Elements of Design

There are seven elements of design. When something looks "right" to you, all of these elements are working in harmony. When something looks "wrong," it is because one or more of these elements are not being used to its full potential.

Line: Line can be thick, thin, vertical, horizontal, oblique (diagonal), short, or long. Line can also be formed not by an actual line, but by the edge of a form, the absense of a line, or even a shadow.

Shape: The form of an object is sometimes, but not always, formed by lines. Shape refers to an area created in a design. There are positive and negative shapes. Positive shapes are the leaves of a tree; negative shapes are those strange shapes formed between the leaves.

Size: "the relationship of the area occupied by one shape to that of another." In other words, how big is the horse in the picture related to the girl in the picture?

Space: This is the third dimension. It can also be refered to as scale. The furniture may be oversized; or the ceiling tall. Space can be manipulated both by how much it is filled and what it is filled with.

Color: This can also be called hue. It is the redness or blueness or yellowness of a color.

Texture: This refers to the roughness, smoothness, matte-ness, glossiness, softness, or hardness of a design or portion of a design.

Value: Otherwise known as chroma, this is the darkness or lightness of a design or portion of a design. A master of value is Thomas Kinkade. He makes the lights in his paintings shine by lowering the chromatic value of the everything around the light.

See if you can find examples of all seven elements of design in the picture below. This was a painting done by Jan Vermeer. He painted this is c. 1666-1673; it is currently on display at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.