Design Elements, 2nd Edition

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form and space

72

Building Strong Compositions The cor-

nerstone of every effective visual commu-

nication—after a compelling concept or

narrative—is a dynamic presentation of the

content, accomplished through decisive

control of the relationships among form

elements. The importance of creating a

strong composition can’t be understated.

The clarity, confidence, and rich interrela-

tionship of elements that define a composi-

tion as successful contribute, first and

foremost, to attracting—and then hold-

ing—the audience’s attention, which is

critical for ensuring the content is explored

long enough to be understood and inter-

nalized. If the viewer loses interest because

the visual presentation of the design isn’t

challenging enough, the viewer is unlikely

to fully comprehend the message. A lack of

visual, and thus cognitive, investigation is

also likely to become difficult to recall later

on. Second, the strong resolution of a

composition contributes to persuasion;

appreciating its totality effectively removes

our wariness of being manipulated; similar

to what happens when watching a film,

we suspend our disbelief and the message

becomes incontestable.

COMPOSITIONAL STRATEGIES

Nearly devoid of people and activity, these three

photographic ads rely on compositional contrast

(OK, and a little mystery!) to generate interest.

CHK DESIGN UNITED KINGDOM

Active contours created by

elements moving inward and

outward from the centers of

these images create movement

and diminish the static quality

inherent in their centered

configurations.

MEDIA INVIA/DIEGO MORALES

BRAZIL

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design elements

73

Having become conscious of form’s basic

qualities and the spatial interactions in

which they may be made to participate, a

designer must then address these individ-

ual aspects in combination—understand-

ing them in relation to more complex,

overarching goals. Successful composi-

tions exhibit contrast among its parts,

even while establishing visual continuity

in these parts’ behavior; they always create

synergy between these behaviors and the

identities of the form elements that make

them up. And all these strategies, together,

serve to order the material in an under-

standable sequence or hierarchy—so that

the viewer knows where and how to enter

the communication and then proceed

through it in a logical and intuitive way.

Last, but certainly not least, a successful

composition, in all its aspects, contributes

to the more important goal a designer

hopes to achieve—the creation of meaning.

Dramatic scale change is instantly engaging because

the optical effect is one of perceiving deep space; the

brain wants to know why one item is so small and the

other is so large. In this particular ad, the foreground-

to-background tension is intensified by making the

figure and the chicken bleed out of the format.

PEOPLE

DESIGN UNITED STATES

On this website, the designer counters bold, regular spatial

breaks—used to separate fields of information—with irregular,

side-to-side movement. This gesture derives from the helical

quality of the navigation buttons at the left, creating an abstract

metaphor for DNA and genetics.

JUNE KIM/PARSONS SCHOOL

OF DESIGN UNITED STATES

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