Canva : Graphic Design Theory Volume1

1. Welcome to Canva Course : Graphic Design Theory Volume1: Hello, everyone. And welcome to this Canada course on using design theory and social media. I want to welcome you and also thank you for joining this course, and I hope you find it valuable in this course. I'm going to show you the basic principles of design theory that you need to know whenever you are creating any kind of images or graphics. And this could be for your website, your brand for social media for Twitter Facebook Pinterest. If you just watch this video and understand some of these key concepts that graphic designers and artists use, you will have a better understanding of how to really make your images and graphics stand out from the rest. And I'm sure you've seen the websites and images and graphics online and you just look at and their horrendous and you don't really know what's wrong with, um, But your mind says that there's something wrong with him, and it's because the basic principles of the design theory has not been applied to those graphics. So in this course, we are going to go in deep into um, what each of these principles are, and we will cover or wide range of things from the principles and elements of design to typography, color and composition. And this is what one of the courses looks like. We're I give a brief description of the topic at hand, and then I'd provide a couple examples that I threw together and maybe some photographs on some things that I'm want to bring up about that particular topic. And then I go in to provide some examples of graphic designs that I pulled straight out of Canada. And I use these examples to show you that, you know, these aren't ones I made. I just pulled them right out of here so I can show you why they work so well and the principles that are being used and they're a great resource. And it really shows you the power of this software to be able to pull together very quickly , a design that looks great. And all you have to do is just change out some of the information and you're on your way. But if you have these principles in mind while you're designing and putting this information together, then you're really going to stand out 2. About Canva: So before we get started, I would like to take a moment to look at. This program, called Canvas Camera, is an online tool that you can use to make all kinds of great looking designs. Now I have another course on how to set up this program and use it from beginning to end. I suggest you take a look and find that course and check it out, but basically I'll give a quick rundown of this software. What camera is is. It's a photo and graphic editing software that has a ton of pre made layouts that they use to help you get up and running in no time. And you can choose from these pre made layouts, which makes it really simple. Now, this is the main dashboard after you have created an account, and you can see here that you can easily select one of these objects and it will make a design for you. And if you expand this, they have all kinds of different things. In here you can make events. Ah, blawg and he booked graphics, marketing graphics, um, social media type stuff, different kinds of documents, such as presentations. If you're giving a lie presentation in ads. So we'll just go ahead and pick one of these real quick for this. Sorry. Hit the wrong button there. Um, for this, I've been using the social media graphic just cause it's pretty basic size to using, like Instagram, Facebook and stuff. But you could pick any one of these. Um, you know, you could make a poster. They also just recently added infographics, which is really nice to make those. Ah, if we collect this here, it will open up a new window, and this takes you to canvass designed dashboard. And here you can choose some of these pre may layouts, which I use in examples. In the following courses and volumes. You can add texts at backgrounds. You can upload your own images, and also you can pick from a variety of shapes and illustrations. Now it's free to set up an account, and it's free to use some of their templates and graphics. Sometimes you do have to pay for some of the graphics, and they are $1 each. And so what happens is they put this watermark with a Campbell logo on here, and if you use that element or that template or whatever, When you go to download this or um, yeah, when you go to download this as an image or a Pdf, you're going to have to pay for it, and it'll pop up, Ah, screen there for you to put in your credit card information. You can buy credits to make it a little bit cheaper and everything, but basically some of the stuff is paid for. But there is a lot of free stuff in here. So I wanted to use this software to show you that you don't have to be an experience or professional graphic designer to come up with awesome images and logos and things of that nature. So basically, what I've done is I've pulled information from canvas, such as their shapes and icons and text and pre may layouts to describe the fundamentals that I'm teaching in this course now. Like I said, if you want to go further deeper into how to actually use the software, I have a separate course on that, and I would advise you go look that up and and take a look at it. Um, it's it's definitely really helpful, and it covers everything about camera from beginning to end, and it shows some short cuts. So these courses all kind of go together. You have the course shown you how to set it up, and then this course here will teach you how to, um, use design principles to make those graphics awesome. And I really hope that, um, this helps you out. Check out this software. I love it. It's really great to use. It just integrates so well into social media. When you create one of these pre may layouts, if it says Facebook or Twitter, they're actually using the dimensions from those social media platforms. So you know that the dimensions are going to be correct, and that is just awesome in itself. Just toe have that at your fingertips, and they're constantly updating stuff, adding new stuff, So check him out and let's continue with the course 3. Lines: All right, let's start with lines. So a line is a Stroker mark connected by two points, and even though it's only two points, it does not necessarily have to be a straight line. Some examples include horizontal, vertical, diagonal, straight and curved, wavy dotted or broken faker thin and these air descriptive of lines that can be used in graphic design. So even though it is two points, that doesn't necessarily mean that you have to stick with just a basic straight flat line as long as it's two points. It could have a pattern in the metal or could be broken up or even curved and still be described as the line. So let's take a look at some of those. We go down here, you can see that the first line we have here is a curved line, and it's just still two points connected. But it's just got a curve within it. And then the next one you have here is multiple lines making up this rhythm in this way form, and then the next one is this one here that is actually patterns, um, repeated to create a line, and then you have this thin line here, just a straight thin line and then a straight, thick line and this line made up of different size dots, going from small to big in the center and back out again. These can be used as page breaks, and essentially, these are all lines, even those summer patterns, and some have different shapes to them, so lines can also be used to create movement and rhythm within a piece of artwork, and you can see the squiggly lines here. They create this pattern, but they're also creating movement and is this is a really cool effect because it just really makes your I jump around in your brain. Think having these these squiggly lines like this, especially if someone's moving the page up and down. It can definitely create movement. You can see that if you practice getting a pattern like this and just going up and down with it. So that's another use of lines that can be done. So let's take a look at some examples here. This 1st 1 is just too basic straight lines going across, and they're breaking up this image. This helps with unity helps with, um, balance and organization and it just breaks up this information. So you have your most important information here at the top. And then you have these icons here which are eye catching their easy Teoh understand? Because their pictures And you look at this and without even knowing what the main information is, you could probably guess that you're going to eat and have some drinks at some time. So Sunday brunch, food and drinks and then the rest of the information at the bottom. So these air page breaks and they're just kind of breaking up the information and making it a little easier for you to digest. So you get to take in each each piece one at a time. So let's go on to the next one. And in this one, um, these lines are creating a border. So we got four lines going across, and they create a border for this image. And what that does is it helps keep your eyes within the image here. So what you do is you see this information and you start processing it, and then your eyes might catch something like this and move off of the page because things like this tender like pusher, push your eye in a direction, and when that happens, this line stops your I from going off the page and looking at something else. So it kind of stops it and you come back and you process this information some more. So it's creating a border, which is really helping to keep your eyes in the middle of this image right here. Now there's also another page break with the pattern here, so that's also breaking up the image like the one before. Let's look at the last one here Now. This one is really cool because it's doing a couple things. One. It's also providing movement. So just looking at this image, you get a sense of movement and it's radiating outward. Maybe like the sun, you know, summer deals that could be rating 80 outward or could be going inwards. So kind of makes you feel like you're flying. You get feeling that maybe these air sucking you in and you can look at that either way, and it it really works. It's also creating a border with these lines, so it's kind of doing the same effect. It's it's keeping you from focusing on this information here just by using lines is a border. And not only that, but these are acting as guiding lines. So they're helping your eye view. Ah, what toe look at their actually like pointing. Hey, look at this. And those air acting as guiding lines toe, move your eye in the direction that Ah, the person who created this want you to see So those airlines definitely keep those in mind . There, the basic building blocks of graphic design. They have a number of things that you can do with them. So now that you can see lines, definitely keep an eye out form. Look for backgrounds patterns, page breaks, you know, see the different styles that you confined and how you can use them in your own artwork also. 4. Shape: a shape is formed when strokes become enclosed, forming a boundary of value, color or texture. Shapes can take on many different looks, and they could be geometric, natural looking, organic or abstract. Everything from icons to typography are consistent as shapes, and some examples include circles, triangles, squares, ovals, diamonds, leaves, footprints, text and icons. So let's take a look at a couple examples here. As you can see, we have typography at the top and just based on the way the in close shapes are arranged. They create words which we see and can read and understand. You can have your basic, primitive shapes. We all know this to be an octagon, famous for things like stop signs and recognize basic, simple shapes like this. Pretty immediately, no companies and businesses have taken on these concepts, and they create simple logo shapes for their brand that is easily identifiable without me telling you what this logo stands for. I'm sure you can already guess, and as because it is a simple shape that we can easily recognize, shapes can also be very complex and have form such as this year, and you can see based on different values and text oring methods. It creates a very complex type shape, and shapes can also be textures. So based on the different values and colors and brightness and contrast this image here, you can guess what it is because you are used to seeing the shapes and they form this texture. Now this is a picture of some oranges, and it's just kind of combining everything. You have simple shapes such as circles and leave patterns, but you also have different colors in contrast and values creating these types of shapes. And that is what allows us to see the things that you know, the shapes that we understand and recognize easily. So let's take a look at some examples. So here's ah, very basic piece of design. It works very well, and it uses a couple basic shapes, such as these rectangles and this line, and this little rectangle here line of the bottom, which, um, is filled in with color talk kind, tying this together. And then you have your typography, which are all shapes, and then you have some text string going on. In the background of these images of rocks and those rocks, they just this this the way this is laid out and the way that they've used the shapes in this document shows you give you a certain kind of feel and mood and kind of told your eye what to look at, what not to look at. So this rectangle here is engulfing these this word presenting. So, um, that really is eye catching on. And you see that? All right, let's look at the next one. Here we have where shapes that are familiar to us have been used. Now, this is a more complex shape foot. It is very recognizable because we have seen it a lot of times. And this is, of course, the west end of the United States. And without the typography here, you would still know kind of what they're talking about because they put another shape here of this star in the top corner. And if you know your geography, you would know that that is around the Seattle area. So you could kind of guess that something is going on there. So they use shapes here to point out what they want you to see, and also to use a shape that is kind of common. So you already know what they're talking about without having to read the words. And in our last example here we have shapes and values and some color that is providing movement through the image. And this is kind of the same thing with the shape of the United States you already know or could guess what this is without the words here. You might guess that this is some kind of gel or it's some kind of paint. And just by looking at it and understanding the shapes, the way they flow and what they form, you would understand kind of what you're looking at. And then when you read these words art workshop Oh, it makes perfect sense there. They're talking about art, and this is obviously some kind of paint, and it's very eye grabbing and has this flow that just kind of keeps you going back and forth and reading these words and checking this image out. And then they've also engulf the dates or whatever you would want to put here within these circles. And that is giving contrast. And, um, they're they're giving contrast for whatever information you want to put in here. So instead of just throwing the seven up in the white kind of font, it would all just kind of blend together. It looked the same, and those numbers might get lost in this image. But by putting a shape in with high contrast to the background. So you got this bright white opposed to the high contrast of the tax, which is this darker purple color. You can see that it is allowing you to see these numbers very easily. So, um, this is a method that's being used to kind of guide your eye. You have these big, bold shapes at the top, which is this typography. You see that first and then you kind of skipped past this cause it kind of blends in like we were talking about. And you go on to what would be say, the date and the dates important for this workshop. So they want you to see that next they want tell you what's about. It's a workshop and they want to tell you when it's happening. So you know. Okay, Aiken, go to this workshop. Er I can't. And then if you want more information, then your eyes guided back to the website, which is kind of blended in, not as bold and big, but the information is still there, so they can tell you how to find out how to get to this workshop. So that is how shapes are used. Basically, the majority of everything we see is is going to be a shape shapes are used to create, you know, visual contents. Um, they helped guide your eye and just give you information about what you're trying to get across and your presentations or artwork. 