The Graphic Design Principles And Elements Every Maker Should Know

 The Graphic Design Principles And Elements Every Maker Should Know

Follow These Practical Design Guidelines To Laser Cut confidently

If you're a designer or engineer selling the products you create or using them to brand your business, you recognize it takes quite just an ingenious idea or a singular product to achieve success. In competitive marketplaces like Etsy and Kickstarter, and in big trade shows, conferences, and events, not only do your products got to be designed well, but you'll also need strong branding, web presence and delightful product photos so as to capture customers’ attention.

It may seem overwhelming initially, but fear not! this text will assist you gain an understanding of basic graphic design and offer a group of practical design guidelines so you'll laser-cut confidently.

Graphic Design Basics

Everything made by humankind has involved some level of design decisions. shop around. Computers, desks, chairs, coffee mugs, sweaters, shoes. Everything has been touched by a designer who made decisions about the visual and physical nature of that product that supported its intended use and desired visual style.

Whether you're developing the newest tech gadget, making laser cut jewelry or designing 3D printed homewares, you too are going to be making plenty of design decisions. Consumers want their purchases to seem good and work well, so it's crucial for designers and engineers to possess a robust understanding of graphic design basics when approaching their work. it's the designer’s job to weigh form against function when creating beautiful and usable products.

Good design is an effective design. It appears effortless, love it was meant to be. Nothing less, nothing more. As described by Irene Au, “Good design is sort of a refrigerator. When it works, nobody notices. But when it doesn’t, it sure stinks.” In other words, good design is predicted. Things look and feel right, although this sense often goes unnoticed by the untrained eye.

It can appear to be an elusive goal, but a basic knowledge of design theory will make it significantly more tangible. Design theory involves, but isn't limited to, the right use of design principles and elements to end in good design. Design elements ask the elemental components of design composition, while design principles ask the way those elements are used together.

Over time, there are countless movements in design theory. It’s a dense subject that a lot of brilliant minds have approached, pondered and interpreted. While there's no singular unified doctrine of design theory that each one designer follow religiously, there are several design concepts that approach universal acceptance in design theory. Below we'll check out 7 design elements and seven design principles that each maker should know.

The 7 Elements Of Graphic Design

A design element is that the most elementary unit of visual design and therefore the most fundamental ingredient from which all designs are created.

Let’s imagine that creating a design piece is like building a house. Design elements would be the raw materials, like brick or wood. How the chosen materials are used will impact the general look, feel and functionality. Knowing the aim of the house and intended style helps the architect make decisions about materials.

A good example may be a cabin , which we generally understand is fitted to a mountain home. it might look answer of place near a beach or during a desert. But why? Well, the fabric in question has certain attributes, or qualities, that make it suitable or not suitable for this house.

Logs are perfect for a mountain home functionally because they're naturally abundant materials within the mountains, they will weather unpredictable mountain storms and that they posses thermal mass to assist keep the house warm. The logs also visually align with the natural setting within the mountains. the selection of fabric is predicated on a mixture of function and elegance .

Similar to the logs of wood, design elements are like materials at your disposal as a designer. These basic building blocks, the 7 elements of design, are line, color, value, shape, texture, space and form. all has its own set of attributes that will work toward or against your idea or intention in both function and elegance. In other words, designers can communicate ideas or concepts using the 7 design elements, which may be used alone or together with one another counting on the goals.

Designers who plan on laser cutting products should consider design elements in both a visible and physical context. The physical materials utilized in the ultimate product are design elements in and of themselves. Designing for the laser cutter means considering the materiality of the ultimate product throughout the planning process. Let’s take a far better check out each design element to realize a better understanding of how it are often used.

Line

The first and most fundamental element of design is that the line, which is that the start line for many designers watching a blank canvas. within the context of graphic design, line is defined as two connected points in space. Lines can hold many attributes, like being thick, thin, fine, brushed, smooth or rough, horizontal, vertical, diagonal, curved or bent, dashed, dotted, continuous or broken as shown by this image from Elements Of Design.

Graphic Design Principles 2 - Line

Designers often use lines to direct the attention to a selected point, divide space, denote emphasis and make texture.

In laser cutting, line may be a required element because the laser cutter moves along lines on a linear field. Laser cut design files are essentially line drawings provided to the laser cutter, which translates these line to a physical product.

Color

Color is that the second element of design, and almost like line, color are often wont to set mood or tone of a design. Greens and blues, for instance, tend to possess a relaxed and relaxed appeal. Reds and oranges, on the opposite hand, are more powerful and passionate.

