Graphic Design Essentials

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Design is an intricate, fun, and exciting business.

There's a lot to learn, do, and consider when you're a designer.

Technology is constantly evolving and new trends are coming at you rapid fire.

It's what makes design exciting!

This lesson will take you through the core elements of design to give you a head start in this creative environment.

We're going to explore how a dot, line, shape, form, tone, texture, color, and text are the basic building blocks of art and design.

Understand these elements and you'll understand how art and design are fundamentally made.

So we'll begin with the simplest of the simple, the dot.

A dot is a dot. In design, you might call it a point.

A dot can't be anything else and you can't break it down further.

This might seem basic, but what if we added a second dot? Now we're looking at a whole scenario.

Is it dramatic? Are they awkwardly touching?

All of a sudden, we have design decisions to make.

What if we try to connect the dot?

That's exactly where we hit our second element, the line.

A line can be defined as a linear mark.

It might be wavy to create a sense of movement.

Or maybe it's straight, which would look pretty neat.

Lines are everywhere. Even in the word line itself.

We can place lines strategically to lead eyes toward a focal point.

This means directing the focus towards a particular design element.

We call these leading lines.

And they control the way viewers look at our entire design.

Here, the designer has positioned the lines in a zigzag arrangement.

What do you first notice in this design?

And where do your eyes want to move to next?

You can't help but follow the line, can you?

Bold or contrasting lines also help your design stand out.

Take a look at how these outlined illustrations use white lines on a contrasting background.

Now, we're going to show you how a series of lines can come together to create a shape.

When a line comes full circle, you get... Well, a circle. That's a type of shape.

Remember the outlined illustration?

Those lines were curved and connected to create two-dimensional shapes.

A 2D shape is a flat object with no depth.

Those outlined shapes represent a familiar objects such as a lighthouse, camera, and torch.

But a shape can also be simpler than a lighthouse.

Even a basic rectangle could be used to make a design stand out.

It can act as an outline that borers around a heading

or filled in to make a solid frame.

When we start to change the lines and tones that surround our shapes,

we can turn them into objects that look 3D.

This brings us to form.

A shape as simple as a square can be turned into a cube.

The word for this is form and we use elements like shadow, tone, and texture to create dimension.

The size and placement of a shadow is one way to bring form to a flat shape.

Take a look at the way these squares, which started out 2D have been stretched into 3D objects.

With their new depth, width, and height, these squares now seem to tower off the page.

We see form in other simple shapes.

With shadows, a circle can become a sphere.

And a triangle can become a pyramid.

When we talk about shadows, we also talk about tone.

At its simplest, tone is how bright or dark a color can be.

For example, a shadow will usually be illustrated in a darker tone compared to the object it surrounds.

In this design, we see many tones of the color blue.

These tones help us to understand what's being shown and allow us to view the picture from a certain perspective.

Here, the lighter tones of blue imply a moon reflecting over the sea.

The darker tones imply backs of leaves that frame the picture.

Don't you feel like you're standing in the shadows peeping out from behind the branches?

Texture helps an illustration feel realistic.

We use the word 'feel' because texture can remind us of the tactile nature of rough stone or woven canvas.

Imagine how it would feel to touch these things.

Texture brings feelings to your work.

Imagine a vintage feeling, calm feeling, or modern feeling.

Texture can be used in any part of your design.

In this design, the texture appears faded and worn.

It complements the retro style of the words to give an older, authentic feel.

And this way, it might send the message that this brand is reliable and long lasting.

Color will be one of your biggest design choices.

This is because color palettes send powerful messages and associations.

For example, in some cultures, white has long been used to represent peace and purity.

Red, on the other hand, could represent passion and power.

Blue might feel calm as water.

While yellow brings a burst of positivity.

But colors will rarely stand alone. That's why we have a color wheel

to show us which colors look great when they're side by side.

A color wheel will help you find different combinations

that make your design look right for its intention.

Color is a big element and one that'll take time to understand. It's worth the effort.

Good color palettes can make a design pop and grab the audience's attention.

That's why we go into greater detail in another lesson.

Remember, any part of your design can have color.

Which brings us to our final element, text.

It's not just what you say, but how you say it.

The design, color, and placement of your text

can be just as important as the words and letters themselves.