5. Value: value is a lightness or darkness oven element. Regardless of its color, it can be measured in each step. Given a value number. For instance, value can be measured from 0 to 1 0 to 100 or 0 to 256 tense. Add lightness and shades. Add darkness to the object. Now you can also lead the eye and create movement within your design. So let's take a look. Now here we have two objects on the left hand side. You see this orange ball with his value from light to dark. If we remove the color, you can see the same ball with his value from light to dark, just without no color. This value. What it does is it allows you to see form and tells your eye what is, um there what kind of texture it has. Um, if it has shadows how tall something is, So value is very, very important. And showing the form in your designs, we take a look at this photograph. This is a great photograph, and basically it is just value. Um, it is shapes and value. There's no color. It's been diese diese saturated. So you see dark values of the bridge. You see light values of the ripples of the water and kind of some great mid tones and ingredient going on here in the sky. If we look at some examples off some designs with value here we have a great design, and it's basically it has some great and going on in the backdrop. But it's too, too dark color or two colors, a dark and a white um, a black color and a white color. And the to, um, contrast in colors just really make, ah, it pop in your design. So if you have objects that are close in value, they're going to kind of run, run into each other and just it's gonna be a little harder to see one object from the other because they have similar values. The more contrast you give between those objects, the easier it is for the eye to pick up and see. So that is why the black to white is so good. Now, what some people fail to realize is when they are creating designs, they might have, ah, cool orange objects and a cool blue object together. But the image seems muddy and the reason why they might be sharing the same values. And the eye is trying to fight, to figure out which object is more important than the other. If you were to increase the value and give contrast to one of the objects over the other, that object is going to be more appealing. So let's take a look at another image here in In this image, the values of this background have been de saturated, and, as you can see, all the value is kind of in the middle. There's no really dark blacks, and there's no very bright whites. It gets to a very light gray, but it's not as why does this text. And that's kind of the same point is that this text, with its white, is actually creating hi contrasts and easy for you to see opposed to this de saturated kind of background. The same thing with the orange here. These orange, uh, symbols and shapes have a high value, a high contrast. So, um, they have a higher contrast than this de saturated background also and then finally we can see that value can also create movement. So down here we have these lines that are giving looks like they're overlapping one another , and that's creating different kinds of value. So you have the white background, you have kind of the light lines here, and then the darker lines. And just with these lines, the way they're laid out and the value that they're giving it creates this kind of moving pattern at the bottom of the image here. So it kind of just activates the I activates the brain and just kind of makes you look at this image in a different way. So value is a lightness and darkness of your object or element in the scene, and you won't pay close attention to contrast ing objects one trick that you can do. If you have a photo editing software such as Adobe Photoshopped, you can take your image into photo shop and then turn it into a grayscale image, and that will show you just the values and you can see easily if some objects are blending in with others. Like I said, you could have a dark background and a light text. Um, I'm sorry you could have two different colors of a background and attacks, but if their values. Their lightness and darkness aren't very contrast ID. Then they're going to be muddy and bleed in together. So when you want to create contrast, you can make a object lighter and then another object darker and create that high contrast and the I will follow that. 6. Size: sighs refers to the actual dimensions of an element. This is basically how big or small and element or object in your designers. It can be measured in different ways, such as inches or millimeters pixels, when you're usually talking about things digital or points if you're talking about texture . Typography size is used to show scale in proportion of elements into the design, and it can also show contrast between elements. Size will also provide feelings and draw attention to certain objects or elements in your design. So let's take a look at those. Of course, here we have the basics of size, which is we have this big elephant, and then this little tiny ah bugger mosquito or whatever that ISS So, um, instantly you you have an idea of scale here and proportions based on these objects. You you know, um, what the size is now if we were to make this a little tiny elephants and giant mosquito, that would give you a different idea of what kind of scene this is. Here is, um, size as it referring to text. And this is when we use points. So, um, we have the N Y. C is really big, which I think it's about 290 points. Ah, in this image and then we have Manhattan underneath it, which is, I think it was about 68. So this draws attention. You don't normally look at this image and see Manhattan first you see the Giants and why see first. So that's the most important thing in this element they want you to see. And then they had the Manhattan in a little smaller texts underneath. So the size here is drawing your attention to the NYC first, in creating contrast between the two sizes of these two objects, let's take a look at some examples. Here we have size, and it's a big giant building. You get a sense of how grandiose is building is, and what really helps you is familiar things that you're used to seeing on an everyday basis, such as the windows, the doors, um, the lamp posts. So you kind of get an idea of how big this is. Now. You're using your own interpretation of life to see the size of this, and I think they want you to see how big this is. But in reality, this could be a low miniature building. And so, in context of this image, it just it looks big to you based on your own memory and your own thoughts. But size can can change. If we were to stick a giant foot next to this, then you would know that this is just a little miniature building, and it's not that big. But in this particular design, it looks like they're going for a grand, big type feel. And that is what they get with this image. This is another example of size and text, and it's the same kind of, um, same kind of thing as before. We have summer cookout and real big fonts, and then you have the barbecue recipe and little fonts. And even though this is in the middle because of its size, you are drawn to the summer cookout first, and then you come back to the barbecue recipes. And then finally, this is the opposite of basically the first image that we looked at, which is saying that this is you know, um, a much smaller type of design and image. Normally, when you see these chocolates there in one of those little tiny boxes. So you know that this might be in a little small chocolates and maybe they're trying to give. The idea of this is, like, personal. This is just for you. Little dark chocolate goodies that air personally for you not toe distribute to the world because based on your memories and your ideas of size, you've seen these chocolates in these little boxes before. And, um, usually one person he tired of those chocolates so that size again, it helps with scale and proportion. You can do a lot of cool tricks with size, making some objects really big, and you're seeing some objects really small to take away attention. Or sometimes you can use very small objects to draw attention because it the proportion is different. And you actually look odd to you that, hey, why is that elephant in the scene the size of a penny? And so you might actually draw attention that way also, so be sure to use this size in your designs. It will help with contrast, especially in typography and text. It's always a big thing to make the most important text bigger so that it draws attention to that first and then, ah, it gets smaller as the text becomes not less important. But what you want to read in order So big Tex, you re first medium sized text. You probably read second. And then, you know, the smallest text might be your paragraphs, where it's a lot of information that once you've got them in with the big text, now they're reading your smaller, smaller body text, so definitely take a look at size and your designs. 7. Space: space is the area that surrounds elements. Positive space refers to the line shape, typography, texture or element in your design. In the negative space is the area of the design around those objects or elements. Space can create contrast in emphasis, and it can give the viewers eyes arrest. So if you have a whole lot of texts just in one long, 10 page paragraph, there's just one complete paragraph 10 pages long. You are going to really stress the viewer out. That is why breaking up paragraphs into digestible little chunks is what makes reading so easy. Space can also create order and harmony within a design. So we take a look at this first image. You can see that the positive space is this shape here and the shape that's an orange. And then the negative space would be all the other area. That is not that shape, including this piece and here, because it's not part of the design. This is just negative space within the object, and based on the shape of this object and the negative space in the middle, you can guess that this is a beard. So if this negative space inside the object wasn't here and this was flat. You might have a hard time guessing what this actually is. But when they had that little bit of negative space there, even without putting a mouth or anything else, you automatically start seeing an image and can tell what this is. So in images, a combination of not just positive space but also negative space and space does a lot of things. It can balance an image. It can show you what you're looking at or it can, like I said, create contrast with them and images. So if we look at this image here, you can see that it is pretty much equally balanced. If we had kind of a diagonal line going across this image, you would see that on this left bottom portion side, we have a lot of positive space being taken up by the shapes and values and colors of this orange tree and the leaves and the oranges within it, and then on the top right is just blank. So this is just negative space out here, and because it is balanced with positive and negative space almost equally, it is very pleasing to look at it doesn't really hurt the eye. It doesn't feel unbalanced, and it's it's a very nice image Now. What you can do is if you want to, while still trying to keep balance within the image, you could put text, um, into this negative space and kind of fill that out. But, um, you can definitely see negative space here, including in between the tree. So let's take a look at some examples. So here we have an image where the background is a lot of the positive space, even the mountains, though their white. You still know that that snow from these snow topped mountains and that snow still kind of access positive space, But they created a shape in the middle of the circle and created negative space so that they could put their text inside of here and create contrast. If they would have just slapped us text on the image, it would have blended in with the image, and you would never be able to see what that says. But when they add this white circle, they create negative space so that they can add objects within that and really show you what they want you to see. Now here's an example of where space can give your I a break. And like I said, this is very important when you're doing things like, um, you know, websites, typography, especially when you have a lot of information. You need to break it up and give the viewer arrest. You cannot just constantly be bombarding them, um, with information and you don't want things to be cluttered. People like things that are organized easy to see, easy to follow. You can't just jumble a ton of stuff together and expect people to understand or even want to look at it. So this is a great idea. Um, here you can see you've got your main text at the top, and then they've got this nice little spacing between this and the icons, and each icon is evenly spaced within each other. And that's just it's nice and pleasing so far. You know, we could read this and then we get come down here and look at each one of these individual . If they were all crammed together on top of each other, there wouldn't be a whole lot of negative space between them, and therefore it would look cramped and you might get a feeling of feeling cramps. So you need this space here to kind of break that up and the same thing goes on. You come down here. You have this icon here. Ah, lot of white space and then below that, you have your next piece of text plenty of, um, white negative space around it to give you some breathing room and read that paragraph before they move on and give you the last bit of information. And then there's kind of a border of, um, white space or negative space around this design, which is really good. You you don't you want to give some breathing room in your designs? Um, one, because it's pleasing to look at and makes it nice and uniform when there's, like, the same border of white space going around your image. But another reason to is in social media. Ah, whole lot of, um, you know, each platform has different dimensions for their images. So twitter, facebook, Pinterest, each one of their post might actually call for different types of dimensions. And if you have a design where there is no border or white space and your text is right up on the edge there. Well, that might look good in Facebook because you're meeting them dimensions. But say you taken into another platform such as, you know, just a Twitter or Pinterest and say they're using different types of dimensions. When you post that design, it might actually crop it out. So you always leave, um, and video. They call this kind of like a safe frame, um, or safe area, where you're just making sure that the content you want to see is kind of in the middle here. And you have this nice white negative space around your image to kind of give some breathing room in case there's any cropping going on. This has been really big and video with the different resolutions of like, you know, TV's and things like that. So you might make a logo or something. And on one TV it looks OK, but are another TV. It's getting cropped a little bit, and if you don't leave that safe, negative or white space around the image, it might be cropping off some important information. So that's where space condemn finitely. Help out your design a lot and in this last one this is a cool design because it's mostly negative space. Um, there are some objects and text in the middle here, but the majority of this image is created from the negative space, and that gives you, ah, feel, you know, it's just nice and simple. It draws you right into what it wants you to read. Um, your mind isn't very confused. It's not hard to look at, and and it's very pleasing to the eye. So definitely use negative and white space and your designs as much as possible and try to keep an eye out on other designs and how they're using that, Um, and social media. A lot of people will use, you know, an image where there's a lot of white space. Maybe it's a building, and the sky above it is blue. Um, and that's all empty. Well, then you can throw some text in there. So, um, key thing to do for a lot of people was fine images with a lot of negative space so that they can input their images, text symbols or whatever inside of that negative space to relate the message and provide contrast 8. Contrast: contrast is opposite values of elements to create emphasis or interest. Contrast can be different things. It can be lightened dark values. It can be opposite colors on the color wheel. It could be in and out of focus or can be rough, rough and smooth textures. So basically, it's when two values are opposite of one another, and this helps draw attention to that area. So let's take a look. So in this image we have a couple different things going on here, and basically you see that these dots are pointing to an area on the map. Now the thing about these circles here is that they are the highest value versus the other colors in the scene, so they have the strongest contrast. Everything else is a little more de saturated, um, on the value spectrum. So this bright orange is really popping out and making you look at the circles first. You