Graphic Design 101 : Rhythm and Movement

Summer break has officially started and now its time to catch up on all those lesson plans I promised myself that I would blog. 

You can catch up on the rest of the Graphic Design 101 series here. These are lesson plans that are flexible enough to be adapted for grades 4-8. My objective in the first half of the course was to introduce the students to the idea that Graphic Design is not equivalent to Digital Design. There are centuries worth of inspiration and many basic design principles to learn before jumping on the computer.

So far we've covered :
>> Positive/Negative Space and Balance
>> Visual Dominance and Hierarchy

Now we are moving on to Rhythm
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Honestly, most of this lesson was just showing them pictures! It seemed the easiest way to demonstrate the concept, without confusing them with a bunch of heady definitions.

Types of Rhythm

Purpose of Rhythm in Graphic Design - 

1. Creating Visual Unity
using similar shapes, colors, styles, textures, etc.  to present a single, understandable message.

No Visual Unity

Visual Unity is achieved by the repeated shape, color and size of the objects

To further demonstrate these concepts in action, we looked at a host of examples from the internet. For each picture, I asked them to tell me all of the repeating elements they could find. First, we remembered our anceint Egyptian friends. They expertly used repetition and pattern and flowing rhythm. Repetition occurs with the sitting figures and rectangles. Checkered and striped patterns occur on the clothing. And flowing rhythm is created as the similar figures are displayed in varying sizes.

Copyright: scorpionka / 123RF Stock Photo

 
Now for a modern-day example... This website design repeats many visual elements, such as the hexagon shape, the colors {grey, blue and salmon}, and thin straight lines.

Source : http://jayce-o.blogspot.com/2012/12/graphic-design-principles-unity-graphic-design.html, Original Site - http://builtbybuffalo.com

You're starting to get the idea, right? You can download the entire ppt, with all of the samples at the end of this post. For now, let's move on to the second purpose of rhythm in graphic design.

2. Creating Movement
repeating shapes, colors, styles, textures, etc. in a way that moves the viewer's eye through the design, or that makes objects appear to be moving.

The similarity of the shape and color provides unity. The variation of size and color leads the eye all the way to the last triangle.

​Again we looked at some samples to show the theory in action. The first one is not a graphic design sample, but it is too good of an illustration to pass up. The repetition of all the men create the impression that the statue just might walk away.
(Note: I tried really hard to retrace my source for this to no avail. Please contact me if you are out there and I will give you due credit)

When possible, I like to use samples that the kids are familiar with and can relate to in their every day life. The Coca Cola packaging uses the repetition of curved lines (in different colors, styles and textures) and bubbles to create the fluidness of their refreshing product.

Teaching the theory of rhythm to the kids was pretty easy. They are so smart and could easily identify the repeated elements and how they created unity and movement. However, visual unity is easier to identify than to create. Throughout the following classes, it was difficult to get the kids to simplify their designs to create a coherent whole. Especially when we got on the computer and there were tons of crazy options for them to explore. But when a kid is beaming with pride and excitement over their creation, I think a good teacher knows when to let it be. 

Feel free to download my complete powerpoint presentation to use for your personal or educational purposes.

rhythm.pptx
File Size:	8590 kb
File Type:	pptx

Download File

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