Graphic Design Theory - Balance

1. Introduction : When we are born, balancing is one of the first and most important skills we learn. Throughout our lives, we aim to have a balanced diet, strike a perfect work life balance, and are instinctively drawn to symmetrical things. Visual balance in graphic design is equally important. Every element in a composition has a certain amount of visual weight, and you need to learn how to keep them in balance to achieve pleasing compositions. In this course, we will cover symmetry, alignment, grids, movement, orientation, viewpoint, visual center point, and everything else that can help you to strike the right amount of balance in your designs. We will also analyze hundreds of amazing designs from all areas of graphic design to help you easily visualize and understand all the terms and rules that are covered in this course. Together with the exciting class project that I hope you will complete at the end of the course, you also have the analysis worksheet and the term glossary to help you practice everything that you've learned. I hope you are just as excited as I am to get started and dive into the sea of knowledge and beautiful graphic design examples. 2. Visual Weight: We all instinctively try to find balance in everything in life, whether it's work life balance or a balanced diet or even arranging flowers in a vase trying to keep everything balanced. In graphic design, balance is just as crucial, and it is one of the most effective ways of achieving harmony in a composition. In the physical world, when you are trying to keep balance between things, you always have to make sure that there is equal weight on both sides of a scale, for instance, in graphic design, we are thinking exactly the same way, but we are calling it visual weight, which means that every component or element that you use in your compositions will carry a certain weight. And in this video, we will cover a lot of different ways that you can identify what makes something feel heavier or lighter within a composition. So first of all, vibrant colors always feel heavier than neutral tones. So, for instance, here, with the maker of Swan's book cover, the vibrant colors really stand out and form focal points. And even though they take up much less space within the composition, they still carry a fair amount of visual weight. This cover is utilizing the same balance that we would see in the Yin Yang sign, which, by the way, is also a great example of how pleasing we find things that are balanced. And it is a Chinese philosophical concept that explains that the opposing or contrary forces in nature are actually complementary, interconnected, and interdependent, meaning that they rely on each other or improve each other's effects. That's also a great way of thinking of balance in graphic design. So when you're putting opposing things together, they can enhance or emphasize each other's attributes, then you strike the right amount of balance. But going back to colors, darker colors also tend to feel heavier than lighter colors. So, in case of this poster, for instance, we can immediately feel that these regions here in black, feel the heaviest, and the same applies to this ribbon here on the top, compared to the other two dominant colors, the orange and this yellowish tone. And the reason I love this poster is even though it is not symmetrical completely. Only this top section can be considered centered and symmetrical. While this bottom part is asymmetrical, These are both terms that we will discuss in much more detail in the next video. However, even though there is no symmetry you see at the bottom, things still feel very balanced. And that's mainly due to the fact that we have equal amount of these darker areas placed here. And even though this area here on the right is maybe slightly larger than the one on the left, the camels and these characters also set in black help to balance out the two sides. Another great minimalist illustration also shows the same approach, again, distributing visual weight, relying on colors mainly. So this darker red color here really stands out, and it is slightly off center, so it's a little bit closer to the left side. And to counter balance that, there is a diagonal line used here at the bottom, which is going upwards to the right. So there is more of this white space used here, and that is helping to balance out the weight of this red here, which is, again, slightly off to the left. Probably most important to remember is that anything that you place in the exact center point of your composition will feel the most balanced or stable. And the further away, you move objects from that center point, whether you move them to the left, right, top or bottom, or especially if you move them to the corner points, The same objects will feel much heavier the closer they get to the edges of your canvas. And if you're not careful enough, they can easily make the composition feel like it's tipping to one side or the other. A great example of this is this city on the edge cover where intentionally, the designer created imbalance, emphasizing the theme or the title of the book. So here already having the city and the ground on which they are placed set in black makes it very heavy visually. But also the fact that most of the building and especially the tallest building is placed here close to the right edge without anything else supporting underneath achieves exactly what I described that this shape, in particular, feels extremely heavy. And this cover shows that you don't always use balance to create harmony in your composition. You can also create the precarious almost unstable situations, which will make the viewers slightly at unease. It will create tension, drama, and these are all useful things to grab your viewers attention and make them interested in whatever your design is used for. Another interesting perception is that we feel harder edges to be heavier than curved or softer edges. Coming back to these two posters, when you look at the one on the top, which uses more curves, you feel like it's slightly lighter in terms of visual weight compared to this poster below it, which uses mainly hard edges. Even within a single composition, we can see the effect of this. Having this car sliced up and only showing one side of it created this interesting asymmetry where we have the original nice curves of the car. While on the left side, we have this sharp straight edge. So even if you ignore the fact that there is a missing side of this card here and just pay attention to the remaining area, it would still feel like the left side is heavier than the right side. We already mentioned symmetrical and asymmetrical balance, but there's actually two other types of balance. And this one in particular, I would call a mosaic balance, where we have these characters floating around seemingly randomly, and also the car, again, is cut into two. Somehow things still feel balanced. And the designer achieved this once again by using a mosaic balance but also a grid in the composition. Again, don't worry if you're not familiar with grids and how they work because we will be discussing them in much more detail in another video. 