Ravi Bhadauria gave a presentation at ADMEC Multimedia Institute on design principles for digital designers. He discussed key elements of design like line, shape and color. He explained principles of gestalt theory and how it relates to visual perception. Some principles covered included proximity, similarity, continuity and past experiences. Bhadauria also discussed using techniques like contrast, repetition and alignment. He emphasized the importance of managing visual weight and direction to create hierarchy and flow. Students were assigned projects applying the principles to blogs, infographics or web templates.

1. A Workshop by Ravi Bhadauria at ADMEC Multimedia Institute
A Must for All Digital Designers
www.admecindia.co.in

2. ADMEC MULTIMEDIA INSTITUTE
Leader in Animation & Digital Media Education
ISO 9001 : 2008 CERTIFIED
www.admecindia.co.in | www.graphic-design-institute.com
Phones: +91-9811-8181-22, +91-9911-7823-50
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A Presentation by: Ravi Bhadauria

3. Preface & Acknowledgment
Dear Reader,
ADMEC Multimedia Institute is a growing institute which provides industry oriented training to
the world at large. Being a multimedia institute we offer training for designing content for the
advertising and publishing on various medias also.
This presentation is one of the best presentations from our study material for our weekly
workshops which ADMEC conducts every week at the center. We want to share this with the
world so that everyone can take benefits from our efforts.
This presentation contains points helpful in my lecture on “Design Principles for Digital
Designers” in the classroom.
We express thanks to many books and websites, specially Google for making it one of the
best presentations of all the time.
Thanks
Ravi Bhadauria, Instructor (Web and Visual Designing)
Director ADMEC Multimedia Institute
http://www.admecindia.co.in

4. What are you going to learn today?
● Why principles of design are very important?
● Essential design elements
● Common design principles
● Gestalt design principles of visual perception
● Space and the figure-ground relationship
● Use of Contrast and Similarity in designs
● Visual weight and direction
● Projects
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The Design Principles
are proven concepts
useful to arrange the
structural elements of
a design.

6. Elements of Design
Design elements are the basic units of a painting, drawing,
design or other visual piece and include:
● Line
● Shape
● Direction
● Size
● Texture
● Value
● Space
● Text
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7. Elements of Design

8. Elements of Design

9. Elements of Design

11. Principles of Design
The most intrinsic principles are:
● Balance
● Gradation
● Proportion
● Rhythm
● Emphasis
● Unity or Proximity
● Repetition
● Contrast
● Alignment
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13. Principles of Design
The descriptive principles of how we
visually perceive objects begins with the
principles of gestalt, because many of the
design principles we follow arise out of
gestalt theory.
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The gestalt principles
are about perception
and what is visually
communicated by
objects.

15. Gestalt Theory
The Key Ideas Behind Gestalt Theory
There are several key ideas behind gestalt.
● Emergence (the whole is identified before the parts)
● Reification (our mind fills in the gaps)
● Multi-stability (the mind seeks to avoid uncertainty)
●
Invariance (we’re good at recognizing similarities and differences)
“The whole is other than
the sum of the parts.”

16. Gestalt Theory
Emergence (the whole is
identified before the parts)
Emergence is the process of forming
complex patterns from simple rules.
When designing, keep in mind that
people will identify elements first by
their general form. A simple well
defined object will communicate
more quickly than a detailed object
with a hard to recognize contour.
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17. Gestalt Theory
Emergence (the whole is identified before the parts)
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18. Gestalt Theory
Reification (our mind fills in the gaps)
Reification is an aspect of perception in which the object as
perceived contains more spatial information than what is
actually present.
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19. Gestalt Theory
Multi-stability (the mind seeks to
avoid uncertainty)
Multi-stability is the tendency of
ambiguous perceptual experiences
to move unstably back and forth
between alternative interpretations.
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20. Gestalt Theory
Invariance (we’re good at recognizing similarities and differences)
Invariance is a property of perception in which simple objects are recognized
independent of their rotation, translation and scale.
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21. Gestalt Theory
Invariance

22. Gestalt Principles
1. Law of Simplicity
(Law of Prägnanz)
2. Closure
3. Symmetry and order
4. Figure/Ground
5. Uniform Connectedness
6. Common Regions
7. Proximity
8. Continuation
9. Common Fate
10. Parallelism
11. Similarity
12. Focal Point
13. Past Experiences

23. Gestalt Principles
Law of Prägnanz
(Good Figure, Law of Simplicity)
“People will perceive and
interpret ambiguous or
complex images as the
simplest form(s) possible.”

24. Gestalt Principles
Law of Prägnanz
(Good Figure, Law of Simplicity)

25. Gestalt Principles
Law of Prägnanz
(Good Figure, Law of Simplicity)

26. Gestalt Principles
Closure
“When seeing a complex arrangement of elements, we tend
to look for a single, recognizable pattern.”

27. Gestalt Principles
Symmetry and Order
“People tend to perceive objects as symmetrical shapes that
form around their center.”

28. Gestalt Principles
Figure/ Ground
“Elements are perceived as either figure (the element in
focus) or ground (the background on which the figure rests).”

29. Gestalt Principles
Uniform Connectedness
“Elements that are visually connected are perceived as more
related than elements with no connection.”

30. Gestalt Principles
Common Regions
“Elements are perceived as part of a group if they are located
within the same closed region.”

31. Gestalt Principles
Proximity
“Objects that are closer together are perceived as more
related than objects that are further apart.”

