Elements and the principle of design

 Gestalt Psychology and its components Max Wertheimer, Kurt Koffka and Wokfgang Kohler strongly believed that perceptions of our surroundings and
experiences are holistic rather than the sum of its parts. “Gestalt, a German term, means organization or configuration. This approach in psychology
believes that our brains or minds have convenient ways to organize and configure our perceptions in holistic and convenient ways.

 In the same aspect, art could not be appreciated by nitpicking into its components only. Rather, art and designs are best appreciated by understanding
their holistic appeal and their ability to weave cohesively into the different elements and their application.
Elements of art
1LINE ELEMENT
The perception of lines is some of the things we do everyday. You see lines along the roadside, in the corner of your rooms, in the guidelines of
your notebook sheets, etc.
NATURE OF LINE
Lines create the impression of movement. As such, when you see art works with lines, your eyes make a movement in following its direction or
path. So when given visual image, lines lead your eyes into several directions that allow you to navigate the general space.
Lines also can be differentiated based on length and width. Lines can be slim or thick
TYPES OF LINES
1. Vertical Lines
Their movement direction is upward or downward. Common applications are upright trees or standing body of humans, buildings or
infrastructures.
2. Horizontal Lines
The movement direction is from left to right or vice-versa. Common applications are body lying down and the horizon.
3. Diagonal Lines
These are slanted lines. They create an impression of rising or falling. The Learning Tower of Pisa conveys a diagonal or slanted line.
4. Zigzag Lines
These are connected combinations of diagonal lines. They create angular perspectives of lines. Common examples are thunders or animated
drawings of stars.
5. Curved Lines
These are lines that do not appear liner; hence, directions are not clearly established. Examples of which are the outlines of clouds, leaves and
edges of flowers (Ragans, 2005)
LINE & VALUE
Value is defined as the darkness or lightness of an object.
The artwork may have a dark value with little light reflection or light value with more light reflection.
EXPRESSIONS OF LINES
Lines have different capacities in terms of expression an idea or an emotion, Essentially, lines speak a
language that artists can comprehended
A.Movement of Lines
 Vertical and Horizontal lines conveys static and at rest impressions. It may mean the lack of activity and stability. Artist may use them to show dignity,
formality or stiffness.
 Sometimes, it portrays the feeling of calmness or relax such as the horizontal lines created by the sea surface.
 Curved lines, on the other hand, may show expression of relative activity. This may depend on the amount of curve it makes. The less active
curve may indicate more calm or repetitive feelings. Spiral lines require you to focus on a central point and may have the tendency to be hypnotic.
 Diagonal Lines, are used by artist to express the feelings of instability, tenson or excitement. But their expression can be altered when done with
symmetry.
 For example, two diagonal lines that converge to create the root of a house may instead mean stability.
 Zigzag Lines have been used to create feelings of confusion, they may evoke feelings of anxiety.
B.. Contour Lines
These are applications of lines to create edges or ridges of an object. These provide a certain degree of separation from one
object to another.
C. Gesture Drawing
Gestures are usually expressive movements which are intended to capture motion, activity and the feeling found in it. In
artworks that emphasize the lines of the hand, touching the face can convey feelings of anxiety or worry.
D. Calligraphic Drawing
Calligraphy means beautiful hand writing. It is often associated with writing Asian characters usually with
Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Thai language.
In the Philippines, there are different versions of baybayin with different ethno-linguistic bases.
The Philippine Calligraphy is rooted on Indian, Sulawesi and Kawi, Indo, Arabic and Islamic writing arts.
2. SHAPE, FORMAND SPACE
The world may be considered as an art piece. It is a piece composed of several shapes, sizes, forms and even depth that are naturally existing in
this space.
 Shape
A shape conveys a defined two-dimensional area. It has an outline around and it is recognizable through its form.
Example: They can be created using a blot of yellow paint to create a circle like the imagery of a sun.
You can see them in the shapes that are defined by the floor tiles, TV screens, walls, table tops etc
 Geometric Shapes
 Shapes that are accurately measured shapes, hence, having mathematical bases.
