2. Alignment

This is one of the most important principles of graphic design.

It refers to the lining up of elements in your design.

Alignment gives an ordered appearance to elements (images, shapes, and blocks of texts etc..) by removing other elements placed in a disorderly manner.

Let's look at it visually 👇

From this visual, you can see that one of the elements isn't aligned appropriately.

The fifth bar is popping out of the composition unnecessarily and it gives a disorderly feel to the design.

You can see the same thing here

The shapes on the left are all aligned properly but the one the left has an improper alignment.

The principle of alignment states that your elements should be arranged in an orderly manner.

This is because when communicating to people with your visuals, you want to do it very smoothly so that they don't have hassle trying to read/understand your message.

Let's look at some real time flyer designs that explains this principle better 👇

All the texts in this design are all aligned to the left left of the design and it gives a very neat and smooth layout.

It also makes it extremely easy for anyone that comes across the design to easily read/understand what it's about.

You can align elements to your design on the left (like it's done here) and also the right.

But not only that, you can also align to the center.

Like it's done here 👇

3. Visual Hierarchy.

Hierarchy refers to the arrangement of elements in a design according to their level of importance.

A hierarchy is formed when extra visual weight is given to the most important element or message in your design.

Every elements in your design cannot be of the same importance and thus, cannot have the same weight.

For example, if you're working on a program flyer...

Your heading should be definitely bigger than your date/time.

Hierarchy can be achieved in different ways

• Using larger or bolder fonts to highlight the title

• Placing the key message higher than the other design elements

• Focusing largeness, colour, shapes, images to important elements than others.

Let's look at some examples 👇

On this flyer, you can see the text "Make A Difference" is much bigger, bolder and colourful than the other elements.

Next is the logo, which is next visible.

And lastly the texts at the bottom of the design.

Here, you can see the text "100k Referral Contest" and the Image of the man holding some money is most visible on the design.

Followed by the texts stating the price for the winners.

Then the date of the challenge and logo.

And finally the contact information.

Hierarchy is applied on a design to tell your story or message in an orderly manner and not jumble it up for your audience.

But make them be able to consume the messages smoothly.

4. Contrast

Contrast occurs when there is a difference between two opposing design elements.

The most common types of contrast are;

• Dark vs light

• Contemporary vs old-fashioned

• Large vs small, etc.

Take a look at some of the images as we proceed 👇