5 laws of design layout & composition *golden rules*

Summary

This video tutorial introduces five essential design principles to elevate your layouts and compositions. It covers grid systems for alignment and organization, creating hierarchy and proximity for visual engagement, layering for depth, harmonizing colors for consistency, and establishing focal points to guide viewer attention. The presenter demonstrates techniques in Adobe Illustrator and emphasizes the importance of these principles for professional and engaging designs.

Takeaways

• 📐 Grid systems are essential for creating professional layouts; they help with alignment and organizing text and imagery through rows and columns.
• 🔍 Hierarchy and proximity are vital for creating pace and visual engagement; they help in guiding the viewer's attention in the right order.
• 📚 Layering adds depth and movement to a design, creating a sense of uplift and enhancing the viewer's engagement with the content.
• 🎨 Harmonizing colors is crucial for a cohesive design; using a consistent color palette helps maintain a professional look and feel.
• 🎯 Creating focal points directs the viewer's attention to the most important elements of the design, ensuring key messages are not overlooked.
• 🖌️ Using a modular grid in Adobe Illustrator involves creating a rectangle around the artboard, adjusting for gutters, and splitting the grid into columns and rows.
• 🔑 Proximity in design helps group related information together, making it easier for viewers to read and understand the content sequentially.
• 📈 Icons and photography can be used to break up text and create visual interest, but should not overpower the main communication elements.
• 🖼️ A bold border and subtle grid systems can frame a poster and add a layer of creativity and organization to the design.
• 🌈 Global colors in design tools allow for easy adjustments to color schemes across multiple elements or artboards.
• 🔍 Pre-defined color palettes can be sourced from image searches, providing a multitude of options for a natural and harmonious look.

Q & A

What are the five laws of layout and composition discussed in the video?

The five laws are: 1) Grid systems and modular grids, 2) Hierarchy and proximity, 3) Creating layering, 4) Harmonizing colors, and 5) Creating focal points.

How do grid systems help in design?

Grid systems help with alignment and provide a professional layout structure, making it easier to organize text and imagery in designs.

What is the purpose of using a modular grid in Illustrator?

A modular grid in Illustrator helps create a structured layout with rows and columns that separate into modules for organizing content, enhancing alignment and professionalism.

How does creating a hierarchy in design improve visual engagement?

Creating a hierarchy improves visual engagement by establishing a clear order of information that guides the viewer's attention and helps communicate messages effectively.

What is the significance of proximity in design hierarchy?

Proximity in design hierarchy is important as it groups related information together, making it easier for viewers to read and understand the content in the intended sequence.

Can you explain the concept of layering in design and its benefits?

Layering in design involves stacking elements to create depth and movement, which adds pace and enhances the visual appeal, making the design more engaging and dynamic.

How does harmonizing colors contribute to a cohesive design?

Harmonizing colors ensures a consistent and visually pleasing palette, which helps integrate elements within the design and makes it more aesthetically coherent.

What is the role of focal points in a design?

Focal points in a design serve to draw the viewer's attention and guide them through the content, ensuring that the most important elements are noticed and read first.

How can using global colors in Illustrator streamline the design process?

Using global colors in Illustrator allows for easy and consistent color changes across multiple elements or artboards, streamlining the design process and ensuring uniformity.

What is the recommended method for selecting a color palette for a design?

The video suggests using the eyedropper tool to select colors from the design's existing elements or searching for a suitable color palette on Google images for inspiration.

How does the use of icons in a design contribute to better communication?

Icons in a design help to break up text, making individual points more distinct and easier to understand, thus improving the overall communication of the design.

Outlines

00:00

📐 Mastering Layout with Grid Systems

This paragraph introduces the first law of layout and composition: the use of grid systems for professional design structure. Modular grids, consisting of rows and columns, help organize text and imagery, facilitating alignment and enhancing visual appeal. The speaker demonstrates creating a modular grid in Adobe Illustrator, emphasizing its utility in various design complexities. The grid system aids in aligning elements, making the design process more systematic and visually coherent.

