COURSE OUTLINE

1. The meaning of graphic design.

2. Terminologies of graphic design and their meanings.
3. The elements/principles of graphic design.
4. Colour (colour concepts, types or classifications of colours and colour combination
principles).
5. Backgrounds
6. Fonts

DEFINITION OF GRAPHIC DESIGN

Graphic design can be defined as the art or profession of using or organizing design elements
(which include letters, numbers, symbols, punctuations, shapes and images), to pass an
information or create an effect. It means creatively bringing together and organizing design
elements (which were listed above), such that they pass an information or create an effect such
as a sense of beauty, peace etc. The purpose of graphic design is to communicate an
information or feeling visually.
Graphic design is similar to the work of an artist, only that graphic design does not necessarily
involve the use of a physical painting brush, pen or paper, but they're both visual.

TERMINOLOGIES OF GRAPHIC DESIGN AND THEIR MEANINGS.

1. Font: This simply means text characters or typography (letters, numbers, symbols or
punctuations).
2 Font style: This refers to the shape, form or design of a font.
Note: Font style and font are used interchangeably.
3. Blend: This simply means to adjust the colour of an image such that it becomes similar to
another.
4. Saturation: This simply means the intensity of a colour.
5. Opacity: This refers to the amount of light in a colour.
6. Gradient: This is simply the gradual blending from one color to another.
7. Ambiance: This is simply an effect that describes the condition of the atmosphere on a design
element, image or
the design as a whole. For instance, when you
see an image or picture in which where the person or image looks cold or warm, you will know
right?
that's ambiance.
8. Highlight: Highlight refers to the most important part of an image or design. Increasing the
highlight means brightening the most important part of the image, and this part is usually at the
center of the image or design.
9. Crop: Crop in graphics means to remove or adjust the outside edges of an image. Note, this
is not thesame as removing the background of an image. To crop an image means
adjust(especially to reduce) the EDGES of an image.
10. Edit: In graphics this means to change something on a design, usually by adding
something to it, or removing something from it.
11. Template: A template is an already made or predefined graphic design that has a provision
for editing. Infact, two most important things to remember about template is, ALREADY MADE
and EDITABLE.
12. Stroke: This simple means an outline around an image, text or design element with a
particular width and colour. It can be said to be a line round the edges of an image or text.
14. Mock up: A mock is a design that reveals how a product or thing would look like in real life.
We can liken it to a blue print or the sketch of an architect. It is a design that shows how a thing
would look like in real life.
15. Emboss: This simply means raising the surface of a design element, such that it then has
depth or becomes three dimensional (3D).
16. Blur: Blur simply means to make an image more unclear or less distinct.
17. Pixel: pixel is a minuscule area of a screen (the word comes from “picture element”). Pixels
are the smallest basic unit of programmable color on a computer(or phone), and images are
made up of
many individual pixels.
18.Flyer: This can simply be said to be a printed graphic design. The design you have on a
phone
or laptop is called a soft copy, while the printed one is the hard copy.
17. Intensity: The level of brightness or dullness.

10 BASIC PRINCIPLES OF GRAPHIC DESIGN

1. Contrast
2. Emphasis
3. Alignment
4. Proximity
5. Repitation
6. Blank(or white) space
7. Balance
8. Movement
9. Concept
10. Hierarchy

1. CONTRAST: To understand what contrast means, you should think of the phrase, POP UP. It
refers to the ability of your design to appear popped up (buldged out). Your design should not be
looking completely
flat. This is the idea behind contrast.
Contrast can be created through various ways. Some of
which include:
(a). Through the use of colour.
(b). The use of certain effects like:
(i) Emboss effect
(i) 3D(3 dimensional) effect.
Take a look at the flyer above.

Does it look flat? Of course not. That's because it has contrast.

2. EMPHASIS: This is an important graphic design principle that shows what design element is
more important compared to another, or that seeks to draw the attention of a viewer. You
should know that not all the elements on a design are of the same importance, or have the
same
emphasis. Creating emphasis on your design can be done through the following ways:
(a) Increasing the size of the particular design element that is to be emphasized.
(b) Using a different colour for the design element that is to be emphasized.
The theme 'POWER AND GLORY' is one of the most important things the graphic designer
wants
the viewers to take note of, therefore it was emphasized by marking its size the largest.
Also, note that emphasis may mean unique or different from others.

