Elements of Design

It’s good to go back to basics and understand the fundamentals behind what makes a successful design.
When you’re new to designing, there is so much to consider that it can feel overwhelming.
Sometimes you can tell that something isn’t working the way you’d like but you don’t know how to fix it.

When looking at the makeup of a design, you can break it down into 2 main categories.

They are the elements and principles of design.

By having an understanding of both of these you will be able to better create designs that work.

In this guide we are going to look at the elements of design.

So, what are the elements of design?

To put it simply the elements are the structure of the design. What the design is made up of.

The elements of design can be broken into the following categories:

Line Form
Direction Size
Colour Value/Tone
Shape Texture


Line is the most basic of the all the elements. At its simplest form, it can be a mark between two points
on a surface or it can create an edge where two ends meet e.g. outline of a shape.

Line is a very versatile element. It can be used to describe to create outlines, shapes, and direction.

There many different ways line can be used including:

Changing its direction e.g. horizontal, vertical or diagonal etc.

Changing its width e.g. thick, thin or tapered etc.
Changing its length e.g. long, short or dashed etc.

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The direction is the course along which the line moves.

Different ways direction can be used include:

Horizontal
Vertical
Diagonal
Curved
Zigzag


Colour or hue sets the mood of a design.

Colours can be broken up into Primary, Secondary and Tertiary colours.

Primary colours are red, blue and yellow

Secondary colours are orange, green and purple. They are made by mixing combinations of two primary
colours together.

Tertiary colours are made by mixing two secondary colours together and result in earthy colour ranges.

Primary Colours

Secondary Colours

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A self-contained area defined by where two lines meet.

Shapes can be geometric or organic in form.

Geometric shapes are uniform and regular and include triangles, squares, and rectangles.

Organic shapes are free-flowing and unpredictable often seen in nature such as a leaf.

Geometric

Organic


Form refers to the mass of an object and usually describes an object that is 3-dimensional
e.g. a square is a shape while a cube is a form.

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Size refers to the relationship between one object to another..

 
Value refers to the lightness or darkness of a colour.

By adding white to a colour we get a tint and by adding black to a colour we get a tone.

The tone of a colour can be broken into high (light tones), mid (intermediate tones) and low
(dark tones).


Texture is the surface quality of an object e.g. rough, smooth, bumpy etc.

It can be real or implied. Real texture is a surface that when touched has a textural quality to it
e.g. a smooth surface or a rough surface. Implied texture is a surface that looks like it’s textured
but is not e.g. wallpaper made to look like concrete.

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