05:02

🔝 Establishing Hierarchy and Proximity for Visual Engagement

The second law discussed is the importance of hierarchy and proximity in design to create pace and engagement. By structuring information in a logical order with varying text sizes and placements, designers can capture the viewer's attention and communicate effectively. The example provided illustrates the correct use of hierarchy with a 'Black Friday sale' headline, followed by the discount information and logo, concluding with product details. The paragraph also contrasts this with a poorly structured design that lacks visual engagement due to improper hierarchy and proximity.

🎨 Creating Depth with Layering

The third law focuses on layering to add depth and movement to a design. Using a poster set for a fictional company 'Blue Skies', the speaker shows how to create a sense of uplift through layering different fonts, text positions relative to imagery, and adding a bold border. The process involves bringing in a second font, layering text over and behind a photo, and incorporating a grid system and handwritten notes for added depth and creativity. This technique is applicable to various design scenarios to enhance visual interest.

🎨 Harmonizing Colors for Consistent Design

The fourth law addresses color harmony in design. The speaker critiques a poorly chosen color palette and demonstrates creating a cohesive color scheme using the eyedropper tool in Illustrator. By selecting colors from the design's background and elements, a new color group is formed in the swatches panel, set as Global for easy adjustments across multiple artboards or elements. The speaker also suggests using Google images to find and pre-define color palettes, advocating for simplicity in design.

🎯 Crafting Focal Points for Effective Communication

The final law highlighted is the creation of focal points to guide the viewer's attention. Using a design example, the speaker explains how to establish a clear focal point with a figure layered over background graphics, creating contrast and stand-out. The design also includes a large quote as the primary text element, followed by related information and a call to action in a bright color to ensure visibility and prompt user engagement. The paragraph concludes by summarizing the integration of all five layout and composition laws in the presented design, offering a clean and simple format.

Keywords

💡Grid Systems

Grid systems are a foundational element in design, providing a structured layout that helps organize content such as text and imagery. In the video, modular grids are specifically discussed, which are composed of rows and columns divided into modules. This aids in alignment and offers a professional layout structure, as demonstrated when creating a grid in Adobe Illustrator, which is used to align text, imagery, and shapes, enhancing the overall design's organization and appeal.

💡Hierarchy and Proximity

Hierarchy and proximity are design principles that dictate the visual importance and organization of elements within a design. Hierarchy establishes a clear order of importance, ensuring that the most critical information is the most noticeable. Proximity groups related elements together, guiding the viewer's eye through the design in a logical sequence. In the script, the example of a 'Black Friday sale' layout illustrates these principles, with the headline being the most prominent, followed by the discount information and then the logo and product details.

💡Layering

Layering in design refers to the technique of stacking elements on top of each other to create depth and visual interest. It helps in conveying a sense of movement and can make a design more engaging. In the context of the video, layering is used to add depth to a poster by overlaying text on an image, creating a sense of uplift for a fictional company called 'Blue Skies'. The text is strategically placed both in front of and behind the image, enhancing the visual storytelling.

💡Color Palette

A color palette is a set of colors carefully chosen to work harmoniously together in a design. It is crucial for maintaining consistency and creating a visually appealing layout. The video demonstrates how to create a color palette by selecting colors from an image and making adjustments for neutrality. The script also mentions using global colors, which allows for easy changes across multiple elements or artboards, as seen when the background color is altered to be more earthy.

💡Focal Points

Focal points are areas in a design that draw the viewer's attention first. They are essential for guiding the viewer's gaze and ensuring that the most important elements of the design are noticed. In the video, the man in the suit is used as a clear focal point, layered over background graphics to make him stand out. The script also discusses the use of a large quote and a bright yellow call-to-action band as subsequent focal points, which helps in directing the viewer's attention in a specific order.

💡Modular Grid

A modular grid is a type of grid system that is composed of repeated modules, which can be arranged in various ways to create a layout. This system allows for flexibility while maintaining a structured and organized design. In the video, the creation of a modular grid in Illustrator is shown, where the grid is used to align elements easily, demonstrating the practical application of this concept in design software.

💡Alignment

Alignment in design refers to the process of arranging elements in a way that creates a visual connection between them, making the design more cohesive and easier to navigate. The script mentions that using a grid system helps with alignment, as elements like text, imagery, and shapes will snap to the grid, simplifying the design process and resulting in a more professional appearance.

