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Brand identity designer Jessica Jones explains logos, identity design, and branding. Investing in better design can pay off for your business.

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Brand Identity Design

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You need to understand graphic design principles in order to succeed as a graphic designer. Becoming a designer is not only about learning to use Photoshop or Illustrator.

Graphic design principles apply to anything you create, from logos to newsletters to websites and videogames.

In this complete guide, I explain the 7 most important design principles and describe how to apply them in the real world.

Then I show you real examples of how designers have applied each principle.

Ready? Let's begin.

Graphic Design Principles: A Useful Definition

Our objective as graphic designers is to represent objects, feelings, ideas, or concepts in visual terms.

Design principles allow us to make effective graphic representations by giving us a framework for arranging the visual components of our compositions.

Here's a definition for graphic design principles:

Graphic design principles are a set of guiding "rules" about what works and what doesn't work in a design or composition.

Design principles serve as a map for arranging visual elements in the best possible way, according to specific intentions, strategies, and objectives.

In other words, design principles are proven guidelines that humans have put together through trial and error in their quest for understanding how to represent the world.

But remember this:

Each design principle works in relation to other design principles. They never exist in isolation. In fact, each principle piggybacks on each other, creating a symbiotic relationship.

The Problem: Design Textbooks List a Ton of Principles

In 2013, Professor Miles Kimball examined a huge amount of graphic design textbooks and found that, together, they list hundreds of different design principles. He then asked designers which principles they taught or used the most.

He then correlated this information and discovered the most common principles taught in graphic design.

Why is this important? Well:

While there are many graphic design principles out there, you only need a handful to achieve a good level of design.

You can focus on the design principles that matter the most as you learn to think and create like a designer.

The more you practice and the more you apply these principles, the better you get as a graphic designer.

The 6 Most Important Graphic Design Principles You'll Need

After years of reading design books and teaching graphic design, I have found the following design principles to be the most useful:

1. Unity

The unity principle has to do with the relationship between the elements of a composition. Through relationships, we are able to communicate status, mood, structure, kinship, hierarchy, etc.

The unity of a design establishes the purpose of its components and the cohesion of the composition.

Unity manifests itself in terms of proximity, similarity, and repetition:

Proximity as a manifestation of unity relates to the distance between the elements in a composition.

This is the rule:

The closer the elements in a composition are, the stronger the relationship is between them.

Let's look at some examples:

Each of the following images has the same amount of dots.

However, the variations in proximity in each creates different relationships not only between its respective elements but between each set:

The proximity or closeness in the first set communicates a stronger relationship or kinship between its circles, while the distance between circles in the last set communicates a weaker relationship.

In the last set, the proximity between the six dots to the left and to the right communicate that each subset belongs to a different "camp."

This is evident in the following example:

Again, the closer the elements are, the more of a relationship they present.

Similarity establishes a relationship among elements of the same appearance.
This is the rule:
The more elements look alike, the stronger the relationship between them.

Similarity can be established through:

In the next examples, how are elements united?

Can you see how similarity achieves unity?

Shape, size, and color establish relationships of kinship between certain elements.

Also, did you notice that similarity is not the only unity principle at work?

Exactly!

Similarity is working hand-in-hand with proximity. This is what I mean when I say design principles never work in isolation.

1.3. Repetition and Rhythm

Repetition can work in the same way as similarity, but may be more dramatic.
This is the rule:
The more elements are repeated, the stronger we associate them with a certain idea or effect.

Also, the more we repeat an element, the more rhythm a composition has.

Look at the following examples:

Notice how the repetition of elements and shapes in each example creates an effect of rhythm that results in visual unity.

Also, notice how the variation in repetition (size of elements and position) in the second and third examples results in a more dramatic, less boring composition.

This is called variation.
Unity in Graphic Design: Real-World Examples
The work of Piet Mondrian and Chuck Close present excellent examples of unity as a principle of design:

In Mondrian's painting, notice how shapes, color, and size, and their repetition, creates a unified composition that is rhythmic and interesting.

In Close's self-portrait, we see a more complex application of unity as design principle:

Each tile is a repeated element that is strategically positioned, making use of color and size to form the face we recognize as Chuck Close.