There’s an entire science behind picking colors supported what they mean and the way they create us feel, as seen during this image from Digital Arts Online.

Graphic Design Principles 3 - Color

Using color to tap into these emotions can make designs more successful at achieving the specified response. within the case of makers who sell their products, this desired response = a sale.

For a more complete understanding of color, let’s check out the subsequent characteristics:

Hue: Often used as just a flowery name for color (ie. magenta, green, blue), but it also means a pure color before any black or white is added thereto.

Shade: The addition of black to a hue, making it a darker version of the pure color.

Tint: The addition of white to a hue, making it a lighter version of the pure color.

Tone: The addition of grey to a hue, making a muted version of the pure color.

Intensity: Speaks to the brightness or purity of a color. a real hue is claimed to possess a high intensity, whereas it’s shade, tint or tone features a low intensity.

To learn more about color theory, inspect this easy approach on Medium or tap into Pantone’s color intelligence articles here.

For those laser cutting designs, color certainly plays a task not only in material choice but also in overall composition. inspect the Ponoko Materials Catalog to ascertain the vast selection and don’t miss these articles to ascertain the materials made into real products for inspiration.

Value

Value describes the range of lightness and darkness of a color. This value scale image from Tes Teach illustrates what happens as black is added to white to form reminder grey.

Graphic Design Principles 4 - Value

This concept is vital for designers not only in simple color choice but also because value defines forms and creates spatial illusions. “If values are close, shapes will seem to flatten , and appear closely connected in space; none will stand out from the others,” explains Charlotte Jirousek in Art, Design and Visual Thinking. “If values contrast, shapes will appear to separate in space and a few will stand out from the others. This works whether the colours are just black, white and grey , or whether hues are involved.”

Shape

Simply defined, a shape is that the quality of a definite object or body in having an external surface or outline of specific form or figure. This delineation of space are often accomplished using color, line, value or texture.

We’re surrounded by numerous shapes (homes, offices, cars, trees, flowers, cats, dogs) that we might not believe them much. except for the designer, shapes are at the basis of graphic design. “They are figures and forms that makeup logos, illustrations and countless other elements altogether sorts of designs,” writes author and web designer Jennifer Kyrnin during this Lifewire article. “Shapes help the designer to feature interest or organize elements of a design. they're not strictly ornamental, either, as shapes can have symbolic meanings, invoke feelings or be wont to direct the attention to the foremost important information.”

Shapes are often described in three ways: Mechanical, organic or abstract.

Mechanical shapes are those with hard edges and are usually geometric, offering a sense of stability and order during a design.

Organic shapes are irregular and sometimes feature curves or unexpected angles, which creates a more natural and expressive design.

Abstract shapes are things like letters, icons or symbols and may help convey a message.

Graphic Design Principles 5 - Shape

In the above example from UX Planet, shape plays a crucial role within the success of the planning for an art courses app. Circles haven't any angles, so there's a softer and milder feel than if polygons were used.

When laser cutting, you’re paying for each movement the laser makes. Many small detailed shapes take longer to trace out than fewer larger shapes. Circles take longer than straight lines. And since time = money when laser cutting, the shapes you select won't only impact the aesthetic appeal of the merchandise but also the value .

Texture

In design, texture has two definitions. the primary is that the visual texture, when texture appears to exist on a flat surface via the utilization of line, shape or color. A photograph of tree bark, for instance , shows much visual texture naturally. In graphic design, this poster seen on Abduzeedo advertising a all-terrain bike race uses texture to feature an emotional and real-life response.

Graphic Design Principles 6 - Texture

The second definition of texture is tactile, the physical texture or feeling of a design element like smooth, soft, rough, fluffy, etc.

This piece of laser cut art by Gabriel Schama on inhabitat may be a beautiful example of both tactile and visual texture. She glues together layer after layer of ?” mahogany wood that has been intricately laser cut during a sort of geometric shapes. The layers of wood have a tactile texture when touched, and therefore the physical depth of the layers gives a visible texture when simply viewed from afar.

Graphic Design Principles 7 - Texture

Texture is especially important for designers performing on laser cutter projects because the top product may be a object with inherent tactile texture. Thinking beyond simply making something that appears good, designers must also consider how texture communicates a design aesthetic with material choice. The inherent hardness of chrome steel , for instance , has an industrial vibe whereas the softness of felt is crafty and warm. Laser engraving can add another level of texture, both visual and tactile counting on the fabric .