This document discusses the elements of graphic design. It begins by defining graphic design as a carrier of meaning and the importance of white space. It then outlines the main elements graphic designers work with, including line, tone, shape, texture, size, direction, color, and space. The document details each element and provides examples. It explains the main steps in the design process and how to blend the elements through principles such as balance, proportion, sequence, unity, simplicity, and contrast/emphasis. Different layout styles are presented and the importance of studying design to get ideas is emphasized.

1. Communication via Printed Media
7. The Elements of Graphic
Design
Hasan Hüseyin Erkaya
Eskişehir Osmangazi Üniversitesi
2019
1Source: A. White, The Elements of Graphic Design, Space, Unity, Page Architecture, and Type, New York: Allworth Press, 2002

2. 7. The Elements of Graphic Design
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3. 7. The Elements of Graphic Design
• “Graphic design has become such a central part of our
Post-modern visual language that it has developed
into a carrier of meaning at least as significant as the
words and images it is presenting. For this reason
Post-modern white space becomes a very significant
void.”
– Keith Robertson in Looking Closer: Critical Writings on Graphic
Design
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4. 7. The Elements of Graphic Design
• Design – whether graphic, industrial, interior, or architecture – is the process of
taking unrelated parts and putting them together into an organized unit. Each
discipline works with solids and voids, and each must respond to three
questions:
– What are the elements I have to work with?
– Where do these elements go?
– What structure is necessary so they go together?
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5. 7. The Elements of Graphic Design
Main steps of design
1. Define the problem you have been given.
This is usually a redefinition because what you have been given is
an apparent problem.
The redefinition must focus on the real issues.
The redefinition process must clarify for you how to handle the
material; if not, you haven’t redefined the problem accurately
enough.
2. Know the material.
Digest it fully. At the very least, read it.
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6. 7. The Elements of Graphic Design Main steps of design
3. Distill the essential from the mass of confusing muchness. Nothing
may be missing, and nothing may be extraneous. This is the
definition of elegance.
4. Abstract the main point so its importance to the reader is clear and it
is eye-catching. A message that doesn’t first stop readers is ignored
often.
5. Unify all elements so they don’t outshout each other. Shouting at
readers doesn’t provide a solution or an explanation or an
expression of importance to their interests and needs. Clear,
predigested content does.
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7. 7. The Elements of Graphic Design
The Raw Ingredients of graphic design:
1. Line
• Line can be straight or curved, heavy or
light, smooth, rough, broken, actual or
implied.
• Line conveys a mood:
horizontal, calm;
vertical, height and strength;
diagonal, action and vitality;
curved, graceful and beautiful.
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https://zevendesign.com/mood-lines-giving-designs-attitude/
Source: Manny Romero, Creativity in Print, Northern Arizona University, no date

8. 7. The Elements of Graphic Design The Raw Ingredients
2. Tone and Shape
• Solid blacks or grays are the tones
that provide contrast to lines in the
design.
• The grays may be either shapes of
type areas or halftone photos.
• Shape is also determined by the
overall dimensions of the publication.
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9. 3. Texture
• The design has texture if the tonal area
has a discernible pattern, either even
or rough.
• The paper itself provides texture, so
texture involves the reader’s sense of
touch as well as sight.
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7. The Elements of Graphic Design The Raw Ingredients

