SPEAK VISUALLY Receive practical tips on how to
communicate visually, right in your inbox.
In order to create professional graphics, you want to have a clear understanding of the basics of alignment distribution of elements across the real estate of your canvas area.
In this article we're going to explore each one of this tactics so you can use them to create better content:
It's easy to randomly place objects and text on your canvas, but the principles of proximity and alignment advice otherwise.
The Proximity principle states that we perceive elements close to each other as a unit, on the other hand, elements far from each other are perceived as different or separate, while on the other hand the Alignment principle states that no element should be placed without a clear thought and logic.
The next time you position objects on your design, make sure to keep the proximity and alignment principles in mind. The example below shows two lines of text within a close proximity. You don't have to necessarily force your elements to touch to keep them connected as a unit.
We just published an article about the importance of spacing and margins. Without going into too much details, a rule of thumb is to keep spacing consistent.
This means that having different spacing points between lines of text is going to make the design look messy and hard to read. Make sure you apply the same points to the overall text for a clean and uncluttered look. For example in example below the three lines have a relation to each other, therefore the spacing between each is fairly consistent.
You should have both horizontal and vertical guidelines to help you to align your elements correctly.
This doesn't means you have to center everything. You can place the axis wherever you want, just make sure that you follow through.
It's often easier to adapt your text to the background than adapting the background to the text.
As a result you would want to align text (and other elements) to the background you're using. In the example below the horizon of the ocean is used as a guide for placement of the text while the sky serves as the real estate of the text versus having placed the text directly over the waves would have made it difficult to read.
If you can't do it with the background, align other elements to support and emphasize your text / message.
Remember to find elements that go with your design to keep an overall consistency in your design. You can utilize icons, arrows and glyphs thousands of which are available on Visme. But don't over do the use of icons and shapes; enough to support your content and not too much where you overtake and reduce the impact of your statement.
What do you think? Have any other tips you want to recommend? We'll love to hear from you!