The basic elements of graphic design are the building blocks of creating a staggering graphic design composition that gives your viewers a jaw-dropping visual experience. Without these elements in place and not applied properly, your designs will be boring and they will assume you to be one big loser.
But guess what? I bet you ain’t a loser that’s why you are here and eager to know the basic elements and also the principles of graphic design that will help create compositions that are visually appealing.
Without much ado, let’s explain these various graphic design elements:
- Color
- Image
- Typography
- Line
- Shape
- Texture
- Form
- Value
- Size
Color
Color to us is Life, without color around us everything would be meaningless and we won’t be able to tell how things around us feel visually. Color helps us to tell ripe from unripe, know when the traffic light turns from green to red, informs us about danger, highway signs and so many more you can think of. It’s amazing when you realize how everything around us has color on them.
Since we know color to be an essential part of life, graphic design isn’t an exception. Infact without color, graphic design would be lifeless. With color, we are able to set moods, influence clients’ purchases, draw attention to elements, and also enforce a brand identity.
Just in case you need a refresher on how to make use of color in your brand and marketing strategy, here is our post on how to stand out using color
Millions of recognized brands already exist and millions of brands are born every day, unfortunately not all survive the test of time. Most of them sink even before they set sail.
With this in mind, both the big and small brands are tirelessly looking for ways to make their brand stand out from so many other competitors in their niche.
They want the client or customers to come to them instead of going to their competitors, and the best clever tactics to help steal their customer’s hearts and turn them into brand loyalists by influencing them with color psychology.
Color is one of the most important basic elements of graphic design that must be applied to help every design flourish. Whether you specialize in UI/UX, brand identity design, web design, motion design, publication, environmental design, etc.
You must need color to be able to pass your message across to the viewers effectively. Amongst others, color helps to create contrast, visual hierarchy, and focal point, influence customer emotional response towards your product and services, and is also an element for brand recognition.
Color has various components that help it appear in various levels of values and shades which is the very reason why we are able to make endless varieties out of just one color.
When the values of these values are adjusted, we get different tones from just one color. These are the various component of color:
Hue
I know you have come across this term time after time, Hue is basically the same as color but with a subtle difference.
But here is their interesting difference. Hue is one of the 3 components that make a color. Hue only defines the primary color which is then altered to create different kinds of colors. When a primary hue like blue is altered in value or saturation, we can get different shades from it.
If a blue is adjusted in value or saturation we could get resulting colors like cyan, navy, turquoise, aqua, midnight blue, sky blue, royal blue, and aquamarine.
Value
Value is is the amount of darkness or lightness that a color has. This is why the more darkness in an image, the darker the image becomes, the more lightness found in an image, the brighter the image becomes. This is practically present in a black-and-white photo.
Saturation
This is how much richness, purity, or intensity a color has in an image. The more saturated color is in an image the more intense the image appears. Be careful to use too much saturation on the image unless it’s for deliberate intent. If not, you will be causing an eyesore for the viewer
Image
They said a picture tells a thousand words. This is true because the imagery in graphic design is a fundamental design element that tells stories and enhances the message the designer is trying to convey.
Imagery further explains an idea in a visually interesting way, we can find this in graphic items like infographics. Imagery oftentimes makes sense to the viewer when it is supported by texts.
A standalone image keeps the reader in a confused state unless it is deliberately made for that kind of style, but with text, the information becomes fun to understand.
There are various types of imagery:
- Graphic
- Illustration
- Drawing
- Photographs
Graphic
Graphic refers to the use of graphical elements such as shapes, lines, colors, and textures to create visual interest and communicate a message. These graphical elements can be used to create logos, posters, advertisements, websites, and other visual media.
In graphic design, graphic imagery is often used to convey information quickly and effectively. For example, a simple graphic image can communicate a complex idea in a way that is easy to understand and remember.
Graphic imagery can also be used to create a distinctive brand identity or to capture the attention of potential customers.
Illustration
Illustration gives a more personal touch to imagery in a composition. It gives your work or composition a certain type of bespoke touch. the idea of an illustration could be a reference from a real-world environment or could absolutely be abstract.
