Use of visual element by William lim Wei Nian

Definition of Visual Elements

So basically, what is a Visual element? Visual Elements are components or characteristics which are visible to the eyes of human as suggested from the term “Visual” contributing to the appearance of a certain form.  Besides visual elements, there are other element which is perceived by different senses of our human body such as sound and time. Through visual elements, artists are able to communicate or to convey their feeling and ideas in their art.

Types of Visual Elements

As we all can see, Visual Elements are made up by a few elements which when combine together produce a wonderful or fantastic art. Artist offend cooperate the use of this elements in their part. Although it is not necessary to use every elements, artist often have at least two of them present.  Among the elements include:

Line

A line is a visual element and a continuous mark which is drawn from one point to another.

It can be used define a space, to draw an outline or pattern for shapes, to display motion and texture. In creating an art, line has become one of the most basic necessities.  There are 3 different category of line. The first one is the type or attribute of the line. This basically refers to the way how a line moves from the beginning to the end. It can be a straight, a curve or any way as long as it reaches the end. With this simple method, we can differentiate between the types of lines we are making.

 

Figure 1
Figure 1 show that how lines are being drawn in straight or curvespattern.

The next one is direction of the line. The direction can be used to describe the relationship between a line and page or picture. In such, the way the line is drawn either from left to right or right to left of a paper which is consider horizontal or vertical in which the line is drawn from up to down or vice versa.

Figure 2
Direction of the lines

The final category of the line is the quality of the line. This is refer to how a line is drawn as in smooth, bold, thin or thick. All of these describe the quality of the line’s visual quality. While drawing a line, we may have applied all the three category of lines all together.

Shape

A shape is an enclosed space in which its boundaries are being defined by other visual elements such as lines and colours. There are many types of method that can be used to describe a shape on a flat or two dimensional surfaces and one of it is by using line. Shape which is drawn by line can always combine with other visual elements such as the colours, tone or texture. The quality of the shapes is affected mainly by how it is drawn. Depending on how it is drawn, a shape can be circular or angular or random, even or uneven and etc. Although limited to two dimensional, real world object or three dimensional objects can be transformed into two dimensional shapes on the page by using lines. While drawing a shapes, lines are used as the outlines as the limits of its form.

Figure 3
Type of shapes

Form

Form is visual elements which refer to whole big piece of visual elements and how all the different elements are united into a form. It usually refers to a three dimensional geometrical figure such as a pyramid. Basically form makes the viewer analyze or understand it which in simple words, they mentally capture the view of us viewer. Take the drawing Mona Lisa from Leonardo Da Vinci as an example. Within the drawing itself contains a set of elements which gives it a form or a feeling of mysterious which always put the viewer into the question, “The secret behind the smile”.

Figure 4
Mona lisa which contains the elements of mystery.

Space

Space is a visual elements which refers to distances area between a positive or negative. Positive is described as in white, light or open meanwhile negative is described as in black, dark or close. Putting in Ying Yang concept as example where the white part acts as an open space meanwhile the black part as the close space. Space also helps to produce illusions to the eyes depends on how the combination is created.

Figure 5
Logo of Apple with Steve jobs face. White works as the positive space meanwhile black as the negative space

Value

Value is a visual element which refers to the intensity of brightness or darkness of a colour. In a situation of just having monochrome type of colour, Value plays an important role.  Besides that, value contrast which is the relationship between one element with the brightness and darkness is also important. Value contrast allows us to spot or read words on a page. If a picture or words are having almost the same value of contrast, then it would be very difficult to read or see them. Different type of value helps to produce different effect in both visually and emotionally.

Low contrast: Is usually used to make the viewer look closer into the object and taking their time viewing it. In low contrast, the value between elements with brightness and darkness are close to each other

Figure 6
Figure 6 shows a picture of low contrast in which the words are hard to be read.

High contrast: Usually words or picture with high contrast are very striking. High contrast helps the reader to read the words on the page easily due to the difference in contrast. Also mainly used in big poster so that viewer are able to spot it from afar. In high contrast, the value between elements with brightness and darkness are close to each other

Figure 7
Figure 7 show that a picture with high contrast which immediately captures the viewers attention.

Texture

Texture is a visual element that describes how three dimensional work feels like when it is touched. Texture consists of two different categories which is tactile textures and Visual texture.

Tactile texture – tactile textures are real texture in which can be feel by us

Figure 8
Figure 8 show a real life art painting with can be feels by our own finger

Visual Texture – Visual texture are textures which gives out the impression of the real thing. Such as a picture of a mirror cracking.

Figure 9
Figure 9 shows a effect of a broken glass towards the screen. Although it looks as it is cracked. This is merely nothing since it cannot be feel by our finger.

 

Format

The final visual element is Format. It mainly refers to the how big or small a size and shape of an art.   There are many different types of format with each of its respective function. For an example, a business card or a book where the words don’t have to be that big because they are meant to be looked at a close distance. In contrast, Posters or banners must have a large format like the font size so that it can be seen from afar, supported by the contrast which makes it very striking towards the eyes of public to capture their attention. 

Conclusion

Overall after learning about the use of visual elements, The author decided that the type of visual elements that should be used for the logo design is lines, shape, value and format. Line is used because it is one of the most basic elements needed for almost any art designing. Shape helps to create the logo of Milo. As we can see, Milo’s logo has been evolving from the past few years from 2 dimensional into 3 dimensional. By using shape, we are able bring out the core concept of Milo Logo. How value is applied is that by using combination that create high contrast which makes the logo very striking or appeal to the eyes of public. Without value, it would be pretty hard to create a nice logo. The final element would be format . As mention earlier, a good format helps to capture the attention of the viewer by applying the right size together with the combination colours.

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