March 4 - Design Basics Lesson #9

Hello and welcome to my 9th lesson in my exploration of Design Basics. I am being guided by a great book called Design Basics Index by Jim Krause. I am learning so much!! If you are interested in reading the rest of the lessons, they are all listed along the right side of my blog! Enjoy.

Today's lesson is a continuation of the concept of Heirarchy. In the previous lesson, I learned that there is a "visual heirarchy" where your eye follows whatever element is at the "top of the heirachy" and down through the supporting elements. There are many ways that this heirarchy is created -- size, placement, color, or a conceptually intriguing element.

Today I am going to focus EMPHASIZING SIZE to create the heirarchy of a visual piece.

--------> On card #1 you will note that the size of the candles is much larger than the text! Thus, the visual picture on this card is emphasized making it the element you look at first! Then your eye might travel down to the text below and then maybe the box enclosing the image. Thus, these are the supporting elements. This design idea is almost totally cased from My Paper Creations blog except I don't own the great Papertrey Ink stamps that she used (which make the candles) so I had to improvise!!

------> On card #2 you will note taht the size of the sentiment is much larger than the candle image. Thus, the text "HAPPY" is emphasized because it is larger (and specifically the word Happy) making it the top element of the heirarchy. This word is what your eye likely looks at first, and then through the rest of the supporting elements, the word birthday, the candles, and the box enclosing the image.

------> Finally, on this 3rd card, there is no clear emphasis to any one element. The candles and the sentiment are about the same size making it difficult to see one as being more "important" than the other. (Color might make the candles be emphasized -- I will be covering color with this concept in a following lesson -- might be able to use this card again).

Jim says that "a lack of clear visual ranking between elements is perhaps the single most common failing of a design". He goes on to explain that when there is no visual heirarchy, the piece looses the interest of the viewer!

Well, what do you think. Do my first 2 cards have more interest?? than the 3rd card?? Does the 3rd card look boring in comparison?? I find this whole concept very interesting! I will be exploring this further!!

Supplies:

Large Image: Stamps-Text Box, Beautiful Blooms, Paper Tray (all Papertrey Ink), Ink-Brilliant Blue, Real REd, Glorious Green, Summer Sun, Only Orange, Basic Black, (all SU!), Versamark (Tsukineko); Cardstock-Whisper White (SU!), Accessories-White Mailing Labels 8160 (Avery), White embossing powder, Black marker (Zig)

Large Sentiment: Stamps-Simply Stamps (Plaid Enterprises), Beautiful Blooms (Papertrey Ink), Fun with Shapes (SU!); Ink-Glorious Green, Not Quite Navy, Ruby Red, Pumpkin Pie (all Markers from SU!), Baisc Black, Summer Sun, Ruby Red (Pads from SU!); Accessaries-Black marker (Zig).

Card 3: Stamps-Fun iwth Shapes (SU!), Paper Tray (Papertrey Ink); Ink-Glorious Green, Not QuiteNavy, Ruby Redm, Pumpkin Pie, Summer Sun, Basic Black (all SU!), Paper-Whisper White (SU!); Accessaries-Black marker (Zig).

Thanks for visiting. I hope you enjoyed this lesson and that you are learning as much as I am!! Donelda