We use typography to describe the shapes, forms, and lines that make up a letter.

While there are endless possibilities in the world of typography,

you'll typically find these styles fall under two categories - Serif and Sans Serif.

Serif adds a few little lines to the edges of letters.

It's a great option for print projects because it's easy to read.

Sans Serif literally means without serif. So we take those little lines away to get a cleaner shape.

These smoother edges look good when you're publishing on the web,

but really it comes down to you and the style you're after.

There's a lot to learn when it comes to typography, but for now, we just need to acknowledge it's an important element of design.

Now, we know the most basic elements.

Try to isolate individual elements when you look at artwork or design.

See if you can train your eyes to pull apart designs and dissect them into individual elements.

If you can pull something apart, you can put it back together in infinite ways.

Lines, shapes, and text are the building blocks of almost every design.

When combined together, they create infinite possibilities.

In this video, we're going to explore some of the most basic elements of design and learn how to edit them in Canva.

One the most basic elements in graphic design is line.

Line is used to add style, enhance comprehension, create forms, and separate space.

It can be a border around other design elements

or a divider between them.

It can be curved dotted, zigzagged, or straight.

To add a line in Canva, click the Elements tab and then shapes and lines. You'll find pre-styled lines to choose from.

To quickly add a line to your page, press the L key on your keyboard.

Let's start by styling this line.

First, select it so you can see the toggles on each end.

Switch between dotted, dashed, and solid lines in the toolbar here.

Next, try adjusting the weight or thickness.

We can also choose an endpoint style for the start and end of the line like this.

Lastly, change the color here.

Next, let's look at working with shapes in Canva.

You can find all types of shapes in the Elements tab.

Depending on the type of shape you choose, your editing options vary. Some shapes stay in proportion, while others allow you to change width and height.

Let's choose this isosceles triangle, for example, which means it has two sides of equal length. In addition to adjusting the color and scale, we can also adjust the width and height, warping the triangle.

This handy adjustment opens up a world of possibilities

when it comes to combining shapes together to make new shapes.

For example, by making a copy of our triangle and rotating it 180 degrees, now we've made a parallelogram. A completely different shape altogether.

Once you've created a new shape by combining them together, it helps to group them so that you can easily move them and resize them as one.

Select all the objects by dragging your selection over them, then group them.

Grouping also allows you to edit shape

colors all at once. Hold command or control and click the grouped objects to select them as a set, then change the color.

Let's discover how to add text.

We can easily add text to our page and customize it in a few ways.

The quickest way to get started is to hit the T key on your keyboard.

This will add a text box to your page.

Now, we can start to apply some basic formatting such as editing text size, color, styles like bold, italic, or underline, and case.

You can also resize and rotate a text box just like any other element.

To find pre-styled text groups including things like text effects and font pairs,

find the Text tab here.

These are a real time saver when you're looking for some type inspiration.

Let's add in a text group like this one.

It has a headline font here and some body copy text here.

All of these text boxes are grouped together.

We want to ungroup them so we can easily edit them separately.

We do that by clicking here, giving us more control over individual text boxes.

We can easily remove text by selecting text frames and using our keyboard to delete it.

We can also adjust the alignment and styles here.

Now, we have the beginnings of what could become the design of a poster or flyer.

There's a clear heading, but what if we want to change the font of our headline?

Select it and find your font list in the toolbar.

There are thousands of fonts to choose from or you can search by category like this.

This title is looking great, but there's still a couple more styling options we can experiment with.

Let's try adjusting text spacing.

I can increase letter spacing here and line spacing like this.

If I increase spacing too much, text can feel too sparse

and letter forms no longer connect with one another

to create a fluid block of text.

Perhaps the ultimate method for type styling comes from text effects.

But be warned, although they're fun to play with,

text effects can overwhelm designs.

So use these in small doses.

Let's try some effects. Text effects allow text to stand out and can create some depth and movement in designs.

These basic elements of line, shape, and text will help you form any design you can think of.

Lines, shapes, form, text, and color are basic design elements,

but how do we bring them together?

In this lesson, we introduce key design principles so you can create with confidence.

What's the first thing you see in any design?

We'll give you a hint.

It's the element that's emphasized.

Emphasis is when one element stands out.

It may be bigger, bolder, or brighter than anything around it.