3. What affects the Visual Weight of a design element: In case you're wondering was the fourth type of balance, it's actually called radio balance, which happens when you have your composition radiating out from a center point. And it doesn't have to be the physical or visual center point of the composition, it can be anywhere. Like in this case, it's play somewhere around here, which is slightly off to the top right of the composition. By the way, in this case, it's very close to the visual center point. Again, another term we will be discussing later. For now, I'm just saying that the physical center point of composition is always in the exact center while the visual center point is always slightly above it. Again, in another video, I'm going to explain why and we will see more examples of this. But coming back to radio pattern, we can clearly see that not only these bamboos are all coming out from that center point, but also the characters are all aligned in the same way. So it's almost like a star that is being formed here. Radio symmetry is also a great way to capture your viewer's attention and really draw them into the composition because all of these lines are leading to the center point. So it's attracting the viewers attention there. It's almost like setting a trap for their eyes, and I'm going to show you a lot more examples of this once we start talking about symmetry in more detail. But there's still a couple of other ways of thinking about visual balance. And one of them is that complex shapes always feel heavier than simpler shapes. So returning to this poster again, when you look at the camels and the riders on them, they are definitely more complex shapes compared to these other curved areas here on the left and the right. And even though these are much smaller details, they still feel quite heavy visually compared to the other simpler shapes within the composition. Another fairly obvious observation is that field shapes or positive shapes. Like in this case, this circle will always feel heavier than empty or negative shapes like this fish, which only has an outline. Finally, complex textures also feel heavier than simple textures or areas without any texture. So in case of this book cover, the water here at the bottom feels much heavier than the sky. And notice that there is something also very interesting happening here. The text is all aligned to the left side, which would normally mean that things can get really out of balance if it is not counterbalance with something on the right side, But having that small board there and also the sun or moon, I'm not 100% sure in this case, plays all the way on the right side, very close to the edge, both here on the right side and also here on the top, still manages to keep everything in balance. Remember what I said, the further away something is placed from the visual or physical center point of your composition, the heavier it feels. So even though this is not a large item, and also, this is not a large item compared to the rest of the elements used, the fact that they are so close to the edge still adds more volume or visual weight to them. Of course, it also helps that we have two vibrant colors used on these elements, again, carrying more weight, and we have more complex shape on this boat and the character compared again to the rest of the elements in the design. So as a graphic designer, you have to think of all of these different ways that you can achieve balance in your composition. And like with everything in design is not about using a single one of these methods because it can be much more effective whenever you start combining them together. There is also another important term called visual direction, which has a lot to do with balance and visual weight, and it is the technique with which you indicate motion or the direction of motion in your composition. And here is a great example with this Sasquatch poster, where we clearly see the direction of quite a lot of things like this plane here is vizing past and going very fast to the left side. And the reason why we feel it fast is because it's already almost exiting the frame. Compared to this, we have this big monster, and it feels immediately slower because even though it is going in the same direction, it actually feels like it just entered the frame. So already, there is a relationship between these two details in the composition, and they're already balancing each other out. A fast but smaller item moving together with a large but slower item or character in this case. But things could get easily out of balance if everything is moving in the same direction. And that's why we have this train. Clearly moving towards the right, and also these whales or fish here at the bottom moving to the right. And if you play closer attention, you will notice that there is also a car here, which once again is moving to the right. And if you think about it, there is also a great rhythm here. We see things moving to the left on the top, then we have the train moving to the right, then the car moving to the left, and then the whales at the bottom, again, moving to the right. And just like everything else, rhythm and balance also usually goes hand in hand in graphic design. I also love this illustration, which shows a lot of very smart ways of using balance in a composition, First of all, we have this very rigid shape here at the bottom paired with the more complex shapes of these animals on the top. And even though the top half of the composition is not symmetrical, it still feels balanced. And that is mainly thanks to the smart distribution of these three animals, which vary in size. But what I love the most about this illustration is this shape at the bottom, which immediately establishes drama. Since we know that putting things on top of a shape like this would require the perfect distribution of weight for it to stay stable. So similarly to that city on the edge book cover. Here, once again, drama is established, showing a scene where balance can easily be disrupted. It is the same sensation that we get when we look at stones like this, balancing them out very carefully or even when we are playing gender. There is one more term worth mentioning here and that is the rule of odds for which I have a great example. This rule states that it is a good idea to frame your subject with two similar or identical instances to achieve visual harmony and balance. And you can see this very commonly used in Edwards, and Apple also loves to use the rule of odds. So instead of just having one mac book, we have two additional ones identical in their size, but still smaller than the one in the middle. So that is clearly the main subject, and it is just supported by the other two on the side. The reason why rule of odds works so well, again, is mainly due to the fact that it is emphasizing symmetry. So if you have an object that's already symmetrical, placing two additional ones just further increases the symmetry in your design. 