Composing Designs to Make Your Ideas Sing

How composing is more than crafting masterful works of art.

Composing music and designing visual compositions share a common foundation in balancing elements to create a cohesive whole. In both are arranged various components—notes and rhythms in music, or text, images, and colors in design—into a structure that communicates a desired message. Just as a composer considers harmony, melody, and rhythm to evoke emotions and convey ideas, a designer carefully selects and positions visual elements to guide the viewer's attention and create an impactful narrative.

There are a few specific evaluations when dealing with composition of design elements, as clearly defined in Jim Krause’s Design Basics Index: connection, alignment, and priority. Broken down, these three ideals help give specificity to the otherwise perplexing concept.

1. Connection

Each element on the page needs to have a relationship with the others, not unlike encouraging teamwork from a rowdy high school band. The title, a bold and strong leader, needs to elegantly guide the eye to the next item. A subtitle needs to stand out, but not overshadow. And each supporting item becomes less scattered as they fit into place in a logical order that flows on the page.

Krause speaks frequently about flow, making us pay more direct attention to how our eyes filter over a design. Do the elements feel disjointed or “scattered”?

We can improve upon connection by keeping harmony in certain aspects: in text, being alert regarding font choices, size, color, or in images in scale, placement, and filter. Does your piece have this flow; or is there a good reason to interrupt it?

2. Alignment

Close to connection follows the need for hierarchy and justification. Krause defines a few hard and fast rules: flush everything left, flush everything right, center everything, or don’t. Interruption to alignment can make a design seem disjointed and visually cluttered. Rectifying this can improve that achievable “flow” or keeping it can make the audience read a different message.

Empty space also factors into placement. Many designers try to occupy as much space as possible, cram as much information onto the design, and tire the eye with clutter. Krause muses that empty space can be a useful tool to guide the eye away from unnecessary aspects and to the important ideas. He also recognizes the idea of “trapped space”, which just as being physically trapped and overwhelm the viewer. Using justified text and deliberate alignments can make sure we don’t tire our clients before they’ve even started looking.

3. Priority

Take your design and look at it across a room. What pops out first, second, third? What is unseen? Many people look very briefly at a passing subway advertisement, a billboard, or a newspaper advertisement. What jumps out is what will be remembered, and what should take priority in the design.

In music we compare the push and pull of consonance and dissonance, and Krause uses this tug of rope image for design as well. The eye can be pulled and pushed as intended, or led astray and even off and away from the page. Balance and “flow” is the goal; too much dissonance can leave a person dizzy and overwhelmed.

Defining the concepts that lead to improved composition can help a design achieve more attention, cohesion, and describe its proper meaning. In connecting elements properly, aligning them respectfully, and making sure each word and image has it’s necessary priority, a designer can help bring forth a more flowing and harmonious design.