We add emphasis to the parts of our design we'd like people to notice first.

Contrast, movement and white space are some techniques that create emphasis.

Let's run through these one by one.

At its most basic level, contrast is difference.

It's the difference between red and blue, patterned and plain, big and small.

Contrasting elements are opposite elements.

They make designs interesting and is used to add emphasis.

Color, texture, and lines are a few elements that help us to build contrast.

We contrast dark with light colors or thick with thin lines.

Here we can see many examples of contrast in a single image.

The text 'Mingbau Restaurant' is the most important piece of information. That's why it pops with bold and bright type.

This contrasts with the black background to emphasize the text.

Where else do you see contrast?

How about the white ring surrounding the black circle

or the white lines framing the dark pictures?

The photographs provide further contrast through texture.

The tactile 3D detail of seeds on a burger bun

or steam rising from a hot dish

also contrasts with the plain, black circle.

White space applies to any area of design not taken up by other elements

such as text, photos, or illustrations.

Designers love it because it can help create grouping, add emphasis, and improve legibility.

Contrary to the name, white space doesn't just apply to the color white.

Even if our design is blue or yellow, we can still have white space.

It often refers to the background of the design.

Even with a picture in the background, you could still have the benefits of white space.

What we're looking for is an empty patch that gives our design breathing space.

We use white space to prevent our page becoming overcrowded with elements.

It makes our design easier to look at.

White space also helps with emphasis.

In this picture, there's so much white space

we're instantly drawn towards the words.

The information is delivered quickly, thanks to white space.

There's plenty of movement in a still image.

Movement is the way our eyes scan the page.

It's how we follow one element to the next.

Line and color direct us towards certain parts of the design in a certain order.

In this book cover, simple shapes and contrasting colors direct our eyes to the center.

Then we notice a semi-circle in the corner which represents the sun.

Doesn't it look like the sun is poised to move across the square or maybe out of it altogether?

There are many ways to achieve movement.

Through contrasting white on black, our eyes are first drawn to the title of the classic book cover

then we make our way down the page to spot

the shark lurking beneath.

The empty space prompts our eyes to move between these bold elements

only later do we drift back up to take a closer look at the little object.

Will the swimmer make her escape before the shark moves into her space?

Repetition can bring artistry to our design.

It can make our design look consistent, build a pattern, or emphasize our message.

Let's start with patterns.

If we take a watermelon and repeat this object until it covers the page, we've made a pattern.

This pattern can add texture or provide a background.

Repeating text will keep our design minimal.

This means we can focus on the message using subtler elements such as color and space to give the words their meaning.

Repetition also gives our design a sense of rhythm.

In the same way music gives us a predictable beat, repetition gives us a visual beat.

Using elements in a repeated order gives our design a clean and well-structured look.

If something is out of proportion, it might fall over.

That's how we think about the size and quantity of our elements

and how they relate to each other.

This stops our design feeling heavy, lopsided, or generally off.

When creating a design that features a cup of tea, a spoon, and a book, we need to make sure the cup is bigger than the spoon and the book should be the biggest object of all.

No matter how many objects or elements we use, they should always be proportionate.

Once we have our objects or elements in proportion, it's time to look at how they're balanced.

Balance is how we position objects inside our design.

It can also include the amount of white space compared to other design elements.

One way to master balance is to think of each element as having a weight.

From text boxes to images to blocks of color,

consider each of their sizes, shapes,

and what weight they have in relation to other elements on the page.

We can also balance our elements symmetrically or asymmetrically.

Symmetrical balance gives our design a sense of security.

Our viewer feels safe knowing our design has been well-structured and everything looks like it's in the right place.

It's safe, but can also be a bit boring.

Asymmetrical balance is where elements are not balanced in exactly the same way.

For instance, one side of the composition might have a large emphasized element that is balanced by a couple of lesser elements on the other side.

It's still balanced, but it's not mirrored like in the symmetrical example.

This makes it a little more dynamic and interesting.

Unbalanced design can be its own design technique too.

For example, when we want to make our viewer feel like something isn't quite right, we make our design look unsteady on purpose.

This is great for unnerving the viewer like on a horror movie poster.

Balance is one of the most important principles.

The final principle to discuss is alignment.

Some people suggest alignment pairs with balance.

