Design is all around us. Humans interact with design on a daily basis, whether consciously or not. Each design is created with the intended message and target audience in mind. By applying a few basic principles, you can create effective and understandable designs.
While the elements of art are considered the building blocks of design, the principles of design can be seen as the rules. Once you understand all the design elements, you’ll want to be ambitious and include multiple shapes, different colors, or types of lines and fonts. But without design principles, you end up with a disorganized, confusing, and hard to navigate structure.
And as a huge film lover, I am always fascinated by the way world-famous films convey complex concepts through their posters. I believe that simplicity is the key to understanding, and that’s why I try to explain these concepts in a simple way with posters from some of this world-famous films.
Alignment
Alignment is the arrangement of visual elements so that they line up within a composition. In design, alignment is used to organize elements, group elements, create balance, create structure, and create connections between elements to achieve sharp, well-defined results.
Without alignment, designs lack direction, cohesion, or organisation.
Furthermore, alignment is a technique that helps create a sense of unity and provides well-framed structure and composition throughout a design.
For this reason, the principle of alignment is the cornerstone of every designer and visual artist who wants to create cutting-edge designs.
The Cinematic Canvas
Contrast