💡Visual Engagement

Visual engagement is the measure of how effectively a design captures and holds the viewer's attention. It is achieved through the strategic use of design elements such as hierarchy, color, and focal points. The video emphasizes the importance of creating pace and visual engagement through the layout, as seen in the 'Black Friday sale' example where the headline and discount information are designed to immediately draw the viewer's attention.

💡Pace

Pace in design refers to the rhythm and flow created by the arrangement of elements on a page. A well-paced design guides the viewer's eye through the content in a deliberate sequence. The script discusses creating pace through hierarchy and layering, such as using different fonts and overlaying text on images to draw the viewer's attention and create movement within the design.

💡Creativity

Creativity in design is the use of original and imaginative ideas to produce something that is visually appealing and effective in conveying a message. The video script mentions adding a sense of creativity to a poster through the use of subtle grid systems and handwritten notes over the imagery, which adds depth and a personal touch to the design, reflecting the company's aim to lift creative opportunities.

Highlights

Introduction of five layout and composition laws to enhance design professionalism and engagement.

Explanation of grid systems and modular grids for alignment and professional layout structure.

Demonstration of creating a modular grid in Adobe Illustrator using the Marquee tool and object path split into grid.

Application of gutters in grids for better alignment and organization of text and imagery.

Importance of hierarchy and proximity in design for creating pace and better visual engagement.

Example of using hierarchy to emphasize the headline and important information in a layout.

Technique of locking related information together to guide the viewer's reading order.

Use of icons and photography to add individuality and mood to design elements.

Avoiding design pitfalls by ensuring proper hierarchy and visual engagement.

Introduction of layering to create depth and movement in a poster design.

Technique of using different fonts and text positioning to create a sense of uplift.

Utilization of borders and grid systems to frame and organize design elements.

Principles of harmonizing colors for a cohesive and visually appealing design.

Method of creating a consistent color palette using the eyedropper tool and swatches panel in Illustrator.

Advantage of using global colors for easy and consistent color changes across multiple design elements.

Strategy for pre-defining a color palette by searching for inspiration on Google images.

Importance of creating focal points in design to guide viewer attention and improve readability.

Example of using size, color, and layering to establish clear focal points in a design.

Conclusion summarizing the five laws and their impact on creating professional and engaging designs.

Transcripts

hello everyone in this video we have

five laws of layout and composition that

are instantly going to make your designs

look more professional and engaging lore

number one grid systems modular grids

are made up of a series of rows and

columns these are separated into modules

which can be used to organize text and

imagery this helps with alignment and

gives you a professional layout

structure to use in your designs it can

be used for simple Graphics more

editorial style designs or even more

complex examples like these

now I work mainly in illustrator so I'm

going to show you how to make a modular

Grid in illustrator I'm going to take

the Marquee tool we'll press the m key

and we're going to draw a rectangle

around the entire artboard now I want a

three mil gutter around the edges so I'm

going to reduce the height and width by

six mil

[Music]