As by aligning elements, it can help designs feel more balanced.

Alignment focuses on the relationships between elements, giving structure and order to designs.

You can have edge or center alignment.

Edge alignment can see objects relating to the left, right, top, or bottom of the page.

Center alignment sees objects sticking to the middle either horizontally or vertically or both if you want it right in the middle of both X and Y axes.

Objects can also be aligned to each other where they both sit on the same X or Y axis.

This implies these objects have a relationship to each other and therefore should be understood together.

Alignment is incredibly important if you want your design work to feel professional and finished.

Having objects that are not aligned to each other makes your design look random and unplanned.

We've learned a number of design principles in this lesson.

Soon it will become second nature as you work them into your own designs.

But until then, we'll give you a reminder of the theory you've learned today.

Emphasis is the way one element stands out on the page.

Contrast is the difference between two or more elements such as bright and dark colors or big and small objects.

White space prevents our page becoming overcrowded with elements. It's the breathing space on the page and it can be any color.

Movement is the way our eyes are directed to scan from one element to the next.

Repetition can bring patterns or rhythms into our designs.

Proportion is the size or quantity of our design elements in relation to each other.

Balance is how we position those multiple objects and how we can make the overall design symmetrical or asymmetrical.

Alignment is building relationships between objects and the X and Y axis.

Test out each principle in your next design even if you're only using one word on a background.

Understanding basic color theory will help you grow into a confident designer.

In this lesson, we show you how to find and use color combinations to make your design effective and colorful.

The most basic colors are red, yellow, and, blue.

We call these primary colors.

And when we mix them together, we can start to make any color we like.

By mixing two primary colors, we create secondary colors.

Let's see what happens when we combine red and blue.

We make purple.

When we mix secondary colors with primary colors, we discover a third range, tertiary colors.

But that's not all there is to it. We can change the brightness or darkness of these colors too. When we add black to colors, we're changing its shade.

When we add white, we create a tint of that color.

As well as light and dark, colors can appear warm or cool.

It's easy to remember which colors are warm.

Just think of a fire or a sunset.

Reds, yellows, and oranges are all warm colors.

To put out a fire, you'd use water. So the opposite is where we notice cool colors. Think blues and greens.

But how do we combine these colors to apply color to our designs?

The color wheel is a useful tool. With just one look, we can see every color imaginable.

The wheel also helps us to find color combinations like these.

With complementary colors, opposites attract.

These are two colors that live on opposite sides of the wheel.

Some examples of complementary color combinations are green and red, yellow and purple, orange and blue.

Because complementary colors are opposites, they have high contrasts.

So we use these pairings to stand out.

When we talk about how bright or dark a color is, we're talking about its tone

In monochromatic color combinations, we have variations of the same color like these.

We get tones, tints, or shades by adding black or white to colors.

Monochromatic colors have low contrast.

So we use these to give designs a different feeling.

What feeling does this design show?

Analogous or sometimes called sympathetic colors are colors that sit closely together on the color wheel.

Think of these colors as sets that hug one another.

These colors match well with some contrast.

They make design elements feel related to each other.

Like this example.

These are just color wheel combinations.

When we make our final selection, this becomes our color palette.

Much like a painter's wooden palette, our digital color palette is the specific selection of colors we use in our design.

Color palettes should be applied to designs strategically.

For example, our palette might include cream, red, yellow, and corn flour.

As we work these colors into our design, we might allocate one to our background, another to our text, and another to our objects.

Here you can see the example on the right has the most appropriate color application for this design.

When we bring photos into our design, we can take inspiration from them to help us create color palettes like this.

We can color pick these or use some handy Canva features.

We'll show you how shortly.

Once you've landed on a color palette,

take a step back to evaluate your design.

Does the selection of colors represent the message or feeling you're sending?

Use bright yellows to spread positivity or blues to share calm like these examples.

Designs are either digital, on screen, or printed like on paper.

We publish with colors in these ways.

RGB stands for Red, Green, Blue. It's commonly used for digital publishing and is the color mode of screens.

CMYK stands for Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Key which is black.

This format is the color mode used for printing.

It's also important to keep colors accessible.

This helps people see your design.

Patterns and high contrast colors may enable more people to engage such as people with color blindness.

Now you know the basics of color theory.