4. Reflectional Symmetry: We already established that one of the best ways of achieving balance in your compositions is by relying on symmetry. But there's actually many different types of symmetry that you can use in your designs, and you can even combine multiple symmetries in one single composition. In this video, we will analyze a couple of very creative examples of all of these different types of symmetries. We will also see how asymmetry can add visual interest to your compositions, and we will even spend some time looking at how symmetry is used in logo design. So first of all, why is symmetry universally appealing to everyone in the world. The main reason for that is because it appears very commonly in nature. The human body itself and the face is almost perfectly symmetrical, even though there are minor differences between the two sides. All of the components of the body are in symmetry. So even if we look at the face, we have things that are centered like the nose and the lips, while the eyes and ears that are not centered are exactly the same distance from the center line on both sides. The same goes for the limbs as well, like two hands with five fingers on each side. This particular symmetry, we call reflectional symmetry or bilateral symmetry that achieves the balance and symmetry by mirroring details. Coming back to the hands example, you can see it that's a perfect mirrored image. The thumbs meeting in the middle and all the other digits reflected to the sides. You would see the same reflectional symmetry in almost all living organisms, including animals and plants. Just think of trees. That's probably the easiest one to imagine. Both the roots and also the branches aim to achieve symmetry. However, depending on the circumstances and conditions like strong wind always coming from the same side, can make a tree asymmetrical, which doesn't mean that it won't be aesthetically pleasing anymore. On the contrary, it can become more interesting and unique. Now, it is important that reflectional symmetry in design can be applied not only between the left and the right sides of your composition, but also between the top and bottom, and even it can be used in a diagonal format. So if you place your center of symmetry on a diagonal line, then you can have the reflected or mirrored details in the opposing two corners. Like, in this case, the designer of this poster, Shepherd fairy uses multiple symmetries within the same composition. We clearly have that reflectional symmetry for the face and this image in the middle. We also have radial symmetry for the elements around this circle here. But the typography suggests multiple symmetry lines, so we can place one here in the middle, and we can see this shape here on the top, feeling symmetrical, even though the actual characters are not perfectly balanced, but we can also place another symmetry line here because once again, we have same amount of text at the bottom and on the top. But in terms of the colors used on the text, we can also use A center of symmetry here diagonally, because as you can see, we have white used in the opposing corners and also black used in opposing corners. So just like with every other tool and method in graphic design, when you're applying symmetry in your compositions, it can be more interesting once you start combining different types of symmetries, or even combining symmetry with asymmetry. And notice how the face is not perfectly symmetrical like this line here is not repeated on the left side. Also, the lips are not perfectly symmetrical. Even details on the hair are not symmetrical, while the flowers in the hair are actually using perfect symmetry. So those subtle details that introduces asymmetry on the face helps to make it feel more natural because as we discussed, faces in particular are not perfectly symmetrical, and if they are made to look like that, then they will feel strange and awkward. But in terms of composition, what's great is that we have these asymmetrical and symmetrical details close to each other. And like Yin and Yang, that we mentioned when we were talking about balance, these two opposing things actually work really well together and they complement each other. And you can find lots of other examples on this board like this poster for the movie Rogue one, where generally, everything is symmetrical apart from one small detail. In this case, that is the main character looking towards the left instead of facing us, but also the title and the text plays in aligned to the right and see even subtle things like this person looking towards the left can balance out the fact that we have the text place here on the right. And the reason for that is, again, implied space or implied details. So even though we are not actually seeing what she's looking at, we imagine that there must be something here on the left side. And even though it is out of frame, it still helps to balance out the details here on the right. If you rely on perfect symmetry in a composition, it might feel a bit too static and boring. And that is why, once again, even with the titanic poster, although the bottom part of the poster is very symmetrical. The faces here on the top are not in symmetry. So we have Kate Winslet looking towards the right, and Leonardo Dicaprio is looking downwards. Even on this book cover, which feels like uses perfect symmetry, if you play close attention to some details, especially around this area here, you will notice that actually there are some imperfections. To achieve reflectional symmetry, you don't always have to use the exact same thing on both sides. You can also just rely on similar objects. This poster shows this extremely well, where we have two completely different objects aligned to each other, forming a perfect circle, but still being divided in their center line, which is the center of symmetry, of course. Wes Anderson, the famous movie director also loves to use symmetry in his work. So you will find many scenes in all of his movies where you can easily place a center of symmetry in the middle. And besides establishing balance like this, he also likes to use the rule of odds, where you have the subject in the middle accompanied or framed by two other subjects on the sides. 