Fundamental Elements of Design

Space

Space is the background and foreground that surrounds the focal point.

Value

Value is the variation of lightness or darkness of a photograph. A photo with a higher value would be lighter than that of a lower value.

Color

Color is the core of the rainbow. It is what paints the picture of a beautiful purple flower or the bright green color of its leaves. The three primary colors are blue, yellow, and red.

Texture

Texture is how soft, shiny, matte, rough, or prickly an object is. It shows the variations in the two or three dimensional surface of an object.

Shape

Shape is a combination of lines and texture to create a two dimensional object. There can be geometrical shapes or organic shapes.

Form

As opposed to shape, form creates a three dimensional object from the use of lines, texture, and variations of color.

Line

A line is a straight, two dimensional figure that has direction and length. It marks the distance between two points and is used to created different shapes and forms.