9 Basic Visual Design Principles to Follow as a Designer

What is Visual Design?

Visual design is a method that improves the product or design’s aesthetic appeal and usability. To enhance the design, it uses images, typography, space, and color. Mostly, people misunderstood the concept of visual design that only revolves around aesthetics. But it’s more than that. Professional website designers add elements carefully to optimize the user experience. But visual designing requires tools and techniques that a developer needs to master as that knowledge will improve your work to the next level. And for that, a web developer needs to follow the visual design principle to create an appealing end product.

Visual Design Is Aesthetic, Strategic Design.

The first impression is the last impression. This saying proves that whatever users observe at first sight keeps that impression till the end. The outlook of a design is the first thing users notice about a site. If they didn’t like what you showed them, they would leave the page. That’s why visual designing is not about making a site appealing, it about organizing elements. By doing this, lead the users efficiently and makes the content consistent. This will impact the users positively and gain their trust in your site. 

Visual Design Elements

There are 7 visual design elements. Each element plays a role in the visual design principles that make good design.

• Line
• Shape
• Color
• Value 
• texture 
• space
• volume

Basic Visual Design Principles for Designer

The visual design principles are the rules that designers have to follow to create a website. The basic visual design principles are:

1. Emphasis
2. Balance and alignment
3. Movement
4. Contrast
5. White Space
6. Repetition
7. Proportion
8. Typography
9. framing

This article will briefly discuss the visual design principle to make your project stand out in the crowd.

1. Emphasis

For example, you’re creating a poster for an event. Ask yourself what information the audience wants to know. Venue of the event? Time and date of the event? 

Before creating the poster, brainstorm the information and details that are important to add. Then layout the design that how you want to add the content. Make sure to design a poster that communicates with the audience. If the event’s name is important, place it in the center and mark it as the biggest element. Or put in the boldest type to highlight it. Use the color theory to make the name shine. Composition without a clear idea about what you’re communicating will be wrong and won’t succeed. 

• Balance and Alignment

Every element you add on a page has weight. The weight comes from color, size, or form texture. You are not supposed to place all the elements at one side of the composition. Without keeping balance, your page will look unappealing and messy.

Symmetrical designs create balance through equally weighted elements aligned on either side of a centerline. In contrast, asymmetrical design uses opposite weights to create a composition that is not even but still has equilibrium. For example, contrasting one large element with several smaller elements. 

Symmetrical designs are pleasing, whereas asymmetrical designs are bold, generating visual interest and movements towards the site.

• Movement

Movement is another visual design principle that professional website designers follow while designing the site. It also creates a great impact on the composition that affects website growth.

Going back to the event poster. Suppose the event name was the first important thing. And the venue was the strong important thing then how would you communicate that with your consumers?

Movement is the factor that controls the placement of the elements in the composition. So that information is communicated to the audience. Movement usually creates a story or narrates your work to the audience. 

Suppose you feel like that your eyes got stuck on an element as it’s too bold or slightly off. Then go back and adjust till everything falls in line. Because without movement, your design will be unsettled. 

• Contrast

Contrast is the major visual design principle according to web developers. Professional web designers are conscious about contrasting while designing to create an appealing and useful site for a better user experience.

In web designing, contrast refers to adjacent elements with different qualities that make them stand out against each other. Contrast can be created by using color, size, or shape. One of the most important roles of contrast in graphic design is to improve legibility. If contrast is too low, elements can blend and become difficult to discern.

Contrast also drives attention to specific visual design elements. In web design, for example, high color contrast is often used to make important buttons stand out.

• White space

White space is another visual design principle that designers follow while designing a site. Usually, all other elements deal with the content you add. But white space deals with the elements that you do not add to the composition. It acts as an empty page around the elements. In the beginning, designing a site can be a daunting task as you need to be focused and attentive to every single detail. It’s important to give room to the composition for breathing as it can make your site successful. 

White space is an important element that generates hierarchy and organization. Using white space tells that objects in one region are grouped separately from the other as they are different.

• Repetition

Repetition is an important that creates harmony in the design. The main aim of repetition is to create consistency in the design. Consistency plays a significant role in the composition of a design. Visual consistency generates the trust of the customers towards the site. That helps to increase leads and sales to grow the business. That’s why repetition is important for branding. The goal of repetition is to generate loyalty and trust in customer’s eyes. 

On a smaller scale, repetition is also used in visual design to create patterns. Patterns are a fun way to liven up a design and help it stand out.

• Proportion

Professional web designers are focused on proportion as its one of the visual design principles. Proportion term refers to the size and weight of the elements. And how they relate to each other. It helps to approach the design in section inspire as a whole.

All elements of the designs need to be well-sized and thoroughly placed to achieve proportion. Once you know how to work with alignment, balance, and contrast, proportion should emerge organically.

• Texture

Recently, textures are not as trendy, but still, they add another dimension to your design. It makes the design more three-dimensional and touchable.

The texture doesn’t have to be in the composition itself. It can be printed, pick the right paper, emboss or UV varnish, and make your design pass from banal to something superb. But remember, don’t go crazy with the texture.

• Framing

Framing is an important factor in photography, but it also plays a role in visual design.

Whether you’re using a picture or an illustration, framing is the element that makes all the difference in designing.

Web developers recommend cropping images to properly convey important messages to the audience and make your subject stand out.

Conclusion

If you’re a web designer, you need to follow the visual design principle to create a high-quality website for clients. I hope you liked the article.