In sum:

The strategic unity of elements creates the portrait in a rhythmic, complex way.

2. Totality (Gestalt)

The German term Gestalt refers to the "totality" or "wholeness" of a design.

Gestalt comes from the field of psychology, and attempts to understand how humans perceive meaning in the world.

I will use the term "totality" to refer to this human capacity to perceive things as a whole.

When you encounter a chair, do you perceive its parts separately (the legs, the cushion, the wood) or do you perceive the totality of the chair?

We perceive the whole thing all at once, right?

So, "totality" (in the sense of Gestalt) is our ability to create some kind of visual "closure" about the things we perceive in the world.

Totality in design is our ability to create structural wholeness in a composition.

There are three important components of totality:

Figure/Ground in design relates to the interplay between an object and its surrounding space.

What does this mean?

It means that graphics can only be formed by white space and the actual object in a piece of paper or computer screen.

This is what designers usually call "negative" and "positive" space.

The play between these two elements, space and object, can lead to complex designs that can communicate at various levels.

Have you seen this image before?

What do you see?

If you see some kind of chalice or coupe, you're right. If you see two faces, you're right as well!

This is the thing:

The play between space and object, or negative and positive space, create the graphic representation.

Here's another example of figure/ground:

What "writes" the letter "e"? Is it the stroke or is it the space?
Figure/Ground in Graphic Design: Real-World Examples
Many great logos use the principle of Totality (Gestalt) to create memorability and distinction.

Look at these examples using Figure/Ground:

Closure in design relates to our ability to "fill out" the blank spaces.

Have you seen this meme before?

Why were you able to read it?

It's because of our ability to "complete" what's missing if we have enough background information.

If we have enough visual information, we are able to imagine what's missing and process designs in complex ways.

If we make designs using the closure principle, we create compositions that are interesting, complex, and eye-catching.

Look at the next example:

Here, there are no boundary lines defining the letter "X", and yet your mind "creates" the line for you, which allows you to decipher the content of the design.
Closure in Graphic Design: Real-World Examples
The following logos use the closure principle nicely.

Notice how your brain "creates" the missing border for each icon even if it's not there. This creates interest and a level sophistication:

2.3. Continuation (Continuity)

Continuation (also called continuity) in design is the idea that the elements of a design can create the illusion of going beyond the space that contains them (for example, the page, t-shirt, or screen in which it is shown).

By using the continuation principle, design elements seem to go off the page, which makes the design seem larger and highly dynamic.

Look at the following example:

The arrows convey a sense of looking beyond the page, which reflects the continuation of the composition
Continuation Principle: Real-World Examples
This 1961 design, by Oli Stelander, is an excellent application of continuation.

See how the "pipes" go beyond the composition in order to convey a feeling of flow, length, and extension?

Also:

Can you see repetition and rhythm working their magic?

Here's another example:

This classic composition, by Piet Zwart, uses the continuity principle to convey a sense of direction that goes well beyond the composition.

3. Space

Common sense tells you that space is empty, right?

Wrong!

Space is one of the most powerful elements of design.

Just like zero is not nothing but something (a number), space is the all-encompassing fabric that holds all the elements that make-up a design.

Space is a design principle because you can manipulate it to create a sense of cleanliness, clarity, focus, and attention in a composition.

Space is a "presence" in design, it is never "absent."
This is the rule:
We can use space to enhance the quality, sharpness, and focus on the elements of a composition. The strategic use of space implies the use of "white" space as a force and presence in a composition.
Space Principle: Real-World Examples
Look at this clever 1959 ad from Volkswagen:

Here, space is used as the main component of the ad.

Even if the ad is selling a car, space is "bigger" than the car, because it accentuates the message being communicated. It creates focus on the car and projects a sense of "cleanliness" and "craftsmanship."

Here's another example from a 1974 cover of Print magazine:

Space here works to highlight the drama of the blood and the "motion" of the blade that just created this mess.
Bonus insight:
The space principle closely relates to the figure/ground principle, because the interplay between positive and negative space is a strategic use of space as principle.