5. Additional types of Symmetry and Asymmetry: There is also an interesting term called translational symmetry, which means that instead of just having a mirrored version of the same detail, you would have multiple copies of the same object repeated across a location in space, essentially forming a pattern, relying on repetition and rhythm. But for instance, this poster uses both reflectional symmetry so we could place the symmetry line here in the middle. But it also uses translational symmetry repeating the same details on a horizontal trajectory. There is also another special form of variation of reflectional symmetry, which we call glide reflectional symmetry, where the mirror details are not perfectly aligned to each other. Instead, they are slightly shifted from one another. So in this case, the glide reflectional symmetry is used on the hands, even though they are symmetrical, they are not aligned to each other in any way. This particular composition also combines depth and rhythm really well. So we can see that that curvy yellow line is interlocking with the hands. So sometimes it's behind the hand, sometimes it comes in front of it, and the rhythm is created by having this overlapping effect alternating. So once it is behind, next time it is in front, then again, it is behind, then it is in front, and once again, at the end, it is behind. And the same thing happens here on the top as well. Another very common and effective form of symmetry is called radial or rotational symmetry, where most objects and design elements are rotated around a specific center point. And we can spot these center points very quickly and easily. So there's one here, another one right here, another one here. Again, one here in the middle. This one, then another one here on the top, and so on and so forth. It's important that the center point doesn't have to be in the physical or visual center. As I mentioned already in another video, in this case, we can have the center point placed here all the way on the left edge of the frame. Or even if it's in the center line of the composition, it can be placed further down, so not in the exact center vertically. Just like with the other forms of symmetry, you don't have to use radio symmetry in a perfect way. Although, in some cases, like with this pattern, it is used in a way that all the elements are perfectly repeated and around the center of symmetry. Well you can see great examples like this poster where clearly the details are not identical, and even though the radio symmetry is not perfect, we still feel that everything is very nicely balanced in this composition. When radio symmetry is combined with perspective, where we have the strong lines again directing our attention to the center of the composition, the effect of pulling your viewer into your design can be further emphasized. I also love in this particular poster how the colors are used to connect the two focal points and establish unity and harmony. And you might be wondering if symmetrical designs are pleasing for us. Why would we ever want to use asymmetry in a composition? The best answer to that is that it can introduce drama and intensity or tension. And if that goes well with the main message or theme of your design, then it will be more effective to use asymmetry than symmetry. A great example of this is the fall in love poster. We all know that when we are in love, we don't think straight, and things can get a little bit chaotic. So the use of asymmetry for this topic works really well. Just like this poster for the movie joker, where the main character is in this asymmetrical position, emphasizing how unstable he gets by the end of the movie, without spoiling anything for you in case you haven't seen the movie yet. And the same asymmetrical composition works very well also for this Pixar movie up, where it is emphasizing this precarious situation of a house floating in the sky attached to balloons. It is hard to think of anything more out of balance than this, and that is why a perfectly symmetrical composition where we would have the title here in the middle and the balloon also set in the middle wouldn't have worked as successfully. Last but not least, if you look at logo designs, you will also see symmetry used very often, helping to achieve and emphasize balance, stability, strength, power, or whatever best applies to a specific brand. And remember what I said about avoiding perfect symmetry in certain cases. That's exactly what you will see in the Starbucks logo. We once again, the face has some differences between the left and right side because it would feel slightly strange to have it perfectly symmetrical and even the Google logo is not using a perfect circle, so you can see that difference there on the right side. So these subtle imperfections in symmetry or a shape can always make things slightly more intriguing. 6. Alignment: When people think of alignment in terms of graphic design, most of us would think of alignment of text. However, it also applies to the alignment of other elements in your composition like images and even colors. And similarly to the other methods that we talk about in this topic, alignment is also a great tool to achieve a visual balance or to disrupt it. In this video, like always, we will be looking at a couple of creative examples where alignment serves a greater purpose introducing visual interest. Starting off with this brilliant New York Times magazine cover, we immediately see something that goes against a lot of things that we talked about when it comes to creating visual balance and distributing visual weight in a design. When we look at the coverage and we imagine all the elements carrying a specific visual weight, we would immediately feel like this side is way heavier than what we have on the right side. So if this was a physical object, it would definitely tip over and fall to its left side. So you might be wondering why did they decide to use left align text. And also overlay it with the face of Roger Faderer in my opinion, it has a lot to do with the title. So Roger Faderer can still get his game face on, which in terms of tennis, usually means that there is a great amount of concentration needed. And we can see that concentration in his eyes. But the fact that he is looking towards the left, and being placed so close to the edge of the frame creates a massive amount of tension in this composition, which is just further amplified by the fact that all the text is also placed here on the left edge. So when you are concentrating really hard, for instance, watching a movie, you are sitting at the edge of your seat, or there is also the term being on the edge, which usually means excitement, danger or risk. All of these hidden meanings can be packed into a composition by aligning everything to an edge. Compared to this, when you align things in the center and create a more symmetrical composition, you can achieve more balance and stability. And in this case, combined with these cheerful colors, it also helps to create calmness, which works very well for the message of this poster, which is about this cheerful open air festival. But center alignment doesn't always have to mean stability and calmness. Like, in this case, the topic of the movie is revolution or rebellion, which is obviously the opposite of calmness and stability. And the center alignment also works here. And in this case, it helps to reinforce