Principles of Design
All art requires composition, or so I’ve heard. I’ll admit I’m not the best at composing my website layouts, but now, you too can start to understand how to design the layout of your website to follow the basic design principles so that your site will look more composed and whole for the low low low price of reading the selected readings at the end of this blog! (reading the actual blog is greatly appreciated as well)
In summary, these articles describe the principles of design (already established in the previous paragraph) but these principles reach far beyond the artwork we all know and may love. These principles are great tools to use in graphic and web design. I don’t know about everyone else, but I like a well balanced page. I like symmetry along the y-axis and balanced background image. Others may differ from my oppinion, but the Gesalt Principles of art state that proximity, uniform connectedness and a good continuation is the recipe for a good website structure.
Another element that helps with good structure, is the rule of three. I first learned about the rule of three in high school art class but kind of pushed it to the back of my mind not expecting it to re-surface in my education, and yet here it is. Basically, the Rule of Three categorizes elements in a triangular structure that can either be static or dynamic which affects the space and position between elements in the triangle. A great starting point for composition.
Overall, design principles have a lot more of an impact on the work we as designers do. Who would have known?
References:
http://www.digital-web.com/types/design_in_theory_and_practice/
http://www.digital-web.com/articles/visual_architecture_the_rule_of_three
http://www.andyrutledge.com/gestalt-principles-2-similarity.php
http://www.andyrutledge.com/gestalt-principles-3.php
