Shapes are at the root of graphic design. They are figures and forms that make up logos, illustrations, and countless other elements in all types of designs.

Shapes are one of the basic elements of graphic design and you have a great variety of shapes to choose from. There are three basic types of shapes:

• Geometric shapes
• Organic shapes
• Abstract shapes

Geometric shapes are your basic squares, rectangles, circles, triangles, etc. These typically include sharp corners but may have rounded elements. The most common geometric shapes are:

• Squares and rectangles
• Circles
• Triangles
• Diamonds

Organic Shapes

Abstract Shapes

Using Shapes in Your Designs

When working on a design, again consider both the shapes you’re deliberately incorporating (the positive shapes), and the shapes naturally formed around those shapes (the negative shapes).

ALIGNMENT

Think of alignment like an invisible axis that runs between elements, connecting them visually either by their edges or centers.

Alignment most frequently comes up in design discussions about text and typography, but it’s equally important to consider the alignment of non-text elements when building a balanced, orderly composition.

The example above illustrates uniform edge and center alignment—but that doesn’t mean all the elements in your composition always have to follow a single pattern of alignment. In the image below, you can see the elements are aligned by their edges, but not united by a single axis.

CONTRAST

Contrast refers to the juxtaposition of elements that strongly differ (big vs. small, light vs. dark, etc.) to create visual interest or draw attention to particular elements.

Without contrast, our designs aren’t just lackluster and boring to look at, they’re also difficult to understand. A lack of contrast is often what separates mediocre design work from designs that look professional, polished, and clear.

SPACE

Space is exactly what it sounds like: the empty areas between elements in your design. When it comes to creating professional-looking designs on your own, sometimes what you don’t include is just as important as what you do.

Space can be used to both separate and connect elements in a design. Wider spaces separate elements from each other and narrower spaces connect elements to reveal relationships between them. Overlapping elements maximizes their relationship.

By controlling and shaping space in our designs, we create rhythm, direction, and motion. We create design flow through our use of space.

Whitespace does three main things in a design.

1. Creates groupings of elements
2. Creates emphasis and hierarchy
3. Improves legibility

When working on a design, consider not only the elements you’re including (such as images and text), but how they’re arranged and grouped in the composition. It can be tempting to fill every inch of your digital canvas with something, but try to give your elements some room to breathe.

TYPOGRAPHY/FONTS

The Basics

Your first concern is choosing a font that matches the message or purpose of your design. Before you ever start browsing through fonts that are available, it would be a good idea to brainstorm some of the qualities or characteristics that you want your design to communicate.

That way when you’re choosing a font, you already have a blueprint that you can match up your font with. This is important because every typeface has its own mood or personality. Maybe it’s serious, casual, playful, or elegant. You’ll need to determine what a particular font is saying to you, and whether that fits with your design.

If the characteristics the font is communicating don’t match the message of your overall design, then there will be a visual disconnect for the viewers or users of your design, and you don’t want that. When browsing fonts, it can be easy to get caught up in all the fun and interesting choices, but don’t let personal preferences get in the way; a font you think is distinctive or stylish may not be useful or appropriate for the project you’re working on.

If you find yourself getting off track, just ask yourself this question: Does this font support the qualities of the brand or compliment the purpose of my design? The most effective font choices do just that.

Combining Fonts

Choosing two or more fonts to use together can be tricky. You want the fonts to compliment each other, but not be too similar — different, but not so wildly different that they clash. Avoiding these extremes of too little or too much contrast often ends up being a process of experimentation and trial-and-error.

Finding a font combination with a level of contrast isn’t a step-by-step process, but is usually the result of a mashup of personal taste, practice, instinct, and observation. But this process doesn’t have to be completely mysterious. While you’re developing an eye for pairing fonts, you can take a few shortcuts to get started:

• Find a shared quality: Fonts that look significantly different but share something in common are more likely to work well together. That quality might be general proportions like letter height or width, or two fonts might share an underlying structure or skeleton. Even if the similarity is subtle, it will help give your font combination a basic cohesion.
• Give each font a job: your chosen fonts will need to be different enough that they create a clear visual hierarchy — showing viewers where to look and what’s important. One sans-serif and one serif font are often enough to do this effectively.

Font Weights

You will also want to consider using different font weights together. For example you can use the same font but the top sentence is light and the bottom sentence is bold or together in the same sentence.

COMPOSITION

Finally, after pairing all of these concepts together we get the final composition. Train your eye to see how everything fits together. Your various assets should relate to each other in one cohesive image and message.

Some additional elements of composition to consider are:

Dominance and Emphasis

While you can talk about emphasizing one thing or another, the element of emphasis has more to do with an object, color, or style dominating another for a heightened sense of contrast. Contrast is intriguing, and it creates a focal point.

Balance

There are two schools of balance: symmetry and asymmetry. While most designers, artists, and creative folks much prefer asymmetry for its eye-catching nature, symmetry does have its place.

Harmony

Harmony is “The main goal of graphic design,” according to Alex White, author of “The Elements of Graphic Design.” Harmony is what you get when all the pieces work together. Nothing should be superfluous. Great design is just enough and never too much. Make sure all the details work with one another before you consider the project complete.

CONCLUSION

Design is a complicated business full of principles, tricks, and techniques, some of which you can learn from others, and some of which you have to learn on your own.

Take every “rule” you read about with a grain of salt and apply it where it feels appropriate, but abandon the rules whenever you feel they are not relevant. Design is a constantly evolving and changing field and each situation is different, unique, and exciting.

For the beginners among us, keep these principles in mind. Whenever you’re out and about, take note of social media, television, posters, menus, and signs you see, and try to identify which principles it uses and how it uses them. Develop a “design eye” and keep a mental (or physical) record of interesting ways to use these techniques and store that away for a rainy day.

Overall, have fun with it. Play, experiment, but do it with purpose and care. Good luck!

When you hire Oozle Media to fill your digital marketing needs, you gain access to our graphic designers who can create custom artwork that keeps your brand current and competitive in your marketplace. You can contact us anytime online, or call us at 877-986-6529!