Visual grammar helps in understanding the design better. It is useful to learn for all beginners in graphic design. With the knowledge of grammar you can plan, create and organize your design better. Hello readers, this is Namya Garg a student of graphic design at ADMEC. I’ve done a 6 months long graphic master diploma from this graphic design training institute where they introduced the separate module on commercial art and visual grammar. In this blog, I’ll talk about how learning visual grammar is important for every graphic designer and how it helped me to improve my design skills.
What is Visual Grammar and Its Importance in Graphic Design?
Visual grammar is like grammar of any language we use in our daily life. For a designer, visual grammar is a guide that helps in arranging graphics, text, shapes, colors and other design elements. Various components of Visual Grammar are there and some of the main ones are as follows:
Line
Lines as first component of visual grammar helps in evoking different emotions and conveying messages. A bold line indicates the message of strength. On the other hand, curved line showed elegant, and flexible.
Shape
Another important component is shape. There are different types of shapes: positive, negative, organic, abstract, and geometric. Even shapes assist me in building a structure of the design. They present hierarchy and emotions too. Like we use triangles in designs for direction. Circles for unity and square for reliability.
Color
Color has its role in graphic design. It shows different types of emotions. Organizing colors in different ways, known as color schemes. I learned this part from my instructor Promila mam. She explained me all the types of color schemes and their roles. I remember, mam said once in the session that color schemes have the power to change the overall look of the design.
Caption: See the color schemes layout I made during my classes
Texture
We can’t ignore texture while talking about shapes and colors. You will agree with me that they make design look richer, attractive, and professional. It’s slightly tricky to manage texture part in the beginning as I faced it too but stick to daily practice and it will be a piece of cake for you. Again, Promila mam helped me a lot in this part.
Form
Form basically helps in adding a realistic feel to the 2D flat element. It adds depth and volume. Remember, you need to learn shading techniques and types of perspective in order to understand form.
Space
Proper usage of space is important to make a design feel non cluttered with enhanced clarity and proper focus. Always give some breathing space to different elements of your design.
Visual grammar is important for designers – here’s why:
I personally think that design is a complex composition and we can’t make it by simply putting text, shapes or images all together. We need some basic parameters or set of rules to follow. That’s where visual grammar comes in.
Visual grammar tells us what to do and what not to do. If you follow it step by step then your designs will look better structured and visually appealing. Whether you talk about balance, harmony or a professional look, we get it all by following concepts of visual grammar.
We can maintain consistency across all the designs, build brand identity, and tackle Inconsistency related issues.
Now, I’ll be sharing some information related to concepts I learned during my graphic design course training at ADMEC.
1. Visual Hierarchy
I learned about hierarchy first in during my classes and its plays a major role in setting up the other elements in the composition. Basically, hierarchy in designs controls what user will see first. It directs the eyes, from one element to another.
To maintain the hierarchy of visuals, you should work on components arrangement, and their prioritization in a design.
Application of Visual Hierarchy:
There are different techniques that you can follow to maintain visual hierarchy in your designs. I learned them in my design classes and now sharing them with you.
1. Size and Scale: Elements which are larger in size attract more attention.
2. Color and Contrast: Colors and contrast are the important skills which every graphic design beginner should know. For example, using red color call to action button on a white background attracts the eyes of visitors immediately. But if you use any grey there then it won’t.
3. Position and Placement: If you want your elements grabs attention, then placed them at the centre. I recommend you to follow this on hero image or product image.
4. Spacing and Proximity: Spacing of different elements affects how they are perceived. For example, when different elements are closely put together, they may be perceived as related. You use this technique to show relatedness among heading and tagline.
5. Typography: Under typography, you can use font sizes, colors, weights, and styles to create visuals hierarchy.
2. Balance and Alignment
Another important concept were Balance and Alignment and my art teachers explained them very well.
Balance is what equal distribution of visual weight in a design. It shows how different types of elements can arranged together.
Balance is also divided into four categories:
Symmetrical Balance
Elements should be arranged in two sides. It is like creating a mirror image. I use it for making my web ads generally as it evokes a sense of formality.
