Elements of Design

Line: The most basic building block of any design.  Line can be used to create more complex shapes or to lead your eye from one area in the composition to another.


Value: The degree of light and dark in a design. It is the contrast between black and white and all the tones in between.




Shapes: The building blocks of any design.  Shapes can be organic (irregular shapes found in nature) or geometric (shapes with strong lines and angles such as circles, triangles, and squares).

organic





Geometric



Color: The aspect of design that differentiates and defines lines, shapes, forms, and space.  Color can be defined as saturated (maximum color intensity) or monochromatic (limited to tones or hues of one color). Even black and white images have a huge number of different shades of gray.

Saturated

Saturated

Monochromatic