the strength that is needed to stand up for one's rights, but also that people need to unite and work together to achieve their goal. Another common alignment is justification, again, something that we mainly use for typography. However, it can also be used or referred to when you are distributing other visual elements equally. But in this case, we can see that the text is justified, and it helps to form this solid rectangle. And most of the time when justification is used, it will emphasize structure, unity and common regions. These are all terms and design principles that we cover in great detail when we talk about the psychology of design. By the way, we also discuss in the typography topic, whether it is better to justify your text or align it to left or right. When it comes to left or right alignment, by the way, which we also refer to as flush left and flush right. It's also worth mentioning another term, and that is ragged edges. This is what happens when you have, for instance, text aligned to the left, you would end up having ragged edges on the right. And the same thing happens when you align text to the right or create flush right. This way, you will have ragged edges on the left side. Just like balance in a composition, if there is huge difference between the length of lines, whether you are using left or right alignment, it can make things feel less stable or more dynamic. It is less of an issue to have ragged edges on larger texts like titles or subtitles. While it can be more of an issue when it occurs on body copy, and that is most of the time, you would see justification being used instead. And in editorial design, it is very common that you would be combining multiple alignments within the same page or composition. But what is important is that all of the different types of alignments should serve readability and legibility when it comes to typography. So in one page, for instance, here, we can see left alignment. On that part, we can also see left alignment on these captions. This text here is aligned to the right. Also, this paragraph here is aligned to the right. The title of the article is also aligned to the right, while the body copy is justified with the last lines of each paragraph aligned to the left. The main purpose of alignment is usually to group things together and to create structure within your composition. In case you have to display information that is connected, like in case of this poster, these dates on the right side, even without creating a visual boundary like a frame or a different background color. The simple fact that they are aligned to their left already separates them from the rest of the composition and adds the necessary structure. On the other hand, if you are intentionally avoiding alignment, you can also create more interest, motion, and momentum in a design. 7. Grids - Terms: Grids in graphic design similar to alignment can provide an invisible structure to your composition that is used to guide the placement of all visual elements in your design. In some cases, like with this poster of 12 angry man, the use of a grid can be obvious. While in other designs, you might not realize that there is also an underlying grid to which all the elements are aligned to. The main purpose of grids is to make alignment easier in a composition, but also to provide balance and unity. It can look chaotic and unprofessional when every element in a complex composition is just floating around in space without any alignment. And the advantage of using sophisticated grid systems is that the alignments used in your design won't have to look so obvious. Yet, your viewers will still have a sense that everything is nicely organized in your work. To better understand how to work with grids, first, we need to cover a couple of terms, and it is easier to show this here in in design. So here we have a spread made up of two pages. We have also the spine already visible here in the middle. That's that black line, and these purple lines are indicating the margins. Even just by relying on the margin guides, you can already establish some kind of structure. But because of the space between the margins is so large, if we were to place anything that is not connected to a margin, it would immediately feel like out of place or floating in space. So, for instance, if I have a frame here on the left side and another frame on the right side, you can already tell that there is no real structure here, and everything is placed completely randomly. This is never a good practice in graphic design. So even if you want to create a very open and dynamic composition, using a grid will always improve the balance and unity of your work. So let me just delete these two shapes and show you what happens if we introduce columns or column guides. So this is something that we would call a column grid. In this case, this is a 12 column grid, which means that on each page, you would have 12 equally sized and evenly distributed columns. And this, as you can see, already gives a lot more structure than just simply relying on the margins. Also, important to mention that the column guides only appear within the margins so they don't overlap. This, of course, doesn't mean that you can't align items placed in the margins to column guides. But it is always better to divide the area within the margins by 12 instead of also including the margins. But even though we introduced a lot of additional lines to which we can align our content or visual elements, vertical alignment of items can still be tricky. And for this, we can introduce rows or flow lines, which will turn this column grid into a modular grid. And the reason why we call it a modular grid because those cells that are created by the columns and rows are referred to as modules. So you can see on the top, I marked the 12 columns, and I also marked on the left side, the 12 rows. And I also indicated the terms that we've been talking about. So you can see that here is a module. These horizontal lines we refer to as flow lines, while the other ones can be referred to as vertical lines or column guides. And we also talked about margins, which depends on which one you are looking at will have a different name. So these ones would be called the outer margins. These ones in the middle on both side would be called the inner margin, and then we have the top margins and the bottom margins. And when you place a visual element that takes up multiple modules, we would refer to it as a spatial zone, so it can be any amount of modules used for this. And remember, we also mentioned s, which are the gaps or spaces between your columns. And we call the two inner margins together as the gutter. However, this is a term even by Adobe, sometimes also used to refer to the s in the compositions. So whenever you create columns, in design will refer to the space between them as gutter. However, in terms of editorial design, this is the better or more correct way of using these two