don't really see the green first. You kind of see this orange popping. And that is because they have such ah, high value opposed to everything else creating contrasts. Um, there's also contrast ing between the page folds. You know, this is a map because you have the light and the dark values next to each other, kind of creating a shadow and making this look like a map. Now this was the same blue across. I would just look like a weird shape, but because there's contrast between the two colors here, it creates an illusion of a shadow and then looks like a page fold in. This image contrast is created by focus in this photograph, so the door is in focus and the rest of the scene as out of focus. And that really helps draw your attention and over toward this door. So your eyes drawn over here to see what's in focus. First, um, you're not paying attention to all this other stuff that's blurry and out of focus. Now, Um, what a lot of people will do is they will. You can blur out the image, and then you can add sharp text. And that will create contrast also so that it will be easy to see that text against blurred backgrounds. So that is a very cool trick is to taken image, blurt out and then right text on top of that and because of the sharp text in the blurred image it be makes the text very easy to read. And then if you keep in mind other things like the color of the blurred image versus the color of your text or the value of the image in your text, you can create contrast like that in different ways. If we look at some examples here, we can see contrast in two different forms. One is that the text of the vacation and the text of the summer 2015 is contrast ID because vacation is emphasized by being bold and thicker and the, um, other text is not the same. It is a different style text. It's not bold, it's smaller. And so that's creating contrast between the two words. There is a little bit play going on here with the same blurring trick where the background is slightly blurred a little bit and the text is nice and sharp. And then there are also using color contrasts because you have this blue background and then you have this kind of reddish looking texts against that blue background, which is also helping make that pop in stand out. If we look at the next one. This is ah, great example of high contrast because you have a very high and a very low value A very, um, white milk glass and a very dark black background here, and that creates big contrast. Um, your eyes are drawn to places of contrast. So even though you have high contrast, if you look up here, you see this is a little blurred out and a little fuzzy around the edges and not as white, so your eye doesn't give as much importance. It's easy shapes that knows what it is. But the text down here is very sharp, and it is not blurred out, and it is the, you know, highest value that it can be. So these contrast between this black and white here really makes the text pop in your eye, comes down here versus going up and looking at all these milk droplets because they are a little more, um, fuzzy. And they don't have as high contrast of the white and the black backgrounds. And finally, you have another image here of in and out of focus. Same kind of concepts going in on here. You have the very focused, um desert appear, and you also have very out of focus desert in the background, so showing you that there's more than one, um, showing you that you know, they made a bunch of these, but they didn't need to show these in the background. And had they been in focus, it would be taking away from the rest of this image. So by making it blurred and out of focus, it helps you see the text here, which is very sharp against that blurred background. So contrast is very important, and it it helps draw interest and emphasis to whatever you want the viewer to look at. So you can do that with colors. You can do that with focus. You can do that with textures. You can have something that is very textured and sharp, and then you can have something else. That is, um, you know, not as sharply textured. So try and think of an example. Maybe have some like dirt or grains, where it's a lot of texture going on. And then you have something smooth on top of that, and you can have contracts between the two types of textures, so definitely contrast in your designs and, um, look around and see where you can see contrast and other people's designs 9. Balance: balance provides symmetrical or asymmetrical visual weight in your design. You think of balance as having scales and a folk room where you put something on one side of the scale, and you can balance it out with something of equal value or importance on the other side of the scale. Balance and design can be done visually, either vertically or horizontally, and it helps achieve unity and harmony within your design. It can really define what you're going with in your design so you can have something symmetrical, which can be it might seem mundane or it might be organized or uniform. Something asymmetrical might be a little more lively or vivid because you're actually tipping the scales and focusing your interest to whatever it is that is outweighing the rest of the design. So if we take a look here if we put this elephant on a scale with a tiny Christmas tree, you can see that doesn't really make a whole lot of sense with that scale being straight. Of course, that elephant would go down and throw that Christmas tree up in the air because of the weight, so we would actually need to add a couple more Christmas trees to this side to balance out this scale. And depending on what you're going for, you might want to have it nice and balanced. Or you might want to show that heavy visual weight of that elephant pushing down on that scale in this photograph. If you imagine in imaginary line going right down the middle here and there are folk, um is in the center, and this is just a scale. What you can see is that you have this big, heavy, um, image of the food kind of like the elephant. And if that was the only image in this design, it would really be pulling the design to this left side and just making this food look, maybe a little too big or a little too blown out. So if you add a little Ah, a couple more elements in the background here, such as these Uh huh. Tomatoes are fruit or whatever it is they have back here. Some of this lettuce. Not only do they have it on this side, but they've also ran it off the side of the image, and that is helping to balance this image out. So Having all this extra weight of this back here visually is helping to balance this image and make it a little more pleasing than just having a giant image of this sandwich on the left hand side of the screen. So in these examples, you can see that this is a very basic, balanced image. Everything is centered. And we if you drew an imaginary line right down the middle, this would pretty much be mirrored. Even though there's text here, the text stops at the same point on both sides are line breaks stop at the same point on both sides, and our images are pretty much duplicates of the left and the right hand side. Now, this is a very balanced image. This might be something that you're going forward to provide easy, ah, organization for the viewer. Um, and like I said, these types of images, they're great. They provide basic information and less looking at a asymmetrical design, which is something like this, where we have a whole ton of weight on the right hand side and not much else going on on the left hand side. Um, that can do a couple of things. It can actually ground this image and really show that weight show that this is a grounded lighthouse. It's very heavy, very powerful. And, um so it has grounded that image with its visual weight and drawing your attention to this side. And finally we have another image that is like the symmetrical image, except they are using different photographs to break it up. But they even have. It's, I mean, any grids like this are usually balance really well, because that's the nature of this type of grit. You've got one going down the center, one going down the left. Nice, even balance on all sides. And if you look at these two pictures down here, they're also almost like mirrors the way they have them set up. So you can see this one is starting off big in the foreground and drifting off as a little , um, your perspective get smaller over here. Same thing with here in this centre. It's nice and big in this perspective. Shows that get smaller here. If this was reversed and it started big and got smaller, it would actually create some asymmetrical design. So they did that almost purposely to really balance out this image and again. Balance can also be done not just by objects, and you're seen, but by lighting and by values or by colors, you can balance an image with the colors and your design. So take a look at balancing your images and think about what kind of feel you're trying to perk portrayed to your audience. Are you trying to, um, really emphasize something and show weight toe one side of the image? Um, maybe have it really blown out with a lot of lighting or a lot of value? Or are you trying to keep it nice and uniform and show nice, equal visual weight and importance across everything so that your point gets across in a nice, pleasing manner? 10. Emphasis: emphasis uses contrast to give importance to the focal point of a design. This basically makes elements stand out and draws attention from the viewer. This can be achieved with contrast, color, scale, repetition, proximity and so on. Basically, when you emphasize something, you're just basically showing the viewer what you want them to see. Sometimes this can be text. Sometimes this can be images. Sometimes it can be a logo. So let's take a look. In this piece of text. You can see that no parking has been emphasised, so you are immediately drawn to see that first. And if this was a sign, say, on the street and you were driving by your I would immediately see the no parking pick that up automatically, and you wouldn't even have to read the rest of the sign. If you were looking for a parking spot, you would know that you can't park there because the new parking has been emphasised. If another word such a strictly had been emphasized, that would be kind of confusing. When you're driving by, you would see strictly, and then you would have to keep reading to find out what they're talking about until you get down to the no parking and realize you can't park there. So emphasising the words no parking makes it immediately for you to pick that up. Know that you can't park there and keep going. This is also the same and design. Here we have an image where the words thank you are being emphasized, and that is being done by a couple different things. First of all, there's color. The red of the sign is very different from all the cool colors of the rest of the design in the grays. Um, the thank you sign it being neon as nice and smooth. And that is in contrast to the textures of the rest of the design that look a little more worn or, um, you know, beat up. And also there's high contrast, So you have the high whites and reds or high value contrast versus the mawr de saturated in less less contrast ng of the rest of the design there. So let's take a look at some examples here. Um, this is basically the same thing that we looked at. What the text you can see season ending sale is what they're emphasizing here they really want you to know. Hey, the seasons ending and we're having a sale. You need to come check us out when you're passing by. And you see this, maybe on social media. Or maybe it's an ad. Um, if that's something that you're interested in, you want to see what their season ending sale is. They've grabbed your attention. Now you can read the rest of the text. If you aren't buying anything or you don't care about any sales going on right now, then you would see season ending sale You. I exactly know that doesn't interest you. And you can just keep moving along. Hear the words are being emphasized in contrast by the blurring of the background image and taking it out of focus, so we can't even hardly tell what that image is. It might be some flowers or something, but it has been de emphasized, blurred out and out of focus, and the words are in focus very sharp. High contrast the white versus the rest of the colors in the background. So since the words have high value and everything else doesn't meet that value, the words happy days find that happy place has been emphasised, and finally, this is a cool one. This is using an image for emphasis, and, um, it's nicely balanced. But there is, um, showing you that there's high contrast and the words so now serving all day breakfast. You see that, but you might pick up the image quicker, even though it's a little smaller than the words. There's high contrast between the plate of food and the background that's going on there. So that is also being emphasized because it has high contrast. It also looks like it's a little more, um, and focus, then the background ISS, and that can also help out. So whenever you see to things like this, um, words and an image, generally you're going to look at the image first. People are more drawn to pictures and images vs words, so this can catch you in a couple different ways and passing and looking at this, you might see the words now serving. What are they serving? Okay, they're serving breakfast. Hey, I want to go eat, or you might be passing this and just see the toast on the eggs immediately. You get hungry. You think? Oh, I'm hungry, and then you look at the words. Oh, they're serving breakfast. I want to go eat. So emphasis is really crucial to relaying across your message. If nothing is emphasizing your design and everything is the same font the same size, nothing is boded. Nothing's italicized. Everything has the same value, the same colors. Then you're never going to get your point across. You have to emphasize the main thing that you want your viewer to see. Humans have very low attention spans, and if you don't emphasize something and immediately get your point across, then they're going to keep looking elsewhere. So definitely check into using emphasis in your designs and your illustrations and really get your point across quickly by emphasizing the main thing you want the viewer to see. 11. Movement: movement creates motion and helps guide the viewer's eye. So basically, movement in your design is going to help tell the viewer where to look. This can be created with lines, shapes, images, guiding lines in an image or can even be implied, such as having someone looking in a direction and guiding your eye to the way that they are looking. So let's take a look here and in this image you can see Ah, lot of movement movement going on the way that this pattern is arranged with these squiggly lines and nothing else on here creates this. An exciting kind of movement going on now. If you were to take a basic shape, stick it in the middle here and maybe put some text, you could block out the piece of your focal element in your design. But then all around you would have this movement going on in the background, and it really activates the brain and gets the person thinking it's It's not static. It's not boring. It's energizing the design and really, um, providing great value to get the person thinking about that design. An image like this is also really cool. In passing especially digitally, digitally when you're scrolling. Excuse me, And what it does is when you're scrolling this image up and down. These is, um, this way form actually creates motion with with the actual scrolling of your mouse. So give that a try. Try to find a design like this, and, ah, copy at a bunch of times and then scroll up and down with the mouse and you will literally see these lines moving back and forth. There is actually ah, whole bunch of study and cool things coming out nowadays with people using that philosophy within their design within their social media and emails where they can actually show movement. I was looking at an image to the other day that was showing, um, like, audio way for movement. And when you were scrolling, you could actually see, um, it pulsating and it was a really cool effect, So movement can do a lot of things. Let's take a look at this image here, and you see the movement with the, um, cars. We all know what this is even not really even, um, understanding or seeing the details vehicles in this image, you know that these air cars. You know that these air white headlights, you know that these are red tail lights and it is providing movement throughout the image, and it actually takes you back and forth. You can follow it up and around this way, or you can come back this way, and so it's kind of guiding your eyes around the image. And, um, you could place your, um, graphic design elements and logical areas to interrupt that movement. So if you had it in the middle, if you were looking at this and coming