I often associate a strong sense of balance with yoga. When you do balance poses like tree, you have to make sure you are well grounded, otherwise you’ll topple over! You also have to maintain a sense of strength in your core and pushing your foot against your leg helps you offset having your leg turned out to the side.
Balance in design is the same way. The balance of a piece is like the underlying structure, the core, than supports the rest of the design.
As you read, notice the uses of the elements and principles of design. See how balance depends on them and helps create and support other principles.
I bet you would love to make over $10,000 per month doing what you love and only working a few hours a day. Yaro Starak’s Blog Mastermind mentor program will teach you what you need to know to make that a reality.
I usually am very strict about sticking to the subject of graphic design on this blog, but I wanted to share a little bit about the Blog Mastermind program. Yaro Starak opened his mentor program to the public again just today.
I participated in the Blog Mastermind program the very first time Yaro offered it a year ago.
Last week I told you about the letterpress class I’m taking. Well this week was my first time to print on the press! It was a ton of fun! I’ll show you a couple of pictures of me actually printing on a Vandercook 4 and as a little bonus, get a peek at my progress on restoring a Vandercook SP15.
The elements and principles of design are two distinct categories of theories, building blocks and practices that make up the discipline of design. They give us a common language so that we can effectively discuss and critique designs. They also aid us in the design process because the principles and elements of design give us a guide or a standard to reference when we feel our design is lacking.
I have a sticky note that I keep tacked up next to my monitor that lists the elements and principles and two questions:
* How do each affect the mood?
* How do each contribute to the message and the delivery of that message?
Design theory is nice, but studying practical application is much more useful! Styles and moods are created using the elements of design, but sometimes it can be difficult to zero in on exactly what you need.
What specifically dictates the look of a style? Knowing or being able to figure out why a design radiates a particular mood will help you either guide a design towards that look or steer it away. I’ve had many times when I’ve done a logo that just looks too childish and at first I can’t pinpoint exactly why. There have been other times when I want a distinctly Renaissance look, but my art elements just don’t quite make it. Let’s take a look at what elements these designs have in common that gives them their juvenile appeal.
As many of you know I’m taking a letter press printing class! So far it’s a lot of fun, but we haven’t even gotten to the printing part yet. The first week we watched the instructor print some cards. We saw how the C&P inked itself (it’s automatic and runs on a motor) and then watched as she set up the job. The second week is when we finally got to do some hands on work! Yay!
I’ve been doing quite a bit of original creative recently and it’s been helpful to have tons of design resources. Thanks mostly to blogs like Inspiration Bit, David Airey (and Logo Design Love), iLT, Just Creative Design and Smashing Magazine, I’ve found some great inspiration for my work. I thought maybe you all could benefit from a fairly comprehensive list of creative inspiration, too!