Asymmetrical Balance
In this, elements with different visual weights are arranged to reach an equilibrium. It is dynamic and modern. For example, in a design, we can have larger elements on one side, where many small elements on the other side to reach a balance. It is my favorite type of balance.
Radial Balance
This balance is achieved when creating a circular composition. The attention of the viewer is drawn to the center of the design. Designs such as mandalas, logos and detailed patterns prefer such balance. Honestly, I’m still working to master it.
Crystallographic Balance or All over balance
In these elements are distributed equally all over the design. No central point is in crystallographic; it gives output in a consistent design. For example, wallpaper or magazine cover.
Alignment
It is equally important to position elements in a way that make a proper order and harmony. Alignment is the key term for this part here. Initially I struggled a lot with setting a proper alignment in my designs especially aligning text. But thanks to my mentors and their repetitive guidance that I could understand it. There are different types of alignment as well like edge alignment, center alignment and grid-based alignment.
See, initially, you just have to focus on grid alignment.
3. Use Contrast to Enhance Clarity and Emphasis
Contrast helps in setting a clear distinction between different elements. We can easily add emphasis on any element by showing contrasts in color, size, shape or even texture. It’s really an amazing tool for designers to make text or anything in the design stand out.
4. Color Theory
Color theory has another important role to play in graphic designing. If we don’t take this part serious then making a visually appealing design is quite challenging.
The theory starts from “color wheel” that includes 12 colors in total. Remember, colors have their own psychological impact on the viewers. Warm colors like Red indicates passion, urgency, and energy. On the other hand, cool colors such as blue signify professionalism, trust, etc. And also, neutral colors give balance to the design.
The colors on wheel are of three categories like primary, secondary, and tertiary. These three categories on wheel give birth to 7-8 different color schemes (group of colors) like:
- Complimentary
- Split- Complementary
- Analogous
- Monochromatic
- Triadic
- Tetradic
- Achromatic
- Square
If you have the correct understanding the color theory, then making a visually balanced design is not a big deal.
5. Space and Proximity
Spaces can be defined as positive space and negative space. Main elements such as texts and graphics come in positive space.
The area which surrounds the positive space is called the negative space. Negative space is not merely emptiness. It provides breathing room to the design, reduces clutter and emphasizes on key elements.
Proximity in design means placing the related elements together or closer. That forms a spatial relationship and helps people in understanding layout easily.
I’m sure, you might have noticed that grouped elements convey a connection in the design. And when they are separated, their distinction is clarified to the viewers.
6. Typography and Its Role in Visual Grammar
Typography in itself a big area to manage in a design. I would recommend all the budding designers to take care of this element as wrong way of using typography impacts the design. Let’s take an example: Serif fonts give a traditional look while Sans Serif fonts give a modern feel.
Watch differences between Serif and San-Serif below.
Start from understanding typefaces, font styles and their pairing. It helped a lot and I’m sure it will help you too.
Also, it is necessary to establish a typographic hierarchy as guides the reader’s eyes throughout the design. You can do this by bringing variation in font family, size, weight, color, etc.
7. Branding and Identity Creation
One of the significant topics of my visual grammar training were planning of brand identity. Under this part, we use all the core topics of visual grammar one by one. This was a part of my two-weeks long commercial art projects at ADMEC Multimedia.
I followed the essentials that I shared with you just now in this blog. By the end of my projects, I made a complete campaign. You can check my Urban Line brand identity campaign and share your views on the same. I made it using Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop and Nishu sir guided me in it. I also got the award of the Star of the September Month 2024 for this project.
Closing words on Visual Grammar and its Important in Graphic Design
Here’s the end of our conversation on visual grammar and its importance to create good designs. I would recommend every designer to understand its concept very well as that is the smartest way of making appealing graphics.
Practice setting up balance and harmony through design elements daily. This will help you get a good command on space, contrast, and typography. Visual grammar makes sure that every element in the design is at the right place ensuring harmony. And if you struggle learning by your own then join ADMEC’s professional graphic design courses like me. I’m sure experts here will train with all necessary tools and topics.