4. Dominance

Dominance in design is the ability of one element to control other elements in a composition. This results in creating a focal point in the composition, which "directs" the "eye" of the viewer.
This is the rule:
Use the dominance principle when you want to convey a sense of urgency, direction, drama, or emphasis.
Dominance Principle: Real-World Examples
Look at these examples:

By having one element dominate over the others, we can create interesting compositions that create emphasis or drama.

Without dominance, these designs would be dull and uninteresting.

5. Hierarchy

Hierarchy has a close connection to dominance.

However, while dominance refers to the structuring of design elements (such as icons, shapes, and images), hierarchy refers to the structuring of information.

Look at the following examples. Which one is more readable?

The example to the left has images, color boxes. and headings to structure information and make it more readable.
Here's the rule:
Use the hierarchy principle to direct the viewer's attention and establish the logical order in which he or she must "read" the information in a design.

Use the hierarchy principle to give levels of importance to the elements of a composition.

Note that you may use color, size, or form to establish hierarchy.

Also, you establish a hierarchy of elements to direct the viewer's attention toward the order in which he or she should "read" the design.

6. Balance

Balance is the design principle that binds all other principles up. The goal of a finished composition is to achieve balance.

That is:

Balance in design is a state in which all visual elements are arranged in complete harmony, each one serving its precise purpose in the composition.

Now, balance doesn't necessarily mean that all elements are perfectly centralized and organized. It means that the relationship among all visual elements has been carefully planned and works.

Having said this, balance can be symmetrical or asymmetrical.

With symmetrical balance, all the elements of the composition are placed equally on the page. They are arranged within an imaginary grid (rows and columns) that distributes them equally in relation to one another.

Symmetrical balance is the easiest to recognize.

With asymmetrical balance, visual elements are not distributed equally.

However, they are distributed in a way that their asymmetry creates what Alex White calls "equalized tension".
Balance Principle: Real-World Examples
The following examples best describe balance:

Conclusion

Understating and applying the fundamental principles of design is crucial for achieving effective visual communication. If you are an aspiring graphic designer, you must spend time studying these principles.

Without design principles, we will most likely create work that is uninteresting, unappealing and, worse, unable to communicate effectively.

You must learn to see these principles in action all around you. With practice and experience, you will be able to see these principles in action everywhere you look.

These are the main points to remember:

Design principles are time-proven observations about how the world is visually arranged all around us.

Graphic design principles do not work in isolation. Each principle complements the other.

Design principles serve as a blueprint for arranging visual elements in strategic, effective ways.
In sum:
Learn how to apply these graphic design principles and you will be on your way to becoming an effective graphic designer.

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6 Graphic Design Principles You Need To Master Today - Self-Made Designer

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You need to understand graphic design principles in order to succeed as a graphic designer. Becoming a designer is not only about learning to use Photoshop or Illustrator. Graphic design principles apply to anything you create, from logos to newsletters to websites and videogames.

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While quizzes might not be the most inventive way to learn, they're still useful for memorizing and recalling facts, assessing knowledge, or getting quick info at the end of a lecture or presentation. Because of their utility, there are tons of different apps, websites, and games out there for swiftly creating and delivering everything from quizzes and flash cards to polls and exit tickets. Some lean more into play, allowing teachers to host classroom game shows, while others shift more toward learning, facilitating formative assessments. No matter the focus, we've looked at all the tools out there for quizzing and selected our favorites below.

Our selections

These are the tools we feel best balance everything you'd want in a quizzing tool, while offering high-quality learning opportunities and polished experiences. They're split up into a few key categories that might be your best bet, depending on your needs.

Quizizz has grown thoughtfully over time to be our definitive top choice, whether you're running quick quiz games or looking to craft and launch deeper slide-based lessons with embedded assessments. Notably, it's got a decent-enough free version (with ads) that lets you run basic quizzes with exceptional question variety. However, the paid version (no ads) takes things to the next level with video and audio embeds, asynchronous learning, and answer explanations. This turns Quizizz into a lesson-delivery tool edging closely to platforms like Nearpod.
Read our review of Quizizz.
Other recommendations

These tools also got high marks and are worth a look, depending on your needs.