As a graphic designer, you could make use of fantasy as an idea to convey the intended message.
Drawing
Drawing is artistic traditionally the style of graphic prehistoric humans who lived thousands of years ago, they used drawing as a form of conveying messages or telling stories in their caves. This kind of imagery connects personally to them as a result of personal experience with their environment.
Nowadays, graphic designers use it as a graphic design element to create components for branding and product packaging. drawing compared to other forms of visual art. It gives an organic feel to whatever package or brand component it is applied on, making it feel more natural and down to earth.
Photographs
Photographs are authentic and realistic imagery of an item or individual used in a composition. It is most times made up of photographs of an individual, animate or inanimate item from the real world taken by a camera. This could be photographs of humans, nature, vehicles, etc.
It is the most popularly used type of imagery in a design composition. A stock image is an example, it is used to give a better representation of the information in the design.
Imagery is an effective element of graphic design designers use to convey their ideas to viewers. However, the downside of the stock image is its rampant usage by millions of graphic designers.
Oftentimes you find a free stock image of a man in a suit throwing money in the air used for representing financial success, or a handsome bearded black man holding a package used for representation logistics and package delivery.
They are excessively overused for graphic design projects. For a reputable graphic designer, this can affect your years of professionalism when you make use of such free stock photos.
You can get a premium photo if you want to avoid sharing the same stock photos with millions of other users. But do not feel so confident to be the only one using premium photos. We have seen premium photos that are used by other users but not as much as free stock photos.
Typography
Type is very important whenever the talk about basic elements of graphic design comes up. It is an important element in graphic design that carries the main heading or body of a design piece.
Typography significantly contributes to the effectiveness of a design, it is with type that a reader is able to understand what message the designer is trying to convey.
Immediately after scanning through the other elements in the design, the viewer moves his eye to the heading first and then the body section of the design.
When it comes to font layout, we start hierarchically from top to bottom. The header must have a display typeface that acts as an attention grabber. The body of the design should carry smaller typefaces which could be a sans serif or serif font.
But no matter what choice you make, you should never mixup fonts in the body of the design with other fonts, stick to just one font for the body. its a crime in design if you do that.
The font should have variations in sizes and thickness instead of resizing them, this will help create legibility and also add a professional look to your design.
Additionally, it is very unprofessional and sinful for a designer to mix up various fonts. It is advised that graphic designers should stick to just 2-3 fonts to enhance legibility just so they don’t confuse their readers with so much text.
Lines
It is in everything we see, they are straight, curved, or wavy, a mark that shows an object.
I also had to think about it, what are the basic elements of graphic design. When I design or draw something, I feel it. It comes to me so naturally that I don’t even think about specific lines, shapes, and so on.
When I start a drawing it begins with a simple stroke and as I continue stroking, it adds up into a much more detailed artwork. They are the basics of graphic design and they are resultant of whatever amazing piece of art that we create.
We have 5 types of lines in graphic design:
- Vertical
- Horizontal
- Diagonal
- Zigzag
- Curved
Shapes
A shape is basically a 2-Dimensional area that is surrounded by an outline. It can be defined as a flat figure or having two dimensions – length and width. E.g triangle, square, rectangle and circle.
However, graphic designers make use of graphic design software to give a 3-Dimensional illusion of width, height, and depth to 2D shapes. They make use of other graphic design elements like color, value, line, and shadow to achieve this illusion. Examples of 3D shapes are spheres, hemispheres, cones, pyramids, etc.
In graphic design, there are mainly two types of shapes: Geometric and Organic shapes
Geometric shapes
Geometric shapes are typically precise, regular, and symmetrical shapes that are constructed using mathematical formulas or tools.
They include circles, squares, triangles, rectangles, and polygons. These shapes are often used in design to create a sense of stability, structure, and order.
They can convey a feeling of professionalism, precision, and efficiency. Geometric shapes are commonly used in logos, branding, and web design.
Organic shape
Organic shapes, on the other hand, are shapes that are irregular, free-flowing, and asymmetrical.
They are often inspired by nature and the natural world, such as leaves, flowers, clouds, and water droplets. These shapes are commonly used in design to create a sense of movement, fluidity, and emotion.