down boom, there's your graphical element. You've just moved the viewer's eye toe where you wanted them to go. Um, it might be a little tricky in this design, but one way is you could use this movement as guiding lines and have your text over here in the top left corner. And what that does is if someone starts to look at the image down here and they follow these lines around, they're using that movement. And when it comes across this way, boom, there's your text right there, or your graphic design element so movement can can guide the viewer toe where you want them to Look, let's take a look at some examples. This is just some basic movement within the design, and you can see that this craftsman is working here. He's working on this, um, shoe or this boot here, and you get a real sense of him working in this in this picture. Um, this is a feel that the person is going for. They want you to know Hey, look, we're hands on. We're using our hands to create into craft and to fix your shoes and accessories. And the movement in this image provides that it shows them that their active, that they actually are working on this stuff. They're not stagnant. Ah, sitting in their shop, not doing anything. So movement here is in the image and and showing, um, what can actually be done if we look at this one? This has two kinds of movements. The first is you get a sense of movement of what the people are actually doing, kind of just like in the last design. You can see they're having a lot of fun. It's not just one image, it's a couple images. So you get to see them actually moving around within their space, which is really great. You get an idea of how much fun they're having. Ah, if it was just this first image, who knows? Maybe they were falling down, and that's the image that you see. But when you see the second and third images, you kind of get a sense. Okay, they're playing. They're having fun. They're spending around. They're joking. So you get movement within the actual pictures. Now, the second kind of movement is that you have three pictures here in a row and typically the way that you know, most people read. Um Ah, I guess in the Western world, especially, is that you're gonna read from top to bottom. So you get this idea of movement going down the page so you can Actually, the placement of elements in your design can create movement. This is really big in Web design when you have or it's a, um, articles or magazines where you will have images that jump back and forth from the size of the page so you'll have some text in an image on this side, and then you'll have an image in some text on this side, and then you'll have, you know, vice versa on down the page. And what that's doing is it's creating motion and movement in the page itself. It's having your eyes go back and forth and jump down this page and want to keep reading because you're actively moving. You're not just sitting there seeing a stagnant, you know. Everything on one side now here works because of the way they have this set up. But generally and like Web design magazines, news articles, you can see movements. Um, great pages are set up specifically to create movement down the page so that you will keep reading and not stop and get to the point of what they're trying to tell you. This one's really cool, and you might look at this at first and not really notice any movement because you have this kind of static background, you know, the de saturated kind of background and some text. You read the text top to bottom. You know, like you normally would might not see a whole lot of movement here except for these symbols . And if you're reading top to bottom, you look at this symbol and you can see that it's a straight line and then a circle that is acting kind of like an arrow. And it's already setting the pace of what this symbol is going to do. And if you're reading top to bottom, you come down this line and you hit this circle and you stop and then you read. And so this is kind of pointing in the direction it's giving movement to show. Hey, look at this. And then when you get to the bottom because you've established what that element is doing at the top, it's reversing, and it's keeping you from going off the page and bringing you back. So when you get to the bottom, you say away, this is an arrow, it's pointing up, so you get there and you go back up and you read it again. So this is acting as kind of like a border type element and making sure that you remain focused on the center of this image. So if you think of these not it's circles but his arrows, this arrows pointing down at the text. This arrow is pointing up at the text and it is creating movement, and it's telling your eye where to go. So movement is a very powerful. It could be used in a bunch of different ways. And I highly suggest you try to create an image with some movement to give it, Give it a go in and see how you like it. Um, you can point out something with an arrow and say, Look at this. You can create motion by the textures or patterns that you're using and you can also just physically show movement people dancing, people running. Um, another thing I mentioned before is in a photo. If you have a person, Um and they are, you know, putting their hands in front of their eyes like they're trying to use binoculars and and look out into something. Well, if you put your graphic design element in the direction they're looking, you are actually creating movement within the element because you want to see what they're looking at. So if they're looking across the way and then you have your graphic design element there, you're going to see them follow their line of sight and look at that graphic design element , and that will create movement within your design. 12. Harmony: harmony is achieved when all elements and principles of design are working together. Harmony provides a pleasing aesthetic to the I, and it is created when the principles of design such Aziz bounce and contrast are used in equal amounts. And as a designer, you tend to want to strive for harmony in your design. You want people to come to your design and find it pleasing, easy to look at, well organized and working in harmony. Now there are instances where you want disharmony. Maybe you want the person to feel kind of on edge or feel a little off. And you can create disharmony by doing ah by breaking some of the principles or using the opposites of principles. So, um, things like, you know, making your designs off balance can create disharmony. So let's take a look here. And basically, um, you know, this is our basic harmonious type of design. It's God, equal amounts of color and contrast. It's got nice balance both vertically and horizontally. And even though the two images are different, they are essentially the same type of image, so it creates unity. And when you see this, it's a very nice, simple thing toe look at it doesn't cause any kind of disruption in the brain or anything of that. Nature is a cool image, and it is just, you know, showing harmony based on its lighting. The contrast values. Um, you know, something's Aaron focused. Some things are out of focus. Something's or blue something's air, red and orange. It's just got a nice mix of everything going on, its balance both vertically, horizontally, even diagonally, it looks like. And, um, it's just using a lot of the basic principles and elements and creating ah, harmonious look within this photograph. So here's an example of just really basic harmony and a design, um, same kind of thing. And these principles will pretty much be applied to all of these examples here. But just nice. Even design. It's centered. It's balanced. It's not. You know too much of any one thing. Um, it's got some emphasis on Budapest's, but nothing is too overly emphasised. Um, and everything looks nice and pleasing to look at. Here's another good example. Same thing it is balanced, you know, vertically and horizontally. For the most part, you have, um ah, different colors in the image that's creating nice balance that you have some nice cool colors, and then you have some nice warm colors. Um, you have kind of different textures. You got kind of that, um, powdery flour, sugar, whatever that is going on there. And then you have some, like, smooth, silky, kind of looking textures. And all in all, you know, there's there's different kinds of contrast high values, low values. And it's just creating a nice, pleasing, harmonious looking image and same thing for the end here, using two different kinds of colors. Um, you know, cool colors and warm colors and creating a nice balance vertically and horizontally. You can see that these air mirrored both ways. Um, the colors are are, you know, horizontally mirrored, and the image here is smeared vertically and just creates a nice, pleasing aesthetic to look at, you know, so basically, when you're designing, think about what you want your design to achieve. Do you want the person to come to your design, look at it and feel like they're comfortable? They're reading it, they're absorbing the information, Or do you want to make it feel disharmonious, where you're making them feel on edge and maybe something's out of balance or something has too much contrast. On one side, you can actually affect the emotions of your viewer. And in doing so, it's gonna give the, um, portray whatever you're you're trying to give to them. You know, whatever that purpose of that graphic is, you can give that by making something either harmonious or disharmonious. 13. Hue: you is the name of each color within the color spectrum and can create different mood and feelings based on its value. So this is basically the visible light that you see, you know, the rainbow, the prism, the colors that you actually see. It's the descriptive term for those colors. So in this hamburger we have different hues. We have orange. We have red, green, yellow and brown and those shoes air helping to make up that hamburger. If you started changing these colors around because we're typically used to seeing these kinds of colors associated with a hamburger, you know, if you made this bun blue, it's going to give you a different kind of mood or feeling. Um, maybe it might, you know, actually doing bloom. I give a kind of a sickly kind of feeling. Or maybe you turn the cheese green. You know, you could give that kind of, like, moldy kind of feeling that this is an old hamburger opposed to maybe a nice fresh hamburger . This image has a variety of Hughes, a lot of blue hue, but it also has the reds and the yellows of the sun rising in the morning and, um, you know, very beautiful image based on its colors that are being used. And, of course, you see the different hues of making up people. Um, the people aren't really that well on focus. So, um, you have their basic shapes, like this person running here, some basic shapes. But you know, the hue, their colors. Actually, the contrast kind of shows them and let tells you what that images, and you can recognize that as a person based on the hue of their skin tones. Now, these examples, um, he was being used for this food, and it's using very specific colors. Um, you know, any color that you use within the food, you're going to be recognizable, but different foods have different kind of colors that are used. Um, bakery, you know, is going to use a lot of these kind of reds, yellows, blues and give those desert kind of colors. You know, if you're talking about vegetables, you might do a lot of greens and oranges and yellows and maybe some reds, um, to represent, you know, lettuce and celery and tomatoes and things of that nature. So different Colors and Hughes are going to give you different moods and feelings, and that is used an advertising and marketing across the board all the time. Um, basically, companies like McDonald's uses red and yellow in their logo because those colors remind you a food because they're prevalent and food all the time. You know, throughout generations and generations, we have come to recognize certain colors as edible food, red and yellow, being very strong in the food industry. And that's why you see, ah, lot of companies that deal with food use that color, you know, Burger King and what what have you here? Hugh is, um, there's one here being used here, Um, you know, except for the negative white space there. But this red is being used to, um, just signify importance and make it stand out. And just it's very, very eye catching and powerful and moving. So, um, as soon as you see that, I mean, it's hard to even look at anything else on the page because that read it just really captures your eye. So the hue is being used here to draw attention based on its color red, being a very alert color that you see on stop signs and stop lights and things of that nature. And then finally, you see here, Hugh, being used to signify what kind of message you're trying to Relais. And this is very important because you want to try to pick colors and Hughes for your social media, for your brand and and things of that nature, they're going to signify the message that you're trying to Relais. And this is game night. So, you know, um, it's at a pizza place. It sounds like it's going to be fun. Maybe kids are going to be there. They're using a childish type font here, so it looks very fun and free forming here. And then they use colorful hues. So very pastels, blues and yellows. And you just think of, like, parties or kids parties there, you know, they're gonna have a clown blowing up balloons and things of that nature. So the hue is very important, and we will really dive deep into different kinds of color schemes and color meanings on Hughes. Um, but basically, just keep in mind that the colors that you choose and the codes that you pick are going to dictate what kind of message you're trying to portray. Are you trying to show power? Are you trying to show wealth? Are you trying to show food? Are you trying to show, You know, whatever Have you just make sure that you keep in mind that different colors air going to portray different feelings and emotions and that can change through different, um, countries, religion, political views. You know, everyone has a different idea of what colors mean to them. So in one country, one color might be something nice and pleasant on another country that could signify something bad or you know something that you want to stay away from. So that's also something to keep in mind where you're showing these graphics, who your audiences and knowing kind of you know what they will and will not react to 14. Value: value is a brightness and darkness of a color. It can show form for an object, and it can also provide contrast to draw your attention to what you want the person to look at in your design. So if we take a look here, you can see that we have a circle with the base kind of orange color and just by changing the value, get different shades of lights and darks, even though it's the same orange color. And it's creating foreign because it actually makes it look like a shadow, like it's a ball. So just by even though they're squares, changing the values you can see that is creating form of this image. This is a great image of value because you can see it has some very light values at the bottom and darker colors at the top. And then the positive space is being shown by these very dark um, silhouettes. And the high contrast of the brightness and the darkness really makes that stand out. And it's just a really great looking image. So if we look at these examples, this one has a lot of value and you can see that's got some light areas, such as the edge of the orange, and you can also see that's got some dark areas like these shadows. And they've created high contrast text within the shadows to really make the text stand out . Otherwise, if it was lower value, it would bleed into the shadows. And then you kind of lose focus of that Texan. You might actually wander off and start looking at this orange a little more, but because the even the brightest parts of this orange aren't completely white, and they left that for the text, your eyes taken away and you look at the text a little more because there's a lot of contrast in value between the text in the shadows here. Now, when you take away, sir, when you take away color, you can still see the values here of this image. And there's not a whole lot of high contrast ing values if you're just looking at the photograph in the back. So they add the high contrast again with the text and because this is a darker image, they went with a white text. Now, if this image was a little on the lighter side, you could probably get away with using a black text because you would show contrast ing values and then that finally, this is another image has a whole lot of different values within it. You have these very bright stripes going on, and then some dark shadows and lines and strokes of this paint, and that value is really giving this paint image form. So you have your your Hughes