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Emphasis, Movement and Unity are imperative to great design. In this video we breakdown all three key elements.
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[Mat Helme] You're almost ready to critique your own design,
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but first, we need to cover 3 more key components to proper aesthetics.
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First up, we have emphasis.
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Emphasis means applying intentional focus on one or more objects.
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There are a few ways to do this—
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we have already talked about contrast being a way to achieve emphasis within a composition.
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Some of the other ways to portray emphasis are through size, color, and shape.
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What this does is it creates a main focal point or center of interest with the composition.
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This causes the eye to immediately go there.
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Think of the main focal point as a magnet and your eye is attracted to it.
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So, if we emphasize that focal point, we simply will draw the eye to it.
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We can also emphasize an element or elements through isolation.
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This is when the eye is diverted to the white space of the composition,
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so by leaving an area blank, our eye is automatically attracted to it.
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We could also emphasize through animation or movement,
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which is our next principle—movement.
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Movement is simply changing the place of an object's position.
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Visual movement is achieved through eye movement throughout a composition.
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Visual movement might also be referred to as rhythm—
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how the eye is moved throughout the piece.
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If it consistent? Is it choppy?
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Think of it like music—so if the eye moves smoothly throughout the composition,
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as we've strategically done throug our design and placement of our elements, this causes rhythm.
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Now, how the eye moves through the composition,
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whether it be consistent of choppy, all has to do with rhythm of the visual elements.
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We can also use a technique called implied movement.
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This is when we use sequential, repeating images, blurring, or motion indicators to apply movement.
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So, essentially, we're creating movement within a still object
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through repeating images, blurring, or motion indicators,
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such as wind or, say, if someone was running and we were to put dashed lines behind them.
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Or another good example is a smoke trail behind a plane.
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We already have an understanding that a plane moves, but by adding the smoke, we're implying the movement.
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We can also see this through shape, as well.
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Again, using the plane as the example, if we were to squish the plane down,
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this indicates that it's moving at a fast speed, thus making it more aerodynamic, thus implied movement.
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Lastly, I would like to discuss unity.
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Unity in design means 2 or more elements being joined as a whole.
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This can be done with color, size, shape, texture, and space.
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There is a reason why corporations use the same colors, graphics, fonts throughout their advertising—
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it's used to unite the brand's identity throughout all of their mediums,
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whether it be for print or digital.
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Consistency is key to a design's success.
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Take, for example, Coca Cola—you'll consistently see the same logo,
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the same color palette, and the same usage of those logos and color palettes throughout all of their advertising,
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whether it be on TV, whether it be on print, whether it be in a digital ad, or their website.
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Now, this can be for any of the design principles, as well.
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Say if Coca Cola, again, wanted to create movement within their digital ad—
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now, they would keep that consistent throughout all of their ads.
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Thus making it unified.
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Again, consistency is key to a design's success.
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We are now ready to critique a design, but first, let's take a quick quiz.
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