When designing images and other visual media, you should be aware of the most common visual design principles. How you apply these principles determines how successful your design is likely to be.

Unity/Harmony

According to Alex White, author of The Elements of Graphic Design, to achieve visual unity is a main goal of graphic design. When all elements are in agreement, a design is considered unified. No individual part is viewed as more important than the whole design. A good balance between unity and variety must be established to avoid a chaotic or a lifeless design.

Repetition occurs when a design element is repeated several times in an image.

Methods

• Proximity: sense of distance between elements
• Similarity: ability to seem repeatable with other elements
• Continuation: the sense of having a line or pattern extend
• Repetition: elements being copied or mimicked numerous times
• Rhythm: is achieved when recurring position, size, color, and use of a graphic element has a focal point interruption.
• Altering the basic theme achieves unity and helps keep interest.

Balance

It is a state of equalized tension and equilibrium, which may not always be calm.

 Types of Balance

• Symmetry
• Asymmetrical produces an informal balance that is attention attracting and dynamic.
• Radial balance is arranged around a central element. The elements placed in a radial balance seem to ‘radiate’ out from a central point in a circular fashion.
• Overall is a mosaic form of balance which normally arises from too many elements being put on a page. Due to the lack of hierarchy and contrast, this form of balance can look noisy but sometimes quiet

Hierarchy

A good design contains elements that lead the reader through each element in order of its significance. The type and images should be expressed starting from most important to the least important.

Scale is used to make an apple appears bigger than stars, dominating the image.

Scale/proportion

Using the relative size of elements against each other can attract attention to a focal point. When elements are designed larger than life, scale is being used to show drama.

Dominance/emphasis

Dominance is created by contrasting size, positioning, color, style, or shape. The focal point should dominate the design with scale and contrast without sacrificing the unity of the whole.

Similarity and contrast

Planning a consistent and similar design is an important aspect of a designer’s work to make their focal point visible. Too much similarity is boring but without similarity important elements will not exist and an image without contrast is uneventful so the key is to find the balance between similarity and contrast.

Similar environment

There are several ways to develop a similar environment:

• Build a unique internal organization structure.
• Manipulate shapes of images and text to correlate together.
• Express continuity from page to page in publications. Items to watch include headers, themes, borders, and spaces.
• Develop a style manual and adhere to it, to insure consistent use of colors, fonts, and tone.

Contrasts

There are many ways to create contrast, including:

•  Space
  • Filled / Empty
  • Near / Far
  • 2-D / 3-D
• Position
  • Left / Right
  • Isolated / Grouped
  • Centered / Off-Center
  • Top / Bottom
• Form
  • Simple / Complex
  • Beauty / Ugly
  • Whole / Broken
• Direction
  • Stability / Movement
• Structure
  • Organized / Chaotic
  • Mechanical / Hand-Drawn
• Size
  • Large / Small
  • Deep / Shallow
  • Fat / Thin
• Color
  • Grey scale / Color
  • Black & White / Color
  • Light / Dark
• Texture
  • Fine / Coarse
  • Smooth / Rough
  • Sharp / Dull
• Density
  • Transparent / Opaque
  • Thick / Thin
  • Liquid / Solid
• Gravity
  • Light / Heavy
  • Stable / Unstable