 The variations are square, rectangle, triangle, circle, oval, trapezoid, pentagon, hexagon etc.
 In a decorative sense, they show balance and structure in one’s perception, this may be apparent in the shapes
of that television, long and round tables, room, doors etc.
 Free-Form Shapes
These are the types of shapes that are irregular in structure. They may be characterized by some of the combinations of curves and angles.
Most of them are organically existing in nature such as flowers, animals, humans, islands, trees, etc.
 Forms
Forms are the three-dimensional aspects of spaces and shapes.
Example: a box or a cube is a form. However there is an inherent relationship between shapes and form. So, if you are presented with a box, each
side of the box is represented by a square or rectangle shape. Or when you visit the Pyramids in Egypt, you will still be identifying shapes of
triangle along its side.
 Space
 This refers to a hypothetical area in which subject the subject of art and other elements of art operate. Like shapes and form, the impression of
space can be two- or three-dimensional.
Example: With a window as your subject of an art piece, it can provide a sense of teo-dimension as it portrays a flat representation. In this sense
the space of the art has expanded as different layers of area are now included.
 Positive and Negative Space
The shapes and forms of art are the positive space of an art. The empty spaces, on the other hand, are the negative
space.
In gestalt psychology, they are called figure and ground, respectively.
 Creating Shapes and Forms in Space
Shapes and forms can be naturally sourced or manufactured by humans. For instance, animals, humans, flowers and mountains are examples of
naturally occurring shapes. But there are shapes. But there are shapes that are manufactured by humans through hand crafts, machine-assisted or
clay forms.
 Illusion of Form by Using the Principle of Value
While the meaning of line can change by changing their value, shapes, and forms can also change their meaning and
expression by utilizing altered values.
To magnify an object, certain techniques can be used such as employing light and dark values, this technique is called
chiaroscuro.
Chiaroscuro- It is an Italian word that means bright (chiaro)and dark (oscuro).
 Illusion of Depth using Gestalt Principles of Perception
Depth can be defined as relative distance, it may be necessary to give it some depth to visualizes the story behind it.
Techniques that can be used to crate the impression of depth
 Overlapping- The first object covers a second object. In effect, the first object becomes closer or nearer to the viewer.
 Size- Large objects often are perceived to be nearer than the relatively smaller ones.
 Placement- Objects placed on the lower plane of the space create impression of them being nearer. The more distant are those at the eye or top level
of the space.
 Detail-Objects with clearer details are usually nearer while those with finer and less details seem to be further.
 Color- Brightly or vividly colored objects seem nearer than the dull ones.
 Converging Lines-As parallel lines move away from your point of view; they move closer to the horizon which makes a perception of distance farther
away from you. The farthest convergence can be called the vanishing point

Expressive Qualities of Shape, Form and Space

a.Outline and Surface
Outlines and variations in the surfaces may bring different kinds of messages., for example using free-form shapes may express the presence of
life and fluidity. These could also symbolize calmness and comfort.
Angular shapes, on the other hand, project the sharp and jagged realities of the world. These could mean pain, anxiety, or tension.
For example: You see broken glasses in a picture, they may translate into vicarious interpretations of pain or hurt.(Ragans, 2005)
Geometric shapes may even suggest aspects of mechanical perfection. It projects a certain sense of order and logic.
b. Outline and Surface
Density refers to the compactness of the object. Dense materials tend to be solid and heavy looking.
In sculptures for examples, dense materials may be difficult to alter in terms of form unless technology or some machines are available.

C. Openess
Open shapes project invitation, for example, if you draw and empty chair, most viewers may tend to vicariously imagine sitting on
that chair. If you see an art piece with an open door, it may give you a sense of wonder of what could be inside or behind the door.
Closed shapes and forms, on the other hand, project more solid and self contained field of perception. Closed doors and windows
tend to be more restrictive to interpretation.
D. Activity and Stability
Active shapes are those that defy gravity such as slanting or falling or running shapes. In Feng Shui. Eight (8) running horses are
lucky in proper placement. To project running horses, the sculptor or painter projects the variations of movements by
overlapping heads and feet. Some heads should slant upward while some are moving down to show the movement.