How will you use color in your design?

Let's explore the wonderful world of color and take a look at some of the ways you can put color theory into practice.

We'll explore some color tools, resources, and color palettes and how to apply them to designs in Canva.

Start by visiting our Color Resource page.

This is our one stop shop for all things color.

You'll see a Color palette generator, Color palette inspiration, a Color wheel, and even learn Color meanings.

Let's start with our interactive color wheel.

This handy tool makes it easy for us to explore the relationship between colors also known as color harmonies.

We currently have the complementary color harmony selected which consists of two points selected on opposite sides of the color wheel.

Let's try changing the harmony to triadic. Now we have three points.

We can also adjust tints and shades.

But how do we bring these colors over to a Canva design?

Copy any color hex code here.

We can then paste it into the color picker in Canva for our element here.

Back to the color page.

Let's try the color palette generator.

Here we can start inspired with a photo simply upload an image and a color palette will automatically be created like this.

Again, we can copy the hex code to bring it into our design.

Sometimes you might already have a photo in your Canva design like this one, in which case, you can just click the color tile and you'll see the photo colors already created for you.

Still not the exact color that you're looking for?

Select any color imaginable directly in the editor using the color spectrum tool.

Just click this plus button to interact with the sliders.

Looking for more inspiration or want to learn more about the meaning behind different colors?

Check out the color palette ideas page or the color meanings page.

In the editor, it's easy to update the colors in your document with just a click.

Experiment with color palette suggestions in the styles tab here.

Find a palette you like and click to toggle through different color applications to your design.

Any color you use in your design will automatically appear in your swatches here.

To replace a color with another throughout your entire document, select an object and change the color like this.

Here you'll see a change all option. This option finds and replaces all instances of color with another.

In this example, it will change everything that's currently black to purple.

It's that easy.

Go on, the vivid world of colors awaits.

A mood board acts like a mind map for visual elements.

It's a great way to collect and display our inspiration to focus and communicate our design ideas.

In this lesson, we explore different styles of mood boards, why they're useful to the design process, and how to get started with a template.

A mood board is a central place where we collect and display our design inspiration for a specific design project.

It's the visual representation of our brainstorming session.

It also lays the foundation for the overall theme of our design.

This collage of ideas can include illustrations, colors, photographs, textures, and descriptive words.

When they all come together, they demonstrate the visual direction of our project.

One thing to remember, not all mood boards look the same.

Two designers working on the same project may end up with quite different mood boards.

We can tailor them to look however we like, arranging these elements in our own way.

As long as it speaks to us and helps us communicate our ideas to others well, it's doing its job.

A mood board allows us to create with clarity.

When we organize our elements visually, we can see what elements work well together and what elements clash.

It also helps us break down our project into sections that link back to our design brief.

This means we can show our friends, colleagues, and clients.

We can all agree on a single vision from the beginning of our design process.

It's easier to have these discussions about creative direction before the work is carried out and before money and time have been spent.

In other words, the time you put into creating a mood board at the start of your project could save a lot of time and money further down the road.

How do we begin to collate our flood of ideas?

Firstly, we think about the audience we want to reach.

Then we work backwards constructing a mood board with the colors and elements we think they'd like to see.

Then it's time to explore.

Whether working from a formal design brief or a personal project, we can start having fun with research.

We hunt for photographs, colors, words, and textures that support the ideal look and feel of our future design.

When William Yarbrough started a personal branding project, he wanted to replicate the style of the golden age of air travel in the 1950s and 60s.

So he found original materials from the era like postcards and luggage tags, which offer great ideas for typography and color pairings.

This mood board is for a user interface project, but working off a fresh, light, airy, visual direction, it draws from a wide variety of sources for inspiration from food packaging to fine art.

Just because something is from a different genre than your project doesn't mean you can't use it to help establish the direction of your design.

Nothing is off limits.

Once we collect a range of elements we're happy with, it's time to sort through them and choose which ones make it onto our final mood board.

One way to keep our mood board looking consistent is with a color palette.

A color palette can unite our ideas into a central theme.

When creating our mood board, we can include colors that match our vision. Uploading photographs into a color palette generator gives us a selection of specific colors to use in our mood board.

We can also work in reverse discovering color palettes we like, then finding images to match.

