Design Sojourn | Strategic Industrial Design Blog

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While doing some research on design basics, I stumbled over this great site that lists a great collection of visual principles. It was created by Francisco Chinchilla as part of his research in “Theories, Methods and Principles that Assist and Support Form Generation on Product Design”. Its a great resource for designers looking for inspiration.

Designs consist of three major components : subject matter, content, and form.

The subject matter is the general category of information or topic that is to be communicated,

the content is the specific message with an intended meaning and function, and

the form is the visual and physical structure of the communication itself.

By manipulating these three components designers are able to vary their emphasis in order to change the communicated message.

Designers generate forms with an intent to communicate. The level or complexity of the communication also varies according to the selected format (two or three dimensions) and the controlled arrangement of the visual elements ( point, line ,plane, value, texture, color, and so on ).

The principles of organization provide structural guidelines of the ordering and treatment of visual elements and components so a predefined audience recognizes and understands the message idea or intent.

Here is a quick summary of the headings:

Spatial Organizations

a) Central Organizations
b) Linear Organizations
c) Radial Organizations
d) Clustered Organizations
e) Grid/Lattice Organizations

Patterns

Most compositions have a structure that governs the position and arrengement of components and forms to bring about visual order and harmony. Designs that consist of a number of similar compositional components or forms are called patterns

Symmetry

The term symmetry comes from the Greek roots syn, meaning with or together, and metron meaning measure. Symmetry deals with the relationship of parts within a group, or, in direct translation, “to measure together”.

Proportion: Fibonacci series, Golden Mean ratios etc.

Symmetry can be used to organized pattern in two- and three-dimensional space. Symmetry operations and transformations may be used in art , architecture, and interior, product, and visual communication design.

For a deeper in depth look at the principles do check it out: The Visual Principles.