Composition & Layout

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László Moholy-Nagy, Composition #19, 1921

Composition is the arrangement of all the elements to make the piece work as a whole

László Moholy-Nagy, Composition #19,

1921

Unity is created by using consistent style & treating elements similarly

3Henri Matisse, La danse (1909)

Creating Unity

1. Color of armor does not match the helmet2. Details of the armor’s surface area differ

New media design requires unity because it requires many images in one screen or across many pages or screens

Bill Viola, Hall of Whispers, 1995

Unity Tools1. Space--Grouping or arranging in a pattern

2. Line--Similar line quality, direction devices

3. Shape--Groups of similar shapes

4. Value--Similar values, consistent light source

5. Texture--Similar textures

6. Color--Similar hues, tints, shadesMariko Mori, Birth of a Star,

1995

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Mariko Mori

Birth of a Star, 1995

Miko No Inori,  1996

Pure Land, 1996-98

Layout is the arrangement of all the elements of a design in a way so that they work together

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Content read left to right, top to bottom

Important elements near top

Most important elements are larger than rest

Captions near images

“Next” or “continue” near bottom

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Working with the Grid

Grid: A series of intersecting lines to align placement of elements on page. See

http://www.gdbasics.com/html/grid/grid.html )www.gdbasics.com/)html/grid/grid.html

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Raphael.  The School of Athens. 1509. Fresco. Vaticano, Stanza della Segnatura, Rome

Summary

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1. Composition is the arrangement of all the elements to make the piece work as a whole

2. Two important aspects of composition are unity and layout

3. Unity is created by using consistent style & treating elements similarly

4. Layout involves arranging all of the elements or images of a design to work together