GRAPHIC DESIGN

 involves a combination of images and text used to communicate information and messages
to an audience.
 is used to produce billboards, brochures, logos, magazines, newspapers, packaging, and
websites.
 include software like Adobe Illustrator, InDesign, and Photoshop; CorelDraw; GIMP;
Inkscape; and Serif Draw plus. When using these tools, graphic designers must make sure
their designs do not infringe on anyone else's copyright and strive to be creative and
original.
 plays a huge role in retail because it conveys a company's brand message. It also gives
companies a way to make their product stand out in stores.
LOGO
 can consist of an image, symbol, and/or text used to represent a business.
 It should convey the intended message to consumers in a meaningful way.
 A logo should also be easily recognizable by consumers and memorable.
 For example, the YouTube logo is simply the name of the company imposed on a bold
graphic to help it stand out.
PACKAGE DESIGN
 must include eye-catching images and/or words that provide consumers with some insight
about the product and help it stand out from its competition. Key elements include a unique
font, bold text, bright images, and color.

GRAPHIC ARTS VISUAL ELEMENTS

1. Line - is any two connected points.
 Line is the path a dot takes as it moves through space and it can have any thickness as
long as it is longer than it is wide.
 Not only can a line be a specifically drawn part of your composition, but it can even be an
implied line where two areas of color or texture meet.
 This means that any shapes you use, even if they are not outlined, are bound by lines.
 A line may be long or short, thick or thin.
 It can also be broken into dots or dashes.
 Lines can be straight but also curved and looping, circling, and surrounding important
elements of a design. In design, lines are often used to divide important areas and surround
elements like text.
A. TYPES OF LINE
a. Vertical Lines: These are perfectly straight lines extending up and down.
b. Horizontal Lines: These are also perfectly straight lines, but they extend side to
side.
c. Diagonal Lines: Again, these are straight lines, but their direction has both a
vertical and a horizontal direction.
d. Curved Lines: These lines bend so that they are not perfectly straight
B. STYLES OF LINE
a. Continuous Lines: These are solid lines drawn from one point to another. They
can be straight or curvy as long as they do not stop and restart at any point.
b. Interrupted Lines: These lines are the opposite of continuous lines. The line's
path still exists from one point or another, but there are gaps in the illustration
along the way. Two common types of interrupted lines are dotted lines and
dashed lines.
 c. Implied Lines: They are lines that are not drawn but exist at the point where one
area of color or texture touches another area of color or texture. Basically, they
exist, but they are more like the lines from your math class where they have
length, but no width at all.
C. Traditional Artistic Use of Lines There are three major ways that artists use lines in their
compositions, often in drawing. These all involve how they construct images from lines.
a. Contour Line Drawing: In this method, lines are used to outline shapes and draw
in details, like a fold in fabric.
b. Gestural Line Drawing: This method uses lines to represent motion. Ever seen a
series of lines behind a running character in a comic book, comic strip, or
cartoon?
c. Hatching and Cross-hatching: This method uses lines for every part of the image.
In hatching, the artist draws a series of parallel lines, creating shading where the
lines are grouped closer together. In crosshatching, the artist draws parallel lines
in one direction and a set of lines perpendicular to the first. Again, where the
lines are closer together, they create shading.
2. Color - creates a sense of emotion or mood.
 Combining bright colors or pastels results in completely different feelings in graphic design.
 Graphic designers will often use contrasting colors to highlight elements, and it's helpful for
them to know a thing or two about color theory, the understanding of how colors relate to
one another and how we see them.
 Designers might also use a color wheel, which shows the colors in relation to each other.
 For example, complementary colors, those opposite each other on the color wheel, create a
very different effect than using pops of neon pink or green against black.
A. Color theory - the understanding of how colors relate to one another and how we see them.
 As a result, colors have lots of psychology associated with them. Graphic designers
learn about color theory, and they use it in their work.
 Another helpful tool for designers is the color wheel, which shows the colors in
relation to each other. The color wheel usually includes 12 hues. A hue is a basic
color without it being darkened or lightened. The hues include the primary colors of
red, blue and yellow; the secondary colors of orange, green and purple (made by
mixing the primary colors); and the tertiary colors, made by mixing primary and
secondary colors. When these colors are used in combinations, different effects can
be created.
B. Colors and Meanings
 Colors tend to have general characteristics that connect them to ideas and traits.
 Warm colors, like red, yellow and orange, are seen to be active, while cool colors like
green and blue are viewed as calm and more passive.
 Graphic designers know these characteristics and use them in their work.
3. Shape – includes geometric figures like squares, circles, and triangles.
 It also includes abstract shapes that don't look like anything in the real world, as well as
more organic or natural-looking shapes.
 For the latter, think of things like leaves or flowers.
 Shapes often use elements like line and color to define their boundaries.
Geometric shapes - are defined by having mathematically precise measurements, lines,
curves, and angles. Basically, these are the shapes we learned in grade school and other
shapes made by combining these in interesting ways.
Organic Shapes - have no regularity or rules defining whether their lines are straight, the arc of
their curves, or even the direction of their curves.
A. Form
 is the three-dimensional development of a two-dimensional shape. For example, a
2D shape like a circle could be transformed into a 3D form like a sphere. - In most