3. COLOR
What makes lines, shapes, forms, and space alive is through their colors. They are apparent in making more variations to our
perceptions such as colors of flowers, the sky, paint of walls and even skin tones.
Colors have the most powerful connection to human nature and emotions. In Fact, colors are used to describe emotions such as feeling
blue to describe sadness or green minded to describe thinking of sexual things or green thumb for someone who is good with plants or sunny
personality to describe the bright and fun character of a person.

Perception of Color
Color is one of the elements of art that is derived from light and the different reflections of it. In psychophysics, you learned that colors are based
on white light. When such white light passes through a prism, it shall bend and create a prism or band of colors. These colors are usually the
representation of the rainbow. But these colors are not coloring per se. These colors are waves that activate the color receptors of your eyes
called cones
Hue
In the color spectrum, there is such a thing as primary colors namely, red, blue and yellow. They are also considered as primary hues.
These secondary hues are made by mixing two primary colors. There are also 6 six intermediate or tertiary colors by mixing a primary color with
secondary color. To organize these colors or hues, the color spectrum can be bent to create a color wheel that illustrates how the mixing is
employed.
Value
Value describes the lightness and darkness of a color. There will be times that contain colors will seem to be darker to represent a darker or
gloomier theme of the art piece
Essentially, not all hues should have the same value within a space.
Yellow seems to be the lightest hue as it reflects the lightest and violet is the darker hue as it reflects the least light.
Black, white and gray are considered neutral colors. White light reflects light depending on its value.
Intensity
Intensity
refers to how bright or dull the use of hue is. If a certain surface of an object reflects yellow light, then the surface projects intense and bright
yellow. But if the surface reflects other colors, yellow will be more subdued. Intensity can be high orlow density such that in bright and dull colors,
respectively (Ragans 2005)
Complementary colors
are those that are opposite to each other in the color wheel. The complement of the hue may absorb all the light waves that the hue reflects .
Example: red and green are complements, In effect, green may absorb red waves and may reflect the blue and yellow. This explains how some
people will have conditions such as color vision deficiency or color blindness.
Another consequence is when you mix a hue with its complement dulls the original hue and lowers its intensity.
Color Schemes
Organizing colors are part of the planning phase in the creation of art. Making a cohesive story of song is like identifying a color scheme
appropriate to the story of the art piece.
A. Monochromatic Colors
A technique where only one color is used. Even the hue, tints and shade are consistent all
throughout. With a limited option for colors, this provides a strong and unifying expression to the
art. However this strategy may lessen the variation quality of the work.
B. Analogous Colors
In analogous colored artwork, the hues used are usually those that are side by side in the color
wheel and operate in a common hue.
Example: blue, blue-green, blue violet, and red have something in common. This can be limited to three hues to create unity among the common
color range.
C. Complementary Colors
Complementary colors are used when the theme of art is intended to create strong expression of contrast.
Example: is that red and green are complementary colors. When red symbolizes fire and green symbolizes the life attached to plants and animals,
these patterns create a sense of arousal to you emotions . However not all complementary colors provide loud arousal.
D. Color Triads
From the name itself, art must be focused on three general colors spaced on equal intervals on the color wheel. Compared to complementing
triads do not convey strong differentiation of colors. This can cover primary, secondary and tertiary hue triads.
E. Split Complements
Is used when you combine a hue with each side of its exact complement. This now offers more variety and more dynamics to color range and
selection.
Example: the complement of red orange is blue green. The hue next to blue green are blue and green. These can be used to create the perfect
nature art piece with red orange as the sun, blue for the waters and green for the trees.
F. Warm and Cool Colors
The color wheel can be divided into two groups, namely, the warm and cool colors. The warm group contains the hues of red,
orange and yellow, while the cool colors may range from blue, green, and violet.
The cool colors, on the other, evoke cooler situation such as snow water and grass.
Expressive Qualities
Like other elements, colors convey ideas, emotions and actual behaviors. What makes color useful in expression is its ability to
represent reality, something that is more like how our senses see it.