3. ALIGNMENT
Design elements or objects are not supposed to be placed on a design anyhow. The placement
of
design elements should follow a particular order, and that is called alignment. To further
understand the meaning of alignment, let's look at;
What did you observed?

The first isn't properly aligned (both left and right alignment), while the second is properly
aligned (both left and right alignment).

THE THREE TYPES OF ALIGNMENTS

1. Left alignment
2. Right alignment
3. Center alignment

1. Left alignment: This has to do with ensuring all or some of your design elements begin at a
particular point(vertically), around the left side of the design.

The flyer above has left Alignment (though it also has right Alignment).
2. Right alignment: The same idea behind left alignment is the same as that of right alignment.
It has to do with ensuring that all or some your design elements begins at a particular point
(vertically) at the right side of your design.
If you understand left alignment, you should understand right alignment too. Right alignment
can be said to be the opposite of left alignment.
The above is a image that illustrates center alignment.
The above flyer is having center alignment.

Note(for left alignment): Even though we're saying 'all or SOME of the design elements', every
design element that falls around the left side of a design should be left aligned, and every
design
element that falls around the right side of a design should be right aligned. Likewise, those
that follows around the center of your design, should be center aligned.
Also note that a single design can have two or all of the types of alignments.
Take a look at the flyer below.
4. PROXIMITY
This is simply referring to the distance between design elements. As a graphic designer,
youshould ensure that your design elements are not too close to one another.
If you study some flyers, you'll discover that the graphic designers ensured that the design
elements are not too close to one another. This is them following the principle of proximity.
Proximity is also the principle that states that certain design elements that are
similar( especially in purpose), should be close one another within a region on the design.
For instance, date time and venue are usually close to one another or around a particular
regionon a flyer.
5. REPITATION
Repitation as the name implies is a skill in graphics design that has to do with repeating either;
1. A particular colour
2. A particular object
3. A particular font
4. A particular effect.
To you design, as a way of making it beautiful.

Take a look at the flyer below.Here, certain colours like red, blue and white and certain fonts
were repeated.

6. WHITE (OR BLANK) SPACE. Note that 'white' space doesn't necessarily mean colour white.
It's also called NEGATIVE SPACE. It's a skill or principle of graphic design were the graphic
designer ensures they're empty spaces or an empty space, on his or her design.
You design should not be chocked up with design elements. There should be a
reasonableamount of spaces in between the elements on it.
7. BALANCE: Balance is a skill or principle in graphic design were by a designer ensures that
typography, effects or any design element is used or placed evenly across a design.
For instance, in the aspect of colour, you should ensure that the colours you use for on a design
are used evenly across the design. By this I mean it shouldn't be one-sided. It should be
distributed or used equally across the flyer.
You can ensure your design has balance by dividing it (whether in your mind or with a grid), into
four (4) equal parts by a cross sign. Seeing it this way, you should try as much as possible to
ensure that similar design elements or effects are used in all these four parts or at least two (up
and down or left and right).
Take a look at the flyer above. What did you observed?
If you divide it into four equal parts, you'll discover that a lot of things appear in each of them.

Note: Balance is not limited to colour alone but all other graphic elements or effects. The idea is
just to ensure that design elements or effects are used evenly across a flyer.
You'll discover that the most of the texts takes the right side of the design, while the picture
takes the left. That's balance. Also you'll discover that there's also COLOUR BALANCE. White,
yellow, red and black, are spread across the design. This is balance.

8. MOVEMENT: This is a principle of graphic design were by a designer ensures that design
elements(especially writings), are placed in such a way that readers or viewers can comprehend
the message the flyer is trying to pass across. By this I mean, when someone is reading a flyer,
he or she's eye movement should be able to quickly make meaning out of your flyer.You start
from 'A' till you get to 'Z' not from the middle or any other order. Same applies here.
For instance, the heading of a church flyer (the name of the church or program), always comes
first before other informations on the flyer. Imagine starting to read a flyer only to finally
discover the name of the church or ministry or the name of the program, at the bottom of the
flyer? Such flyer lacks proper MOVEMENT.

