The Joshua Tree

In the Non-Designer's Type Book, author Robin William mentions how she once received a book on how to identify trees. In the book, the first tree she stumbled upon was a Joshua tree; it was simple to identify as it only took too clues. Although at first she thought the Joshua tree was weird-looking and that she'd never seen it before, after seeing the book she realised that 80% of the trees in her neighbourhood were Joshua trees.

This awareness applies just as well to designs. Or, more specifically, the principles of design:
Contrast
Repetition
Alignment
Proximity

Once you're aware of the principles, you notice their relevance in design everywhere.


For example, all 4 principles are effectively applied in this poster:

Contrast is found with the obvious visual difference in colours (black/white), bold handdrawn shapes versus thin lines neat background, and the changing thickness of the type to emphasize text.

Repetition is found in using the same typeface throughout the poster and the repetition of the handdrawn yellow arrows and shapes.

Alignment is found in the text, justified center.

Proximity is found in the groupings of text, where relevant information is close to eachother.

Although the principles of design are a good place to start for any piece of design work, it takes much more than just these four principles to become a great designer. Additionally, not all pieces of work will involve all these four principles of design but may still look brilliant and amazing.