We can include color palettes in our mood board too.

Here the designer is inspired by vintage colors like emeralds and golds.

This mood board has been populated with photographs, logos, and typography.

You can start to see these elements give an impression of the project's style and message.

See how the words like vintage and luxurious match the mood and colors.

There are many ways to display a mood board when we package our references into a template we come up with a preview of our future design.

A physical mood board can be as simple as a wall covered in photographs, illustrations, and samples

but a digital mood board should look clean and organized.

People view the digital in a different way so you need to curate the experience for them.

Existing templates are designed to display our final selection of inspiring elements.

Each element will fit comfortably in the template without looking overcrowded.

This designer used one simple template to create three mood boards each showing a different concept for the same project.

Even though the elements change, the template remains basic.

It always gives room for one large picture overlaid with a logo, two smaller pictures to highlight the style, and the color palette see how each template combines the elements into a different feeling.

Here a designer created an initial mood board, but after the client requested a few minor tweaks, the board ended up a completely different aesthetic much more to the client's liking.

You'll notice the first concept is light, bright, and slightly nautical.

The second, while it shares some of the same images, is darker with a more sophisticated, retro look.

Because it was a digital template, it was an easy change.

Don't think you need to fit everything onto one mood board either.

To help a client define their organization's visual style, this designer created three mood boards all with different directions.

One with specific graphic elements that match the theme such as patterns, color schemes, and fonts.

And the other features publications that have used a similar style.

You can get a real sense of the direction here.

The combination of warm tones, traditional type, and the use of texture suggests a professional aesthetic that remains informed by the human hand.

Let's look at one more.

This one is pulling from a tradition of corporate design that emphasizes cool tones and clean lines to convey a strong and modern aesthetic.

The fonts are simple and slender complemented by a Serif body font to reinforce the emphasis on credibility and trustworthiness.

Would you believe both of these boards are for the same client and the same project?

You can imagine the final outcome would be very different depending on which board the client chose to follow.

A mood board might also represent an overall look or provide options for specific elements.

Here examples of website buttons take up a big portion of the template.

However, this template could easily be replicated to show a second range of button styles or the same style in different colors.

At the end of the day, mood boards remind us where our ideas came from.

Referring back to our mood board will guide us back to our original vision the one the client agreed upon.

That way, we keep aligned with the goal through every step of our design journey.

As we've learned, a mood board is the visual representation of our brainstorming session.

It also lays the foundation for the overall theme of our design.

The first step to building a mood board is to think carefully about the feelings and associations you want to convey.

You could start with some descriptive words like fresh, light, airy.

Including these words in your search can help you

find the right mood board template to start

or use them to add inspiration later on.

Let's find a template.

Begin by searching for a mood board from the home page.

As you can see, there are lots to choose from.

So having some idea of the style you're looking for will help.

You can also use the filter on the left to narrow it down.

Now that you've chosen a template, we need to start adding our inspiring content.

The Elements tab contains just about every ingredient you can think of in Canva.

So try searching for a keyword here.

And remember, you're not limited to Canva elements.

When it comes to mood boards, the World Wide Web is your oyster.

Try searching Google, Pinterest, or other sources that might inspire you.

Or better yet, go out into the world and take your own photos.

Upload your own photos from the Uploads tab or search and add a photo by dragging and dropping it straight to your page.

To replace photos, just drag and drop a new one into a frame or over an existing image.

It might help to include other perspectives too.

Why not invite someone to collaborate with?

Use the Share button to invite other people to your design like this.

Then start adding to and populating your board in real time or leave comments on elements like this.

Use your inspiration to create a color palette for your board.

Find suggested colors based on your photos in your swatches here.

Making it easy to draw color inspiration directly from your mood board.

You can then create an entire color palette by adding swatches to your board, by coloring shapes like this.

Refine your mood board by grouping inspiration into clear themes or categories.

You could also try listing your descriptive words or values to help categorize your elements.

It's also nice to prioritize elements on your board to show important elements.

Make a key image larger to create levels of hierarchy within your board.

This will give your board focus and clarity.

Lastly, it's important to always keep your mood boards handy during the design process as this will become your North Star when making design decisions later on.

Share them with your clients, download them, or print them out.

Designers often stick them on a wall to easily reference them all the way through the design process.

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