32. Gestalt Principles
Continuation
“Elements arranged on a line or curve are perceived as more
related than elements not on the line or curve.”

33. Gestalt Principles
Common Fate (Synchrony)
“Elements that move in the same direction are perceived as
more related than elements that are stationary or that move
in different directions.”

34. Gestalt Principles
Parallelism
“Elements that are parallel to each other are seen as more
related than elements not parallel to each other.”

35. Gestalt Principles
Similarity
“Elements that are visually connected are perceived as more
related than elements with no connection.”

36. Gestalt Principles
Focal Points
“Elements with a point of interest, emphasis or difference will
capture and hold the viewer’s attention.”

37. Gestalt Principles
Past Experiences
“Elements tend to be perceived according to an observer’s
past experience.”

38. Space and Figure-Ground Relationship
If you see graphic design as a process of arranging shapes on a canvas,
then you’re only seeing half of what you work with. The negative space
of the canvas is just as important as the positive elements that we
place on the canvas.
Design is an arrangement of both shapes and space. To work more
effectively with space, you must first become aware of it and learn to
see it — learn to see the shapes that space forms and how space
communicates.
“White space is to be regarded as an active element, not a passive
background.”

39. Space and Figure-Ground Relationship

40. Space and Figure-Ground Relationship
What is the depth?

41. Space and Figure-Ground Relationship
What is the depth?

42. Space and Figure-Ground Relationship
There are three types of figure-ground relationships:
● Stable (down left)
● Reversible (down center)
● Ambiguous (down right)

43. Space and Figure-Ground Relationship
Figure-ground is not the only gestalt principle in which space plays a
prominent role. Two others are these:
● Proximity
● Closure

44. Space As A Design Element
Space can do the following:
● establish contrast, emphasis and hierarchy;
● generate drama and tension;
● provide visual rest between groups of elements.
One of the more important functions of space is to improve readability
and legibility. Macro-space makes text more inviting. Micro-space
makes it more legible.
● Micro-space
● Macro-space

45. Space As A Design Element
Space can also convey attributes other than quality, such as:
● sophistication,
● simplicity,
● luxury,
● cleanliness,
● solitude,
● Openness.
Design is ultimately an arrangement of shapes, and that includes the
shapes formed by space. Don’t be afraid to use space. View it as an
important design element under your control.

46. Connecting and Separating Elements
Through Contrast & Similarity
A few characteristics, however, are most often used to show similarity
and contrast. In no particular order, these are:
● size
● shape
● color
● value
● texture
● position
● orientation

47. Connecting and Separating Elements
Through Contrast & Similarity
Contrast and Gestalt
● Figure-ground
● Focal points

48. Connecting and Separating Elements
Through Contrast & Similarity
Similarity and Gestalt
● Closure
● symmetry and order
● uniform connectedness
● common regions
● Proximity
● Continuation
● common fate
● parallelism

49. Visual Weight and Direction
Every element in design have a visual force that attracts the attention
of the readers. The greater the force, the more the user is attracted.
These forces also appear to act on other elements, imparting a visual
direction to their potential movement and suggesting where you should
look next.
We refer to this force as visual weight and to the perceived direction of
visual forces as visual direction. Both are important concepts to
understand if you want to create hierarchy, flow, rhythm and balance in
your composition.

50. Visual Weight and Direction
Visual Weight

51. Visual Weight and Direction
Visual Direction

52. Visual Weight and Direction
How Do You Measure Visual Weight?
Although there is no device to measure it yet you can use your experice to manage
and judge it. Followings are few feature to manage it.
● Size
● Color
● Value
● Position
● Texture
● Shape
● Orientation

53. Visual Weight and Direction
How Do You Measure Visual Weight?
You don’t have to limit yourself to the primitive features above. You can use additional
characteristics to control visual weight.
● Density
● Local white space
● Intrinsic interest
● Depth
● Saturation
● Perceived physical weight

54. Visual Weight and Direction
Visual Weight and Gestalt
● Figure-ground
● Proximity
● Similarity and contrast
● Focal point
● Past experience

55. Visual Weight and Direction
Visual Direction
You can think of direction as real or imaginary lines that point from one
element to another or that connect different elements. The lines don’t
need to be visible.
If visual weight is about attracting the eye to a particular location, then
visual direction is about leading the eye to the next location.
Some useful characteristics to manage the visual direction.
● Shape of elements
● Location of elements
● Subject matter of elements
● Movement
● Structural skeleton

56. Visual Weight and Direction
Visual Direction and Gestalt
● Uniform connectedness
● Continuation
● Common fate
● Parallelism

57. Visual Weight and Direction
The Overall Direction of a Composition
One more concept of visual direction is that every composition will be
seen to have a dominant direction, whether horizontal, vertical or
diagonal.
● A horizontal direction makes the composition appear calm and
stable.
● A vertical direction adds a sense of formality, alertness and balance.
● A diagonal direction suggests movement and action.

58. Projects of the class
● Create a blog/ presentation/ infographic on the topics which you
learnt today in my class and submit to me at info@admecindia.co.in
in 7 days.
● Design a poster/ web template which follows all the design
principles and processes which we discussed in last 8 classes of
visual designing.
Thanks
ADMEC Multimedia Institute
www.admecindia.co.in
+91-9811-8181-22, +91-9911-7823-50

60. Helpline 1: +91 9811-8181-22
Helpline 2: +91 9911-7823-50
URL: http://www.admecindia.co.in
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