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How to Create Effective Visual Resources - Part 1: Elements of Design

So you want to create your own visual aid, but have no clue where to start? Have you ever heard of the element and principles of designs? These elements and principles of design are used by artists, designers, and many others to create effective and powerful visual content. This post has been broken up into two parts.

Part 1 will cover the elements of design which include: line, shape, form, colour, value, texture, and space. In Part 2 we will cover the principles of design. The principles build upon the elements, so it is important to know and understand what the elements are. Once you know what the elements of design are, you can start using them to create effective visual aids.


Elements of Design


Line

Lines are marks with a greater length than width. Lines can be straight, horizontal, vertical, diagonal, or curved. Straight lines are called structural lines while curved lines are expressive lines. Lines can be thick or thin in intensity. Contour lines are lines that go around an object. Outlines can also be contour lines or can be the lines used to define a figure or object.

Lines can be helpful in visual aids as lines can be used to create contours or outlines of objects that need to be cut, placed, traced, or matched. Lines are also used to create letters. This means that there are times that using words or individual letters in or as the visual aid is perfectly reasonable! Just remember that words are generally be used as a helper to a visual.


Shape 

Shapes are closed lines that are flat. In other words, shapes are two-dimensional and have length and width. Shapes can be geometric or organic. Geometric shapes can be squares, circles, stars, diamonds, and many more. Organic shapes can also be classed as realistic shapes such as natural shapes or free-formed shapes.


Form

While shapes are two-dimensional, forms are three-dimensional or appear as such. This means in addition to having a length and width they also now have depth. Forms can be geometric or organic. Examples of forms include boxes, cylinders, balls, pyramids, or sculptures.


Colour

Colour can be broken down into three parts: hue, intensity, and value. What do those mean? Hue refers to the pigment of a colour, such as red, yellow, blue, green, violet, and orange. Intensity can also be called saturation and refers to the brightness or dullness of a colour. Value refers to how light or dark a colour is. 

Something else to also keep in mind with colours are colour schemes. In simpler terms, this refers to pairing certain colours strategically together to get an aesthetically pleasing image. There are many types of colour schemes:

  • Warm colours
  • Cool colours
  • Complementary
  • Split complementary
  • Triadic
  • Tetrad
  • Analogous
  • Monochromatic
We will cover these more in-depth in another post, however for now it should be another that warm and coll colours schemes along with analogous and monochrome colour schemes should be avoided if you are creating visual aids for kids with disabilities. These colour schemes deal with colours next to each other on the colour wheel and makes it more difficult to decipher depth for these kids.


Value

As mentioned above, value is the lightness or darkness of a colour. This means how much white, grey, or black was added to the hue (colour). When black is added to a hue we call that a shade. When grey is added to a hue we call that a tone. And when white is added to a hue we call that a tint. Values create depth and can help kids know what is in front and what is in the back.


Texture

Texture is what can be seen or felt on a surface. Textures do not always feel the way they look. A picture of fish scales or of bunny fur will look one way but feel different because it is a picture. This is a simulated texture. Actual texture refers to texture that both looks and feels the same. This texture can be smooth, rough, soft, hard, and so on. 

Bringing in textures or having kids look for textures is a great way to involve touch with the visual and will help them solidify what is being taught. 

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Both uses of texture is great for visual aids. Bringing in textures or having kids look for textures is a great way to involve touch with the visual and will help them solidify what is being taught. You can even plan a trip to a petting zoo or farm! However, you probably can't go to the zoo every day so using pictures to show kids is a great way to teach them what a porcupine would feel like compared to an owl or dolphin. 


Space

The last element we will talk about is space. Space, or specifically negative space, is the area around and between objects. Negative space allows for someone when viewing an image to have pauses for their eyes and not be overwhelmed. Space also refers to the feeling of depth. Life is three-dimensional, however, when we draw or take a picture we can portray a three-dimensional view in a two-dimensional format. These are called one-point perspective, two-point perspective, and three-point perspective. 


Take Away

You can easily use these elements on their own. There are many effective tools you can create or find that use the elements without worrying about the principles. There are however some visual aids that would greatly benefit from the principles of design so make sure to read Part 2 of this blog post!



Works Cited:

Harvey, J. (2018, March 23). 10 Tips for. . .Creating Visual Aids | Presentation Guru. Presentation Guru Publishing LTD. Retrieved October 22, 2021, from https://www.presentation-guru.com/10-tips-for-creating-great-visual-aids/.

Preparing Visual Aids | Guide to Preparing for the Abstract Competition | ACP. (n.d.). American College of Physicians. Retrieved October 22, 2021, from https://www.acponline.org/membership/residents/competitions-awards/acp-national-abstract-competitions/guide-to-preparing-for-the-abstract-competition/preparing-visual-aids.

Sanchez, D. (2017, June 14). The Elements and Principles of Design. Medialoot. Retrieved October 22, 2021, from https://medialoot.com/blog/the-elements-and-principles-of-design/.

All images were created by the writer for this article. 

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