A.Optical Color
The use of optical colors is an artist approach to reproduce colors as they seem to be. This approach intends to capture reality as it is
and not a version or impression of it.
To illustrate optical color, artists check how its hue will appear when influenced by surrounding colors. Like shopping clothes, you see the clothes’
optimal color if you pair it with the color of jeans that you usually wear.
B. Arbitrary Colors
In this sense, color is not only an element or a medium to express art, When you plan to use dark yet cool colors, these may
evoke feelings of depression and on mystery.
Warm low intensity colors tend to porteay comfort and relaxation. Blue and green are soothing hues while yellow stimulates
activity and red can evoke extreme arousal or excitement.
C. Space
Together with lines, positioning colors have also been used to create impressions of depth. Warm colors are believed to advanced towards
viewers while cool colors tend to recede.
D. Movement
Colors can create representation of movement as well. .Contrasting values create movement while values that are close to each other tend create
gradual and calmer flow
4. TEXTURE
Refers to how the subjects and objects of the piece feels if touched. This is an essential component in creating the dynamics in the artwork by
showing that certain surface have different feels according to texture on a flowing flat river painting compared to a rough and rocky
river painting.
Perceiving Texture
Texture is perceived through the senses. Tactile texture is the feeling derived out of touching a specific object or art.
In sculptures, for examples, you can sense the type of stone or wood that has been used in developing one. In fact, texture is
considered as one of the most useful cues for knowing the quality of sculpture.
TEXTURE AND VALUE
Art pieces may maximize the portrayal of texture by using value, that is when the artist creates texture through light reflection
and shadowing.
A.Rough and Smooth Textures
A crooked and uneven shadow may provide more rough texture than formally shaded ones. Casting shadows and accepting
light provide impression of the shape and eventually its texture.
B. Matter and Shiny Textures
A matte surface reflects soft and dull lights while the shiny surface tends to reflect light and project some spark or glow.
Matte surface are usually apparent in papers, denim, unfinished wood, or human skin.
PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN
1RHYTHM, PATTERN AND MOVEMENT
Rhythm in art is its principle that is defined by the repetition of elements or objects. This principle is also present in other forms of arts such as
music and even poetry.
Musical rhythm is the measure of time between musical sounds.
Visual Rhythm
This is the kind of rhythm that is created by the sense of sight rather than the sense of hearing. This is observed in the
repetition of positive spaces or ground and than separated by negative spaces. In your surroundings, patterns are apparent. In
the library, books are aligned in the shelves. In parking lots, cars are arranged using visual rhythms.
 Falling in line in the grocery can be interpreted as visual rhythms.
Pattern
Rhythm can be applied in the two-dimensional space called patterns. In the aspect of clothing design, the most common examples of
pattern are stripes that may be vertical or horizontal. Usually referred as motifs, these are the units of elements that are repeated in a
pattern.
Patterns observed in furniture, clothing, foot rugs may constitute different elements of the design but repeatedly applied in the whole art space.
Types of Rhythm and Pattern
Arranging the patterns can vary. Each variation may create different personality of the artwork
A.Random
Motifs may be placed randomly across he space. This is characterized by the lack of regularity in the spaces in between.
Photography on fallen leaves may leave random patterns. Wall cracks can also be randomly assigned across the space. buildings in a
picture may not necessarily be spaced regularly (Ragans, 2005)
B. Regular
opposite to random patterns regular patterns are characterized by having identical beats, motif and intervals of space
between them. In effect you can observe a steady beat across motif. This is the best used when you intend to project a more
organized pattern
C. Alternating
This type of rhythm employs two types of beat or motive first and second beats are usually arranged in alternating distances or
intervals its applications include flowing rhythms by repeating wavy lines
. Progressive
Patterns or rhythms portray change in beat everyt ime it is repeated. Accordingly, the changes are steady. For each beat,
they appear slightly different with each other. For example, you may try to progressively increase the size of a shape from
one end of the space to the other (e.g. small square in the left progressively increasing its size towards the right).
