Meetgraph’s Basic Design Guide – Composition

Meetgraph's Basic Design Guide

by Boris Stoev

This guide is created because of the request from the Meetgraph's members.

It explains the basics of design, that every designer (motion graphics & web design included) needs for the creation of good, suitable Designs.

You should layout your art-board with guides, so you could position the objects in the right way. The standard proportion of an art-board is 3x4

Separate in 3 equal slices and mark the center with two guides.

Objects positioned on any kind of ground should "sit" on 1/3 of the art-board. This creates the illusion of a "sky" in the other 2/3 of the art board. Flying objects should be positioned a bit above the center. Thats enough to produce the illusion of flying.

Every form or object in your composition have a visual weight. The form-weight consists of the volume and the density of the form.

The total weight of the composition is the sum of the weight of all the forms on your art-board.

Imagine, that the weight of your your composition lies on a libra and schooled be balanced.

Every object has a visual volume. Let's call it Volume of Form.

The more volume is concentrated in one object the heavier it is.

Its all about balance, so place your objects in a way, that would keep them on a libra without falling over. The middle of the libra should point to the center of the art board.

In this case we should move the composition to the left to balance the libra.

If we change the color of an object in our composition to an more contrast color it gets more weight. So to balance the Composition we should move it a bit to the left.