Graphic Design Theory #3 - Contrast Part 1

contrast is probably one of the most important tools for designers and illustrators to make their work stand out and look professional when used effectively it can help with creating balance tension emphasize focal points establish hierarchy and so much more it might sound like a simple term but believe me it takes time and effort to master it in this video we will analyze some amazing illustrations and photographs and see how they utilize contrast in surprising and creative ways [Music] here we are in milanote i have all the examples on the screen that we will be going through in this video and you can find the link for this board in the description below it can serve as a good reference for you in the future but most importantly i also have all the links to the original artwork on the board so you can very quickly find them where they are from and also you can start following those artists that you like the most so without any further delay let's jump straight into looking at a couple of amazing illustrations to learn about contrast so first of all why is contrast a design principle well because it is a fundamental tool in visual communication and no matter what you do as a creative it's something you really have to understand and utilize in your work i would say almost every time no matter what you do whether it's photography ux design illustration graphic design it is something that you really need to understand and consciously use it in your work so throughout this video i'm going to pick a couple of examples and i'm trying to explain to you how contrast been implemented because pretty much everything that you use in your design so all the elements that you place in your design can utilize contrast whether it's scale orientation color value or pretty much anything that you can think of any attribute can have a contrasting effect when used deliberately when it comes to illustrations in particular contrast is usually used as a storytelling device it's something that you can use to create tension and interest so even on this first striking illustration there is a clear use of contrast and mainly it is about these soft round shapes and the sharp corners and it's a nice rhythm that is created here so we have always the round shape and then a sharp point round shape and then a sharp point and that goes throughout the whole design now of course there's also contrast in the color or value but more importantly i would say it's about the shape contrast in this case that is really making this illustration effective now this is a good example of seeing how contrast can be used for storytelling so we have two very contrasting color temperature in this image we have the warm tones within the light coming from the book and then we have all those cool tones around it in the environment so in this case the contrast established not only helps us to focus on the most important detail in the illustration but it also tells that story that warmth or positive energy that is coming from reading the book creates this lovely and peaceful environment for this couple although in a different style but very similar to this we have someone walking in the forest and again we have contrast established in this case with a more monochrome color palette in the darker parts and a vibrant color palette in the part that is lit by the torch and in this composition the contrast is helping also to establish movement or direction so we have a clear direction established here and once again the storytelling aspect is also important we have animals and characters reacting to the light and also we have these scary things here in the dark so without any text or explanation we clearly understand what's going on in this illustration and we can relate to it now another key word that we have to talk about when it comes to contrast is juxtaposition it means placing two different elements next to each other or two things that are in contrast to each other and it is used in advertisement and in all kinds of visual communication to catch the viewer's attention so juxtaposition relies on contrast and it's a good example of having two different things which are similar in shape but obviously very different in real life a banana and a shark combined together and creating that shock value that is again used to grab people's attention now when you look at this illustration you can already start thinking about what properties are used to establish the contrast and there's actually many of them one obvious one of course is scale so we have a huge character which is not even in the frame but we can see the scale from the shadow that is cast onto this small character standing in the middle but besides that there's also other things that helps to create the contrast and if we take a closer look you can probably see it better that there's also a difference in texture so while the background and the shadow is textured the character in the middle is completely clean so there's no texture on it at all and yes texture plays a very important part in establishing the contrast as well just think of a book cover where you have a nice emboss detail or something that has a foil so immediately you have a textural difference between the embossed or foil details compared to the rest of the cover and even if that textural difference is not tactile not something you can actually feel when you look at an illustration like this you already have that in the back of your head you almost feel the difference between the two surfaces now of course there is also contrasting value and color on the main character compared to the environment and as a pro tip you should always preserve the brightest and darkest details to the focal point of your composition what i mean by that is in this case obviously it helps to draw attention to the character because we have this bright color on the trousers and we have the darkest details probably in the illustration next to each other but here is another brilliant example