and I'm going to come to object a path

split into grid

I want a six column grid with a three

mil gutter so I'm going to come put

those values in turning preview on so I

can see what I'm doing

then I'll hit OK and draw another

rectangle around those columns

now to apply the rose so I want eight

rows with a three mil gutter

now if I select all of that and go to

view guides make guides

you'll see that's turned into a grid

system text imagery and shapes will snap

to this making alignment a little bit

easier and you'll see this sort of grid

system in use throughout the rest of the

video

law number two hierarchy and proximity

this is probably the fastest way to

create pace and better visual engagement

in the design it's going to make

whatever you're designing more

destructive to catch the viewer's

attention as well as help communicate in

the right order so if you take a look at

this simple text layout here we have the

headline Black Friday sale which is

taking up half of the page because

that's the first thing we want viewers

to see we're then telling the viewer

what they get exactly with 20 off

everything directly underneath we're

doing this in a black bar to underline

Black Friday sale and notice I've locked

those two up together in the same

proximity the reason being because those

two bits of information relate to each

other we want the viewer to sort of read

them together one after the other we've

then got the logo applied again to

create a bit of pace and visual

disruption but not in a way that's

overbearing or drawing your eye away

from the headline too early we've then

got some product information at the

bottom of the page which the viewer can

get into once we've managed to get their

attention using icons in this case

really helps to pull each point apart

and make them more individual and I've

personally kept the photography more

paired back be more of a mood setup we

don't want this to be one of the main

pieces of communication in this instance

now I'm going to show you how not to do

it so in this example I've still

technically got okay hierarchy but

there's just not much Pace or visual

engagement and everything is kind of

bunched up together in the same

proximity so it's going to be harder to

get the viewer to read the design in the

correct order that's why it's always

important to consider hierarchy and

proximity law number three create

layering

this poster set is for a fictional

company called Blue Skies they provide a

creative shared workspace with the aim

of lifting creative opportunities and

creative businesses to the next level so

I really want to create this sense of

uplift and you can do that with layering

so let's take one of the posters for

example I've got all the information

laid out and step by step I can create

much more layering depth and movement so

first I'm going to bring in a second

font which instantly starts to create a

little bit more Pace then we're going to

layer that over the photo start to

create some depth in the poster so I'm

going to layer that a bit more having

some of the text in front of the photo

and some of it behind so you really

start to get the sense of movement going

up the page I've also added a bold blue

border to frame the poster and really

draw your attention and finally to add a

sense of creativity and organization

I've added some subtle grid systems and

handwritten notes over the top of the

imagery just to give that a little bit

more depth and here you can see the full

transformation

the principles of layering and depth can

be applied in all sorts of other ways

and we'll get some more of that later in

the video law 4 harmonize colors

so look at this garish mess the only

thing really wrong with this is the

color palette I'm going to show you how

I create color palette that integrate

into your workflow and are easy to keep

consistent across large or complex

designs so I've just drawn two squares

here I'm going to use the eyedropper

tool to select one of the lighter colors

in the background of the photograph

that's slightly too yellow so I'm going

to make it a bit more neutral

then I want a darker color so I'm going

to take that from the tree then I'll

select both of them that come to my

swatches panel click new color group you

want selected artworks tipped or you can

leave the settings as they are and click

OK and you'll see that's created a new

color group in your swatches panel you

want these to be Global colors you'll

see why in a minute so just double click

each one hit Global and click ok

now we're going to come and change my

background to the lighter color and

change my text to the brown easy way to

select all the text if you click one

element come to select and then select

same fill color

foreign

let's say I decide the background is a

bit too yellow and I want to make it

more earthy because I made it a global

color I can just come in and double

click the Swatch and change the color

from here which really helps when you're

dealing with a lot of artboards or if

this color is applied to a number of

shapes and text it just means I can

change it all at once without having to

select anything so I've made that more

green I'm going to click OK and then I'm

going to change the brown a little bit

as well make that a bit more green

and I'll come in and change the stroke

to Green as well just by breaking the

feel to The Strokes down the left here

now let's say you want to pre-define

your color palette there are a lot of

fancy tools out there but personally I

just like to come to Google images and

just search for the sort of color

palette you want so I'm just going to go

for a natural color palette and as you

can see there's a multitude to pick from

so yeah keep it simple onto law number

five create focal points

so let's come back to this design that

we saw earlier I've created a clear

focal point on the man on the left in

the suit but he is layered on top of the

background Graphics which is sort of

cutting across him in a slightly

different direction that gives him a lot

of standout so he'll be the first thing

that viewers see when they look at the

design next we have the quote on the

right again much larger than the rest of

the text in the design so that will be

the first thing that viewers read then

we've got some qualifying information

locked up with that in the same

proximity so viewers are likely to read

that after quote and finally we have a

call to action in this yellow band at

the bottom and the reason we put that in

this bright yellow is to make sure it's

not forgotten about and try to Spur the

user into actually clicking it so in

this design you can sort of see the

other four laws of layout and

composition all coming together in quite

a clean and simple format

thanks for watching today guys I hope

you found it helpful for more creative

tips and tricks just click through to my

next video

[Music]