance, or fragility.
- Invisible lines are found on the print design grids. It acts as a guide, offering the project more direction, statute, and structure while graphic designers design intricately.
- The visible lines can mean direct communication or messages or moods before finalizing the design.
Each type of line used in the graphic designs portrays a message for the audience and impacts the overall design flow. Remember to be wise even while choosing simple lines in your project.
Color
The second most vital element of graphic design is the use of colors. Colors communicate emotions and set the mood and tone of the project. They are also responsible for triggering a response from the target audience as each color guides the viewer with underlying emotions like- red symbolizes love, blue represents loyalty, yellow means friendship, white means purity, green means peace, and so on.
Each color responds to or appeals to the different sides of people’s psychology, so be wise and careful while choosing the right color palette for your project. As per the color theory and wheel, colors can be grouped into multiple categories. They are as follows-
a. Primary Colors-
The primary colors constitute red, yellow, and blue which are defined as pure pigment colors. This means that the rest of the colors from which other colors are made of. You cannot mix any other colors to get red, blue, and yellow but you can mix them and have a variety of shades and hues.
b. Secondary colors-
Secondary colors usually constitute green, violet, and orange which are the immediate results of mixing the two primary colors-
- Yellow and blue mixed to get green
- Red and blue mixed to get violet
- Yellow and red mixed to get orange
c. Tertiary colors-
The tertiary color mix includes these six colors which are a result of mixing a primary color and a secondary color. They include red-orange, yellow-orange, yellow-green, blue-green, blue-violet, and red-violet. The color choice should harmonize together with all the visual elements conveying the right brand message.
Shape
Shapes are the third basic element of the graphic designs that are comprised of figures, boundaries, enclosed lines, or patterns in closed forms. They are often used in the design to highlight or stand out any piece of information for the target audience to check out.
Shapes have two different varieties that every graphic designer comes across-
- Organic Shapes/ Free-Flowing Shapes
Organic shapes or commonly known as free-flowing shapes are less constructive and structural in shape. They are less uniform, proportional, and well-defined than traditional shapes like squares, circles, triangles, squares, etc. In this category of shape, they can be more symmetrical or asymmetrical like leaves, crystals, vines, etc, or abstract shapes like squiggles, blobs, etc.
- Geometric shapes
Geometric shapes are more refined structure-wise and uniform. Their construction can be either two-dimensional or three-dimensional. Geometric shapes are usually created by a set of points that are connected by either a straight or a curved line.
Therefore, they are more simple and abstract. The major examples of geometric shapes are squares, rectangles, triangles, circles, pyramids, pentagons, hexagons, octagons, decagons, ellipses, spheres, etc.
The audience usually resemblance with each shape that portrays a meaning or significance in their implication, like-
- Circles mean positivity, friendship, and community.
- Rounded edges sign means harmony, love, and life.
- Squares signify balance and strength.
- Rectangles portray dependability.
- Triangles symbolize civilization, hierarchy, and power.
- Blobs portray fun.
- Spheres convey stability and growth.
There is a stack of shapes whose application portrays a definite message about a brand, business, and to the audience to interact.
Typography/ Type
Typography can be defined as the right selection and application of fonts in your graphic design project. The right choice of fonts can set the mood for your audience to interact with your website or application. Always remember to choose the letters so that they have specific angles, and boldly portray your brand message. They can be bold, italics, in captions, sharp, rounded, etc. The right font will empower your project visually as well as bring out the right message to your target audience.
You should know that the weight of your lettering is typically important to your design as it conveys which sections of the text are important. It ensures the right balance to the letters too. Each type of letter has its significance in your project design. For example, bold letters incorporate relevance while thin letters incorporate sophistication and elegance.
Image
The last element of graphic design is the application of images to get the quick attention of the target audience. Graphic designers usually use photographs or illustrations to fully express their brand-specific message to the target audience, as there is an adage saying that pictures speak a thousand words.
While choosing the image, you can use contrasting colors, effects, and textures that will optimize the visual pleasure and make it stand out in the majority of content.
The application of an image has simultaneously effect on-
- The context of the message that you want to portray to your audience.
- Helps to establish a communication panel for the audience to engage.
- Adds a flair for drama and action in the context.
- Overall creates a mood for the audience and the brand.
- Powers the visual efficiency of your overall content.
Always remember while incorporating images, photographs, or illustrations in your project, you need to find the right one that will tell a story about your brand to the audience and will maximize the visual effect as well as pique the interest.
Texture
The fourth essential element of graphic design is the texture of the visual elements. They project the feel of the visual elements’ surface like should it be smooth, rough, soft, furry, gooey, glossy, etc, or have the texture of other things like leaves, wood, paper, stones, flowers, grass, soil, etc.
The texture of the visual elements creates the illusion of how your target audience will feel the design if they could touch it. They can make the designs more professional, and polished, and therefore refine the structure in your design work while creating dimensions of the design flow.
Graphics can be of any pattern – abstract, uniform, free-flow, dimensional with contrasting backgrounds. It can also be used in typography to master the text and add a layer of visual interest. Additionally, you can add textures in your image background to make the photograph more effective with a vibing mood for the audience.
Space
The next integral part of graphic design is the effective use of space to increase visual efficiency, balancing the overall elements, emphasizing particular areas, and adding a bit of the design to breathe on its own.
Spaces are only limited to removing the clutter but also in making the designs more aesthetic for the audience to understand and focus on the relevant pieces of information. They help to bring out the strong relationship between visual elements and separate the unrelated elements.
The objective of using space is to highlight specific areas. Space can be divided into two main categories- positive space and negative space.
- Positive Space
Positive space can be defined as the area or space covered by the visual elements and the space where the graphic designers want their viewers to focus. They are more designed intended by the graphic designers by crafting organized space in the context.
- Negative Space
The negative space is the area around the positive space that influences how the visual elements in the positive space are perceived. It is important to consider negative space as they cohesively make all the design internet elements shine in the spotlight as well as add a layer of professional composition to the design structure.
Conclusion-
All the graphic designing elements combined to hand out the best of what you can portray to your audience about your brand/business. Branding design agencies in India excel in providing the most effective, fresh, communicative, and visually appealing ideas that will put your products/services in the limelight.