of utilizing this extreme contrast and using it on the focal point where obviously we have the detail here which is the darkest which is this building against the bright white clouds in the background another illustration by the same artist lavender subu highly recommend to check out his work when you go on the milano board just click on the link and then just explore all the projects that he has on b hands it's highly recommended because you can learn a lot about composition from just simply looking at his work but again as i just said the most contrasting details are the focal points very clearly established in the composition and another example by another artist we again have a very clear focal point again established by putting those two extreme contrasting colors next to each other now contrast is also a great tool to establish distance or depth in your composition and there is one thing that we call atmospheric perspective which means that anything further away from us tends to lose its saturation or vibrance and there is obviously air between you and the distance and that starts to diminishes the color and further away something is the more muted the colors will look and the more it's going to also mix with whatever color the sky is this is used very commonly in paintings in illustration and we can also see it here very clearly so we have these cooler tones in the foreground contrasted by the warmer tones in the sky and all the details that are going further away in distance are going to get more closer to the color of the sky but again as i said the contrast is the main thing that is establishing that distance even though we are looking at a flat two-dimensional illustration we still feel like there is a vast distance that we can travel towards when we are looking at this artwork now even an illustration like this one which is perfectly symmetrical can have a very interesting dynamic composition by having that contrast in the colors on the left and the right this technique of contrasting or complementary colors used to light a scene is very common in photography as well and we will look at a couple of examples later on but when it comes to using a limited color palette it is also important to use contrast as a tool to separate details or characters in this case so there's probably four or five colors used in this illustration but more importantly you will never see two of the same colors close to each other so let's take this character here in the middle for instance so she has yellow sleeves and dark purple for the trouser her skin color is blue directly next to her on the left and the right we have characters with different skin colors so they are more magenta their trousers are both cyan so they are not going to clash with this other character in the middle and the only overlapping detail that is the same color in this case is this little detail here so we have our central character's skin tone that cyan plays next to or overlapped with this blue color of the trouser of this other character so this would be considered a mistake if it was not intentional but because this illustrator is using the contrasting colors next to each other and creating a beautiful rhythm in this line of characters these small areas of blending between the characters is not causing any problem if anything it makes it more interesting and allows the viewer to work a little bit harder to understand what is going on but in general if you follow the colors from left to right like scanning through the image you will always see a beautiful pattern and rhythm created so let's just follow the magenta color first we have it here on the skirt then use more on the skin then going down to the skirt then again on the skin then comes down here on the dog then we have it also on the skin then down to the trouser then up here on the speaker and the skin also the bird then we have it again on these details in the middle and then the skin at the end so you can see how beautifully this illustration really guides the viewer's eye through the whole composition now before moving on to talk a bit more about photography here's another brilliant example of contrast established with many different aspects of this composition first of all we have a poetry and a very strong geometric shape behind it so in this case the geometric shape and the organic details the face is already creating contrast and then we have also the extreme contrast of black and white next to each other which is physically the highest contrast you can achieve and that is why black and white illustrations of photography can be so effective but what's most intriguing is having the same color used on the facial hair or beard and moustache on this character as the color used on that shape in the background and the only thing that really separates them is that thin black line here so again by thinking about the things that we already covered you might be seeing that there is not enough contrast here however the lack of contrast can be just as effective as contrast remember i said creating visual tension so either by utilizing contrast or doing the opposite will also create that exact same tension learning how to utilize a design principle is the first step in understanding it but then the next step or later on when you get more confident in using it it's about learning how to push the limit until it still works but it is just about working so this is a perfect example of both having again black and white colors next to each other having organic and geometric shapes next to each other but then also having that very low contrast separation between two important details again directly next to each other so again there is tension created on many levels these subtle and less obvious details or solutions are the ones that really making your work look professional this is what we would normally say that you have to develop an eye for to be able to create something like that and the best exercise to do is to always really pay close attention and