50 Totally Free Lessons in Graphic Design Theory

While many of us can create something that looks good in Photoshop or attractive when spliced into CSS, but do we actually understand the design theory behind what we create? Theory is the missing link for many un-trained but otherwise talented designers. Here are 50 excellent graphic design theory lessons to help you understand the ‘Whys’, not just the ‘Hows’.

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Basic color schemes

Introduction to Color Theory

With colors you can set a mood, attract attention, or make a statement. You can use color to energize, or to cool down. By selecting the right color scheme, you can create an ambiance of elegance, warmth or tranquility, or you can convey an image of playful youthfulness. Color can be your most powerful design element if you learn to use it effectively.

1.     The Color Wheel

2.     Primary, Secondary and Tertiary Colors

3.     Warm and cool colors

4.     Tints, Shades, and Tones

·         Color Harmonies – basic techniques for creating color schemes

·         Complementary

·          Analogous

·          Triadic

·          Split-Complementary

·          Rectangle (tetradic)

·          Square

Colors affect us in numerous ways, both mentally and physically. A strong red color has been shown to raise the blood pressure, while a blue color has a calming effect.

Being able to use colors consciously and harmoniously can help you create spectacular results.

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Design Principles

 We can group all of the basic tenets of design into two categories: principles and elements.  

The principles of design are the overarching truths of the profession. They represent the basic assumptions of the world that guide the design practice, and affect the arrangement of objects within a composition  

“The principles of art are the set of rules or guidelines of art that are to be considered when considering the impact of a piece of artwork. “

The Design principles are of eight types: movement, unity, variety, balance, emphasis, contrast, proportion, and pattern.

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Colors

Color Meanings and Colors That Go Together

Colors are more than a combination of red and blue or yellow and black. They are non-verbal communication. Colors have symbolism and color meanings that go beyond ink. As you design brochures, logos, and Web sites, it is helpful to keep in mind how the eye and the mind perceive certain colors and the color meanings we associate with each color.

In addition to understanding color meanings, it helps with mixing and matching colors to know the relationship of adjacent, complementary, and clashing colors.

Adjacent or harmonizing colors appear next to each other on the color wheel. Harmonizing colors often work well together but if too close in value they can appear washed out or not have enough contrast.

Complementary colors are separated by another color on the color wheel. Complementary colors printed side by side can cause visual vibration making them a less than desirable combination. However, separate them on the page with other colors and they can work together.

 Clashing or contrasting colors are directly opposite each other on the color wheel. Despite the name, colors that clash are not always a bad combination if used carefully. They provide great contrast and high visibility. On each of the cool, warm, mixed, and neutral pages are links to profiles of specific groups of colors with descriptions of their nature, cultural color meanings, how to use each color in design work, and which colors work best together. On the next few pages we’ll explore the color meanings of four different groups of colors.

 Cool Color Meanings (calming): Blue, Green, Turquoise, Silver

Warm Color Meanings (exciting): Red, Pink, Yellow, Gold, Orange

 Mixed Cool/Warm Color Meanings: Purple, Lavender, Green, Turquoise

The traditional primary colors are RED, YELLOW, and BLUE.

• Mix two primary colors to get the complementary colors.

• The traditional complementary colors are ORANGE (Red plus Yellow), GREEN (Yellow plus Blue), and PURPLE (Blue plus Red). In grade school you probably had plenty of opportunities to mix primary colors and make new colors. It was magic! The way we see color is a bit different. You’ve probably seen a prism break a beam of light into a rainbow of colors. The visible spectrum of light breaks down into three color regions: RED, GREEN, and BLUE.

• Add RED, GREEN, and BLUE (RGB) light to create WHITE light. Because you ADD the colors together to get White, we call these the additive primaries.

• Subtract one of the colors from the other three and you are left with yet another color. RGB minus RED leaves CYAN. RGB minus the BLUE leaves YELLOW. RGB minus GREEN leaves MAGENTA. These are called the subtractive primaries (CMY).

Try mixing GREEN and BLUE paint and I bet you don’t end up with a nice CYAN. Why? Because the color we see is reflected light and light and ink don’t work in quite the same way. Each of those individual colors is a hue.

Red is a hue. Blue is a hue. Purple is a hue. You can change the saturation of a hue by adding black (shadow) or white (light). The amount of saturation gives us our shades and tints. Add varying amounts of black to get shades.

Think of the coming darkness and the darkening shadows to remember that a hue plus black equals a shade. Add varying amounts of white to lighten a hue. The light hues are tints.