terms. And finally, the main area surrounded by the margins is called the content area. 8. Great examples of designs utilising Grids: Now that you know what these terms refer to, let's jump back to our board and see grids in action. So here's a nice and simple example of a magazine layout. It is very easy to spot the underlying modular grid. So why the body copy and most of the typographic details are divided into three distinct columns. We can still see that there must be more columns used. For instance, these images here are not aligned to those columns underneath. Instead, they are taking up exactly half of the content area, which would be a spatial zone made up exactly of six by six modules. Six modules horizontally and six modules vertically. The alignment of the heading or title of this article and also this intro paragraph must also be aligned to flow lines, similarly to this particular part here, which must be another flow line. And then of course, we can see the gutter and also the s between the columns. Now, I don't think that modular grids are only useful when it comes to layouts and editorial design. Even when designing posters, for instance, they can help to provide structure. And in this design, it is very easy to spot that underlying grid. So each of these letters are placed within individual modules, and we can see even these yellow lines are taking up exactly the same width as the characters. So they are marking the width of this column really well, or the same thing here on the right side. And if we look at rows like this one here, we can also see that the yellow lines also here on the other row is always placed exactly in the vertical center point of a module. So, identifying this rule, I'm almost certain that we would find another module here. Remember what I mentioned at the beginning of this video that grids don't necessarily have to be visible, and actually, most professional designers would use them in a way that it is hardly recognizable yet still providing the necessary structure. So, I'm not going to highlight the columns and rules anymore. You can probably see them by now, but still you can see that even though there is a grid here, how much freedom you have. Once you start playing around with how you use the modules in the grid, and also how you define your spatial zones. So if I use a vertical line and start moving it across this design, you will see a lot of details aligned to each other. So there we already have an alignment. We also have another alignment section here. We can go one step further in. And then once again, another alignment happening here and so on and so forth. We can see an obvious one again showing up here, another one showing up there, also another one showing here, also another one here, and so on and so forth. So you must recognize by now that especially with more complex designs where you have a lot of information to display. Using and relying on a modular grid will always give you more security and aid to find placement for all your visual elements. And grids, of course, are not only used in print design, but also in web design, and almost all websites would rely on some form of grid. Like in this case, we can see a five column grid in action. So there's column number one. Two, which we can find the edge here and also there. There's column number three, four, and then five. Grids in web design are most obvious when we look at blocks. And by the way, I highly recommend to check out our creative blog on m designer.com, where we regularly share inspiration tutorials and news from the creative industry. And there's one final term, going back to print design and layouts, and that is the baseline grid, which can be used in combination with a column grid or modular grid, and the sole purpose of a baseline grid is to make sure that all lines of text, especially in the body copy will be aligned vertically, not only within a page but also between pages on a spread and even throughout the whole magazine and especially in books. The issue with not using baseline grids is that even with a slight difference between the vertical placement of your lines can get distracting when thin paper is used for the pages of a book, for instance, which we reveal slightly the text printed on the other side of a page. And while reading the text, that subtle shift can get really confusing or distracting. 9. Movement: Similarly, to how important it is to use depth in graphic design and imply three dimensional space while we are working in two dimensional planes. Implying movement is also just as important to create engaging compositions. Since once again, most of the time, especially in print design, everything would be static. Once it's printed, things are not moving around. Apart from some strange exceptions that we will talk about in this video. But first, let's take a closer look at the different types of movements or motion that you can use in your compositions and also some rules and techniques that can also help to put things into motion. So first of all, there are three main categories of movement in graphic design. The first one is kinetic motion, where a design element is made to look like it's changing its position. For this, a perfect example is this cyclist, where the motion is implied by using the same image three times overlaid on top of each other and have this slight radial shift between them. The same thing we can see here on this poster. In this case, using something similar to the multi exposure technique in photography, or another example where details are shifting left and right, inspired by glitching or interference in a video. Imitation of film in graphic design will always help you to achieve more dynamic compositions. The other category of movement is called rhythmic motion, which is usually easiest to achieve by using lines or other repeated elements that get gradually distorted within the composition. There's another interesting term called medium disturbance, which means that an item or an object in your composition is interacting or disturbing its environment. And by doing that, the motion or movement is indicated. So in this case, the lines which represent water are disturbed by the surfer. But medium disturbance can even be achieved without actually showing what is causing the disturbance. Like in this case, the typography is disturbed and turned into liquid by something that moves through decomposition. So as you can see, we can still understand the motion even without seeing what was causing it in the first place. The third category of movement is called illusory motion, and it's actually quite similar to medium disturbance. This is when elements in your design interact with each other to imply motion. So in this case, number four and the little star are interacting with each other, creating this clear curved motion that we can see here. But as I said, you can also consider this to be medium disturbance because the star is dragging parts of