2. BALANCE
Art and its forms must contain a certain type of balance. This is the principle of art by ensuring that all elements of art are accorded with equal
force. Through balance, arts tend to have a feeling of organization and proper arrangement. The absence or lack of balance may project feelings of
uneasiness and instability. Just like the Leaning Tower of Pisa, because of its instability, it is considered as a danger zone and was required to be
closed for humans to set foot in. Even if, engineers corrected this imbalance, this was not still considered safe for people to get near to(Ragans,
2005).
Formal Balance
There is considerable formal balance when elements are shared equally in both sides of the symmetry. It is the most common
type of balance in producing art may not be necessary equal are here that elements amounts on each side.
Radial Balance
This is a type of balance where the design of the art piece radiates from the central point and an outward direction. An example of
radial balance is the mandala. Mandala is a representation of personality in the theory of Analytic Psychology of Carl Jung. For
him, a healthy personality is defined by balance of all forces, hence, a radiating or radial balance. Another example of radial
balance are flowers or plants that follow a radial pattern.
Informal Balance
There are artists that choose to portray a more casual and less planned art. Most of the time, their outputs have informal balances. But this is not
an indication of less aesthetic value. Rather, these artists have less conventional approaches by employing abstracted and complex balance
portrayal. In effect, when you perceive their works, your point of view is not usually drawn towards the middle, but usually in the irregular
positions of the space.
How to Present Informal Balance in Art
In most cases, these types of art are interpreted to be accidental arrangements. But learning more on the intent would indicate a
deeper meaning to their informal balance. Artists usually consider the placement of the objects and elements and put them accordingly
to emphasize the imbalance. To this end, artists do not only use this as an &esthetic but also apart of the story telling and meaning
extraction process
A.Size and Contour
There may be arts that have competing sizes of elements such one thick line over several thin lines, one large circle over small circles etc. But
having the number of the smaller sizes increase more than the large one can still create balances more so an informal one.
B. Color
There are artists who intend to magnify some colors within a space. To activate informal balance, emphasizing a specific color may create this
expression. Artists creating book covers may employ colorsto express imbalance in color emphasis. This is intended for viewers to draw their
attention over the area with the more intense color. Examples of these are the book covers of Fifty Shades of Grey of E.L. James that seek to
emphasize the Grey elements of the book cover.
C. Value
Contrasting the value of objects and background can create formal imbalance. For example, when you are tasked to create a certificate employing
informal balance, you may choose to have a blank white sheet of paper with emphasized red slab on the left side.
D. Texture
Creating a rough texture of pattern, highlight or shadows create informal balance. This happens because of the details that a rough texture
creates. This can be further formalized by compensating areas of the space that contain smoother surfaces. In most posters used in advertising,
there is a necessity to consider the kind of font you use to create impression of a rough texture. This is nece
E. Position
In visual art, large object near the dominant area of the work can be balanced by a smaller object place farther away from the dominant area In
this way, a large, positive shape and a small negative space can be balanced against a small positive space and a large negative space.
ssary to draw the point of view on the font or text more than its design.
3. PROPORTION
It is the principle of art that is mostly concerned with how the sizes of objects and some elements relate to each other. The idea of
proportion started during the time of a Greek Philosopher, Pythagoras who believed that the world or the universe operates on a
constant mathematical equation. Amused by this beliefs, Euclid explored around the mathematical possibilities of explaining the
nature of the universe and discovered that there is such a thing as a perfect ratio. This ratio is called the Golden Mean where a line is “
a line divided into two parts so that the smaller line has the same proportion, or ratio , to the larger line has to the whole line.

The Golden Mean has gained so much popularity that this concept has been applied to human figures. It was also believed that
human figures have the ideal proportion. When Greece died as a civilization, so did this concept. But in its rediscovery, it was
then called the divine proportion.
Scale
A scale refers to the relative size of an object measured from a standard reference.
This is different from proportion in that the latter is a measurement relative to other elements of the space while the former is based on a
standard measurement.
For example, a 6-foot volleyball player may not look tall when he is in his team members. But when you see this volleyball player standing on a
measurement scale, our perception may differ from when he is with his teammates.