and your colors. But when you had that value, you're really getting the shape of what this looks like. This is paint and that you can see these kind of strokes going through it. It's helping provide movement, and you also get contrast ing value with the text here in the dark areas of this paint. If you were to put text at the bottom where it's brighter here, you probably want to use some darker kinds of text, and then also you can see that there's varying values right here pretty dramatically. These very bright whites and in these dark areas, and what they did was they created these circles to kind of be able to throw in some text there of any color and not let it bleed into these values because if those circles weren't there, you know that part of that five would look OK against this white area of this brush stroke , but it would blend into this darker area. So to stop that from happening, they added these high contrast ing circles so they could add some tax and really make that stand out. So now you can be used to, um, create contrast to draw in attention, um, toe where you want someone to see something. If you have too high contrast, ing values together in a scene, it's going to provide a very high focal point. So that is a trick that you can actually use where you know if most of your seen all the values air very similar, and then one little detail as, ah high contrast ing value color next to it that is going to draw the attention. And that's where the person is going to look. So you also need to be careful that you're not doing that by accident and drawing the person's view away from what you're trying to show them. 15. Saturation: saturation is the intensity of a color, and saturation can also be used to show contrast and to draw attention to something you want the viewer to look at. So in this image you can see that everything has been pretty much de saturated. There's not a whole lot of high, Um, you know, high intensity going on here. It's all just kind of bland and plane. You do have some, um, very bright areas, but the saturation itself has been toned down to trying to give this little kind of look. And this is kind of like a sepia tone you would see in an old timey photo, and it's got kind of a de saturated look and that provides a certain feel to the way you see that. Now, if you look at this image, you can see that's the background has been mostly, Everything is pretty much de saturated. Especially like this building here doesn't have a whole lot of pop going on. But of course, this cab does. These yellows are highly saturated, the intensity is just off the charts, so it really draws your eye, and even these yellows and whites here are much more intense than the yellows of the other two cabs in the background, they still pop, but not as much as this one does. So this one really helps to show that, um, the intensity can draw your eye into a place that you wanted to see. So in these examples, you can see that the color saturation is very high in this image in these strawberries and different Berries here are just very highly saturated, very intense. And you know that that creates a mood in a feeling. And I would say that you know, we, um, have always looked at things like Berries and fruits. They were always very highly saturated and appealing to us, and they kind of make us, um, want them eat them thirst form. So they've used high saturation to really give those Berries a punch in and even make them look a little more edible. In this layout, you can see that there are varying saturation is going on here. So on the left inside, you have a very high popping saturation, yellow and contrast going on with the white and yellow very, very high saturation, XYZ and intensities where the images are little de Saturated Um, they're not completely just popping off the page and intense with color, even though the gray scale that they still don't have a whole lot of saturation going on. So you see these faces, Um, people tend to drawn to look at people immediately, so you do catch these. But then it's OK for your eye to leave this because you are looking more than more highly saturated image, which is this yellow and white text over here. In this image, you can see that the boxing gloves in the background have been de saturated and that the highest contrast is the words in this middle here and especially this word punch. And it gives you a punch because having D saturation in the background and high intensity in the foreground is doing exactly that. It's kind of punch you in the punching you in the face and saying, Hey, look at this. Um so that that is a way of definitely composing your graphics and images so that it will help draw viewers attention. One thing you need to also be aware of same with value is having same saturation zin your scene. If everything is the same intensity, Um, it can create different moods. If everything has low intensity together, it can look very bland. If everything has high saturation and intensity together, then it can look very, um, popping. Sometimes it can be too much if everything has full intensity. Um, that's usually what cartoons are there. They're very high saturated images. So if everything is like that in your scene, it's hard to focus on any one thing. But if you have varying levels of saturation intensities, where things that you want to de emphasize, you can make a little less saturated and things you want to emphasize. Put a little more saturation or intensity into those colors. It's going to help draw the eye that way. 16. Warm and Cool Colors: colors are categorized as being warm or cold, based on their color temperature. Now we know that colors give us different kind of meanings and feelings, and colors were separated from as being warm. And those air your yellows, your oranges and your reds or is being cold. And those were going to be your purple is your blues and your greens. And so we use this term warm and cool colors because they actually have a temperature in a spectrum and that can be used to portray different meanings. And that's why we have things like, um, temperature graphics on the Weather Channel or why we say things like, You know, that person is as cold as ice. Um, you know, an image like that you would you wouldn't use a bunch of reds and hot colors. You would use cool colors to signify the coldness and ice, like the blues and the purples and lavenders. So in this image we see that there's a lot of neutral colors, such as the black and white tennis shoes, the brown pants, the kind of warm skin tone, Um, but the main image here is having contrast of a warm up and cool together. So you have the cold shirt and the warm backpack, and that kind of draws attention, since everything else the hair in the skin tone is of the warm nature, but there kind of together of here. But the two things that are high crime trusting are the warm and cool colors of this backpack. So it helps draw your attention to this image and and look at that. And I just posted a picture of a rainbow here to show you. You know, this is where the, um, you really get the separation At its finest point is Justin and color in the color spectrum . Invisible light. But as you can see in the rainbow, you have your warm colors at the top in your cool colors at the bottom, and that's just based on, you know, the angle of the way that you're looking at the moisture in there and seeing those colors. So if we take a look at some examples, we know that you know different colors do different things to our eyes. And when we're talking about movies, one of the big things we say about moves is this is the hot new movie or this movie's hot right now. And you know that saying that a movie is big and it's awesome, and you should go watch it and check it out. So when doing graphic design, you want to show something that's hot. Use hot colors. So they've used reds and yellows here, um, to signify, you know, look at this new movie. It's got amazing reviews and stars, and it's the hot new movie outs to go check it out. And they've used warm colors to to do that in this image, Um, for some type of maybe swim, poster, swim graphic design. You know the ways air rich and blues and maybe even a little greens. And you know those air cool, cool, cold colors and you know, that might be refreshing. Maybe they want to show you here that, you know, going for a swim is gonna be refreshing and help get you, you know, exercise and it's going to feel great. And you know that you're jumping in and getting this nice cool, um, water on your body. In this final image, we see a nice blend of warm and cold colors, and there's really good balance going on here, the way they balance kind of the warms and these corners, the colds and the colors. And there's some good symmetry and balance going on here between the two colors, and it creates a really cool effect. It looks really nice and pleasing. Um, there's not too much or too little of one or the other. And they've created warm and cool to kind of activate the mine and get you looking at this image. And so you can use, um, warm and cool colors for contrast. You can use it as a descriptive type. Things um, you know, Like I said, if you're doing a Weather Channel graphics and you want to show one part of the country is , um, high and Fahrenheit and very hot right now, you would use warm colors, and you would use you know, reds and yellows to signify that. And then, if you want to show that their snow or it's very cold in the region, you would use purples and blues and things of that nature. So color temperature is really important to kind of give you a different emphasis on what you're trying to portray in your image or graphic 17. Color Meanings: colors can have different meanings based on the culture that they are shown to. And what this means is that most colors mean generally the same things to human beings. But there are instances where colors can get translated differently based on the culture that you're in. So what one color means something to someone living in one country might mean something completely different to someone else in another country, you need to be aware of this and kind of the conscience, and careful when choosing your colors that you are picking the right schemes so that you are targeting the audience that you want and really not offending anyone else. So we're gonna look at all the colors in this, um, example here, and basically we'll start with yellow and yellow. Is happiness fresh? Ah, freshness, cheerfulness, childish warmth, energy, optimism, joy, caution and creativity. And if you take a moment and just close your eyes and think of the first company that comes to your head that uses yellow, and when you think about that, you begin to wonder why they have chosen yellow to be their brand or to be in their design elements, and it might fit in one of these criteria. Now, this is not everything that yellow is used for. And, of course, like I said, yellow can mean different things to different cultures. But these are some of the general categories, so it can be happiness, choppiness and and playfulness. It can be fresh when you think of ah, like something like a limit of fresh squeezed lemon right off the tree. It's It's juicy and flavorful. It can be warmth and energy. It can provide light like from the sun rays. It can be optimism and joyfulness and happiness. Um, it can also be caution and, you know, Ah, it's very bright. And hey, you You know, you you would see something like this and you might wanna be careful about it, and that's found in nature. You know, if you're out in, say, um a meadow a green meadows blue sky day and you've got all this green meadow around you. But then you see this giant yellow bumble bee. Well, that color is a signal to you. Hey, watch out! You know, you might want to be careful. It's bright yellow and we know that bee sting, so it kind of helps draw your attention to the caution. And that's why there's a lot of cautionary signs. Well, don't slip on. The floor is usually made of a yellow sign, because when you put that yellow against the background of everything else in that room, um, it really stands out and it can help show caution. Orange is the color of courage, confidence, friendliness, success, thirst, wealth, youthful, fun, optimistic and positive. Um, it also is a very strong energy color. It helps, um, provide energy to a page. And if you've noticed in this course, have pretty much chosen orange to be the dominant color, Um, I kind of like it. It's fun, it's invigorating. And it it's an energy color. It it helps, um, move your mind. It's not so powerful was like it. Read where it's too much in your face all the time, but it does activate your mind and make you think. And if you're wondering why I've used orange throughout the whole course, maybe this will help you understand that reasoning, because I want to activate your mind and get your mind thinking about the things that I'm trying to tell you about these different design theories. Um, it can also be courage and confidence and and show might, um they can be friendliness and happiness. Also, our success, um, provide thirst. Kind of like the limiting analogy you can use, like an orange analogy to when you bite into a fresh orange. Oh, manages a quenches your thirst. You know, it's almost as good as water. So, um, it could be used to show thirst things like Gatorade. They have an orange umm logo and branding because it's a thirst kind of drawing, you know, type, color. Um, it can also be used to show wealth and optimism and positivity, so very active color. All right, let's look at Red. Red is a very, very strong color. Might be, in my opinion, one of the strongest colors that there is that we see throughout everyday life and in graphic design and media. Um, red is the color of love, energy, passion, angry intensity, aggressiveness, sexuality, strength, power, power and dominance. So, basically, register is all of these things, and it is very strong. And all of these categories it's intense. It's very in your face. Putting this red square on the screen makes it hard to look at anything else because the red is just so powerful that your eyes just drawn to it. Um, you know, and in nature of the things that are red or very strong type images. You see, you know, if we're using the example before a green meadow and blue skies but then you have a single red rose against that background, you are just going to focus on that red rose because just so I catching, um, it's always been associated with love and passion. So if you're trying to, you know, show any type of sexuality or love or passion, um, you know things like Valentine's Day. You know, red is used everywhere because it's the color of love and passion. Um, it provides energy also. It can also be angry and aggressive. So you have to be very careful, um, to not offend anyone because, you know, this color can definitely turn people off and and provide negative kind of feelings toward people. It's also color, strength, power and dominance. That's why you have a lot of nationalities that use red in their light. You know, flags in their countries because they want to show that they're strong and powerful and that red is a very eye catching kind of color. To do that, get your purples. Um, they provide sophistication, spirituality, mysteriousness, wealth, royalty, luxury, wisdom, magic, creativeness and sadness. Um, you know, purple. I always tend to think of Thea like the Greeks or the Romans with their what you call it, like tunics on or robes on. And they have, like, the purple sashes and that that was supposed to show sophistication. Spirituality. Um, if I'm not mistaken, purple was not found very often in nature. Um, and I believe that that idea of the Greeks and the Romans wearing those powerful sashes, actually from what I understand, came from the colors of inks that you were able to acquire back in the day. And purple was one of the harder ones to come by. So if you had if you had purple links to, you know, die your clothes purple and have this sashes and what not that showed royalty and luxury, you were able to afford those things. So we have this kind of, ah understanding that purple is a sign of royalty and wealth. Um, it can also be connected to spirituality and mysticism and magic, Um, and creativeness. It can also be a color of sadness. You can actually use the purples and lavenders to create kind of a feeling of being down or being sad. So purple is a very strong color, and and a very, very cool color to play with X we have is our blue and blue is, um, trustworthiness Smart, calm Faith. Ah, stability, powerful tranquility, affection, loyalty and intelligence. Um, blue is another very strong color. Might be the, um, you know, exact opposite of red, which it is If you're talking about warm and cool colors and it provides all of these great attributes to it, it's, you know, trustworthy, stable and powerful. Um it can also be calming and affectionate so it can be soothing. Um, it could be, you