Graphic Design Theory - Hierarchy

1. Introduction: How can you ensure that people will read the title of an article first, then the poll code with some juicy fragment of the story, and only then move on to the body copy. As a graphic designer, you cannot give your viewers instructions on how to use your work most of the time. There has to be another way to make people know what to do and where to find the information they are looking for. The magical solution is a visual hierarchy. In this course, we will cover focal point, entry point, dominance, emphasis, scale, position, proportion, exaggeration, propositional density, and everything else that can help you to make your designs structured and easy to use. We'll 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. Hierarchy basics: Since graphic design is a form of visual communication, whenever we design something, the most important thing or task that we have to accomplish is that our message has to be clear. We think about speaking, which is obviously the most common way of communication. We usually refer to someone who can explain things well. They are concise, they are clear, they get to the point and they are easy to follow. Good speakers learn how to keep the audience engaged and utilizing techniques like raising their voice at certain points, are keeping longer pauses for dramatic effect may be repeating words a couple of times or even full sentences for emphasis and varying the speed at which they're speaking. So sometimes they might slow down and really spell out a couple of words while the times they will pick up the tempo and go faster. So all of these, there are ways that we can use in our speech to keep people engaged and keep them interested in what we are saying. Because the worst thing that you can do is to speak or read things up in a monotone way. So having no variety and not utilizing any of those techniques that I mentioned earlier. Now you may have already noticed that by describing speaking, I actually already mentioned a few words that we use in visual communication and graphic design, like emphasis, Repetition, negative space, which equals a pause in speech, variety and scale, which would equal to the volume of the speech. And of course, let's not forget when a speaker is present. So we can also see them. Most likely they will also be articulating the things that they're talking about with their hands and maybe even with that posture. And that again, adds a whole other layer to the effectiveness of the communication, which once again will be equal to a dynamic composition in graphic design, well balanced direction and movement are all utilized. But the biggest difference between spoken words or speech and visual communication or graphic design is as speech follows, a rigid linear structure where we have to understand each word as they are coming The one another. So we have no choice but to process those words in the same order as they were spoken. While in case of visual communication, like take this poster as an example. There is no linear structure, so it is up to the viewer to decide which information they start reading or start paying attention to. Let's not forget, in graphic design, we don't only use words. We also work with images, colors, shapes, and textures. So in case of this flyer, for instance, what is going to guarantee that the viewer is going to go through the inflammation in the intended order, the order which the client in this case, this bar would prefer and what the designer was supposed to establish. Because remember, the designer is almost like a spokesperson for their client. They are trying to communicate whatever the messages and make sure that the viewers will be able to perceive the information and find all the relevant than necessary information they are looking for without any frustration. So by analyzing this flyer a bit, you probably will think that most viewers will first try to read whatever is written here. And why would you think that while mainly because this is the largest text on the flyer, but also because it is positioned on the top left corner, which is for most people in Western countries, would be the place where we start reading anything. But besides its scale and position, what also makes this element prominent is that this is where we have the higher contrast within the composition. Now that might be something that's not obvious at first. But if you think about it, the background color is almost like a perfect mid tones, so it's not dark, it's not bright, it's somewhere in the middle. While obviously the text is the brightest as it can be, it's using pure white. But behind the tax, we have this darker image of a brain, which is closer to a shadow if we're talking about the tonal range of this composition. So that dark purple or blue tint that is used for the illustration and also on a couple of additional elements within the composition is the darkest detail within the composition. And this is the only area within which it is pad or combined with the brightest detail in the composition. So we have the brightest and darkest details together in one place. And that creates a focal point by utilizing the highest contrast. 3. Prominent details: But there are also a couple of interesting techniques that makes this detail prominent within the composition. One of them is fairly obvious, as you can see me creating this rectangle around this title and subtitle, it forms a perfect rectangle. So even without framing this detail, we can immediately see a shape holding it together, which we normally refer to as grouping or common regions according to the Gestalt principles. And I could keep going on digging into additional details that would justify why that detail is going to be the most prominent one within the composition. But hopefully by now you can see that it is clearly an intentional decision that the designer made here, that they wanted that information to be the first thing that most of the viewers of we'll look at. So let's say we agree that this is the first thing that the viewers will pay attention to. But what actually happens when they look at this detail? Will they read it? Or maybe they will jump to another detail quickly within the composition. Now, in this case, it's again, quite interesting that this title, even though isn't the most prominent, It's actually not the easiest to read. And why is that? Because first of all, we have two words, brain and strain, divided into four lines. So even though this is the largest type, it is still far from the easiest to read. And by having this tax divided in this particular way when you pay attention to each line. So we have BR in the first-line than AIM in the second, then SDR and then Ai. And again, none of these make any sense on their own. So if someone just quickly glimpses through these lines, they might not be able to put together what they are reading compared to if you have at least one of the words in a single line like brain, that would hugely accelerate the readability of this title. Now of course, the trivia night is much easier to read even though it's smaller, since it's in a single line, it's very quick and easy to recognize, but the whole point of making the title hard to read is to challenge the viewers a bit and give them something to think about, which works perfectly well for the theme of this trivia night, which is all about thinking and using your brain. But besides the fact is slightly cryptic way of laying out type works with the theme of this event will also make sure that the viewer will not only look at this detail first, but it will give them that little bit of a challenge that will keep them looking at this flyer. Now, since we are all bombarded with visual information throughout the day, anything that can hold the attention of the viewer for at least a few seconds is already a successful design. So in this case, the designer and only achieved to make sure that all of us will look at the most important information first, but also kept us engaged and maybe even entertained with this little cryptic topography game. This technique is very commonly used in writing as well, where a story might start with an intriguing question. Or even if you think of videos or articles on the web, click baits work very similarly. We immediately want to find out the rest of the story. And in case of this fire, after this first bit of information that they've seen, most likely they will look at the illustration, which is a fairly big detail and also is quite close to the title on the left. But after that, it is harder to say what they are going to read next. But to be honest, at this point, since they are already holding the flyer and spent a couple of seconds going through it. They are already hooked and most likely will remember that there is this event happening. Any additional information that they read is just a bonus in a way. But if you are trying to analyze these elements, so the time and day here on the top right, the fact that it is free entry, and then these additional incentives here at the bottom, drink specials and when thousand dollars cash, we can argue that most likely this bottom left corner is going to be the most prominent one. Mainly because of its size, but also once again, because we have the two highest contrast details next to each other, but also because it is nicely laid out just underneath the title that we originally red. Once that vertical reading direction was established, it's easier to keep the viewer are going in the same direction. But from here, most likely they would jump up to the free entry copy because that's the closest to where they were. And from here, they will most likely go up to the last bit of information. And by the time they get there, they most likely already decided that they are interested to go to this event. And that is the perfect moment to provide that bit of information to them. Because if you think about it, it doesn't make sense to tell anyone when a particular event is happening before even telling them why they should go there in the first place. 