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Proximity Principle Of Design
In graphic design, there are principles of design that should be considered.
These principles are what typically separate good design from bad design.
All these principles have a relationship between each other and appear in
every well designed piece of work you see.
A good grasp of design theory will mean there is always substance behind
your work.
The key principles of design are: contrast, hierarchy, alignment, balance,
proximity, repetition, simplicity and function.
Whatever work you produce be it for a magazine, poster, website or
advertisement, the principles of design should be considered.
A good designer will keep these principles and guidelines in their toolkit
and will consciously use them to develop their ideas.
Lets have a closer look at the proximity design principle:
Proximity
Proximity is the grouping and shaping of objects in a composition. In design
we use proximity for two main reasons:
1. To Create Connections
Proximity can create relationships between visual elements in a
composition, create relevance, hierarchy, create organization and structure.
2. To Dispel Connections
Proximity can also be used to suggest no relationship between elements, to
break organization and structure.
By moving visual elements closer together or further apart, we are applying
the proximity design principle. In design these two forces can be applied in
various degrees to help achieve a particular e ect or outcome to
communicate a message.
Typically in design, related elements should be grouped together so that
they will be viewed as a group. Unrelated elements should have distance
and should not be in close proximity to each other. Audiences will assume
that elements that are not near each other in a design are not closely
related.
A good sense of proximity in design can help di erentiate visual elements
to reduce visual clutter and make design more comprehensible. Proximity is
in uential to the balance and hierarchy design principles. Space between
visual elements will communicate a particular dynamic on a page.
Depending on the intended purpose or look and feel, a designer must sense
which type of balance to execute to suggest hierarchy.
Here we can see the same message but laid out in various di erent ways.
The most comprehensible layout can easily be picked out.
Audiences should never have to work at trying to gure out which caption
goes with which graphic or whether or not a line of text is a subtitle or a
line of text unrelated to the title. Viewers should never have to work trying
to gure out the connection of information in a design. This makes for a
poor user experience and an inability to digest information.
In design, one should avoid the appearance of having
made arbitrary decisions.
When visual elements appear randomly or poorly positioned, it is noticeable,
and can devalue a piece of work if done unintentionally. When we begin to
place shapes together we create a particular relationship between them.
In the above examples we have three individual shapes. If placed together
with just the right proximity, negative space is made to suggest a new visual
shape entirely. This gives new meaning to the individual shapes that make
this composition. If we move them even slightly this visual/message is lost.
From a young age we learn shapes and symbols that are imprinted into our
memory. The alphabet for example, these shapes and symbols are used to
communicate visually as a visual language or represent meaning when we
think of all the symbols and logos we know so well. It’s through the
combination of shapes and proximity that works to imprint images into our
memory.
If we take the above most simplest and well known shapes and alter their
proximity, they no longer have their meaning and become something
entirely di erent.
However simple or complex, it’s the relationship or lack of
relationship between shapes that
can trigger feelings, convey messages, engage an audience, add emphasis to
a portion of the layout and create dynamics.
Proximity is a powerful principle to use in design. A good grasp and sense
of proximity can be the di erence between good and amazing design.
When you look at design, ask yourself how is proximity being considered?
What relationships has the designer created or dispelled? How has
proximity been used to create the overall composition? and how well does it
work as part of the design?
Source: Gareth David
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