It’s not too hard to assume that a web designer often faces some serious and unique challenges in terms of design. In spite of the fact that the design we are talking about is based on technologies and is relatively new in the market, web design, however, have been noticed to share a great resemblance with the previous and conventional forms of design and art. From thousands of years, a number of notable individuals have been trying to develop a range of tricks and techniques for creating paintings, photography, drawing, and graphic designs to name a few. And now, the arrangement of a web page seems a lot more similar and identical to an artistic composition like an oil painting.
Thus, we (including some web design companies in India like Intlum) could come to the conclusion that the traditional and conventional art of design can be reworked for giving birth to the awesome web design that would be a fresh breeze in the congestion of today’s designs. So, let’s have a look at some of the classic visual art techniques which will help us create a more effective web design that will surely be a lucrative case.
Structural Composition
Rule of Thirds is such a compositional technique which has been in use for centuries. Probably invented in the eighteenth century, this rule says that dividing an image into thirds (both vertically and horizontally) is one of the best ways of composition. The rule also states that after the division, it’s important to align the most vital elements at the intersecting points or along the lines.
Quite obviously, web design will not be exactly the same as a painting or photograph because the users can scroll! However, it is a wonderful rule to bear in mind for the above-the-fold portion of a layout, especially, the one which may contain the hero image and some key variable components. A website design always serves the purpose of impressing the visitors when they come to a website and this way, you can welcome the visitors with a beautiful and striking composition when they first pop up on your site. Moreover, this technique will help you in arranging the key components of any website such as the logo or CTA buttons to be placed in the right position with respect to the compositionally strong areas.
Another great side of a good composition is not to start off with too many competing components and rather focus on arranging only those components which are the key to communication.
Color Theory
In comparison to any other visual media, the classic color theory stays similarly relevant for the web design as well. A designer should always have the skills of positioning and playing with colors in such a way that one complements the other, evoke visitors’ emotions that you want to evoke, and strike brightly. The concept of Complementary Colors is one of the most essential theories that can make a design or a picture vibrant. Those who don’t have a single clue about complementary colors should know the fact that the complementary colors are those which are the ones which stay completely opposite to each other in the color wheel. This denotes that yellow compliments purple and green complements red.
Any composition with the complementary colors would be vibrant enough to catch the traction of visitors which will be a wonderful benefit for the web designers who are looking for a perfect CTA button color. However, designers should always be aware of the fact that overusing this technique will make their designs overdone and over-saturated which will often seem garish.
Now, alongside the fact that complementary colors are great for the website requiring vibrant color combinations but it’s also true that it’s not the best way to go with the websites that need muted combinations.
One more color theory that may arise in this scenario is Analogous Colors which are positioned closely on the color wheel and which offer a more balanced mixture of hues.
In order to create a good design using the colors, you need to know more about the color association and psychology of colors which are based on how the colors have an effect on human psychology when they see one. Each of the color choices usually reflects the “mood” you want to convey to your users. So, it’s upon you whether you want a warm or expressive or a peaceful feeling to be served to the visitors.
Leading Lines and Negative Space
The leading line, as per the artistic composition, is considered to be a straight or slightly curved line that helps in drawing the users’ attention to a point of interest (commonly known as Focal Point). This technique can be utilized in web designing is a great way to draw the visitors’ eyeballs to the element or component you want to be discovered or focused on by the visitor. You can do this either by implementing the tactical geometrical shapes in your web page layout or by implementing the leading lines on the hero image of your web page. This can draw users’ attention to a particular product or a CTA or something important on a web page.
Moreover, negative space is a hugely used trick in many traditional paintings and sketches. Famous painters and sketchers have provided us great examples of negative space in the images. And this negative space can be used outstandingly well to make one element stand tall among the others. You can call the negative space a dead space where nothing is found by the viewers. This also means that if you keep an object on a picture with a lot of negative space, that particular object will stand tall and get focused! Negative space is not only used to express the importance of an object but to create some ingenious and tricky effects on texts and logos. If you take a look at the logo of FedEx, you will find a symbol of ‘Arrow’ between E and X which makes it insanely awesome since FedEx is a courier delivery service and that arrow would surely depict the delivery from one place to another!
Having a profound and broad idea of traditional design would not only help you understand the art of designing better but it will be a practical help in web designing project as you can see from the above three examples. So, it’s time to start observing the traditional paintings, drawings, and sketch and make your web designs more attracting and fruitful. Many web design companies in Kolkata, Hyderabad, and Mumbai have already started their traditional art classes and being a designer, you should do it too!
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