4. Prioritizing information : Now that we understand the importance of visual hierarchy, let's take a look at a couple of other examples and look at other ways and methods for successfully prioritizing information. We've already seen a couple of ways that the graphic designers can highlight a certain detail within a composition and make sure that that becomes prominent for the viewer. But even though we will see these also applied in the other compositions, there are lots of other ways that you can again, guide your viewer through the design. I'm one of these methods is alignment. So by taking a look at this example, we can see that all the important and relevant information is placed here in the center. And we have quite a lot of negative space both on the left and the right. Keeping the main visual interests for the bottom half of the composition. Where we have this cool paper cut or origami style illustration of a camp site. But by taking a closer look at this composition, besides the fact that once again, we have a very recognizable rectangular shape holding most of the typography together within this structure, we have also a smaller shape and actual frame that holds together some of the information. And this is again something that we would refer to as a group or grouping the information. And even though at first glance it seems like we have one central spine or structure for the information. By analyzing it further, we can see that inside that we have also these smaller sections, the logo on the top, the title, and the date here in the middle, this smaller group below it. And then also the actual date at the very bottom in this circular frame, which looks more like a sticker or a bench. So Vd in the main group, we have these subgroups of information. No matter how much information you have to display in a composition, grouping is always going to help your viewers to be able to concentrate on smaller chunks of information instead of being overwhelmed by everything that they are seeing. So in case of this music festival, we still have a center aligned composition. And because of that, it also feels very symmetrical. But within that, we have the first and most important information here displayed on the top, which was the name, the location, and the date of the event. But interestingly, this text is not the largest in the composition. I would say Kool and the Gang, the name of the band is the largest. And that's actually what's most likely most of the viewers will read first and maybe even a couple of additional names from around here before they would jump to the top of the poster and find out about the information displayed there. And in case of a music festival, what's most important, of course, is who is performing. And if there are big names that can be listed, of course, that's going to get people's attention and that's how you hook them into looking at your poster. But besides having this visual hook established here, it's also clearly visible that this section is separated and establishing a clear visual group, just like the rest of the composition, will also have these smaller groups. And in this case, what these are used for is to help categorize the performers based on the different stages that they are going to be playing at. And here's an even more extreme example where we have loads of names, of performers listed at the bottom. But even so, this composition is still doesn't feel overwhelming because of the beautiful grouping and separation of the information. So in this case, the name of the event that stands out probably the most than some of these performers. Then from this point, most likely the viewers will check out where this is happening and what's the date. And then if they are interested, they will probably spend a bit more time looking at these additional secondary performer names. And then if they are still intrigued, they can spend some more time hunting for names that are relevant to them or that they are interested in. In this larger section at the bottom, including probably over a 100 of different performance. Grouping is a very effective way to let the viewers know that they don't necessarily have to read everything in section to be able to move on to another section. So even if they just pick a few names from each of these groups, by the time they get to the bottom of the poster, they are most likely either sold that they would like to go to this event or maybe not. But in any case, at the bottom, they are greeted with the URL, which will lead them to further information. And also they can start buying or booking their tickets. 5. Alignment and Grouping: Most of the examples we've seen so far were center aligned, but also left and right alignment can equally be useful when you are establishing visual hierarchy. So in case of this composition, once again, we can see a clear grouping here on the top left, then another group here on the right, and then probably a third one here at the bottom. But besides the typographic information, we could also consider this central part here, where we have these shapes and the capillaries to be also another group. Now since this is about the culinary event, the cutlery is obviously also communicate an important message and even without seeing actual food, the empty plates are also perfect visual hints about the theme of this event. I just like before, within each of these groups, we will find subgroups. So we have here the presented by section or sponsors, which would be a subgroup in this first one. And then in the second one, we would have three subgroups. So we have the one in the middle, which is the date. And then we have these additional information on the top and below. And there are a couple of things that are utilized to glue these subgroups together and to make sure that they are clearly separate from the other main groups. One obvious technique is the use of negative space. So we can clearly see that gap between the group on the left and the right. But then within this group, we can see also that all the text is left aligned. So that's a common trait that again holds these subgroups together. And another common technique is the use of lines. So in this case, that helps to separate the two subgroups from each other, but also helps to hold them together. And similarly here on the right, these two lines again help to separate the subgroups, but also to hold and bind them to each other. Now clearly, grouping we're defining the groups in your compositions is very important for establishing visual hierarchy. But is there a test to quickly see whether your groups are working the way that you wanted them to. The answer, of course, is yes. We call it the squint test. And it's as simple as just squinting your eyes when you're looking at your composition and checking whether you can still see clearly those groups that you defined. Now of course, you don't necessarily have to screen. You can also use Photoshop and blur out your design temporarily just to be able to test it in this special way of viewing it. And we can see an example of this Spotify interface on a mobile phone on the left side without having it blurred. And on the right side, even though it's blurred out, we will still be able to see the main groups that are established. So we have one up there, we have another one here, and then we have another one further down. And even though it's hard to make it out, we still probably can tell that there is another group here at the bottom, which is the tab of the interface, the most important navigational area. So that clearly has to be a well-defined group when it comes to user experience design. But no matter what kind of design you're working on, remember