the number with itself. Here is another great example of illusory motion where we have the hand stretching that string, and showing this critical point in time just before the string is being released is such a powerful indication of motion and also a great way of adding tension and drama into this composition. I also love the fact that the typography is aligned to the same diagonal line that is formed by the string on the right side, and that helps to keep things more symmetrical and balanced. So if I add the symmetry line here in the middle or the center line of the composition, you can see how that text was essential in keeping balance in the composition. Rule of space is also a useful term to remember with which you can emphasize motion in a particular direction. So for instance, having this horse here on the left side of the frame clearly suggests that the horse is moving towards the right. And by giving a lot of extra space for this motion to happen and placing the subject at the beginning of the frame, making the composition and the motion itself slightly calmer and slower compared to if you do the opposite and have your subject already almost exiting the frame. So if you want to make something look really fast, remember to always place it closer to the edge of the composition, so make it look like it's literally just about to leave the frame. Motion lines are also a great way of indicating movement. And don't feel that this method is restricted to illustration because it can easily be also used in things like logo design. And we can see a lot of motion lines in these posters as well. Like in this one, we see it more of a liquid form. Again, there's loads of motion lines in this poster. There's another one here with the tennis bowl, and even this, I would consider to be a motion line. And even though we call them motion lines, they don't necessarily have to be made up of lines, they can even be triangles or other shapes. And last but not least, it's also worth mentioning optical illusions, which is not something that's commonly used in graphic design. Still in certain cases, it could be a great way to attract and grab your viewers attention. So, believe me, all four of these are static images. They are not animations. Yet still when you look at them and concentrate especially to the center point, the shapes and details in each of them will start moving around. Although it is a fun and unique experience, it's also disorienting and dizzying. So as I said, this is not the most common and best way of implying motion and movement in your compositions. 10. Orientation and Aspect Ratio: An important aspect of your compositions, which usually should be decided at the very beginning of a project is the orientation or aspect ratio. And when you make the right decision between using portray, landscape, square or other formats, it can greatly improve the visual balance of your work and also accommodate the right type of movement for your message. On this board, instead of showing you the most commonly used portray and landscape aspect ratios, I intentionally collected more extreme examples both for very tall and very wide formats. This type of orientation, which is much wider than the usual landscape format, we would refer to as panoramic orientation. While the extremely tall formats, usually we refer to as skyscraper. And even though square format in graphic design became much more commonly used since the introduction of social media channels, I still included a few examples of these as well here on the right side. These type of extreme orientations are not common. However, when it comes to b banners, most of the time, you would have to create multiple versions or the so called mutations of your original design in various aspect ratios, including square, skyscraper, and panoramic formats amongst others. Tall aspect ratios are especially great for info graphics or festivals, where there's a lot of information that needs to be displayed. But as a designer, you have to always keep in mind how your viewers will be experiencing your design. Whether they are going to hold the print in their hand or whether it's going to be on a larger poster or billboard. Depending on the distance between your viewer and your design can greatly impact which is going to be the right orientation for your composition. Especially when you have to display a lot of important information, like in case of this festival poster, you have to make sure that your viewer will have easy access to all of these, so the readability is not going to suffer by forcing them into awkward positions like kneeling down in order to read whatever is written at the bottom of your design. In case of UX design, especially for mobile design, you will have to heavily rely on the portray format, which is the most commonly used way of holding a mobile phone. And if you are coming from a print background, this might be challenging in the beginning. But learning to handle this type of SPAC ratio or orientation will also improve the way that you use space and create your layouts in other formats. 11. Visual Centerpoint: You might be tempted sometimes to place the focal point of your composition in the exact physical center of your frame. And although in some cases, like when you're using radio symmetry, it might be a good idea to do that. Most of the time, it is actually better to align your focal point to the optical or visual center point. And this is not to be confused with the physical or geometric center point. Which you get by equally dividing your frame both horizontally and vertically into two sections, and the intersection of those two lines will be the geometric or physical center point. However, the optical or visual center point should be slightly above this, usually around five to 10% higher than the geometric center point. So somewhere around here. Now notice how in this particular composition, for instance, the most important and highest contrast details, these clouds are all aligned on that visual center point. But by using this grid that I created in Illustrator, we can check these other compositions as well. So maybe let's move the frame here over this Disney poster for the Princess and the Frog. Once again, we can see that the geometric center point is right here while the optical or visual center point is perfectly aligned to the face of the main character. We can see that this can also be used when it comes to typography. So if I just move my frame closer to this book cover. Once again, we can see that the visual center line, which would be somewhere around here is used roughly for the baseline for this text, but it is actually centered onto the visual center point, which is roughly around here. So the center line of the text is aligned to that optical center point. Here's another example with the blade run poster. Once again, the text 2049 is aligned on the visual center line, but this means that it is placed or aligned closer to the