Best for flashcards and test prep: Quizlet

Quizlet is a polished tool that pretty much does it all. The standout feature is its flash-card-based study tools. If you want to help students prep for tests, there's really nothing better. Students can use study sets that teachers assign, create their own, or use one from the content library powered by providers like Kaplan. These study sets have a mastery option that reinforces concepts as well as other neat customization options.
Read our review of Quizlet.
Best choice for game shows: Kahoot!

Easily one of the more popular tools on this list, Kahoot! defined the quiz game genre. While Kahoot's suite of products has gotten increasingly bloated and confusing, the slick presentation of the quiz experience remains unmatched for K-12 classrooms. For now, it remains for us the go-to option for quick, fun quiz games. They've also added a post-quiz exit ticket that gets students reflecting on their learning and feelings.
Read our review of Kahoot.
Best for formative assessment: Formative

If your focus is on substantive dialogue about learning, then Formative is worth a look. Compared to other tools on this list, it has less flash and dash, but a better feedback loop between students and teachers. We're particularly fond of Formative's live feedback feature, and the creative question types. It's also got the best privacy score of any tool on this list.
Read our review of Formative.
Great for simple polls during presentations: Mentimeter

Mentimeter is a favorite among the staff at Common Sense. We use it regularly to run live polls during our presentations and lectures. It's super simple for both you and your audience to use, and can generate great visual aids like word clouds that can be used during, or even after, presentations. Best of all: You can probably get away with the free version.
Read our review of Mentimeter.
Good option for device-free classrooms: Plickers

A lot of classrooms don't have enough devices to use other tools on this list effectively. Plickers solves this, using printed QR codes that students can raise in the air to answer questions. Teachers then use a device to capture student responses. Unfortunately, this low-tech solution means fewer customization options.
Read our review of Plickers.
See everything we considered

The tools we call out here are a small slice of everything we looked at. If you prefer to do your own evaluation, find every tool we considered below.

These two Top Picks lists feature every tool we think passes muster.

You can also use our site's search to browse our full library of reviews.

Our criteria

To help organize our evaluation of quizzing tools, we looked at a few key features and functionality.

Question and activity variety

Options for homework or individual practice

Feedback and reporting

Design and engagement

Learning approach

Customization options

Content library

Price

Platform availability

Why trust us?: Our evaluation process

Our team of editors and reviewers (all current or former educators and/or researchers) painstakingly looked at dozens of quizzing, formative assessment, and polling apps for this article and narrowed down 11 of these for deeper evaluation and consideration. Each app goes through a rigorous evaluative process by both a reviewer and an editor. This involves hands-on testing (in some cases, this includes in classrooms or other real-world scenarios), rating according to our research-backed 14-point rubric, communication with developers and other educators, and finally a written review. We also consult our vast library of from-the-field reviews submitted by practicing educators. All told, each app undergoes at minimum four to six hours of testing and evaluation.
More information on our ratings and reviews.
Is there something we missed? You can request a product for review using this form.
Disclosure: Common Sense Education has published content on Kahoot!

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The Best Quiz and Game Show Apps for Classrooms | Common Sense Education

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While quizzes might not be the most inventive way to learn, they're still useful for memorizing and recalling facts, assessing knowledge, or getting quick info at the end of a lecture or presentation. Because of their utility, there are tons of different apps, websites, and games out there for swiftly creating and delivering everything from quizzes and flash cards to polls and exit tickets.

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In this free downloadable guide, we provide thoughtful questions to ask your students throughout all 3 stages of the creative process: planning, creating, and completing a work of art. These questions will help your students to practice deep and meaningful reflection while they bring to life their masterpieces.

