Balance in Art and Design

To create a balance in art or design, you can use visual weight.

Visual weight is the balance of elements that draw the eye within a composition.

Those elements can be in the form of color, size, or contrast.

Color is used to balance a composition by repeating it throughout. When we look at this magazine cover we see the big yellow title first. But it is balanced through repeating the color in other headings and with the lines under the page numbers at the top of the magazine.

Notice also, that the color of the red crown jewels is repeated by the small lines at top and towards bottom.

Size is used to visually balance this example by having “WIRED” at the top repeated in size towards to bottom with “THE NEW KING.” Both of these titles have smaller fonts surrounding them which adds to the balance.

Imagine no words above the man’s s

houlders. It would seem empty at the top and we would say that it would make the composition visually heavy at the bottom.

Contrast as an element of visual balance is used by lights and darks or warm vs. cool colors. Again we see this contrast with the yellow and blues in our cover example.

Visual weight can also be used to balance your living room or fine art piece. An easy way to do this is through color.

This living room is no different than our magazine cover.

It splashes a contrasting color of red that is equally balanced throughout the room. Notice that it uses size of elements as well. The ceiling mimics the size and color of the red couch and the frames on the wall add a small dose of red just as the art piece does on the next wall.

In art, this technique has been used for years. Just take a look at Woman with a Parasol, painted by Monet. It may be hard to see how this is visually balanced but if we think of color, size, and contrast, we can see how it works.

The clouds are not big and fluffy but rather broken into smaller almost separate elements that mimic the broken color of the flowering grass. This gives a visual balance in size of elements.

Contrast is used here by warm yellows and cool blues.

There is a balance of color by bringing the blue sky color down into the grass with blue thin stokes of grass scattered through the green. The green is repeated from the grass in the umbrella. Look closely and you can see that the green and yellow tones are repeated under her arm and in soft small strokes scattered in the clouds.

Balance in visual weight through contrast, size, and color can work for many different forms of art. It is a tool to use in many projects that can create a more visually pleasing piece. Consider it the next time you go to paint, decorate, or even write a blog.