The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints chooses a new youth theme each year. Taken from scriptures, these themes help give a vision to the youth of the Church and inspire them. As a designer, the graphic created by the Church was inspiring to me in the way it uses the four basic design principles: alignment, proximity, contrast, repetition, and color. These principles provide a balance to the image that goes beyond the graphic of the cairn and its balancing rocks. Let’s see why.
Alignment
There are three main uses of alignment in this piece.
(1) Both the cairn and the text use a centered alignment. While a centered alignment with text is often discouraged, in this piece it looks intentional because it mirrors the alignment of the cairn. This strengthens rather than weakens the composition.
(2) The graphic and the text as a whole is aligned along a central, horizontal axis.
(3) A diagonal line follows the edges of the graphic and the text (both of which are shaped like triangles). This axis helps it look balanced and intentional, even with the use of central alignment.
Proximity
The image is the attention-getter, but separated from the message by a large space. The text falls into three sections. The first is the verse, which is in larger type to maintain the emphasis. The second section is the scripture reference, in smaller text but bold. The third section is the name of the church, in smaller and non-bold typeface. The scripture and the reference, while separated by a space, are closer in proximity that the reference and the name of the church. This shows a stronger relationship between the first two sets of text than the third.
Contrast
Though subtle, the use of contrast keeps the image interesting. Starting with the cairn, there is strong contrast between the dark and light stones, and more subtle contrast between the horizontal and vertical patterns that differ between stones. This makes the image more pleasing and creates interest. In the text, contrast separates the different elements. The scripture and reference are in a san serif font, while the name of the Church uses a more formal serif font. While the scripture uses larger, regular text, the reference is much smaller, but bolded. This helps separate the two and show they are different.
Repetition
We see repetition in the shapes, colors, and patterns in this image. The dark green appears in the largest stone as well as the text, unifying the piece. There are a few shades of this green repeating through the cairn so that while the stones all look slightly different, they are similar enough to look like they belong together. Finally, the triangular shape of the cairn repeats–albeit upside down–in the way the words are centered to create an upside-down pyramid shape.
Color
Color is closely related to the repetition in the image. The use of a few shades of green in the rocks, repeated in the text, results in a calming, monochromatic image. If the designers had used multiple colors, the results may have look disjointed. Using only greens keeps it simple, which matches the mood of the rest of the image.
Alignment, proximity, contrast, repetition, and color are the basic building blocks of any solid visual design. In this image, the creators used all of them to keep the design simple, pleasing to look at, and balanced. Alignment and proximity helped create relationships between the different elements. Subtle contrast, stronger repetition, and a monochromatic color scheme unified the piece. The result is an interesting graphic that gets a point across quickly–a must for reaching teenagers in a fast-paced world.