Principles of Design - Scale and Proportion

The principles of scale and proportion in graphic design are related. Scale relates the size of one thing to the size of everything else around it in a piece of work whereas proportion relates each item in the piece of work to the whole piece of work itself. The picture provided shows examples of both scale and proportion.

For example:

Scale in this picture is like the relationship between the house's size and everything else around it from the trees to the wooden posts to the hills.

Proportion on the other hand is like the relationship between the size of each object in the piece of work to the whole piece of work overall.

Principles of Design - Hierarchy

This is an example of visual hierarchy in art. The picture shows the different levels of social classes in modern society. The social class pyramid is arranged in order of importance (from dominant to subordinate). Notice how at the top are the heads of the country followed by politicians and heads of states going all the way down to the base of the pyramid where the general public stands. Besides following an order of importance, this social class pyramid also shows order of quantities; for example there are less politicians and heads of states (higher and smaller part of the pyramid) than there are the general public (lower and larger part of the pyramid).