DESIGN ELEMENTS AND COMPOSITION By Sofia Obien 2015

DESIGN ELEMENTS Line, shape, form, texture, pattern, colour, balance and value

Line ◦ Line- a mark between two points. There are various types of lines, from straight to squiggly to curved and more. Lines can be used for a wide range of purposes: stressing a word or phrase, connecting content to one another, creating patterns and much more.

Shape ◦ Shape- A 2-dimensional line with no form or thickness. Shapes are flat and can be grouped into two categories, geometric and organic. There are three basic types of shape: geometric (triangles, squares, circles etc), natural (leaves, animals, trees and people), and abstracted (icons, stylizations, graphic representations etc).

Form ◦ Form- a 3-dimensional object having volume and thickness. It is the illusion of a 3-D effect that can be implied with the use of light and shading techniques. Form can be measured, from top to bottom (height), side to side (width), and from back to front (depth). Form may be created by the combining of two or more shapes. It may be enhanced by tone, texture and color. It can be illustrated or constructed.

Texture ◦ Texture-is about surface quality either tactile or visual. Texture can be real or implied by different uses of media. It is the degree of roughness or smoothness in objects. Using texture in design is a great way to add depth and visual interest. Printed material has actual, textile texture while screen material has implied texture.

Pattern ◦ Pattern- uses the art elements in planned or random repetitions to enhance surfaces of paintings, work or sculptures. Patterns often occur in nature and artists use similar repeated motifs to create pattern in their work, patterns increase visual excitement by enriching surface interest. A repeating unit of shape or form, also can be thought of as the "skeleton" that organizes the parts of a composition.

Colour ◦ Colour- refers to specific hues and has 3 properties, Chroma, Intensity and Value. Can be used to generate emotions, define importance and create visual interest. Complementary pairs can produce dull and neutral color. Black and white can ve added to produce tints (add white), shades (add black) and tones (add gray).CMYK (cyan/magenta/yellow/black) is subtractive; RGB (red/green/blue) is additive.

Balance ◦ Balance- the equal distribution of visual weight of objects, colours, texture and space in a design. Visual balance occus around a vertical axis; our eyes require the visual weight to be equal on the two sides of the axis. When elements are not balanced around a vertical axis, the effect is disturbing and makes us uncomfortable. If the design was a scale, these elements should be balanced to make a design feel stable.

Value ◦ Value- the degree of light and dark in a design. It is the contrast between black and white and all the tones in between. Value can be used with colour as well as black and white. Contrast is the extreme changes between values. The more light, the higher the value. White is the highest or lightest value. On the other hand, black is the lowest or darkest value. Colours have value as well, for example, yellow has a relatively high (light) value, while violet has a relatively low value (dark)

COMPOSITION ELEMENTS Rule of thirds, leading lines, framing, point of view and selective focus

Rule of Thirds ◦ Rule of Thirds- Imagine that your image is divided into 9 equal segments by 2 vertical and 2 horizontal lines. The rule of thirds says that you should position the most important elements in your scene along these lines, or at the points where they intersect. Doing this will add balance and interest in your photo, some cameras even offer the option to superimpose a rule of thirds grid over the LCD screen, making it easy for everyone to use.

Leading lines ◦ Leading Lines- When we look at a photo, our eyes are naturally drawn along lines. By thinking about how you place lines in your photo, it can affect the way people view your image, pulling us into the picture, towards the subject, or on a journey "through" the scene. There are many different types of line (all been said in 'DESIGN ELEMENTS') and each of those can be used to enhance our photo's composition

Framing ◦ Framing- The world is full of objects which make perfect natural frames, such as trees, archways and holes. By placing these around the edge of the composition you help to isolate the main subject from the outside world. The result is a more focused image which draws your eye naturally to the main point of interest.

Point of view ◦ Point of view; Before photographing your subject, take time to think about where you will shoot it from. Our viewpoint has a massive impact on the composition of our photo, and as a result it can greatly affect the message that the shot conveys. Rather than just shooting from eye level, consider photographing from high above, down at ground level, from the side, from the back, from a long way away, from very close up, and so on.

Birds eye view ◦ Birds eye view- photographing from high above, gives a fresh, clear view on your subject

Normal view ◦ Normal view- photographing how you would normally see or on level with the subject

Worms eye view ◦ Worms eye view- photographing from below, giving the subject a 'bigger' look.

Selective focus ◦ Choosing a spot within the picture that you want sharp and then choosing an aperture (an f-stop) that will allow your subject to be sharp but let the background and maybe some foreground fall off into softness. This is a very valuable photography technique as you may be shooting a particular thing and the background may be distracting, so you could choose a wider aperture (something like f5.6 or f5 or 2.8) to deliberately allow the shot to go soft in front of or behind your subject.