the screen test is a great way of testing and whether it's established clearly for the viewer where they can find the relevant information they are looking for. But there's one other very important thing we have to talk about when it comes to creating groups, and that is similarity. Now, this is especially important when your groups have equal importance or equal weight within the composition. So in case of this menu, we can see that clearly there is a group for the appetizers. There's another group for burgers, another one for sandwiches, and finally, another one for hotdogs. And even though burgers is the largest group and kept in the center of the composition, the main way how these groups are kept similar to each other is how their titles are designed. So they are all using the same topography, the ad exactly the same color and same size and same font. And they are also all centered in the composition. And by having this similarity establish, these become almost like anchors between which the viewers will quickly be able to jump back and forth. Here is another great example where similarity is used to guide the viewers through a composition. So once again, we have the smaller groups of the lamps are the products, their name, their size, and price, and that keeps repeating. So we have the same alignment. The lamps are in one row. Then we have the title again in another rule. But all of these details are always exactly the same in each of the groups. So the sizes, for instance, are always found in the same position, but also using the same size of tax and same color. And just like with the menu, establishing these similarities here in this composition, It's important because viewers are comparing these products to each other. And in order to help them make a decision conveniently, they are provided with a very simple and convenient way to jump from one price to another, for instance, or one size to another. The more information you have in a composition, the less likely you will be able to control exactly the order in which your viewer is going through that inflammation. But after you established and conveyed the essence of the composition, which in this case is quite dominant. It's the word pendants, together with the visual clue of each of these lines. And then most likely the secondary inflammation or tagline stylish products for more than living rooms. And there's actually a typo here, which I just noticed. The viewers will be free to explore the rest of the information in whatever order they wish. So remember as a graphic designer, you don't have to continuously hold the hand of your viewers as long as you provide them structure. And as long as you establish the most important information at the beginning, you can let them explore freely and in some cases even have fun with the rest of the composition. 6. Structure and Order: No matter which technique or method you are using to establish hierarchy in your composition, the goal should always be to create structure and order between the elements you are working with. There is a great quote that always comes to my mind whenever I think of order and visual hierarchy, Victor Copernicus said that design is a conscious effort to impose a meaningful order. And this perfectly sums up the aim and the process of establishing visual hierarchy, where the designer has to really spend time and think about how they can align in a range or the elements in a way that it is going to be effective and meaningful for the viewers. So let's just take a closer look at the three variations or versions of the same design, starting with this one here on the left, we can immediately see that the alignment is centered for all the elements. And besides the typography, we have two additional elements, the image and this line here at the bottom. And these are already used quite effectively, breaking up the flow of the typography. So we don't get overwhelmed with a lot of texts all at once. First of all, we see the logo here on the top. Then there is that little visual intermission or pose using the image. Then we continue further down with some more texts than once again, there is a visual intermission, this horizontal line that breaks up the flow of readings slightly. And then we'll finish up with once again, another group of information at the bottom. So you can think of this arrangement also as a good example of rhythm where we have topography, image, topography, line typography. So you can see how it goes back and forth, back and forth, establishing that visual rhythm. And you can say that by having everything centered and symmetrical, it also has a very strong visual balance. But even though this design works and it's aesthetically pleasing, there is one important element missing, and that is the order between these elements, mainly due to similarity between all the elements in terms of their scale and also alignment. The only plausible order that the viewers get when they look at this is that they start from the top and then they make their way down to the bottom. And to better visualize why this is not the best way of laying out the information. Just think of the hallway or entrance to a building. Would you rather be walking through a narrow and long corridor or be greeted as soon as you enter with a nice wide, big open space. This rigid vertical flow that we can see here on the left side is like a narrow and long corridor, compared to which the other two examples here on the right are allowing much more visual freedom for the viewers by increasing the size of the text for grand opening and also giving it a more unique typeface immediately makes this more prominent than the rest of the elements, but also the image, as you can see from the original one, got larger slightly and the logo gets smaller. What this achieved is that most viewers will now start here in the center of the composition, and then they will most likely move up and look at the image. And from there they might read the logo or maybe they will go down and read the rest of the text. So by establishing the order to start in the center of the composition, we are already providing multiple options for the viewers. So by having the strongest emphasis, so the most dominant detail in the center of the composition, the visual flow is not as linear as it used to be, but that doesn't mean that the composition is necessarily better because there is one thing that you want to avoid setting a visual obstacle in your composition. And what I mean by that is that in case they start reading here in the middle, then they move up to the image and the logo when they are going to continue and making their way down to find the rest of the information. They will again be greeted by this big chunk of texts, which is what I referred to as a visual obstacle. In this case, it's almost like having too many unnecessary doors to be able to enter that building. So instead, in this last version of the design, we have a much better solution. The two largest details, the image and the text grand opening, are almost impossible to miss. And most likely, this is where the viewers will start their journey. So they will read the text and look at the image almost at the same time, and then they will make their way further down. The good thing is, now we have the rest of the information really nicely organized here in two main groups, 12 divided by that horizontal line. The first subgroup is inside the circle, and the second one is the list here on the right. To go back to the analogy of a building or hallway, we are greeted with a grand space. And once we entered, we have options to explore what's inside. We can go either left or right, and none of these directions are wrong in terms of the importance of the information. So it is fine if viewers first read why they should be attending this space or when and where this event is going to take place. You can say that these are equally important. And then once they made up their mind, they can move further down and find out exactly where they need to go. So if you ever find it difficult, how you can tweak or improve the visual hierarchy of a composition. Just remember the analogy of physical space, like a building, hallway, or a street, whatever makes sense to you. But think about what would be the most enjoyable and pleasant way to experience and explore that space. And to go with the same analogy, especially when you're thinking about larger spaces, maybe even a whole city. Graphic designer is almost like a tour guide. You are responsible to guide and show people around and make sure that they can digest the information that you are presenting to them. Show them the attractions are landmarks in the right order. And also importantly, you have to make sure that everyone in your group stays engaged throughout the tour. Which means that you have to really pay attention not to waste anyone's time. 7. Focal