optical center point of the frame. And we can see once again the same exact thing happening here where the small silhouette of that person is again, placed in the optical center point. And even in this case, the welcome screen of an app from a snapshot of a mobile phone, we can see immediately that the focal point, in this case, the eyes and the circles around them are again aligned to the optical or visual center point. And it is also worth mentioning that depending on the type of shapes that you are using for your composition, especially in case of simple or primitive shapes like a triangle and a rounded rectangle, the right type of balance might not be achieved by using the center of mass of these shapes or even the optical center. In these cases, another mathematical calculation can be used called the centroid, which can create the perfect balance, and that is actually what they used for the icon and logo for YouTube. And you can see that the percentages here are very similar to the optical center point. Yet there is still subtle differences between the two. But don't worry as a graphic designer, you don't have to be a mathematician, and you are not required to do these calculations. You will develop an y to be able to manually adjust shapes and align them to each other to create the perfect balance, just like you will learn how to urn type and create optical balance between the characters. 12. Viewpoint: You can heavily influence your viewer's interpretation of the subject in your design by choosing a specific viewpoint. This is easiest to explain with the analogy in photography, where it can make a huge difference where you are positioning yourself when you're taking a picture of your subject. By getting closer to your subject and maybe even cropping some details out. You will show a much more personal connection to the subject. While if you take the picture from further away, you will be focusing more on the environment and the relation between your subject and its environment. You may have also seen photographers taking pictures of models or even vetting photographers, taking pictures of the couple from all kinds of different angles. The reason why they do that is because even the slightest change in the angle of the picture is going to greatly affect the composition. And this is exactly the same thing that you have to keep in mind as a graphic designer, and deciding the right viewpoint for your project should be decided at the very beginning together with the orientation and aspect ratio. On this board, I collected a few examples of extreme viewpoints, looking frog's eye view, looking at things from the ground level or bird's eye view, looking at things from above. And there are even creative examples using multiple viewpoints within the same composition. Using frog's eye view, for instance, in this case, helped to create the highly exaggerated proportions for the basketball player and make the jump he's making feel much higher than what it would appear if we were looking at this from the side. Here you can see also comparison of two separate illustrations of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, and you can immediately see that the version on the left side, once again, using the frog's eye view captures and emphasizes the height of the structure much better compared to the other illustration which shows the structure in its entirety. There are some great examples of bird's eye view as well here, both for illustrations and also photographs. And this particular view is often used for blueprints, floor plans, and maps. However, it can also be used for creative imagery as well. Like in this case, thanks to the direction of the sun and the light, we can see perfect silhouettes of all of the people standing on the beach, even though we are looking at them from above. And even though this is a single photograph, it almost feels like it is blending two separate viewpoints together. And here's a poster that uses a clever combination again of two different viewpoints, turning the city upside down and having the main characters place here at the bottom. But what makes this design really exceptional is how the negative space also looks like the silhouette of a building right here in the middle. And the famous scene from the movie inception is also using again, multiple viewpoints combined together. And no wonder that this memorable scene was also used for the poster. Again, making it original and helping to get the viewers attention. And another way you can combine multiple viewpoints in a composition is by using reflective materials, like in this case, the knife showing another person, Jack Nicholson, who would actually not even be visible within the frame if there were no reflective details. I also love this example showing the famous forest gun poster from a different angle. Again, it just shows how important it is to decide what is the angle that you choose for your design. While this view is very memorable and easy to recognize, I don't think anyone would have remembered or even recognized Tom Hanks from this angle. Another interesting way to pick your viewpoint is to go behind something that would otherwise be very recognizable. Like in this illustration, we went behind the famous Hollywood sign, which is something we don't often see, yet still we immediately understand what we are looking at. Playing around with different rotations and viewpoints in photography can also result in amazing results. And as a graphic designer, this is something you should also keep in mind when you're looking for images for your compositions. But no matter whatever viewpoint you decide on using in your project, remember that it should always reinforce the message that you are communicating. So don't decide on a strange viewpoint just for the sake of it. 13. Conclusion: Congratulations on completing this course of the graphic design theory series. I hope you found it useful and inspiring. Don't forget to go through the glossary of terms PDF, review everything we covered, and if you feel ready, take the quiz to test your knowledge. Come back anytime to the references on the Miller boards we use in this course to help you remember the things we talked about or to find inspiration for your next design project. Please let us know if you felt there was anything missing from this course or if you have any suggestions on how we can improve it. Email us at info at smdesigner.com, and we will get back to you as soon as possible. We really appreciate your input and help. Now, it's time for you to pick your next topic and dive into another graphic design theory course. Remember, there is no right or wrong order to complete this series. All the rules we cover are equally important and everything is related. But what is most important is getting a good understanding of these rules and applying them in your projects. I'm sure you will use what you've learned to create something amazing and I cannot wait to see it.