The Principles of Design

Emphasis

Designers use emphasis to help readers identify the relative importance of each element in a composition.

To identify emphasis, look at a design and see if you can easily answer these questions:

• What is the first thing I see?
• What is the second thing I see?
• What is the third thing I see?

These questions lead you to recognize the visual hierarchy within a design. Visual hierarchy consists of:

• a clear focal point, the most emphasized element, and
• accents, elements of lesser importance than the focal point:

Use emphasis effectively in a design by:

• Making only one focal point
• Clearly emphasizing the focal point
• Emphasizing accents in ways that make the visual hierarchy clear.

The following examples demonstrate some of the ways to establish a focal point.

Examples:

Click on the thumbnails for more information.