point: Very commonly used in effective strategy by graphic designers to ensure that they grab the viewer's attention is by introducing a focal point in their composition. These are details that clearly stand out utilizing either a single or multiple forms of contrast. And the best thing about using focal points is that not only you can make sure that people will be intrigued by your design, but you will also know which detail they will be looking at first, knowing where your viewers visual journey begins helps you to arrange all the other elements in the composition accordingly. The interesting thing about focal points is that they don't have to be in a particular position within the composition. And also, it is not required for them to be the dominant element, but to better understand how they work, Let's take a look at a couple of examples from this board. This event poster is a great example where clearly the focal point is the I with the red paint or circle around it. This clearly stands out from the rest of the monochromatic details. And maybe the only additional detail that also a scholar or the lips. But since that's also very close to the focal point, we can even consider these two together being the focal points. And in general, if you have a face, especially looking at the viewer, if within your composition, even without highlighting the eyes, that is going to become a type of focal point. Because we instinctively always first look into the eyes of someone that we meet and that is almost something impossible to unlearn. So you can rely on this reflex, but by having this red paint on one of the eyes, we make that detail stand out even more. But besides having the focal point On an obvious detailed like an eye, that are also additional considerations here that we can see. One of them is that this detail is almost exactly on the visual center point or center line of the composition, which is different from the physical center line, which is something that we discuss in another topic in this course, essentially the visual center point is always slightly higher than the physical center point. And in terms of horizontal positioning, it is perfectly utilizing the rule of thirds. So once again, instead of having something exactly in the center, it is slightly off to the left, in this case, using or utilizing the rule of thirds. So we can see that there are so many deliberate decisions made here to make this detailed standout and to be the focal point of this composition. And by knowing that most viewers will start their visual journey from this point, we can think about what is most likely going to be the next detail that they will look at. And since this section here is the closest in position to the focal point that we talked about. I believe that this is what they most likely they will read next, even though it is rotated and slightly harder to read because of the vicinity to the focal point. I think this is the second detail that they will look at, which is perfect because that's the title of the play in this case. And from this point, I am pretty sure they would continue with the title, which is the name of the venue in this case. And this is obviously a very dominant detail. It's the largest typographic element and also in terms of tonal values, has the highest contrast. So the brightest details meeting the darkest details, the bold and big letters on top of the white background. And then from here, again, because of its vicinity, most likely readers will jump to this text. And then from there, they will go down to the rest of the information, which is again nicely grouped together forming two subgroups. Now that we consider this to be the intended orders. So we go from left to top, them to write and then to the bottom-right corner. It's also interesting to realize that there is a rhythm applied to the topography. First we start with a vertical text, then we move on to a horizontal one. Then we switch back again to vertical, and then we finally reach another horizontal section. So the rhythm is established by switching back and forth between vertical and horizontal topography. But to continue with our discussion about focal point, here is another great composition for the movie Vertigo by Alfred Hitchcock. And in this case, the focal point is definitely this section here, I would say this whole square and what's inside it. And once again, like I mentioned in the beginning, the way that it is achieved to be the focal point is by utilizing contrast. The most extreme of example is always black and white next to each other. And that's exactly what we can see here. And just like in the previous example, the rule of thirds is once again utilized. But in this case, the focal point is placed much higher within the composition, almost next to the top edge. But the reason why it's placed that is to be able to establish the depth which is crucial in this composition. So by leading the viewer into this design from this point, we immediately put ourselves in the place of that character there on the top of this building. And by the use of clever perspective, even though it is a very minimal scene illustration, we can immediately feel the sense of depth and that uneasy feeling or vertical that we get when we are staring down from the top of a building. So remember, focal points are crucial when it comes to defining the narrative of your visual storytelling. And last but not least, is another interesting example. Remember what I said about eyes or a face in a composition. In this case, it's completely hidden or covered by this gradient block. But by revealing enough information about the person we can clearly see it's must be an attractive lady. Not seeing the face makes it even more engaging because it keeps the viewer guessing and once again triggers curiosity. A similar technique is used also in this poster, lincoln, and having the eyes covered up and two crosses placed on them. But coming back to the poster in the middle, besides this concealment, which establishes the focal point, There's also a lot of smart ways of utilizing contrast, like having a very rigid geometric shape, a square placed on top of an very organic shape of a person, but also having the direction of the gradient reversed compared to the background. So don't forget, focal points can be extremely useful to capture and hold your viewers attention. 8. Entry point: In editorial design, entry points serve a similar purpose, two focal points giving readers visual hooks or anchors that can guide or navigate them to important details like the beginning of the main article or two heading or start of a smaller story within the article compared to a focal point, which is normally used only once within a composition. That can be multiple entry points within a layout. Most common out of all of them is a drop cap, which is sometimes also referred to as start cap or initial cap, which is an enlarged letter indicating the start of a section, paragraph, story, or article. Also similarly, two focal points drop caps can utilize contrast to increase their effectiveness. And besides the obvious dominance of their size or the contrast in scale compared to the body copy. It can also be contrast in color and even at different typeface being used again compared to the body copy. For extreme effect, these drop caps can even be stretched out like in this case, we have a D that would normally be probably around this size. But as we can see, is stretched all the way down to align it with the rest of the columns in this spread. As I mentioned, there can be multiple entry points within a single layout, and that means you can even have multiple Drop Caps. And in this composition they actually achieved visual hierarchy between these drop caps by having the first one that the reader is supposed to start with. Larger and more decorative compared to these other three that we can find further in the story. But besides having the first one clearly the most dominant and important one that is still similarity used between these drop caps that keeps them connected to each other. So there is a relation formed within these entry points, and that is achieved by using the same typeface and also the same color. Besides the drop caps in this layout, even the poor code would be considered an entry point. Once again, because this is a standout detail that we want our readers to read. And even if they start reading this before reading the rest of the story, it should still make sense and it would actually entice them or make them interested in reading the rest of the story. In case of more complex layouts like this, where there's quite a lot of things going on at drop cap is very important, once again, to help the viewer to find where they are supposed to get started. While in other cases, like with this composition, the entry point or the drop cap is serving more as a decorative element than something that is used for navigation. The subtlety of this layout lies not only in the vast amount of negative space, but also the low tonal contrast used on the drop cap, which you can imagine. If it was white, it would stand out way more than the way it is right now. But that contrast in color was unnecessary because it's already dominant in scale, especially having all that emptiness or negative space around it. And it is always a fine balance. You need to strike with an entry point and similarly also with a focal point. Because on one hand you want it to stand out and make sure that it grabs your viewers attention. But on the other hand, you don't want them to be overwhelming and distracting from the rest of the composition. Non forget that it's not only a drop cap that can be used as an entry point in editorial design. So besides the initial cap or starting cap here, I would also consider these headings and even these subheadings as entry points, together with this highlighted section here on the bottom right, which by having a different color from the rest of the background, automatically separates this and turns it into another entry point. 