9. CONCEPT: Concept refers to a general idea or notion of a thing. That is what people believe
that a thing is, or represents. This applies to graphics aswell. For instance when we talk of
concept in colour, red and white usually means Christmas. You shouldn't be using a black and
brown colour while designing a Christmas flyer because it doesn't agree with the colour concept
of Christmas. Also, they are certain fonts meant for certain kind of designs. Using a wrong font
for a particular design is against the principle of concept.
10. HIERARCHY: This is the organization of graphic design elements by level of importance.
Most important things first, before others. Or you may say first things first.That's the principle of
hierarchy.
Let even if someone would glance at your design let him or her first of all, see what is most
important, before others. This is the idea behind hierarchy.

COLOUR
1. Hue: This simply means the name of a colour. Like red, blue and yellow. Hue means colour.
2. Saturation: This is the intensity or purity of a hue. Increasing the saturation makes the hue
brighter and vice versa when the saturation is reduced.
3. Value: This refers to the degree of lightness or darkness of a hue. That means if we say the
value of a colour is high, it means it's dark, and vice versa if we say the value is low. For
instance
we have light and dark green- The same colour with different values.
4. Tint: A tint is a colour produced by adding white to a particular colour. When white is added to
a hue, we have a tint. We can therefore say a tint is colour plus white.
COLOUR+WHITE=TINT
5. Shade: A shade is a hue produced by adding black to a particular colour. That is, adding
black
to a colour produces a shade. We can simply say a shade is colour plus black.
COLOUR+BLACK=SHADE

6. Tone: A tone is a hue produced by adding grey (grey colour) to a colour. So;
COLOUR+GREY=TONE.
TYPES OF COLOURS
1. Primary colours
2. Secondary colours
3. Tertiary colours

1. Primary colours: They are the colours from which all other colours are obtained. They cannot
be derived from the other colours, rather they can be used to get other colours.They are;
(a) Red
(b) Yellow
(c) Blue
2. Secondary colours: Secondary colours are colours that are made from the combination of
two primary colours. Examples are;
(a) Orange
(b) Green
(c) Purple (or violet)
3. Tertiary colours: These are colours that are made by combining a primary colour with a
secondary colours. Examples are;
(a) Red-orange
(b) Yellow-orange
(c) Yellow-green
(d) Blue-vreen
(e) Blue-violet
(f) Red-violet

CLASSIFICATION OF COLOURS (BASED ON TEMPERATURE).

1. Warm colours: Warm colours are colours which are used to connote a warm whether or
environment or something. They include;
(a) Red
(b) Orange
(c) Yellow

Even from nature, we can inferr that the colour of the sun or fire which is hot, is either having
one of these colours or a combination of them. I believe this is the idea behind why there are
called warm colours.
The psychology or concept behind warm colours are brightness, cheerfulness and happiness
and the likes.
The psychology or concept behind warm colours are darkness, mystery or gloominess and the
like.
For we to fully understand the subject of colour especially in graphic design, we must
understand a COLOUR WHEEL.

A COLOUR WHEEL
A Colour wheel which is also refered to as colour circle, is a circle with different colour sectors.
It is a graphical representation of the relationship between colours. A Colour wheel is a
graphical tool used by artists and graphic designers to study colours, how they combine or the
relationship between them.
ANOTHER CLASSIFICATION OF COLOUR(FROM THE COLOUR WHEEL).
1. Monochromatic colours: These are colours made by adding a either a black, white or grey to
a hue.
2. Analogous colours: These are 2-4 colours that are next to each on the colour wheel.

3. Complementary colours: These are colours that complements each other. They are exactly
opposite each other on the colour wheel. Examples are;
(a). Red and Green
(b). Purple and Yellow
(c). Orange and blue
4. Triadic colours: These are colours that exists at the edge of a triangle around the colour
wheel.

5. Split complementary colours: These are three colours or the wheel where by there's a base
colour and two colours that are adjacent to it's complementary colour.
6. Tetradic (rectangular) colours: These are four colours that are arranged into two
complementary pairs on the colour wheel.

7. Square colours: These are four complementary colours that are evenly spaced on the colour
wheel.
All these colours can be combined careful to achieve attractive results.
All these about Colours are actually the secret of Colour combination.
Please note: One universal principle of colour usage/combination is that don't use a light colour
on a light colour or a dark colour on a dark colour. But you should use a dark colour on a light
colour or vice versa.

There's something called COLOUR PALLETS. It's the Colours one would use on your design.