Organic shapes can convey a feeling of warmth, softness, and approachability. They are often used in illustrations, packaging, and advertising.
Generally, graphic designers utilize shapes to convey different ideas, create the notion of movement, provide texture and depth to an image, create a mood or emotion, or draw attention to an area of interest.
Texture
Texture is the quality of your design surface, how your design feel in the eyes of the viewer when viewed? it could feel rough, graining, creamy, or soft or grungy.
Texture creates a sense of depth and feels real. However, it can’t be felt physically by touch but can be felt emotionally.
Texture can be applied in a composition by hand drawing with a brush tool, adding grain textures, custom patterns and blending of colors.
Due to some textures created from real word items and then transferred to your computer to be used by graphic design software, your computer needs to have the sufficient computing power for the process.
There are various graphic design textures:
Visual texture
This type of texture is created through the use of color, lines, shapes, and patterns that give the illusion of a physical texture.
Tactile texture
This type of texture is created by using actual physical materials, such as paper, fabric, or wood, to create a textured effect.
Rough texture
This type of texture is characterized by a rough or uneven surface, such as a wall with a rough plaster finish.
Smooth texture
This type of texture is characterized by a smooth or even surface, such as a glass or metal surface.
Grunge texture
This type of texture is characterized by a distressed or worn appearance, often created through the use of grunge brushes or overlays.
Organic texture
This type of texture is characterized by natural or organic shapes and patterns, such as leaves or tree bark.
Geometric texture
This type of texture is characterized by geometric shapes and patterns, such as squares or triangles.
Abstract texture
This type of texture is characterized by non-representational shapes and patterns, often created through the use of digital tools.
Form
Form is another basic element of graphic design that gives photo realism to basic shapes. A form is the 3-Dimensional quality of a 2-Dimensional shape, it is characterized by depth, width, height, shadow, and value. Form has a photorealistic look and feel because of its appearance which is engaging to the eye
Its skeletal structure is based on a shape. Of course we know that a shape is made up of a flat figure that is attributed to height and length. Whatever structure or figure in the real world can be referenced to form.
A form has a visual attribute of color, value, depth, and width and can be referenced to a shape when dismantled individually
Value
Value is how light or dark the elements in a design composition appear. White is the lightest value and black is the darkest value. Value is one of the graphic design elements that work in conjunction with other elements to create contrast, depth and mood.
Value can be used to set the contrast between elements in a composition. When the white foreground elements sit on top of the black background element this creates a strong contrast that enhances the viewer’s ability to distinguish both elements from each other.
Value can also be set to create a certain mood in a composition. Color values can be adjusted to a darker value to give a strong mood or adjusted to a lighter value to give a calm mood.
Size
Another important element in graphic design that we can’t do without is size. Size is how big or small an element is in relation to other elements in the same space. There can’t be big elements without the presence of other smaller elements in the same space.
Size is pivotal in your design layout because, with the size you are able to distinguish which element holds more importance than others, it creates depth in composition and also indicates topical importance in a design layout.
Now that you have gotten a hang of the basic graphic design elements, you can confidently flex your creativity however you want to with these elements. These elements will always be your key ingredient in your design, the way you apply them consistently across your design distinguishes you from your peer.
But do not be in hurry, there are other design prerequisites you must know that will help create a stronger synergy with topic we have discussed here. Let us give a roundup of FAQs to help refresh your knowledge.
What are the fundamental principles of design?
The 7 fundamental principles of design include Emphasis, balance and alignment, contrast, repetition, proportion, movement, and white space. These are the building blocks of every design composition. Every design should be made following these principles to be able to achieve a staggering design.
What are the two main tools of graphic design?
The two main tools of graphic design are Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator. these two tools are industry-standard design tools that are recommended by professionals in the field because of their advanced capability.
However, these tools could be overwhelming for beginners because of their advanced interface. Additionally, the monthly subscription fee for this software is quite expensive for someone who isn’t making a real income from design.
As a beginner, you could start with simpler and cost-free too like Canva or Gimp. Both software are hundred percent free and have a user-friendly interface that you can learn in no time.