graphic design, the addition of a third dimension is an illusion because we are still
working on a two-dimensional art form.
 The illusion of form is created when we add shading, or other visual aspects, to a
shape to indicate depth.
a. Geometric forms - have uniform properties and proportions that we just cannot
get in nature, making them look manmade. Here are a few of the ideas and/or
feelings express, by some of the basic geometric shapes, to help you decide
when or if you want to use them in a particular design.
 Circle: Circles convey both gentleness and continuity. Lacking angles, they
have no point at which your attention is caught. They also have no clear
beginning or end, so your eyes continue to go around their edges.
 Rectangles: Rectangles, and even squares, represent solidity and stability.
Basically, they seem to convey a sense of seriousness and durability, as well
as sensibility
 Triangles: Triangles express motion, tension, and even aggression. This is
because of their association with arrows for motion, and pointed objects are
often associated with sword points. If they rest on their bases, they can
convey stability, by looking like a mountain, but if they are askew, they
represent instability, as one could imagine them tipping over.
b. Organic Forms
 They appear exactly how a three-dimensional object would look in nature, with
all its irregularities.
 The forms can convey a sense of being natural and relaxed. - However, you
might not want such expression when advertising a construction company, or
computer programming firm, where precision is important.
4. Texture - is interesting surfaces, perhaps with patterns or designs on them or surfaces that
resemble substances like brick or a textile.
 In this case, texture doesn't convey something you touch, but rather the appearance of a
surface.
 Textures can create interesting backgrounds in design
 You'll often see texture incorporated into graphic design through interesting backgrounds.
 Texture is the way the surface of a composition feels or is perceived to feel. - This means
you can create an illusion of texture in the way you place your images or using line and
shading.
 Texture can be a powerful tool to draw a viewer's attention and engage them in many
subconscious ways.
 Certain types of texture can evoke subtle emotional responses, while others excite the
visual senses.
 Texture can be used to create balance and enhance a sense of seriousness or gentleness.
A. Actual texture physical texture, refers to the real tactile properties of a design.
B. Implied texture - also called visual or virtual texture, is the illusion of texture created by
color, lines, shadows, and other elements in your design composition.
5. Value - means the lightness and darkness of a given part of a design.
 Think of how much contrast can be created with areas of white images and letters placed
against a dark black background.
 Effective use of contrasting values can heighten a design's impact.
6. Space - is the idea of where elements are placed on a page or screen.
 An important consideration with regard to space is the idea of negative space, areas that
don't have words or images in them.
 Think of negative spaces as those areas that surround and connect design elements.
 Effective use of negative space can really pull a design together.
A. Real space - is the two-dimensional space on your paper or canvas. These are the real
areas where you add your different objects and elements.
B. Illusory space - is the perception of depth you create by the way you place different objects
in your composition.
 It goes by many different names, but it essentially means that you are making your
design appear to recede into a distance that isn't really there.
 You can do this by making objects smaller and smaller as they recede along a line of
perspective or by blurring objects further in the background where they sit.
C. Positive and Negative Space
a. Positive space - is any part of a composition that serves as the focus for attention. It is
anything you add that is not part of the background. When you have a page of text,
every letter is positive space, but so are areas of text in paragraphs or columns.
 If you cover every part of a page with words, eliminating indentation, spacing,
margins, or space between letters, you have a horrible jumble of positive space.
 You need our next type of space to balance the composition.
b. Negative space - does not refer to anything bad, it just means the empty space around,
and between those positive elements, you added to your composition.
Negative space can be active or passive, depending on how it is applied.
 Passive negative space occurs when a composition is balanced between positive
and negative aspects, often in a symmetrical design.
 Negative space performs vital functions in a composition and can be just as
important as positive spaces.
 It can serve as a background.
 It can frame and contain the positive elements of your design.
 It can highlight connections between objects when they are placed close together
with more negative space around them.
 It can separate objects and disconnect them when they are placed far apart.
 It can reduce clutter and give a tidy, orderly look to a composition.
 It can allow your eye to rest when looking from one object to another in an image.
 It can also enhance the readability of text.
7. Mass - is likely a term you learned in science or math class related to the physical amount
of an object that can be weighed or measured.
 In graphic design, however, mass is a much stranger concept that's somewhat related
to the first definition.
 To give you hint, a more common name for mass in design is visual weight.
 Both terms mean the same thing: the amount of attention an object in a composition
commands from the viewer.
 If you are looking at a painting and cannot tear your eyes away from a part of the
composition, that part can be said to have a lot of mass or visual weight.
8. Balance - one of the principles of graphic design, refers to how you place different objects
so that their visual weight balances along a central line or around a central point.
 Balanced compositions feel complete, even if the viewer has no idea why.
 Without balance, a composition can feel unfinished, arbitrarily assembled, amateurish,
or even immature.
 However, some skilled artists will intentionally create an imbalance to convey feelings of
emptiness and loss.