know, provide faith. Um, insuring Quil ity and also intelligence and blue is used in a lot of social media branding and businesses, and it's because they want to show you Hey, look, the you were trustworthy. Were stable, were powerful, where loyal were intelligent. So blue very helps to motivate those kinds of actions. And the viewers eyes sorry about that. And the last we have is green and green is the color of money growth, healing, freshness, soothing natural envy, jealous jealousy, health and reliability. So, um, you know, of course, it's the color of money. Ah, especially in the western rule when you're talking about like, us dollars dollars are in green, so we tend to associate green with money. It's also growth, freshness and nature. So, you know, Green has found everywhere in nature. Um, you know, grass and trees and plants, and it provides freshness and and natural ality and growth. Um, it is also the signing of healing and health. Um, and it can be in both terms, good and bad. It can be the ah medical powers of healing the body, and it can also be sickness. Um, if you think of, um, well, I think of like movies that whenever you see the hospital scenes in these action movies, they always have this green tent to him, and it's always this kind of, um health hospital kind of sickness. Kind of feel to it. And, you know, these scary movies were there in hospitals and such things. They'll put this green tint to it and give you that kind of sick feeling about yourself. But it can be either way. It can also be freshness and healing. Also, it's also the color of reliability. So if you want to show that some things reliable again, think in your mind about one or two companies that use green in their logo. And they're trying to tell you like, Hey, we are reliable. You can trust us, so those are all kind of the basic colors. You know, of course, there's a lot more. There's variations of colors. There's teals and magenta sand, science and all kinds of other other colors. And each color is going to provide, um, you know, different feelings and moods. And like I said, these air different across different cultures. So what? Maybe, um, happiness and soothing in fresh ing. Um, for a color on one culture, that same color and another culture might be disease or negativity, or you know something of that nature. So you need to be conscious of that. Whenever you're designing for an audience, you kind of want to know your audience and know their background a little bit so that you can make sure you're choosing colors wisely. And what is it that you want to say about your design or, say your brand? Um, this is big and branding, because when you create a brand, you want to tell people what you are about. And one way of doing that is the use of color. You can immediately say, Look, we are a food company because we choose reds and yellows or we are dependable while reliable, loyal company because we use greens and blues. Or, you know, maybe we use blues and reds because we're, um, loyal, independent mobile. But we're also, you know, very powerful and driven. And, you know, you get kind of a combination of the both. You can have neutral colors companies, um, that use very neutrality type colors. I know apple, the iPhone. They kind of have gone that way, where their colors are very grays and blacks and whites, where we're neutral to kind of everything. You can have tans and browns that are also neutrals. Companies like ups. They have Brown's in their color, which is, you know, like stability. But then they have a little bit of yellow, so a little bit of energy going on there, too. So think about the colors. Whenever you're designing anything, it is very important and will help direct your viewer to what you want to tell them. 18. Font Type: font type is the name of the typography based on certain characteristics. These characteristics include classifications, which basically says, if it's sands sans serif script, special characters or ding bats or wing dings based on its spacing, the mood it portrays. So this could be, if it's funny, classical, modern, formal, informal and also on its weight, which is basically it's thickness. So it's thin, bold, dark, medium, those kind of characteristics. So let's take a look. And here you see, we have four different blocks of fun, the 1st 1 being Ah, sand Surf and the 2nd 1 being a serif and the service are the, um, little little strokes off the ends of text and fonts. So when you have expert than you have those little Sarah's at the top and bottom going off that that X and then San Serif is when it's void of those. He also have your script funds, which are like handwritten fonts, specialty fonts. And then you have wing dings, um, or ding bets, which are basically symbols. It's still a font, and you type like you normally would, but instead of it portraying a character of a language that we would understand a portrait . It shows like a symbol or icon. Those are really good to have in your portfolio. If you have a good font library with a lot of ding bats and wing dings, you have a lot of graphic design elements at your fingertips that you probably didn't even know about, because you can take those and use those in your designs, and they offer a range of variety of stuff. So let's ah, scroll down some more here and here's ah font style or a font type within a picture, and you can see this would be a sans serif type font where it doesn't have the Sara's going off of them. Just a real, basic, blocky type of font. And, you know, the fonts, typography, text. It's all very important to the human language and and the way we communicate, the way we talk gum give advice and all these things. So, um, it's very important to use fonts. Think about the styles and the types that you're going to use in your designs, what message you want to portray because you don't want to confuse the reader or the viewer . If you have something that is a classical design. You want to use a classical font. You wouldn't want to use a fund. Your whimsical farm. Um, you know, and then you can use certain special fonts. Have a certain look to him. So a font might actually look like it's, ah from the wild, Wild West or something of that nature. So you want to be careful with your selection of fonts and just make sure that you're portraying the image across and that also, if the farm is the important thing in the document or design, you want to make sure that the viewer can read that, you know, if it's not, doesn't have importance. And it's de emphasized, it can be a very script handwritten font that might be a little, little more, Ah, harder toe view, but in general, you want electable font so you can get your point across. So let's take a look at some examples, and here we have a serif type font being used. You actually have both sand, surf and surf, the major one being serif so you can see the little Sarah's going off the K and I and L. And this person provides a certain kind of feel to this design. If this was written in a comical kind of font, it would provide a different kind of feeling. But with the what they're trying to portray here, they chose this font to give you a certain kind of feeling and then for the basic text they use a sensor. So it just really easy and pleasurable to read. And it's nice to use two different types of of font types in your design because it will just provide some contrast and help make your other fund your main fronts stand out. So I definitely think about using two funds. Now you don't want to get more than two, Um three is OK in some circumstances, but when you start getting into 3456 different styles of font, it becomes very confusing. So, just like any other type of value in design, such Aziz will value itself or color or emphasis. These kinds of things font. You want to make sure that your providing contrast and emphasizing what you want the viewer to see by the types of fonts that you're using. So here is a, um, party invitation, and they used some very basic San Serif fonts to t Just get the point across. Um, they weren't trying to be really whimsical, funny, cute, sea or hand written. They just wanted to let you know that there's a party. This is where it's at. This is what's happening now. They did use two different fonts here, but they're both kind of very just, plain blocky kind of funds that are easy to read, even from, say, a distance. And that's the other thing. If you get descript fonts that are very cursive and you know you have to understand that you have to get a little closer toe to read those. If you saw that on a poster or billboard on the street, it might be a little more complicated to read than text like this that is very blocking and natural. And then this is a little bit of a script font, Um, and then what looks like Ah, Sarah Font underneath it. And the script font is just kind of giving, you know, the feel that handcrafted, you know, they used a hand written type font, so it's very hands on. It's not mechanical. They didn't use the font that was, um, you know, to modern or, um, you know, again, not not like a funding comical kind of fun. So these, um, forints will definitely make or break your designs, And it helps in portraying the message that you're trying to get across. So make sure that you choose your friends carefully, pick a good front type and try different things in your design, different fonts to see what works and doesn't work. 19. Font Size: font size is a measurement of characters and a font. So this says how big or small the phone is and it's measured in points in one point is 1 72 of a niche. So basically that means that a 72 point fun is one inch in length. So if we scroll down here, you can see I got my father here. That's a 72 point fun, and we're actually zoomed out right now. If we go to 100% you can see that's 72 point font and it's one inch now. Fonds very a little bit on this rule, because there is spacing and the way fonts are written. Not all of them completely followed the rules of typography. So it may be a little off here and there based on individual fonts, But that is typically the rule. Um, most body ah, and paragraphs that you see are done in 10 12 14 size font, depending on you know who the audience is and that nature. But basically the size is just going to really to how big the fun is itself. Me back out here, Romney. Right to Okay, So this is the next image. And, um so in this design, you can see that they're actually using three different sizes Might even before they've got the bakery, which is 94 Here, um, original is 58 34 20. So they're using a variety of sizes to create this image here. And basically, what that does is when you change the size is like that, you're gonna have most emphasis to the biggest fault. So bakery stands out the most. That's the most emphasized. And, um then when you want them to read the next saying, that's the next biggest. So we're original kind of the way I clicked on him and then premium and then pastries and cupcakes and then the date. So they're telling you what they want you to know in order that they think matters most. So you know Hey, this is a bakery where original that has huge social proof and draws people in. It's a premium bakery. Ah, they do pastries and cupcakes. So, you know, that's probably big for events and weddings and what have you and then the showing that they've been open since 1931 which is still important. They wanted to get it in there. But as far as the other stuff goes, they want you to see that first. So here's our first example, and you can see here that they kind of kept the fonts the same size. Um, the name of the author is a little smaller, but it's pretty much the same size, and this just creates a nice, cohesive kind of feel. Um, makes it really easy to read. They're not trying to emphasize anything over the other. They're just kind of giving you this quote and telling you who it's from. So it's nice, pleasing, easy to look at. This one, on the other hand, has varying sizes, kind of like the design we saw earlier, where Kraft is huge and they used a different font style font type here for the word the and made it really small to de emphasize that they want you to see this is a craft workshop and then the date ah, the you can take it or leave. It doesn't really matter, but it has a nice little element to the design you could see big contrast here and showing how font sizes can can make something pop out versus the other one will resell the quote and everything was kind of the same size. And then here they're using two different sizes, and they've emphasized the number. And, um, and social Media, you know, it's very big thing now to have lists and numbers and stuff like that, the top, then the 1st 40 this door, you know what have you So ah, numbers are big, Um, especially on social media, because list are important. People like to scan things easily. If you lay it out. 12345 they can scan through. See the five things that that that's something that they want to read. They'll keep reading. If not, they'll move on. So when showing this kind of graphic, they're emphasizing the number, and that lets your brain process. If it's something you feel like, you have the time worth reading. Now that said, 502 simple tips to boost your traffic. I might pass because I don't have the time to read that. But they emphasize the five and I look at that and I think Okay, five. That's not a whole lot. I'll take the time and check that out. So this is another useful trick. Is emphasizing the number in this type of ah, image or graphic design. So size is very important, helps to emphasize and de emphasize things or make everything just kind of even across the board and pre present a nice, organized, easy to digest kind of image. 20. Classification: fonts are broken down into a couple major classes based on the style used. This makes it easy to kind of refer to different fonts just to describe them in categories that are easy to understand because of the style that's being used to put them together. So let's take a look at this real quick. So the first font class is a serif, and this is a tight face that includes Sarah's or lines that are attached to the character . So, as you can see here, not only do we just have this s character, but there are these little cirrus at the top and bottom and the same thing for the are with it, just pointing off in the direction and then the I. And this just gives it, Ah, different kind of feel. This is, um, common, and, um, when we had more printed articles that you would read, such as newspapers, magazines, you would see a lot of this things like Times New Room and those air serif type fonts. The 2nd 1 is San Serif, and this is when you do not have those extensions. So this is when there's six. Stinson's are not there and this is a, um someone, are you? How easier font to read. You don't have all the extra stuff. There's just the basic letters, and it's clean. You might consider these some of these fonts modern. Um, just because they are just nice, nice to clean fonts and any easy to read. Um, a lot of things that are out in public that are important that you want people to see billboards and signs and things of that nature are rent and sense their phones because it's just really easy on the eyes and and easy to understand, especially at distances. Our next type, um, or classifications is a script, and scripts are hand written funds. So anything that is not made up from, you know, um, Sara for San Serif and hand written, but nothing too special, cause that's another category. But just basically handwritten fonts like this, and all script fonts are going to give you a different feel because they're all going to be written differently, as if it was cursive from a different person. Um, these are display fonts or, um, specialty type character fonts, and basically these are everything that doesn't really fall into the other three categories or isn't a symbol such Azzedine bet? Ah, these are broader and have more variation. And they could be formal or informal, and they usually elicit a specific mood or feeling, Um, times new. I'm sorry, Sarah San Serif script scripts kind of can give you a mood or feeling, but display fonts are particularly their Teoh show you a type of fun. And there's a lot of, um So, um, this is one. It's kind of more of a military type font. So you might use this in a military type. You know, add, um, you can have a fonts that look like food. You can have fonts, um, that are gory and bloody and dripping and stuff like that. If you're doing a vampire, um, graphic design piece, Um, so they elicit ah specific mood or feeling, um, to someone. And it's a big variety of font. So it's It might be one of the biggest classes because it's just a whole bunch of different types of stuff that you confined. Um, they even have fonts that are based off of other popular brands. So there might be a McDonald's font, and when you type, It looks like as if you were typing in, um, with the same front they used for their logo or, ah, Star Wars font. So