10. 7. The Elements of Graphic Design The Raw Ingredients
4. Size
• Elements of the design will be of varying
sizes.
• The largest elements usually have the most
impact.
• The larger something is, the more important
it is. It is the first thing the eye will see and
thus, by implication, the most important
thing to look at.
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11. 7. The Elements of Graphic Design The Raw Ingredients
5. Direction
• Lines and forms have tendency to
point, even to move.
• One of your main jobs as a designer is
to control direction of eye movement.
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12. 7. The Elements of Graphic Design The Raw Ingredients
6. Color
• An expensive ingredient, but eye-catching
and strong.
• Color adds the magic element to a design.
• It represents a common language of
communication.
• Each color has a mood, an emotion and a
level of significance: warm or cool, hard or
soft, light or dark, passive or active.
• Color paper stock or single color ink (instead
of black) can give the impression of full color.
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13. 7. The Elements of Graphic Design The Raw Ingredients
7. Space (also known as white space, negative space)
• The element that holds the other elements
together
• Space emphasizes direction
• Space can imply motion
• Space connects pages
• Space helps in creating unity
• Provides elbowroom or breathing distance
• Prevents overcrowding
• Adds elegance to design
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14. 7. The Elements of Graphic Design The Raw Ingredients
8. Type
• Provides information in written form
• Many type styles available to suit the mood
• Should be in harmony with page layout
• Kinetic typography possible
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15. 7. The Elements of Graphic Design
Blending the Ingredients
• A page would have some of the ingredients.
• The ingredients are placed observing
balance, proportion, sequence, unity,
simplicity, contrast and emphasis.
• Creativity plays major role in design.
• Creativity may be inherited or acquired and
must constantly be nourished—through
reading, research and experimentation.
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16. 7. The Elements of Graphic Design Blending the Ingredients
Balance
• You work with optical weights.
• Optical center of a page is not the
geometrical center– it is about 1/3 of the
page from the top.
• Big items weigh more then small ones;
dark, more than light;
color, more than black & white;
unusual shapes, more than usual shapes.
• And because it is unusual, a large
concentration of white space can also be
“heavy.”
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17. 7. The Elements of Graphic Design Blending the Ingredients
Balance
• Through formal (symmetrical) balance each item on
one side of the paper is repeated—in size or shape—
on the other side.
Elements form a mirror image on either side of the
imaginary center line.
It’s workable, has a look of dignity, but is sometimes
unimaginative.
• More challenging is informal (asymmetrical). balance.
Consider an adult and a child on a teeter-totter. If the
adult moves far enough toward the fulcrum, and the
child far enough out, their weighs will be balanced. A
designer may use this example to move optical
weights into a visually pleasing pattern.
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18. 7. The Elements of Graphic Design Blending the Ingredients
Balance
• The third type of balance is overall (mosaic) balance.
Usually the result of too much being forced on a page.
Overall balance lacks hierarchy and meaningful contrast.
It is easy for this type of organization to look "noisy."
For that reason, some elements should be placed elsewhere or
deleted.
• To check balance, squint at the layout, view it upside down, or
hold it to a mirror to see in reverse.
• Just be sure to not let the principle of balance become a
straightjacket. Don’t be overly concerned
• A layout is balanced when it looks balanced.
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19. 7. The Elements of Graphic Design Blending the Ingredients
Proportion
• It is the size relationship of one part of the design to another.
• Best proportion: "Golden Mean,'' approximately 3:5 ratio.
• Most page sizes are based on this ratio. It's more interesting and
less monotonous than a simple 1:1 ratio (perfect square).
• To get pleasing proportions, arrange spaces so the eye does not
perceive obvious mathematical relationships.
• Avoid dividing the layout in halves, quarters or thirds.
• One way is to use fifths: The top three-fifths can be used for art,
such as a large picture or drawing; the bottom two- fifths could be
headline, copy, logo and white space.
• Unequal dimensions and distances make for the most lively graphic
design.
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20. 7. The Elements of Graphic Design Blending the Ingredients
Sequence
• You must lead the reader through your layout in a logical order.
• Our eyes normally read from left to right and top to bottom, from big
items to small, black to white, color to noncolor, and from unusual
shape to usual shape.
• You can place the items in the path of normal eye movement, or
you can blaze new trails, marking them clearly so the reader won't
wander off.
• With this in mind, you may start eye travel from anywhere in the
layout, then direct it to the left, right, down, even up.
• You can also direct the reader through use of lines (real or implied).
When using pictures of people, remember that readers will look in
the direction a photo subject is facing. This is called gaze motion, so
be sure to have picture subjects looking into the layout rather than
out of it.
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21. 7. The Elements of Graphic Design Blending the Ingredients
Unity
• This is perhaps the most important design principle.
• All the elements in your layout must fit together and appear to be
related.
• Unity (or harmony) keeps your layout from falling apart.
• One way to achieve unity is to push white space to the outside of
the layout. This avoids ''trapping'' white space in the center, which
can give the layout an exploded look because elements are
scattered in all directions.
• Keep your interior margins (the space between artwork, headlines,
body copy and other elements) consistent.
• Don't worry about the exterior margins. In fact, white space at the
edges of the layout should be irregular in shape
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22. 7. The Elements of Graphic Design Blending the Ingredients
Simplicity
• Make your designs simple.
• The reader will not take the time to hunt and browse for your
meaning.
• In photography, the simple picture communicates best; in layout and
design, the same holds true.
• Resist the temptation to include more elements if they do not
positively add more to the final product.
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23. 7. The Elements of Graphic Design Blending the Ingredients
Contrast (Emphasis)
• Achieve emphasis by making one item larger than all the others to
give it dominance.
• One way to do this is to single it out—move it away from the clutter
of other elements. You can make its shape different from the others,
or make it bigger, bolder, more colorful.
• Keep this in mind: All emphasis is no emphasis. You should not
allow more than one element in the layout to vie for primary
attention.
• When several items get equal billing, emphasis is cancelled out.
• Looking beyond the principles, remember that they are not hard and
fast rules. The challenge lies in knowing when to stress one
principle or when to stress another. Obviously, they can't all be
applied equally,
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24. 7. The Elements of Graphic Design Blending the Ingredients
The Mondrian layout divides the spread
into rectangles of varying size and
shape.
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25. 7. The Elements of Graphic Design Blending the Ingredients
Elements in a Column layout fit within
predetermined column widths, except
elements that bleed—extend out to the
margins.
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26. 7. The Elements of Graphic Design Blending the Ingredients
A Mosaic layout is characterized by a
single dominant element—usually a photo
or illustration. All other elements are
smaller in size and cluster around the
major element.
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27. 7. The Elements of Graphic Design Blending the Ingredients
In an Oriented Iayout, each element
aligns horizontally or vertically with at
least one other element.
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28. 7. The Elements of Graphic Design Blending the Ingredients
Getting ideas
• To get design ideas, study various printed materials.
• Take a good close look at newspapers, magazines, booklets,
brochures, leaflets and folders.
• You can also collect examples of printed materials and keep them in
an "idea file.'' Refer to the file frequently for inspiration and to help
break designers block.
• As you search for designs to collect, be critical, be discriminating.
• If you find a design pleasing and effective, what makes it effective?
If it's not, why not?
• Once you develop a critical eye for graphic design, you're well on
your way toward becoming an effective communicator through the
printed page.
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Thanks for your attention
Hasan Hüseyin Erkaya
Eskişehir Osmangazi University
March 2019
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