65 Design Terms You Should Know | FREE COURSE

65 Graphic Design Terms You Should Know

Introduction to Graphic Design Language

• Laura Kyung introduces the course, emphasizing the importance of understanding design terminology for effective communication in visual work.

• The course will cover essential, complex, and often misused design terms, including basic concepts like composition and technical terms such as dpi and ppi.

Essential Design Principles

• The lesson focuses on 10 fundamental design principle terms that are crucial for creating effective compositions.

• Composition: Also known as layout; it refers to the visual arrangement of elements to create a complete image using various design principles.

• Balance: Refers to the visual weight of elements affected by form, size, color, and texture; achieving balance may require scaling certain elements.

• Alignment: The positioning of elements within a layout; can be left-aligned, right-aligned, or centered for cohesive organization.

• Repetition: Creates consistency by repeating elements within a layout (e.g., page numbers).

Additional Design Concepts

• Contrast: Differentiation between design elements that establishes visual hierarchies through variations in form, color, texture, and size.

• Negative Space: The blank area around design elements used to emphasize specific parts of a layout.

• Hierarchy: Arranging elements based on importance; contrast is key in establishing hierarchy.

Symmetry and Grids

• Symmetry vs. Asymmetry: Symmetry involves equal distribution of elements across a central line while asymmetry creates an unbalanced look with unequal distributions.

• Grid: A structure formed by intersecting vertical and horizontal lines that helps organize content effectively.

Important Color Definitions

Understanding Color Models

• This section covers 11 important color definitions relevant in graphic design due to its complexity.

• CMYK vs. RGB:

• CMYK (Cyan Magenta Yellow Key/Black): Used for printing; subtractive color model resulting in less vibrant colors compared to RGB.

• RGB (Red Green Blue): Used for screens; additive model allowing broader color range through combinations.

Key Color Concepts

• Grayscale: A monochromatic palette consisting of different shades of gray up to 256 combinations per image.

• Opacity: Refers to transparency levels; lower opacity means more transparency while 100% opacity indicates solid visibility.

Saturation and Hue

• Saturation: Intensity level of a color; saturated images appear brighter while desaturated ones seem duller.

• Hue, Tone, and Tint/Shade:

• Hue describes pure colors without tint or shade (e.g., blue).

• Tone is hue mixed with gray reducing intensity.

• Tint adds white making colors lighter while shade adds black darkening them.

Color Palette & Pantone System

• A color palette consists of selected colors harmonizing for specific projects or brands.

Understanding Key Design Terms

Technical Terms in Graphic Design

• Resolution: The resolution of an image determines its quality; high-resolution images are crisp with defined edges, while low-resolution images appear pixelated and blurry.

• Pixels: A pixel is the smallest unit of color on a computer that composes images. The number of pixels affects whether an image is high or low resolution.

• PPI vs. DPI: PPI (pixels per inch) measures screen resolution, while DPI (dots per inch) pertains to printing quality, indicating how printers create images using small dots.

• Cropping vs. Closed Crop: Cropping removes unnecessary parts of an image, altering its emphasis and composition. Closed crop refers to trimming size guided by crop marks on printed sheets.

• Rule of Thirds: This compositional guideline uses a 3x3 grid overlaying an image where intersecting lines indicate focal points for placing important elements.

Typography Essentials

Important Typography Terms

• Serif vs. Sans Serif: Serifs are small strokes at the ends of characters; serif typefaces enhance readability in body text, while sans-serif fonts lack these details and are preferred for screen use.

• Script Fonts: These typefaces mimic handwriting and can be historical or modern, often used for display purposes due to their fluidity compared to traditional fonts.

• Slab Serif Fonts: Characterized by thicker serifs than regular serif fonts, slab serifs can be square, angular, or rounded depending on the design style.

• Monospace Fonts: Each character occupies the same horizontal space in monospace fonts; commonly seen in typewriters and coding environments.

• Kerning vs. Tracking: Kerning adjusts space between specific letter pairs to improve legibility, whereas tracking applies spacing adjustments across groups of letters.

Font Design Concepts

Key Aspects of Font Design

• Leading: Refers to the vertical space between lines of text ensuring readability without lines touching each other.

• Weight in Font Design: Weight indicates the thickness relative to height; typefaces typically come in various weights from normal to bold.

• Point Size Measurement: Font size is measured in points; there are 72 points per inch (2.54 cm), dictating character height visually on a page.

• Uppercase vs. Lowercase Characters: Uppercase letters start sentences or proper nouns (historically stored in upper drawers), while lowercase letters make up most text blocks (stored in lower drawers).

• Small Caps & Placeholder Text (Lorem Ipsum): Small caps are shorter uppercase characters matching lowercase heights; Lorem Ipsum serves as placeholder text during design mock-ups before final content is available.

Readability and Typesetting Challenges

Understanding Readability Issues

• Readability vs. Legibility: Readability concerns how text blocks are arranged on a page, while legibility focuses on distinguishing individual characters from one another.

• Widows and Orphans in Typesetting:

• A widow is a short line at the end of a paragraph causing excessive white space.

• An orphan is a single word or short line at the beginning of a column/page disrupting flow.

Logo Design Styles What Are the Key Logo Design Styles?

Overview of Logo Design Styles

• There are several different styles of logos, each with its own purpose and strengths. This lesson covers eight essential logo design styles.

Types of Logo Designs

• Letter Mark (Monogram): A type-based logo made from a few letters, often using initials to simplify a company's name composed of two or more words.

• Word Mark: Focuses solely on the business name without reducing it to initials, emphasizing the full name for brand recognition.

• Pictorial Mark (Brand Mark): A graphic-based logo that uses an icon simplified and stylized to represent a brand visually.

• Abstract Mark: Unlike pictorial marks, abstract marks do not depict real objects but use geometric shapes to symbolize a business.

• Emblem: Contains the business name within a single shape; commonly used by schools and sports teams as well as in corporate branding.

• Mascot Logos: Feature stylized characters that can be animated, serving as brand spokespersons and enhancing engagement.

• Combination Mark: Merges elements of word marks with pictorial or abstract marks or mascots; layout varies based on design elements.

• Favicon: A shortcut icon derived from the primary logo used for website branding and sometimes as social media profile pictures.

Image File Formats What Are Essential Image File Formats?

Understanding Raster Images

• Raster images consist of grid pixels forming an entire image. Stretching these images results in pixelation and blurriness due to their fixed resolution.

Common Image File Formats

• GIF: Stands for Graphic Interchange Format; supports animation and transparency but limited to 256 colors, making it suitable for small web files.

• JPEG: The most widely recognized raster file format (Joint Photographic Experts Group); ideal for web and print but lacks transparency capabilities.

• PNG: Portable Network Graphics maintain quality during compression; created to enhance GIF's quality while supporting transparency.

• TIFF: Tagged Image File Format is primarily used in layout design applications like InDesign, producing higher-quality images than other formats.

Vector Graphics Explained

• PSD Files: Adobe Photoshop Document format allows layered editing in Photoshop projects.

• Vector Graphics: Composed of points, lines, and curves defined by mathematical equations; they can be resized without losing quality unlike raster images.

Additional Vector Formats

• AI Files: Adobe Illustrator format representing single-page vector drawings designed specifically for scalable graphics.

• EPS Files: Encapsulated PostScript is resizable containing vectors mainly used for logos allowing scalability across various projects.

Course Summary

Recap of Key Concepts