Design Terminology

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Design Terminology
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General Composition and Design Terms

• Concept A comprehensive idea or generalization
  that brings diverse elements into some basic
  relationship.
• Composition and Design The arrangement of the
  visible elements or parts of a work of art. Often
  used interchangeably to refer to the organization
  of elements. Composition implies the assemblage
  of existing parts. Design suggests a more
  intentional arrangement, often to a point.
• Form The total interrelationship of the
  elements in a work of art.
• Content Material that has meaning, shaped by an
  artist's concept or intent, and expressed in
  symbolic, abstract and concrete form.

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Design Principles    

• Unity The whole or total effect of a work of art
  that results from the combination of all of its
  component parts. Typically, a unified work is one
  in which the elements all work harmoniously
  together in support of the concept.
• Proportion There is a comparative fitness in the
  interrelationship of parts.
• Scale The proportional relationship among
  parts.
• Contrast Change of stress and accent or
  emphasis to set off elements against each other.
• Sequence Change or movement producing a
  progression rhythmic tensions and transitions
  between linear and spatial movements.
• Harmony The adaptation of parts to one another
  so as to form a coherent whole.
• Rhythm Regular recurrence or alteration in
  sequence.
• Balance The equilibrium of all forces
  involved.
• Distortion Any change made by an artist in the
  size, position or general character of forms
  relative to how they normally appear. Almost all
  art necessarily involves a degree of distortion,
  simply through the process of artistic selection.
• Texture The surface feel of an object or the
  representation of surface character.

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Organization    

• Design A framework or scheme of pictorial
  construction on which the artist bases the formal
  organization of his total work. In a broader
  sense, it may be considered as synonymous with
  the term form.
• Composition The act of organizing all the
  elements of a work of art into a harmoniously
  unified whole.
• Pattern Repetitive use of an element or
  elements.
• Interval Distance or space between elements in
  a composition.
• Accent Any stress or emphasis given to
  elements of a composition that makes them attract
  more attention than other features that surround
  or lie close to them. Accent may be created
  through color, tone, size, or any other means by
  which difference may be expressed.
• Dominance The relative importance of certain
  elements above others in the same composition. It
  establishes focus and supports unity by
  subordinating some elements or ideas in relation
  to others.
• Tension (pictorial) Dynamic interrelationships
  of force as seen in the interaction among the
  qualities of the art elements. Contrasting
  elements in terms of size, color, shape, etc.,
  can characterize the space between them in terms
  of forces and tension.
• Approximate symmetry Arrangement of elements
  that are similar on either side of a vertical
  axis. They may suggest exact equity but are
  varied sufficiently to prevent visual monotony.
• Asymmetrical balance Arrangement of the visual
  units on either side of a vertical axis that are
  not identical but are placed to create a felt
  equilibrium of the visual space.

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Line and Shape

•          
• Size The extent of a shape, or length of a
  line.
• Shape The specific spatial character of an area
  or line.
• Volume A shape having three dimensions or one
  that gives the illusion of solidity or mass.
• Linear or lineal Usually used interchangeably,
  pertaining to a line. All lines are linear.
• Curvilinear Stressing the use of curved lines as
  opposed to rectilinear, which stresses straight
  lines.
• Outline The demarcation between one area and the
  next, or the edge of a shape.
• Contour The outline or edge, and those lines
  that move across a shape or volume.
• Attitude Position or posture of a shape or line,
  its directional quality if it has one.
• Amorphous Without clarity of definition
  formless indistinct and of uncertain
  dimensions.
• Biomorphic shapes Shapes that are irregular in
  form and resemble the freely developed curves
  found in organic life.

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Spatial

• Space Extension in any direction.Deep Space
  A sense of voluminous recession or distance among
  the elements of a picture, as compared with a
  relatively two dimensional or flat treatment.
• Plane A flat or even surface, either actual,
  represented or suggested.
• Picture Plane A plane of reference for spatial
  organization. Typically it is placed like a
  window pane, vertically and perpendicular to the
  line of sight. Objects appearing in space behind
  (or through) the picture plane can be marked or
  represented on the picture plane and will appear
  in perspective.
• Value pattern The total effect of the
  relationships of light and dark given to areas
  within the pictorial field.
• Two-dimensional Value relationships in which the
  changes of light and dark seem to occur only on
  the surface of the picture plane.
• Three-dimensional The value relationships that
  are planned to create an illusion of objects
  existing in depth back of the picture plane.
• Perspective The device of representing on a
  plain surface, objects in space as they appear to
  a stationary eye.

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Colour

• Spectrum The band of individual colours that
  results when a beam of light is broken up into
  its component hues.
• Colour The character of a surface that is the
  result of the response of vision to the
  wavelength of light reflected from that surface.
• Hue This designates the common name of a colour
  and indicates its position in the spectrum or in
  the color circle. Hue is determined by the
  specific wavelength of the color in the ray of
  light.
• Intensity (chroma) The saturation or strength of
  a color determined by the quality of light
  reflected from it. A vivid color is of high
  intensity, a dull color of low intensity.
• Tone (colour) A term used in a general way to
  include the factors of hue, value, and intensity.
  
• Value The characteristic of a color in terms of
  the amount of light reflected from it. It refers
  to the lightness or darkness of tone, not to its
  color quality. There are an infinite number of
  variations in value between white and black, but
  a scale of 7 equal gradations is useful, named
  High Light, Light, Low Light, Middle, High Dark,
  Dark, and Low Dark.
• Tint A hue at a lighter value than the one at
  which it appears at greatest intensity, i.e., a
  color with white added.
• Shade (colour) A hue at a darker value than the
  one at which it appears at greatest intensity,
  i.e., a color with black added.
• Objective colour The naturalistic color of an
  object as seen by the eye.Subjective colour
  Colours chosen by the artist without regard to
  the natural appearance of the object portrayed.
  They have nothing to do with objective reality
  but represent the expression of the individual
  artist.

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Colour II

• Achromatic Relating to differences of lightness
  and darkness the absence of colour. Analogous
  colours Those colours that are closely related
  in hue. They are generally adjacent to each other
  on the color wheel.Complementary colours Two
  colours that are directly opposite each other on
  the pigment color wheel. A primary color would be
  complementary to a secondary colour, which is a
  mixture of the two remaining primaries.Colour
  Triad A group of three colours spaced an equal
  distance apart on the color wheel. There is a
  primary triad, a secondary triad, and two
  intermediate triads on the twelve-colour
  wheel.Neutrals Surface tones that do not
  reflect any single wavelength of light but rather
  all of them at once. No single colour is then
  notice but only a sense of light or dark, such as
  white, gray or black.Colour tonality An orderly
  planning in terms of selection and arrangement of
  color schemes or color combinations. It would
  concern itself not only with hue, but also with
  value and intensity relationships.

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