9. Dominance: One of the strongest or most extreme techniques that you can apply in your compositions to control the visual hierarchy. Create a focal point or starting point in your design is to apply dominance or emphasis. A dominant element in a composition is the one that has the greatest visual weight or the one that everything else is pointing to. So it is almost always the element that is going to attract the viewer's attention first. And in certain cases, it can also be used as a shock factor. For instance, take a look at this composition where the lag or the foot is clearly the largest element, but it also has the highest contrast. Besides its size and contrast, the shock factor comes from this small character underneath the foot who is about to be squashed. An illustration like this in editorial design is a very effective way for visual storytelling, but also for engaging readers and make them interested in reading an article. But besides this illustration being so dominant on this page, the scale of the food feels even larger because we can compare it to that small character at the bottom. And the scale of all the elements in your composition are relative to each other. And in this case, the juxtaposition of a tiny character and this giant foot makes an already dominant element feel even more powerful. Here is another similar composition. Once again, we have a dominant detail, this slice of pizza. And although we have another standout detail which has emphasis on it, The Chili Pepper at the bottom. The dominant detail is still clearly the slice of pizza. And that is actually good to keep in mind. And it's a good practice to remember that you shouldn't have multiple dominant characters or details within a single composition. Because if you are trying to make multiple details stand out and be dominant, they would start competing with each other and you are going to reduce the effectiveness of your visual hierarchy. Now the only thing that dominance always necessarily have to be using scale or size in a composition. It can be achieved with pretty much any other attributes, like color. In this case, for instance, yellow is the dominating color, but the emphasis is actually on this small character here, which we could also consider being the focal point. So even though dominance and emphasis are very similar, they can be used in combination within the same design, but applied to two separate elements within your composition. Here is another great example of dominance and emphasis working hand in hand. The dominant detail being this arrow that is pointing to the right. And that stands for the grid that this book is about, facing all of these other arrows pointing to the left, forming a pattern in the background. But besides an emphasis being on the word grid, there is also another emphasize detail, The New York Times bestseller copy here on the top right. I love this example because it shows well that a dominant detail doesn't have to always be in your face, something that really stands out. It is actually really subtle here because it purely relies on negative space. And even though this dominant arrow that is pointing to the right is clearly the largest detail within the composition divert grid. And that arrow on the top right stand out much more, mainly because of the intense red color, which would stand out even if there were more color used in the rest of the composition. But it feels even more powerful paired with this monochromatic palette. Last but not least, it's important to remember that dominance is a term outside of graphic design that is used usually for things that are quite negative. For instance, it is not good to have a dominating person in a relationship. But by better understanding what actually dominance means, we can apply this in our compositions and we can use the dominant element as a threat or something that we want our viewers to be fearful of. And this poster utilizes or showcases this perfectly by having this motorbike being the dominant detail, which is seemingly speeding towards this child in the background. And the French copy here on the top, I believe means protect the children, warns us about this obvious danger that we can feel. 10. Scale: We already referred to the scale of elements in our composition in the previous couple of videos. But it's important to spend a little bit more time talking about it, since it has a huge impact on the visual hierarchy of your compositions, probably the best thing to remember is that scale is always relative, as Stephen Bradley said it, a single object has no scale until it's seen in comparison to something else. Just consider how this composition would feel by removing this bolt here in the middle with the people inside it, seeing these fins without any comparison, we wouldn't be able to tell whether it's a small fish or a massive whale, like in this case. But by establishing this relationship and placing these two elements next to each other, we immediately understand and appreciate the difference in scale. The same thing is utilized in this movie poster where we have our point of reference as again, a person here on the top. And by the way, human is always the best way of referencing scale because that is just something that we are very familiar with. And in comparison in this case, we can immediately see how big this shark is. But what's terrifying is immediately how huge this mouth feels at the bottom. Now this is clearly an exaggeration, but a brilliant one. So we have this dominant detail all the way at the bottom, very close to the edge. So we only see a tiny little detail from that gigantic animal, but by showing only the mouth, which is probably the most threatening detail of a shark, we let the viewers use their imagination to fill in the missing details. When you are trying to emphasize how large something is within your composition, instead of using an extreme crop on it, like we've seen with the previous movie poster. You can also utilize perspective with the kong Skull Island movie poster, king Kong, the giant ape is set all the way in the background. And we can immediately sense that vast distance that is between these hills or mountains in the background and these people here in the foreground. And similarly how we can relate and understand the size of a person. We also instinctively understand the distance from objects thanks to perspective, which is again, something that we are experiencing every day in our life. So in this case, even though King Kong doesn't feel like a huge or dominant elements within the composition. We still appreciate and understand how Giant he must be to tower over these mountains or hills far away in the distance. I also love how in this composition we can see that even an everyday object at tennis racket can also feel huge simply by the clever positioning and cropping of it. So in this case, by choosing a viewpoint where it feels like we are looking upwards to the racket and placing it in front of this clear sky, it already feels much larger. But because of this clever cropping, it also starts to look like the Eiffel Tower in Paris. That visual connotation immediately triggers our imagination, which will tell us that this is actually a gigantic racket. Here is another really clever way of utilizing scale and dominance in a composition, in this case, using negative space and typography. So we have this large H, which stands for Hamlet, but the white space or negative space, is also forming a knife, which is of course very important or integral to the story. Besides the clever use of negative space, what makes this composition Also brave is how small they kept all the actual information and how close it is to the edge of the frame. And I believe