65 Design Terms You Should Know | FREE COURSE

Envato Tuts+・16 minutes read

Design veteran Laura Kyung introduces 65 essential graphic design terms, covering composition, balance, DPI, PPI, and typography to enhance designers' communication and expertise, including principles like alignment, repetition, contrast, and negative space to create harmonious layouts. The course also covers important image file formats like EPS and PDF, helping designers understand design principles before breaking the rules to communicate effectively with clients and establish expertise in the field.

Insights

  • Design terms such as composition, balance, alignment, repetition, contrast, negative space, and grids are crucial in creating cohesive and visually appealing design layouts by utilizing various design principles.
  • Understanding file formats like EPS for resizable vectors, PDF for universal viewing, and Adobe Illustrator's ability to embed PGF data in PDFs is essential for graphic designers to effectively communicate with clients and demonstrate expertise in the field.

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Recent questions

  • What are some basic design principles?

    Composition, balance, alignment, repetition, contrast, negative space.

  • What is the significance of grids in design?

    Aid content organization, maintain cleanliness, structure layouts.

  • What is the purpose of negative space in design?

    Emphasize specific parts of a layout.

  • What is the role of contrast in design?

    Create visual hierarchy, differentiate elements through form, color, texture, size.

  • What is the purpose of alignment in design?

    Position elements within a layout for visual coherence.

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Summary

00:00

"Essential Graphic Design Terms for Designers"

  • Laura Kyung, a 12-year design veteran, introduces 65 essential graphic design terms for designers to enhance communication and expertise.
  • Design terms range from basic to complex, covering composition, balance, DPI, PPI, and typography to establish design proficiency.
  • Composition, or layout, involves arranging design elements to create a cohesive image using various design principles.
  • Balance in design is achieved by adjusting visual weight through form, size, color, and texture to create a harmonious layout.
  • Alignment refers to the positioning of elements within a layout, ensuring they are properly arranged for visual coherence.
  • Repetition in design maintains consistency by repeating elements like page numbers throughout a layout.
  • Contrast in design creates visual hierarchy by differentiating elements through form, color, texture, and size.
  • Negative space, the blank area around a design element, is utilized to emphasize specific parts of a layout.
  • Grids, intersecting lines aiding content organization, help structure and maintain cleanliness in design layouts.
  • Design principles serve as foundational rules for graphic designers, enabling them to understand layout creation before breaking the rules.

17:51

Understanding Vector Formats for Designers

  • Encapsulated PostScript (EPS) is a resizable vector format commonly used for logos, allowing them to be scaled as needed in various projects. PDF, which stands for Portable Document Format, was created by Adobe and is the most popular format for downloading and viewing on any computer. Adobe Illustrator can embed PGF data, its native format, into a PDF, making it usable as a vector format. This information is part of a course on design terms, including essential concepts like symmetry, color definitions (CMYK vs. RGB), and important image file formats, aimed at helping designers communicate effectively with clients and establish expertise in the field.
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