Design in the Wild
In today’s Design 101 lesson we will learn how to properly view design in the wild! We’ll discover core elements of graphic design, so that we can better look at design (which also happens to be our theme this month!)
If you haven’t already, be sure to sign-up for our #LookatDesign Challenge! Where we are pushing ourselves to share more design based on the design elements and principles- which is what today’s lesson is all about!
Now I know a lot of us are missing our favorite stores right now, I know I’m missing a good old shopping spree at JC Penny!
So I thought, let’s look at some of our favorite stores for examples today!
Elements
Line. Lines are a point moving through space which often draws our eye in a direction. Here the Costco logo moves our eye from the left directly to the word wholesale!
Texture is how things feel or look as if they might be touched. In the Dollar Tree logo the use of lines makes our brain this of a tree and we associate a feeling to this
Space. The emptiness or area around and within objects. The negative or white space between the E and X in Fed-ex actually makes an arrow!
Form is when objects have three dimensions: Height, width, and depth. You can see the dimension in the Toyota logo, as it looks like you could pick it up off the page. This use to be a popular style a few years ago but many designers are creating more flat designs.
Shape . A two dimensional area as seen in the Ikea logo which is made of 2 flat shapes. We see a flat 2D oval and rectangle.
Color. Which is how light reflects off a surface, but this isn’t a science lesson! The Sam’s Club logo uses blue and green shapes overlapped. The center shape is a darker blue which is called a shade. If it were lighter it would be called a tint.
Value is the darkness or lightness of an object. This version of the Apple logo shows a few different values!
Principles
Balance is when there are equalizing elements in a design. Many of us are familiar with symmetrical balance. But, the Walmart logo is an example of asymmetrical balance- even though the word and start are different, they create a sense of equal balance in the design.
Movement. It creates the look and feel of action and to guide the viewer’s eye through the art work. Pet Smart is a great example as those 2 blue shapes and a red circle makes us believe a ball is bouncing and draws our eye across the words!
Emphasis is when a part of the work is dominant. Target, or targee as I like to call it, emphasizes the bulls eye, it’s where your eye goes first- then down to the store name.
Scale: When one part of the design changes in size. Here we can see that HOME is much larger in scale then the other words.
Hierarchy: Jamie LOVES talking about this one. It is when the design elements show an order of importance. Here our eye goes to the word whole as it stands out with the leaf poking out, then to foods, and last in the hierarchy is the smaller sans serif word- market.