the intention here was that not only this knives is filling up completely the frame from top to bottom, but also compared to the topography here on the right, it feels even larger. Again, is the relationship between the elements or the comparison of their scale that can make things even more effective. Here's another really cool example where dominance and scale is used with typography. So we have the entry point or the initial letter of the title Forever fashion cropped to an extreme amount where we wouldn't be able to tell what we're looking at, obviously without seeing the title itself. If you ever planning to use this kind of effect, just remember that you need to show distinct details of a letter that can be recognized. And for that serif type faces, we're going to work better. Pretty much all we see are the serifs, but we can still make out what we're looking at. Now even though so far we've been talking about comparative scale, or the fact that you need multiple elements and the relation between them will help you to establish the scale that actually clever ways that you can achieve sense of scale even with a single element. Starting with this awesome illustration of Hulk. And the way that he is scale is achieved in this case is that is completely filling in the frame. And even though it's just a single character within this composition, the scale of the character's head compared to his arms and upper body also helps to tell the story that he is huge and muscular. Another awesome illustration of Wonder Woman, this case, again, shows just a single character, but because of the viewpoint and again, the exaggerated perspective helps to make her look gigantic and heroic. But you can achieve sense of scale even with photography, like with this brilliant example, where this person is clearly too close to the camera or close to the viewer to next time that her face is getting distorted, similar to what would happen if someone was pushing themselves onto a glass surface. This again, just proves that if you are creative, you can achieve not only scale, but even vicinity or closeness to something, even without including multiple elements that you can compare to each other, like with the Skull Island posterior previously. 11. Position: Besides scale and contrast, position is probably the most important technique or way that you can emphasize the importance of an element and establish visual hierarchy in your composition. The interesting thing about using position in graphic design is that it can influence or even determine the perception of an element. And just like with skill and contrast with position, you can also be very creative and we will see a lot of interesting examples. But first, let me show you this amazing experiment by the Brazilian designer naval Atlanta, who conducted that research with hundreds of people. And they showed them these simple graphics and questions. Without obviously the percentages and without giving any context, everyone had to decide. For instance, in this case, who is the prisoner. The circle here on the top, the circle at the bottom. So we immediately can see that the majority of the people chose this circle here at the bottom to be the prisoner. But why do you think that is what you have chosen also the same circle, I think the main reason that we believe that to be the prisoner is because this line here in the middle seems to divide the space into two unequal parts. And the space at the bottom is smaller than the space above. But we can also attribute the fact that more people would choose this at the bottom to be the prisoner. To the fact that we normally would place people higher in position or in a better position in general, to the top and less successful people below even the hierarchy in social contexts, we would also think normally of a triangle, and people on the top of the triangle are the richest or most influential and powerful. People at the bottom of the triangle would be the poorest and least powerful. So simply the fact that this circle is closer to the top edge of the composition and the other circle is closer to the bottom edge, also makes us believe that this circle at the bottom is most likely the less fortunate one. Here's another example. In this case the question was, who is afraid. And even though here the answers were a little bit more split between the two options, there is still a majority choosing this circle on the right. So let's just try to understand this again. Why would people think that circle on the right is more likely to be afraid than the one on the left without giving any context in this case, I believe it mainly comes down to the fact, again that we have these dark rectangle here on the right side. In general, the background is bright, while this rectangle is much darker, while people in general afraid of, well, it's the dark or being alone in the dark. And it seems just simply by having this circle placed closer to the dark rectangle was already enough to make this the less comfortable place out of the two circles. But once again, just like before, this circle is higher up. So in terms of vertical positioning, it's higher, that one is lower. So if you're thinking about that social triangle that I mentioned earlier, this one again is further down, so it feels already slightly less fortunate. Another very interesting question was, who is the happiest? And in this case, instead of two circles, we have three squares. And again, even though the answers were split between the three of them, the majority chose this one here on the top right. The second most popular answer was the one in the middle, and this was the least selected option. So following the logic from the previous two examples, we can see clearly that this is the square root that's highest or out of all of them. But it is also closest to the right and in general, closest to the edge of the canvas or this frame. If we are thinking of a room, for instance, and kids playing inside that room, would you consider the kid in the corner to be the happiest or the one sitting in the center of the room. I believe if this context was provided to this illustration, almost everyone would have chosen the one in the middle to be the happiest. But I believe there is actually another interesting reason why the one on the top right feels to be the happiest. And I think because by having not two but three squares in this case, it starts to feel more like a chart. And if you think about charts, most of the time the best position is on the top right coordinator. So no matter what we have on the two axes, generally, you would want to be on the top right corner, apart from obviously some exceptions depending on what the chart is about. But if you generalize, most charts would mean success. The further along you are and the closer to the top you are. Lastly, one more slide from this experiment. Who is the singer of the band? In this case, we have five circles perfectly aligned in the center and also evenly distributed. The circles are exactly the same size and same color. So visually there is no difference between them and there is no reason why we would think any of them is different from the others. But still, the majority of the people who took part in this test chose the center one to be the singer of the band. The second most common answer was this one. So the first circle and the other three circles are almost insignificant compared to the other two. And again, let's think about why is that? This is more about who could be the leader if this is a group, because the singer is usually the leader of the group, even though it's not always the case of course, but in case we are talking about the leader. Most of the time we would place that in the center, like the way we would have the judge or so in the center of the courtroom, or the way the conductor would also be standing in the center of an orchestra. But we can also understand why some people chose this circle to be the singer or the leader of the band. Because for all the western countries, we always start looking at details and read from left to right. So in that order, this one here is the first and this one is the last. So in that aspect, this one here on the left is most likely going to be the leader. I have the link on the board if you are interested to see the other slides from this test. But what we can learn from these results that we've seen is that the position of visual elements and the vicinity of them to certain details in a composition can hugely influence our perception of them. 12. Alignment: So as a comparison, let's just take a look at these three quite similar movie posters, each of them using a fair amount of whitespace and having either one or two people with some topography. Even the size of the people in these compositions is fairly similar. And the main differences between them is how they are positioned within the frame