analyze anything that you see that you like and try to really identify what makes that work interesting what makes it stand out and how all of these principles are utilized or not utilized to create a specific effect creating these subtle details are usually the hardest to master and this is where i mostly help our pro member students whenever they submit their work and i review it for them and before we continue with some cool examples here's a little bit more information about this program for a small monthly fee you get access to over 200 hours of adobe certified online training courses master all the tools and skills needed to become a professional graphic designer or illustrator as a pro member you will get mentoring from me and my team access to webinars student forum and creative briefs to help you build an outstanding portfolio pro members can also download the project files for all of our youtube tutorials sign up at yessimodesigner.com memberships and start your free trial today and now let's head back to the tutorial so we already seen some amazing examples of illustrations where contrast is utilized whether to establish the focal point or to help tell the story here are some examples of photography and more importantly a reminder of something we already covered in another video about color theory if you are interested to watch that the link is in the description below for both parts again that was two-part tutorial like this one in that video i explain and go into detail on the difference between value and contrast and the relation between them and these nine images here that you can see on my screen are perfect examples of the little diagram here on the left side so you might have heard this term loki or high key and photography and that's essentially is playing with brighter or darker tones and again although this is photography and photos that we're looking at it's the same exact principle that you can utilize in your graphic design compositions the most important lesson to learn here is that it's not always the highest contrast that's going to give you the best result it really depends on what type of mood or atmosphere you are planning to set in your composition so for instance an image like this one with high contrast can be just as effective as an image with low contrast or an extreme example where almost everything blends together but still we can see the important details so think of contrast as a slider that you can adjust in your composition you can pump it up and create something very dramatic when you use a lot of contrast or you can using it sparingly maybe only utilize it in certain parts of your composition like here is an amazing example by flora borshi where she again obviously has a high key high contrast composition but high contrast is only utilized on these important focal points of the composition and another amazing example of juxtaposition of two things placed on top of each other and aligned in this particular way that makes it look very interesting if you like movies another good study to understand how to use contrast would be sin city where obviously it's been really amazingly used throughout the whole film and actually both movies are perfect examples of it almost all the scenes are completely black and white and the highest contrast details are always used for storytelling purpose so they are highlighting those unique details that are important for a specific character but then there's also lots of scenes where you would have colors popping out from the black and white environment again used to emphasize certain details and create focal points the color pop effect of course is also used in photography to again separate certain details from the environment and this again is something that i would call a very obvious use of contrast maybe to a point that it is over the top or cheesy while you have more subtle contrast in compositions when it comes to photography when for instance you have a single tree that seems like it is standing in the center of this shot but actually that tree is the one that fell and all the other trees are standing since this is a bird's eye view most likely taken with a drone but with that very interesting and subtle use of contrast we have a very unique composition i'm not saying that you should avoid using too much contrast in your compositions it's again about finding the right balance for what you are trying to say because remember you are communicating visually and it's finding that tone of voice that works best for the story that you are telling so i hope you found this example so far useful to understand how to work with contrast but there's a lot more to say about this topic and i have a lot of other amazing examples prepared here so if you are interested to continue make sure you subscribe and watch the next part which is coming up on the channel and in case you are watching this video when the second part is out already you will find the link in the description below to continue thanks a lot for watching like and share this video if you enjoyed it don't forget to subscribe and hit the bell icon to get notified whenever we release new videos click on the link on my right and start your membership today to get access to over 200 hours of training courses and personal mentoring by me and my team of creative professionals have fun learning guys and i will see you in the next one you

Channel: Yes I'm a Designer

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Keywords: Graphic Design Theory #3 - Contrast Part 1, Graphic design theory, #3 - Contrast Part 1, contrast as a design principle, contrast, design principles of graphic design, design theory, graphic design tips, graphic design, graphic design for beginners, master contrast in graphic design, graphic design contrast, graphic design basics, graphic design contrast tutorial, contrast in design examples, contrast in graphic design, graphic design principles

Id: N5cmtv3WlWI

Length: 19min 25sec (1165 seconds)

Published: Mon May 17 2021