DEFINITION OF BACKGROUND
A background in graphic design, simply means the base image on a design, on which all the
other design items or elements are directly or indirectly on.

FUNCTIONS OF A BACKGROUND.
1. Adds to the beauty of the design.
2. Illustrates or tells what the design is about.

TYPOGRAPHY

DEFINITION OF TYPOGRAPHY.
Typography refers to text characters(letters, numbers, symbols or punctuations). It can also be
defined as the art of arranging or organizing text characters in a way that makes them legible,
clear, readable and appealing.

SOME TERMINOLOGIES IN TYPOGRAPHY.

1. TYPEFACE: This refers to a general font family. It also refers to a set of characters having
similar features. It can be said to be same font, but with different sizes or weights. Members are
called fonts, while the group is collectively called typeface. For instance,

Typeface: HandoTrial

Fonts: HandoTrial-Black
HandoTrial-BlackOblique
HandoTrial-Bold
HandoTrial-BoldOblique

2. Legibility: The quality of being clear enough to read.

3. Font(or font style): This refers to the shape, form or design of a text character (letters,
numbers, punctuations, symbols etc).

4. Aesthetics: This simply refers to an appealing or beautiful arrangement.

We can't successfully talk about typography and not talk about font/font style

Font: This simply means text characters or typography (letters, numbers, symbols or
punctuations). It also refers to the shape, form or design of a text character (letters, numbers,
punctuations, symbols etc).

The fonts used on a design generally, passes a message about the design generally.
* The fonts used for certain words, should or would pass a message about the word.
* The fonts used within certain regions on a design, would determine whether the design would
be excellent or not.

THE ANATOMY OF FONTS.

TYPES OF FONTS
1. Serif fonts
2. Sans-Serif fonts
3. Script fonts
4. Display and decorative fonts
5. Slab serrifs

1. Serif fonts: These are fonts with extra feet (or stroke) at the top or bottom/edge of a character.
(That extra feet or stroke) is called a serif.
Examples of serif fonts
(i) Hanoble
(i) Hallen Demo
(iii)Chantelli-Antiqua
(v) CreteRound-Regular

CONCEPT OF SERIF FONTS.

(I) Formal
(ii) Trust
(iii) Elegance
(iv) Traditional
(v) Respect

USAGE OF SERIF FONTS

(I) College
(ii) Financial companies
(iii) Editorials
(iv) Fashion brands
(v) Church

2. Sans-Serif fonts: These are simply fonts without serifs. The word or prefix 'sans' means 'no'.
Therefore Sans-Serif means no serif.
EXAMPLES OF SAN-SERIF FONTS
(i) Monsterrat
(i) Poppins-Bold
(iii) HandoTrial-Black
(iv) MonumentExtended

CONCEPT OF SANS-SERIF FONTS.

(i) Minimal
(ii) Clean
(iii) Straight forward
(iv) Trust
(v) Modern

USAGE OF SANS-SERIF FONTS

(i) Technology brands
(ii) Sports brand
(iii) Modern
(iv) Start ups

3. Script fonts: Script fonts are fonts that are stylish.

USAGE OF SCRIPT FONTS
(i) Invitation
(ii) Fashion brands
(iii) Elegant brands
(iv) Food related brands
(iv) etc.

4. Display and decorative fonts:

These fonts are highly decorated versions of sans serif, serif, script, and other font styles. They
are rarely used for long strings of text.
EXAMPLES OF DISPLAY AND DECORATIVE FONTS
(i)Cooper Black.
(ii)Bourton font.
(iii)Abril Fatface.
(iv)Gilroy.
(v)Gazpacho.

CONCEPT OF DISPLAY AND DECORATIVE FONTS

(I) Casual
(ii) Fun
(iii) Personality
(iv) Expressiveness
(v) Unique

USAGE OF DISPLAY AND DECORATIVE FONTS.

(I) Children related fonts
(ii) Food related company.

5. Slab/slab serrifs:
Slab serif fonts are similar to sans in terms of plain square corners. The difference between a
slab and the others is in the thickness of the letters. Slab fonts are thick fonts.
EXAMPLES OF SLAB SERIF FONTS
(I) Impact
(ii)Rockwell
(iii)Clarendon
(iv)Bambi Bold
(v)Arial black

USAGE OF SLAB SERIF FONTS.

1. Logo designs
2. Headlines