and of course also their posture. Now let's start with Tom Hanks in terminal. He is placed on the bottom right corner of the frame and he's clearly facing toward the edge of the frame. What this tells us is that he doesn't want to be in this frame. He is looking forward to leaving. Again, it all comes down to the fact that we would expect things to come into the frame from the left and leave on the right. And once again, this expected visual flow is something that applies mainly to Western countries. Because for example, in Arabic countries where the reading is right to left, they would also expect details and elements or even people to come into the frame from the right and leave to the left. So it's exactly the opposite of what we are seeing here compared to this when we look at the poster for the proposal movie, both of the actors really close to the left edge of the frame, and especially Ryan Reynolds character is almost squashed to the edge of the frame. Now he clearly it looks uncomfortable and he also wants to live just like Tom Hanks, but he is coordinated. And why do we have him on the left side and not on the right side? Once again, because we know that to the right side he would be able to leave because that's the general flow of things. Again, Tom Hanks is looking towards the right where he knows the exit is going to open at 1. While in this case, Sandra Bullock is preventing Ryan Reynolds to leave the frame. But now let's take a look at this third postorder, Mr. and Mrs. Smith's with Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, the outstanding, opposite each other on the left and the right edges of the frame. And since they are also in a very similar pose, it creates a very nice symmetrical composition. But the most important thing is that these two characters in this composition feel equal. So there is no dominant character, like in the previous example. They are even equal in height and they are both dressed in black, also both carrying a gun. So what does the placement of these two characters tell us and the direction in which they are facing. I believe the main thing that it tries to tell us is that they don't necessarily want to be together. So they are taking up the furthest two points within the composition possible, so much so that they are even slightly leaning a V from each other, not towards each other. So here, this positioning is mainly creating tension between these two characters. This is almost like the opposite of what you could achieve in a composition when two characters are hugging or kissing each other. So you can see the positioning of your elements in a composition can really underlying or emphasize the story. And by choosing the right position, you can really reinforce and underline the story that you are telling. Now, you might not be always able to place a relevant information next to each other. Like in case of this layout, we have this beautiful illustration of the landmarks of Barcelona. And then we have the copy divided into these columns, Each talking about a particular landmark. But the order of the copy is not following the order of the illustration. And that is why the designer have to use these numbers to connect the illustration to the copy. Compared to that, here is a layout at Table of Contents in this case, which is highly unusual but very creative, where we can still clearly make out these smaller groups. So the page numbers and the corresponding articles, but it is a little bit harder to follow the order of them because obviously again, they are not laid out in the conventional way. However, there is still a logic. So we are starting with the lowest number here on the top-left number six. Then we go and make our way down in this order. Then from here we move on to the top of the next page. And then once again, we follow a similar order. So going down from the top. And the reason I'm showing this example is because position, our alignment is very commonly used in compositions, especially in editorial design, for grouping or arranging certain elements together and making it easier for the reader to digest the information. In this case, the unusual and almost chaotic placement and scaling as well of these elements at special interest in trig and in general makes the composition much more dynamic. So remember, it is not always about finding what's the most usual or expected position for something. Sometimes you can intentionally work against the expectations and choose unexpected placement for one or even more of your elements. 13. Proportion & exaggeration: Proportion in graphic design refers to the relative size of your elements in a composition. And we already discussed that size is extremely important for establishing the right visual hierarchy. And proportion is actually a term that can be used and applied for a lot of different things. You can consider the proportions of a character. So relatively the head, the feet, and the hands are tiny compared to the body in this case, but we can also compare the character to the environment. So in this case, this hanging chair and their relationship to each other also forms a proportion in which once again, the character is definitely more dominant than the chair is not only perceived that way because of the size of the character, but also because the chair is drawn with these very thin lines compared to the thickness of the character. In case of this banner, we can consider the proportion between the image and the topography. And from that point of view, the image roughly takes up around 40 per cent of the composition. While the logo, the texts, and the call-to-action button, which forums visually group takes up also roughly around 40 per cent, and the rest is a negative space. I'm sure you can imagine that in case of this banner, without changing any of the elements, we can easily change and shift these proportions to whatever we think works best. But remember when you're scaling things up and down, that the general idea is to highlight the important details while also keeping harmony and integrity between your elements. Of course, there's also another term that's important to remember and it's a technique that you can apply in your designs. And it is exaggeration. And this is something that usually messes with the proportions of your elements and normally used for dramatic effect and for catching your viewers eyes. Take this book cover, for example, where the house is tiny compared to the size of the flames and the smoke. And by using these proportions, keeping the fire to be the dominant element in the composition, it clearly gets a lot of emphasis and pretty much takes over the cover of this book. Exaggeration in illustration can be used for much more than just to make something look really big and something really small. It can also be used to simplify the shape of something. So to turn forms or shapes into something slightly more abstract. And that is exactly what is happening here. So the animal is a really simplified and the brilliant idea here is that the eye is actually a person. So there's again, a huge difference between the size or scale of these two characters. But in this case, instead of having them next to each other, the illustrator came up with this very smart way of combining them. As you can see, proportions and details are clearly exaggerated. Again, in this case for dramatic effect. Here's another very interesting example, this cover of The New York Magazine, that once again, proportion plays an important role. First of all, we have the faces of these two kids really close up. So they are definitely dominant details within the whole composition. So in terms of proportions, they take up around 90% of the cover. But what's important here is how discovered relates to the main article within this magazine, which is about, can you teach racism or an article in general about racism? And in that sense, this design is extremely powerful because it is using a roughly around the same proportion for each of these phases. So the two kids feel equal. But what's extremely clever is that the distance between the two eyes is almost exactly another eyes size, which is almost identical to the same proportion that you get with a person's face. So even though here we are seeing two faces and next to each other, when you are concentrating on the proportions of these eyes and the distance between them, it is similar what we would get when a single person is looking at us. I also love the fact that this block of texts that we have here is not set any larger or wider. It also innovate forums like a barrier between these two phases or between these two kids. So these further emphasizing that division that is established with the composition. But remember, what balances that out is the way that these two faces could also form a single phase by the use of clever proportions. Another area in graphic design