you know that specialized look that George Lucas gave just the Star Wars cover you can type in your letters will come out looking like that. Finally, we have dingbats, sometimes called wing dings, and these air basically, um, characters of fonts. But they come out a symbols or icons, and this is a really cool concept, and one that graphic designers or anyone who's designing social media graphics. You should really check this out because this is very under used and basically these air fonts. Like I said, that when you tried them out, they come out symbols. Well, what that provides is a whole ton of awesome content that you can use just from getting forint packs. And usually these air vector rise, which means you can scale them up in a program, and they're not going to lose the quality. So they're not like an image. They are a vector art that can be scaled. So, um, you can get different type of dingbat fonts, so there can be, um who knows there's, Ah, weapon. Dean bets. And when you type the letter A a sword comes out, and when you talk the letter B a gun comes out and so on, and there's different types of those. So the possibilities are endless with ease, and they can really provide you with a lot of extra content toe have for your graphic design elements. And I added one example here just to show two different fonts me and used. Um, the one is kind of a Scripture, maybe a display type font, um, looks more like script causes hand written, but, um, and then, you know, just a basic sensor font at the bottom, easy to read. So they give you this feeling of their company. It's kind of a branded thing, and this gives you a certain feel kind of matches their logo or icon of, um, bicycle up here, and that gives you the feel of their brand and then just give you some basic information on what they are. If this wasn't here and it was just outfitters, you might not know exactly what they're talking about. But then they put fabulous clothes at the bottom, and that helps really pinpoint their brand and what they're going for. So, um, foreign classification is very important and typography, and it's good to know the different kinds. So, um, you know what you're going for when you're creating a brand and image or any type of design ? Um, and you can mix and match these up within designs, as you see here, and that will help create emphasis and de emphasize certain areas. So, um, definitely play around with those check amount and also definitely check out any type of ding bat type fonts and do a search for them on the Web because you'll see there's a lot of really good, useful stuff that you can use their. 21. Mood: the mood of a phone refers to the feelings it expresses to the viewer or audience, so typography can express different feelings to the viewer. And basically this means it. Based on the font style type classifications, size is being used. You can elicit a mood, Um, and not not just express what you're trying to say, but actually provide a feeling to that viewer based on the font that you choose. So let's take a look at some of these. And as you can see, we have a formal and informal fonts. Classical and modern funds, light and dramatic, funny and serious, rigid and elegant. And the phone itself gives off a certain feeling or mood. And that's just based on the type that it is it Is it a script? It is a san serif. It's a serif, um, how big it is, how thick it is, Um, and and just by the font mood itself, you can give across these feelings. So let's see some of this and action here. So in this design element here, you can see the Alfa, and I have no idea what the Alfa is or what they're trying to portray. But I could take a guess just by looking at this fund, and I've seen these kind of symbols before, and typically I see that SciFi They were like on a UFO. They don't have text. They have little symbols like this. A in this p here and there, not really, even in Air P would just put with these other letters. I My mind puts that together that that looks like in a and that looks like a P. This says Alfa. And it looks like it might be UFOs or conspiracy theories. Or, you know, something of that nature science fiction. So even though there's no image, there's no information here or anything else of that nature just pretty much a text in a circle. I can guess what it is based on the mood that that fun is giving me. So in our examples here we have into the wild winter warm up and you are invited, and in the background you can see an image of, you know, the the countryside and some trees, and it's kind of foggy out and you're going out into the wild. There's no civilization around, and, um, in the United States culture. When we talk about the Wild West, this is the kind of font that was that was prevalent. Um, if you see any kind of movies with the swinging billboard in the Wild West, this is the kind of thought that you're going to see now that probably has to do with the types of things that they were printing and using at that time. Um, but this particular font style gives you a certain mood and relates the message of what they want you to know. So in this next one, we have cupcake sale, taste the sweetness now through July 20th. And this is, ah, very fun, kind of fun. You know, it's curse of script, and it's it's swirly. And it kind of even remind you of when you see decorations on cakes and cupcakes and things of that nature. And it's really cool, cause they've kind of matched up the front with their design element appear. You see this little cherry with the stem at the top? It's got that little curly Q going on saying with this font. So they're they're trying that all together in the design, now the bottom they've used a more basic font that is easier to read to get the information across. So they're emphasizing, um, with the script and a large font showing this is what it's about. You can read it, but for the details and the information, we're going to write it in a nice, easy to read font said that you can get that information and retain it. Um, and if it was all written in the script, um, you might not remember that you might walk away and be like, Oh, what day was it? But when you can easy reading easily and process the information, then it becomes easier for you to retain. And finally, in this one kind of the same thing. Hello, friends and, um, some planks of wood and we don't know what this is about. But, ah, we could take guesses. You know, maybe it's Ah, diving platform in the lake or something. And the friends air coming along toe to G o jumping jump in the lake together, who knows? But basically they have done the same kind of thing a nice, easy, mellow kind of fonts that is really relaxed, and also it's a very tall phone as you can see these this l I mean, look how long that l is the vertical compared to the horizontal. So that makes it feel nice and tall. And that draws attention. Hello. Friends like, Hey, look at us, you know, and then when they want to get their website across, same thing as before, they use it. A very basic font. They're not using this crazy shouting at the rooftops. Fun. It's just this is my website easy to read, so you can comprehend that. So when you are doing any type of design or graphics or social media, keep in mind fonts because different fonts are going to portray different things. And you want to be careful about your selection because you don't want to pick fonts that don't fit the mood of what you're trying to portray. You don't want to use a funny font and something that is a serious note, and you don't want to ah, have a classical invitation to somewhere and have a silly font going on. It won't make any sense to the viewer, and they'll discard that information, and you can also use different moods within the scene to emphasize and de emphasize focal points that you want the viewer to read 22. Weight: font weight refers to the thickness of the character, so this is basically pretty simple to understand is just how thick or thin that character is. So let's just take a look real quick. As you can see here, the 33 major definitions you have light or thin, regular or medium, bold or heavy. And this is just saying, basically how thick or thin the phone is. I mean, it's a simple Is that so? Um, normally you have regular, medium thought medium fund. The options are to make it bold it, and that's just making it a little bit thicker. Um, when you're writing type or copy and you were using a regular, you know, say, Helvetica Font, you're typing it out. But then there's a couple key words that you want to really stand out. Maybe an important date or a name of a book or course or something that you're trying to present. You can bold a particular section of font, make it a little more emphasize and draw the viewers attention. So at least if they don't read your whole paragraph, they'll read those one or two words. So here's ah basic example of the design with a bold ID and a regular looking funt. And this is going to go pretty quick because there's not much to say about this other than , um, you're just gonna evoke different emotions on the kinds of fonts to use. You can change it up and have something and some thick and that would emphasize and de emphasize, um, the typography in your elements. You can have everything be the same thinness or thickness if you want to, and that will also give a certain impression. But on these three examples, they're all pretty much the same. Soldiers show them to you real fast. Um, this one, you know celerity is nice and bold ID, and an art exhibit is medium to maybe even the thin side. It's probably medium the same thing here, really big, bold ID quote and then the name of the person. Ah, the size. A little smaller, but it's also not bold. It is just regular medium, and then same thing here to ah, big extreme to um, if you're comparing the to the word, the doesn't look thin. It's probably regular, medium but very bold. ID big, thick foreign for evening skies so it gets that those words across first, the is you can take every leave. It doesn't really matter. So, um, basically, weight is just determining how, um heavy that fund is, how thick it is. And like I said, you can use them to contrast, um and de emphasize or emphasize certain typography in your designs. 23. Single Visual: a single visual design uses one element to express your idea to your audience, and this can be used as shapes, images or typography. And basically, it's a minimalistic way of designing that is just trying to get a single quick idea across , um, using the smallest amount of elements as available. Now, though, it's a single visual design. It doesn't mean only has to have one thing in it, but it's just getting a single quick expression across without too much information. So let's take a look. Um, for instance, here's a design. You might see this in social media. You might see this at the beginning of a magazine or a book or something of that nature, and it can just be this on a page. And it's just a single element, a single visual design saying hello and it's welcoming someone, and it doesn't have any other information. We don't know anything about the artist or what they want to express. They're not directing us somewhere or giving us a call to action. It's just one thing saying hello and and, you know, welcome. So if you opened up your e book and this was the first thing before you got into the chapters. It would be a friendly way of saying hello to your audience in in this example. We see we have, ah, bowl of oatmeal with some strawberries in it, and this works by itself on its own again. You could have this somewhere, um, within your branding or within your website or social media platform. If if your brand was around this or maybe around Ah, let's say health foods or morning foods or eating right or something of that nature. And you could just, um, have this image and really spark ideas and things into the viewer's minds. Maybe you were a fresh fruit market and you had this single visual. Um, and you could just show this without having to provide any content and just kind of let the people know, Hey, look, we we have our freshest of fruits. It's good for your food, and you can also see the images very clean. So, um, you know, this is this is a very clean type image, and that gives a certain feeling, but it's just a single single element trying to get its point across. So in examples, what we have here is, um, you know, the city of Los Angeles, and it is just a background image of the city. Um, again, it's not trying to convey a bunch of information. It's not telling you where to visit in Los Angeles. It's not telling you the 10 best things about Los Angeles. It's just showing the city and saying, Hey, look, here's Los Angeles. It's got a little note at the bottom city of Angels, which I think school So it throws in a little fun fact, but this is a single visual design, um, same kind of thing here with swim. Who knows what this could be used for. But, um, you know, maybe your ah exercise, um, instructor. And you posted on social media one day to remind people, Hey, look, swimming is very beneficial toe working out and staying fit and staying in shape, and it's it's nothing, um, more than that. It's not telling anyone to come take swim lessons or anything of that nature. It's just that one single, um, thought and putting that out there very basically and saying, Hey, swim And you can go with that however you want. And this is kind of the same idea. Ah, very basic back blue background with the rectangle acting as a border to enclose these three words. And it's it's nothing, um designed anything more than maybe to put a smile on your face, live, laugh and love. And, um so basically, you know, just getting that point across. Same things. Single visual elements are just one thought. One focus to get that information out. It's when you start adding Mawr information, times of days, where to meet what we're selling. You start getting into multi visual designs, and then you start worrying more about compensation. But I'm sorry, composition, but, um, when you have single visual elements, they can be placed kind of, um anywhere, as long as you know there's good balance in the design. But it's all about getting that one point across. 24. Focal Point: The focal point of a design is the main element you want your viewer to see. And no focal point in a design can cause confusion and disorder. Focal points can be made in a very, um, a bunch of different ways, including infants ists and showing faces in a design that that can draw focal points to your design, having movement or typography and contrast. So there's a lot of ways to draw attention to your design. And whenever you do that, you're creating a focal point. The main thing you want your viewer to see. If it's your brand, you want them to see your logo or the name of your brand. Um, if it's a something that you're selling, the focal point should be that what you're selling. If it's an idea or thought, that idea should XB express above. Everything else is going on within the design. So let's take a look here and in this first image, I mean, which dot did you see first? If you're like most people, you didn't see a dot first, you probably saw the bright orange heart first, because that is the focal point using color and contrast and shape. I've made the focal point that heart. Now, if these were all just dots, you wouldn't know which one to look at. Your guests could be as good as mine. I might be looking at number three. You might be looking at number 11 so when that happens, it's You got to be careful not having a focal point in your design because it can really drive a viewer away if they don't know what to focus on. People are there to process information and get your idea. And if you don't have an idea to give to them and everything has the same values, the same shapes, eyes to balanced or to uniform, you can drive someone away because they're going to give up on trying to figure out what you're trying to tell them. So providing contrasts and a focal point in your design will really help you get that idea across of what you want to tell them. So here's an image, and it's the same thing with the orange Heart. It's hard not to see what the focal point is in this image, and it's done in a variety of different ways, such as color. You know, it's the only bright orange thing on the screen. Um, contrast saturation, that yellow orange is just popping. It's using guiding lines so you can see the lines of this room are kind of pointing toward it a little bit. And that house draw your attention in. So this image is just a good example of a focal points. Now, if that little yellow thing wasn't there, what would you look at? You know, you might look at the little red thing outside. You might look at that pipe in the back of the room. You might stare off into these windows, but when you add just this one little element with its high contrast, it draws your attention inward and looks at that. And that might be something that you're trying