Creative Curio

Not consciously taking control of the element of value to your designs is like using a flashlight at noon. Its full potential is utterly wasted!

What is Value?

Value is the relative lightness or darkness of an object. It is the difference between shadow and highlight, and all the midtones in between. Value is not the same as color, though value can be used to “color” an image. Black and white photography is a perfect example. It’s not any less appealing because there is no color!

How to Add Value to Your Designs

Value can be used to create…

•  Mood
•  Interest
•  Emphasize
•  Depth
•  Movement

Value Creates the Mood

Value is probably easiest way to create a mood out of all the elements. If the design has shades all towards the white end of the spectrum, the mood will be happy and light-hearted, the subjects will be perceived as pure, innocent and gentle. Think of how fairies or angels are portrayed in paintings. They always have a heavenly radiance about them.

Conversely, you must’ve seen those film noirs where the main character is standing under a street lamp at night. Even if you can’t recall an exact image, you can picture it in your mind (or just look above!), a dark street with a single lamp lit and a black silhouette loitering in its glow. There is a lot of contrast between light and dark, it’s almost a purely black and white—as in no grey—image. It’s dramatic and foreboding, some impending doom or destruction is coming.

Create Interest with Value

In many black and white portraits, increasing the contrast between the highlights and shadows makes the image more dramatic and interesting. Which image to the right do you find more intriguing, the first one, with little difference in value, or the second one, where the shadows and highlights are more exaggerated?

The Best Way to Emphasize

A white subject on a black background or a black subject on a white background will stand out infinitely more than a grey subject on either a white or black background. Our eyes naturally pick up on variances in value and assign meaning to objects that contrast significantly with their surroundings. You can also see how we use value to emphasize if you think about the members of a wedding party. Who stands out the most? The bride! She’s in white while most of the time the groom is in a black tux.

The strength of an image can be greatly affected by its value. If you take bold, black words and put them against a white background, the tone of the piece is very strong and forceful. Take those same words, make them a lighter shade and put them against the white background and suddenly they’re subdued and delicate.

How Depth is Realistically Created

Value is by far the easiest way to create depth and add realism in a design. As something fades from white to black, the eye sees that object as having three dimensional characteristics. You see this circle as being round because of the gradient. It is really just a flat circle with a radial gradient, nothing more.

Guiding the Audience

Value can guide an audience towards a focal point, similar to the concept of value emphasizing an object. If lines gradate from black to white towards something, our eyes are going to follow that progression towards the white. A smart designer would place the object of most importance where those lines converge.

Value is Relative

Above we defined value as the relative lightness or darkness of an object. The relativity of value comes into play when you consider the background. Usually value is thought of in varying degrees of black. But if you’re background is black, then whatever you add must be in degrees of white.

Harness the Power of Value

Next time you design a piece, ask yourself if you’ve purposefully used value to create a mood, interest, emphasis, depth and movement. Don’t just let the value happen in your designs. You have the ability to manipulate value to take your designs to a new level.

Technorati Tags: Design, Graphic Design, Value, Elements of Design

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