where proportion plays an important role is how you set up your color palette. We already talked about this in the color topic. How important it is to make sure that you have a good harmony between your colors. But what's also important is how much of these colors are used within a composition, just like balancing the scale of your elements, you can also think of your colors in relation to each other, and most of the time, instead of using them equally, what will make things more interesting is to think of them similar to how they are used in interior design. So the 603010 rule is very commonly used for decorating interiors. And generally what it means is that you should always have a primary or main color that is going to be dominating the design. And in terms of interior design, this is actually normally a neutral color than the secondary color. Usually is a complimentary color to the main color. And the third color is what we call as the accent color, which is usually the most vibrant and intense color in the palette. And you can see examples of this rule, not only in interior design but also in fashion design. But as I said, it is something actually that also can help you in graphic design projects, but you don't have to follow it to strictly. For instance, coming back to this banner that we've seen before, we can see that the main or dominant color in this case is pink, which is used for the background. Then the secondary color is gray, which is used for this monochrome version of the person. And then as an accent color, we have actually two colors. In this case, we have this purple, which is used for the call-to-action button and also these leaves, but we also have a little bit of yellow at the bottom. Now out of these two accent colors, the purple is the stronger one that has more contrast. And that's why it works to be used for the most important element in the banner, which is the call to action button. So remember when you think of the proportions within your design, it's not only the scale of the elements that's important, but also the proportions of the colors you are using. And pretty much anything else can be considered this way, even, let's say the proportion of images compared to type on a cover. But no matter what aspect of your design you are changing or adjusting. Remember that the proportions are extremely important for striking harmony and balance. But when you are using exaggeration, you can also make things out of balance for dramatic effect. 14. Propositional density: So far we talked about visual hierarchy in terms of more complex designs like magazine spreads and layouts, book covers, movie posters. But don't forget that visual hierarchy should also be applied to smaller or less complex designs, like in case of a logo. And to better understand how visual hierarchy works specifically in logo design, we need to talk about propositional density. Here we think of the relationship and the proportion between the amount of elements in a logo and the amount of underlying or hidden meanings pegged into them. So take this logo, for instance, from Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign, which is a brilliant example of how the amount of meanings can far outweigh the amount of elements used. And we talk about propositional density, the meanings usually we refer to as deep propositions. And you can easily remember that because these are the hidden meanings or underlying meetings, so they are deep down and the actual elements that are used in the design we call surface propositions. And that's also easy to remember because they are on the surface. That's what we can actually see. There is a very simple mathematical equation to get the actual propositional density, you just simply have to count how many deep propositions you can find and then divide that number with the amount of surface propositions. So essentially count the number of meanings you can find and divide it with the number of elements used in the design. So in case of this logo, we can find ten meanings and only three elements that are used. So the equation is ten divided by three, which results in a number higher than three. Even if you can achieve the propositional density to be higher than one, you are already doing a great job. But as you can see in this case, there were more than three times as much meanings as the actual elements. This is of course, is an exceptionally good example for propositional density. But just to show you the other extreme here is a logo which is obviously much weaker in terms of propositional density. And here that number is most likely below one because there are more elements than meanings. And without counting it, we can just immediately see that we have the bald eagle and the American flag, which basically carries exactly the same meaning of patriotism. Similarly, we have the text In God We Trust here at the bottom, but then we also have the Bible and the cross. So again, three elements serving the same meaning. Not to mention that even text is repeated. The Saint Francois county that is written here on the outside is also visible here on this tiny map inside the logo. So I'm pretty sure that even without counting exactly the deep surface propositions, we can clearly see that this logo is far less successful compared to the Obama campaign. But there are lots of other logos that has a great propositional density, like the current Airbnb logo, which even though it's just a simple abstract shape, it actually refers to a lot of things like people, places, love, and also the letter a, which is the first letter of the name. In this case, there are two surface prepositions, the shape and the text. But we immediately can find that these four deep propositions, so four divided by two. We get two for propositional density, which once again is a brilliant achievement and for a brand to be memorable and for people to be able to recognize it easily, the effectiveness heavily relies in the propositional density for which, as we can see, one of the most important thing is to keep your elements as simple or as less as possible. There is a study called branded in memory, which shows how different brands are remembered by the general public. Here, for instance, we can see the Apple logo drawn from memory by more than 150 people displayed in a way that we are getting the more accurate versions as we're getting to the bottom right. And we have the least accurate ones here on the top left. So the drawings are improving as we're making our way down to the bottom-right corner. And there's also some additional interesting statistics here at the bottom. Out of which probably the most interesting one is showing that the actual color of the logo is gray matter. These are the colors that people use when they were drawing these logos. Even though most of the people used gray, There's also quite a lot of people who use black and never, even some people using blue and red in that drawings. Now definitely the most important number here is the percentage of how many people manage to draw a near perfect version of the logo, because that shows really well how memorable this logo is. And in case of Apple, it was 20 per cent compared to that. The same exact study resulted in only six per cent for near perfect drawings for Starbucks. And some really funny versions of the logo here on the top left corner. But the best-performing logo in this study was target with Twenty-five percent near perfect drawings. That means one in four people managed to draw the logo from memory without making any mistakes. And even the colors and their proportions were almost perfectly matching the actual logo from all of these drawings. Now we can clearly see that propositional density plays a huge role in logo design. But the general lesson that we can learn from this is that thinking of surface and deep propositions is something we can also apply to any forms of design. So even when you are working on a brochure, a poster, a magazine, or a website, you should always question yourself whether you need to add that additional element and whether it is going to add any meaning to your design or make it easier for viewers to understand what they're seeing. So only introduce new elements when they are really important and when there is nothing already in the design that serves the same purpose, getting the visual hierarchy right in your designs depends not only on prioritizing certain elements over others, but also on your ability to be able to judge which are the elements that you will really need in the composition and which are the ones that you can leave out. 15. 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 millenial boards we used in this course to help you remember the things we talked about or define 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 the assignment designer.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.