to get across in your design. So sake a look at some examples. Now, in this one, we have some basic text and shapes. But immediately your eyes kind of drawn to the top left corner at that star. And if I don't even look at that texts and I kind of know, um, my United States map, I can tell you that that is in the Seattle area. So, um, just putting that star there with its high red contrast. Nothing else read in the scene draws a focal point to that element. If you stuck one down in the California region, I could guess it's Los Angeles or maybe one down in San Diego. You could stick one in Texas, and I could tell you where that is. But putting that star on that mat moving in around will draw the person's attention to what they you're trying to express. And then when I go back to the text and I read this Aiken CEO, it's a meet up for Seattle people. So there you go. Now, what's the focal element in this design? I would say that the focal element is the text, the actual name of the brand. And that's because we have big, tall, easy to read and bold ID font to describe the name of the company. Trendy clothing. Okay, we got that. So then there's some shapes. Maybe that's her logo. I might look at that because aside from the design elements of the lines and everything going on, um, than the things that I see, an order is trendy clothing and then everything else typography wise is not that bold. It's thin kind of text. So I jumped to the logo because it is nice and bold has his big, thick, rich colors also So I might see the name of their company and then their logo so I can associate the name and the logo together with their brand and then come back and read the rest of the information. They are a distributor. They do vintage and hits your style clothing, and they have their website there. So, um and then you have some bordering elements to keep everything in line in the middle so you can read that nice and easily and then same thing here, The focal element is the text in the middle. And, um, that is provided in a couple ways. One, you have contrast ing values of the white text and the blue background very sharp contrast here. The image down here is kind of blurred out and fuzzy. And, um, appear you have some nice rich contrast. Also, you have these guiding lines pointing into the center. So when you when you see these lines all pointing this direction your mind automatically says that this is important and it creates a border around this text. So the focal point becomes this block of text right here. When I see this image, I don't really start off looking down in the ocean or looking back here in the mountains. I start reading the words and then maybe I'll start checking out the image because I'm like that. But, um, basically, they're pointing to show you that this is the focal point. This is what you need to study its boxed in its Scott lines, pointing out and saying, Look at me and we got the big text first. So that's the main focal point. And then you have the secondary and third focal points here at the bottom. So, um, focal points are very important. Um, it's good to study and know what provides higher focal points than others. So you know you have value and contrast, So if you're using high and low values and creating big contrast, then you're going to create a focal point there. If you are doing things in focus and out of focus, things that are in focus are gonna have ah, bigger focal point movement provides focal points. If you have some kind of movement going on vs other static things in your design, you're gonna tend to look at the movement. And one of the big ones that I would like to talk about is people and faces. Because we're so accustomed to other people in other faces, it's something that we usually tend to look at first. So, um, use people in faces in your designs to draw attention, but make sure that you're using them in the right way so that you're not drawing away from attention. So if you have this great block of text and you want that to be the focal element and you're trying to get out this information, but then you have a couple off in the corner kissing well, you're taking away from that focal. But people are gonna be looking at a couple kissing and not at your text. So you've got to be careful with, you know, using faces and people in your designs. They can definitely help. They can also provide movement things of that nature. But just be aware that you are very drawn to people and faces and designs and images usually over text. If you put the two side by side, you're typically going pick up the image before you start reading the text, so I hope that helps. 25. Guiding Lines: guiding lines can help move the viewer's eye around the design. These air implied lines, and they can be used as lines, shapes, images, typography and borders. And if used incorrectly, guiding lines can lead the viewer off the page, and that will result in them walking away and looking at something else. So in this first example, this is a pretty basic, um, example of guiding lines using arrow. So I kind of cheated here. But guiding lines don't have to just be arrows. They can be lines of buildings or streets or trees or things that actually guide the viewers attention in a certain direction. And as you can see here, um, these guiding lines are pointing to the center, so they're given that kind of motion to look here at the center. So I've used these as guiding lines to draw the viewers attention there. I've also cheated a little bit here because this is a very, um, super way of showing guiding lines. But it works really well because the cables of this bridge or acting as guiding lines in this photo to point at the main focal points, the main focal point isn't really the grids and lines, even though you see those easily. The focal point is the beautiful architecture of this bridge. And the cool thing about using these cables in this photo is they provide guiding lines to draw your eye that way. So you see these lines and they're all pointing in that direction. They all end up there, and even this one here and some of these big that wouldn't thich ones at the top point that way. So, um, the guiding lines are actually drawn your view into the bridge and that that is acting as your focal point. And even though that these are more or less actual guiding lines, it's usually an implied type thing. So let's look at some examples so you can see this in action, and here you might not see it right away. But basically this front dune here is, um, much more contrast in and focus than the rest in the background, and it's creating this kind of arrowhead shape, so these gonna act like a guiding line and act like a narrow kind of pointing upwards so that if you are reading this, you stop here and you go back up and look at it again. And then also, you do have some of these lines that are coming and crossing through the text. So if you're coming from the side, they do get, run into the tax and act as guiding lines, pushing you into the center to read this. And in this one we have the highway acting as the guiding lines. And so we have these streaks of lines going across the page, all pointing in center to this text here. So you know, you we've used ah, block to make this text easier to see. And we put this in the middle of this traffic so that you can see, um, that this is actually pointing the way to that text in acting his guiding lines to show you what they want you to see. And then finally, the same thing here shapes are being used is guiding lines, but all pointing inwards. So basically guiding lines there implied usually, but they could be just about anything. Like I said, they could be, you know, a building or, um, they could be a tale of a dragon pointing at a character that you want them to see um, so you use guiding, wants to draw the viewers eyes around. And like I said, you need to be careful, because if you have guiding lines that that run off the edge of the page, you can actually stand into running into someone leaving that graphic design, Um, and not looking at and anymore. So, um, one good thing to do is if you have guiding lines that are running off the page, you can put another elements there to stop that to break it. This is good. This is why borders are so efficient because when you put a border around your design element, you're basically stopping all people from wandering off the page and you stopped at the border and come back into the design elements. So, um, if you had the guiding line of something in your design and it was pointing to the center, but then the other end of it is going off the page, you can put another circle or other type of graphic design element within that guiding line to stop it, so that when people get there, they noticed stop and come back into the design element 26. Framing Elements: framing elements keeps the viewers attention inside of the design. So one thing you need to caution about is when you're designing is leaving too much open space in no kind of border around your image. Now, sometimes this can be negative space or white space as your border. Um, and then sometimes this can be a physical border around your image, and this could be done with shapes, lines, symbols, and it can be done with a different kind of tricks, like blurring the outsides or adding a vignette to the outside. And we'll go over that. So if we take a look here, this is just a basic kind of shape on border. And, um, you would want to keep your texts inside of this, and this would frame this element and draw your attention inside. If you started putting text on the outside, you're gonna lose the viewers attention of that text because they're going to be enclosed within this border. This framing elements here and here's another one. It's ah, you know, just a basic shape that has engulfed this text and created Ah, nice pleasing thing to look at now. You could have any kind of pattern or background going on here. And basically, um, you would still stay within this text to read this because it is becoming your focal point because you created a border around it. Let's take a look at some examples. So in Ah, this design social media graphic this is basically the same thing. It's just a rectangle bordering this information. Um, you could leave this rectangle off and you would probably, um, read this. Okay, But you might start wandering and looking at the picture more. Or you might look at these guiding lines and they might fall. Fall off the edge of the page and you wander off What happens when you had this framing element? And this This border here is that you were in closing that information so that you can read this easily and any type of guiding lines that would normally take you off the page or being stopped by this border and creating this framing elements so that you can keep looking back at the text. Here is a same thing, but you know, it's got more of a design quality to it. It's using the swirly shaped and music notes toe act as the framing element, and you really can be anything. It could be a doorway. It can be foil ege. It could be designed element symbols. It can even be typography. You could blocking typography with other typography, so framing elements just help keep that focal point in the center, or where you would like to direct the viewers attention. And then finally, you have something more of a photograph here, and, as you can see that there's a a small vignette applied here. It's not very strong, but it's got this kind of dark surrounding border, and basically a vignette was made. Whenever you use real photography and the developing process, it it creates, um, the old kind of emotions and cameras would create these these edges, where they are a little darker around the edges. And so the vignette creates this kind of dark corners, and it creates a natural border for you to kind of keep your focus around here. You can also see that, um, it's kind of brighter in the center here, and and the greens and everything else is a little dark around the edges, which is kind of keeping that that in the center there, so you could do, um, you could do focal points for framing elements in a bunch of different ways, but basically framing elements are there to keep your information and in the center, or where you won't want the viewer to see that information. 27. Alignment: elements that are aligned toe one another creates unity and balance. Alignment is basically equal spacing, and it could be vertically, horizontally, and they could be aligned to the left, the center or the right. There's also justified alignment, which usually see in magazines and articles where text is spaced. Um, it's letters air spaced evenly across so that the left side and right side take up the same amount so that this word would actually end here with his D In balance, the E and the dot would end. Also on this, and that side would be aligned. This side would be aligned. And that's called, um, justification. So ah, line meant helps provide unity and balance and, um, stability within a design. So let's take a look here and in this, um, image, you can see that everything is left aligned and we have different, you know, sizes of text. But everything is pushed off to the left here, so that that just kind of gives us a nice kind of feel easy to read off to the left. Now, if you had this text in the center, it would provide a different kind of feeling, but it is grounded to this left side in this photo just shows some basic alignment of these , um, little, um, great sites or statues. I'm not really sure what those are, but I thought I was kind of a cool image. I really like these bricklayers going on here, but you have this nice alignment, um, of these objects in the scene, um, both vertically and horizontally and that just it creates a uniform, balanced kind of image, and it is very strong. So in the examples, you can see here that everything is aligned to this center. So you have this nice alignment of these words, these words, these words and this website, and it's all ah aligned right down the center. So everything's pushed into the middle. And then you have kind of some framing elements here, that air creating some alignment and you can see the kind of match up to the tops and bottoms a little bit There, there, off a little bit. But, um, they do create some alignment on the sides Also. Now, you can, um, use alignment in the other direction where things that you misaligned will creates some confusion or chaos. And if that's something you're going for. Then you can use that to your advantage. Here is just like another example of the one we looked at before, where the alignment is to the left side. And then finally, in this one, you have some design elements that are aligned, and this kind of like justification a lineman. But basically these are matching up. Even though this symbol is a little bit different here, you can see that the points ah, line with the rest to here. And, um, they aligned the word workshop and the date almost two. Um, you can see that that PNM it's not quite exact, but they almost aligned as the same with the W and three, so it just creates a nice balance in uniformity within your design. 28. Thank You for Watching!: Hey, everyone, I want to thank you for taking this course and taken the time to really sit down and spend some time with me and understanding these principles. I really think they're gonna help you once you see them. It's stuff that you see every day. But once someone points it out to you, it makes a lot of sense. And hopefully you picked up some tips and tricks that maybe you didn't know. Ah, we learned a whole lot in these lessons, and I just really hope that you can take this information and use it in your own business and brand, Um, we've gone through a lot of these images, and now that you see these images, you might look at them in a completely different way and understand really what the artist was going for when they were putting these things together. Um, everything from composition and color to the tight being used, or the shapes and the borders. So they all play a big, big role. And people are really trying to use this stuff to to direct your attention and provide information more than you might have thought of in the past. So, um with this knowledge. I hope that you can take this. Use an easy program like Can va to go out there and start making awesome, stunning images that you can use toe Wow your audience. And that's really what you want to do. You have a message you want to get across, and graphic design and social media are there to help you get that message across images, text. They all worked great and providing that. And so, hopefully these principles are something that you can use and take into consideration when you're making your designs so that they just make much more sense to the viewer. So I hope you really appreciate it. If you have any questions, please leave comments or feedback. I will be as prompt as I can to answer them, and I hope you'll take care. Thank you.