To download this free guide, simply add to your cart and checkout. You may be asked to enter your name, but will not be charged. You will then receive the downloadable PD

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FREE Art-Based Reflection Questions, Middle & High School Students - VISIONARY ART COLLECTIVE

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In this free downloadable guide, we provide thoughtful questions to ask your students throughout all 3 stages of the creative process: planning, creating, and completing a work of art. These questions will help your students to practice deep and meaningful reflection while they bring to life their m

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If your students blog about their art as mine currently do, you understand the rich reflection that blogging can produce. When students reflect on both their finished pieces and the processes they went through to create them, they tend to communicate more in writing than they would in a class critique. As you read the writing, you discover much about the art and the student's reason for making it. Reading your students' thoughts gives you valuable insight into both the work and the students.

Usually, once the students start writing, they are very good are expressing their thoughts. The challenge, however, can often be getting them to start. Students aren't always sure how to begin writing. They need a starting point or prompt from which to work.

For teachers, providing a prompt can be a tricky task. If the prompt is too open-ended, the writing may tend to be more fluff and less substance. If the prompt provided is too restrictive, the students' writing may be dry.

How do we ask questions that will produce substance without having the student blogs bore us to sleep?

The answer is to use artistic behaviors as prompts.

A coworker of mine at Apex High School, Melissa Purtee, developed a set of this type of prompt. Based off the concept of artistic behaviors, she created a set of eight categories in which artist work. For each section, Melissa developed a set of questions the students could use as prompts. For example, the first artistic behavior is, "I create original art." The questions that coincide include: How did you use your own unique ideas in your work? Did you use a source for inspiration, then combine it with your own ideas to make it original?

So, how do students apply these prompts?

For students to use these prompts to start writing, they review the list of eight artistic behaviors and then select two that they feel apply best to their project. They then respond to the coinciding questions. Here is a look at the eight artist behaviors.

Sample Artistic Behavior Prompts

1. "I create original art."

How did you use your own unique ideas in your work?

Did you use a source for inspiration, then combine it with your own ideas to make it original?

2. "I developed my art making skills."

Did you learn new techniques or processes as part of the work for this project?

Did you gain skill with familiar materials?

3. "I communicate through my work."

What is this artwork intended to say?

What issues are you examining through your artwork?

How is this artwork about who you are or what you like?

4. "I take risks."

Did you try something that you weren't sure about as part of this project?

Did you pick a material or technique that was new or different over something that was familiar?

5. "We collaborate."

Did you ask another student for feedback during your work process?

Did someone help you understand important information or inspire you?

6. "I solve problems."

How did you respond to challenges that occurred as you worked?

Did your work take an unexpected turn due to a mistake or did something happen that was unplanned?

7. "I reflect."

When did you step back and analyze you work during this project?

Did you consider how ideas would work before you tried them?

8. "I have a global awareness of art making."

Did you find inspiration from another artist or culture?

Did you use technology as a tool?

Did you participate as an art community member?

Here are two excerpts from student blogs where this technique was used.

Rachel: "I take risks."

"When I originally started brainstorming for this project I planned to simply paint the scene on a canvas. However, as my idea evolved, I decided that I wanted to make the caterpillar more 3-D. So I am going to attach a foam sphere as the final body segment for the caterpillar, which will attach to the canvas. Also, I am going to fashion the attachment for the caterpillar out of metal and figure out a way to make 3-D tracks. I'm not experienced with mixed media, so figuring out how to make everything look proportional as well as how to affix the materials to the canvas will be a new experience."

Hannah: "We collaborate."

"For this mural, we had five of us working on it. At first, when we were doing the original designs, it seemed like it might be kind of difficult to work with so many others and collaborate with them as we all have such unique perspectives and creative gifts. As we continued on, however, we quickly learned that we could use those "setbacks" to our advantage. We decided to run with the idea of having such differing perspectives and use that in the piece."

Having students write blog posts that are both intriguing to read and rich in content can be challenging but with the right prompt it is clearly possible. If your students' writing isn't up to your expectations, trying this method may make a difference in the results you receive.
What type blog prompts have you offered your students? What other ideas have you tried to increase the substance of your students, writing?

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The Secret to Drawing Meaningful Reflection Out of Your Students - The Art of Education University

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If your students blog about their art as mine currently do, you understand the rich reflection that blogging can produce. When students reflect on both their finished pieces and the processes they went through to create them, they tend to communicate more in writing than they would in a class critique.