Elements of Design

From Jacci Howard Bear,
Your Guide to Desktop Publishing.

Elements of Design

All designs have certain basics elements or building blocks chosen to convey the message — beyond the actual words or photos used. The five elements of lines, shapes, mass, texture, and color are the building blocks of design for desktop publishers. Other terms which you might hear described as elements of design are form, space, and value (as in lightness or darkness of color).



Graphic design encompasses the creation of a great many types of projects but for the purposes of these lessons we're focusing on the elements of design as they apply to typical desktop publishing projects including logos, ads, brochures, business cards, newsletters, books, and to some extent, Web pages.