In designing art, there are two sources of scale:
The scale that is based on the work itself.
The scale of the objects and elements within the design.
For example: The Pyramids of Egypt are second type of scale
4. Variety, Emphasis, Harmony and Unity
Variety is the principle of art that breeds interest to the viewers or audience. Emphasis on the other hand, improves the variety by creating
different levels of emphasis to draw areas that ay draw audience attention.
Variety
To establish effective variety, artist must maximize the application of differences and contrasting. For instance, if an artist chooses to create an art
with just one shape or color, this may look boring and monotonous, lacking variety. In effect, attention of the audience may be of short span
Emphasis
In specific artworks, there are aspects that are given emphasis,. Usually, the subjects are given more intensity in color, more definition in contours
and outlines, etc. This is the process of ensuring that these aspects are the most important elements of the art form.
Two Types of Visual Emphasis
The element that dominates
The area on the space that dominates over others
A.Emphasizing Elements
Through this process, the element of art is deemed to be more important while subordinating the other elements. Some artist do this to separate
a specific element from others and showcase their skill on this aspect. Example is when one art uses mostly pencil in sketching may signify the
artist intention to show his sketching capabilities. Some artist do not sketch and immediately paint on a canvas without outlines convey the ability
of the artist to draw and create a cohesive image by subordinating sketching (Ragans, 2005)
B. Emphasizing Area
An artwork’s focal point is an emphasized area. This specific area may be considered as superior to other areas for it is expected to carry the
viewers’ attention to that area. However, it is also possible to have more than one focal point. But doing so may create confusion. If this was the
interest at hand, then the artist may be free to do so to achieve the ambiguity the artist intended to do. Some artists may not even even have a
focal point or emphasized area such that the whole space is the full focal point. (Ragan, 2005)
Techniques in Emphasis
A.Contrast
This can be done through contrasting of hues, intensity and value of colors. In terms of lines, heavy shading and cross-hatching are ways of
emphasizing the subject or area.
B. Isolation
This is a process of providing a mechanism for the subject to be isolated from other elements.
C. Location
The center of the space is mostly considered the focal point of most art works. Most subjects or
objects can be placed in the middle to create emphasis.
D. Convergence
This is a more complex technique that utilizes the elements to point at a direction of a focal point. The process of co
E. Unusual
The most complex of the approaches is the use of unconventional mechanism. Bizarre and unexpected approach can be
made for emphasis such as putting a gun on a bed of roses, a girl in a group of boys, yellow chair in a pile of black chairs
etc. The focal point, hence, should be the one odd out.
HARMONY
Artistic harmony is the principle that facilitates the process of unity by recognizing the importance of separate elements
and subjects but are somehow related to each other.
In music, harmony happens when notes are combined, and they create blending tones. The pleasantness produced by the sound is based on the
complementarity of the notes.
In visual harmony, thee elements or subjects are made to relate with each other creating pleasant or cohesive visuals (Ragans, 2005)
Colors can harmonize by using the different applications of contrasting such as complementarity, split complements or analogous colors.
To create unity, these are some considerations you can adopt:
A.Simplicity
Choosing to employ variety is a critical period in the planning phase of art. Too many uses of variety can be bad in the art form because it lacks
economical sense.
By limiting the variations to workable variations, you also allow the art to focus on the special properties of the few elements of principles.
B. Repetition
Unity can be achieved when there is repetition. Usually applied in large scaled art production like architecture of buildings and other
infrastructure, repetition has always been used to create a unified space.
For example, The white house is repeatedly colored white across the whole building. The building beams are similar across the four structures.
Making sure that the structure is well-blended with the surroundings, repetition is a technique that does this (Ragans 2005)
C. Proximity
Limiting negative space creates convergence of objects. Therefore the converging objects tend to cluster together. This convergence could mean
unity because you limit the ability of negative space to create distance.
For example, if you wish to portray a group of people conversing, the unifying theme of the art is by putting those people close to each other to
create that impression of relatedness among them. (Ragans, 2005)