Page 75 - Graphic Design and Print Production Fundamentals

Graphic Design 63
the only option for a designer. A composition can also achieve movement if the graphic elements
are arranged in a way that directs the eye to move in a specific direction — usually by creating a
diagonal that takes the eye up to the right corner (forward motion) or down to the left corner (backward
motion). Movement can also be created using overlapping planes that imply depth and distance by
becoming progressively smaller and lighter in tone (mimicking depth). Using typography as a visual
medium is also an option. Overlapping the text blocks and/or sentences effectively creates both depth
and movement (though it destroys legibility). David Carson is a designer who often uses this technique
to create movement in his work.

Scale

Varying scale (size) is one of the major tools in the designer’s toolbox. Changing scale is important on
two levels. The first is purely compositional — a composition needs variety in the size of its elements
to be dynamic and effective. If all the elements have the same visual weight, the composition will be
flat. Another aspect to varied scale is conceptual. If a design visually distorts the size relation of one
element to another, the viewer is instantly engaged in discovering why. This is a great method to engage
the viewer and add a twist to the message embedded in the design. A great example of this is the ‘think
small’ ad campaign of the 1960s for Volkswagen Beetle.

The series is witty and engaging and plays on how we perceive size. This distortion is witty and playful,
and presents smallness as desirable. Subtle scale differences do not make much visual impact, but large
ones are very dramatic. The concept and context of a project should determine the relationship of scale
differences for a composition. Large differences in scale are suited to dramatic and energetic design
content, while smaller differences in scale are appropriate for professional and institutional content.

Proximity and the Gestalt Theory of Visual Relationships

Proximity of elements is part of Gestalt theory, which is a framework of spatial relationships developed
in the 1920s by the German psychologists Max Wertheimer, Wolfgang Kohler, and Kurt Koffka. The
term Gestalt means unified whole, and points to the underlying conceptual structure of this framework.
Gestalt works because the mind seeks to organize visual information. A composition created using
Gestalt principles predetermines how each of the elements within it interacts with the others spatially. In
this system of relationships, close proximity of objects, regardless of shape, size, or content, indicates
a connection. There are six basic Gestalt principles: (1) similarity, (2) continuation, (3) closure, (4)
proximity, (5) figure/ground, and (6) symmetry and order.