The Importance of Choosing the Right Design Elements

The Importance of Choosing the Right Design Elements

Design elements are choices you make that change how your presentation looks. Some examples we're going to look at are fonts, shapes, colors, and CARP.

These elements are important because they can change the readability and tone of a presentation.

What are "design elements" and why do they matter?

When you decide on posting something you adjust the fonts on text, positioning of elements, and colors and filters you use to get the post to look just right.

Presentation design is the same way.

Think about your social media posts...

The font(s) you choose should depend on the colors and purpose of the presentation.

​​Fonts

The shapes you choose may change how your audience interacts with or interprets your information.

Shapes

Your colors you choose can effect how the reader feels about the information.

​​Colors

Contrast - sizes
Alignment - symmetry
Repetition - patterns
Proximity - grouping

​​CARP

The color font you select changes the readability of your information.

If you have a light background, you should use a darker font color and vise versa.

Color

When considering what font style to choose, think about the audience and purpose of the presentation.

Also, if you're using multiple fonts, you want to make sure you don't use more than two and that they compliment each other.

​​Style

​Font Choice

Shapes have different connotations or meanings.

Triangles - scary, evil, power

​Circles - lovable, nice, safe
Squares - unmoving, sturdy, old-fashioned.

Shapes

Different colors also have different connotations that affect how the audience receives and interprets the information.

Also, just like with fonts, you want to make sure you're using contrasting colors on contrasting backgrounds.

Colors

​Contrast can capture the audience's attention, create a focal point, highlight important information, and add variety.

If I want something to stand out, I would want it to have more contrast than the things around it.

Contrast

Alignment is used to organize and group elements. It also helps to create balance and structure based on how items are aligned with each other.

Take these text boxes for example.

​​Alignment

Repetition is creating patterns in a design. You can do this with colors, fonts, images, textures, and more.

This is useful for things you want the audience to remember.

​​Repetition

Proximity is the distance between elements. It shows how things relate to each other and can also create balance in a presentation.

For example, the pictures above each heading show that those images relate to that heading.

​​Proximity

CARP

Let's look at some examples

Poll

Which is the least professional font?

Poll

Which is the most professional font?

Match

Match the picture to the tone.

Angry

Peaceful

Joyful

Upsetting

• Angry

• Peaceful

• Joyful

• Upsetting

Multiple Choice

If you are making a travel brochure to try to convince people how much fun it would be to visit Portugal, which of these color palates would you use?

Multiple Choice

If you are making an infographic about scary movies, which of these color palates would you use?

Multiple Choice

If you are making a public service announcement about why it's important to conserve nature, which of these color palates would you use??

Here is an anchor chart to help you remember some of the points we went over in this lesson.

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Summing It Up