Introduction

Basic Design is a discipline of Design that applies the principles of visual language for better analysis and understanding of design solution, colour theory, compositions, and definition of various elements of design such as form, shape, line, point and their semantic use. A multi-disciplinary domain, Design consists of art, architecture and new media technology, and demands clear understanding of design fundamentals. Apart from the thorough knowledge of core concepts, also required is the representation of particular concept visually in terms of drawing and rendering through perspective to make it effective or functional.

The need for unambiguous visual design for efficient communication distinguishes expressive drawing of the visual art from the technical drawing learned in engineering. Artistic drawings are subjectively interpreted, their meanings multiply determined. For artistic skills and aesthetic sense, one must clearly understand the use of basic design elements and their applications for a particular design solution.

For a designer to communicate more concisely and in a visually appealing manner, it is necessary to use commonly understood formula (principles), perspective and design layout standards. Together, these conventions constitute a visual language, and help to ensure that the drawing is clear and relatively easy to understand.

All designs have certain basics elements or building blocks chosen to convey the message beyond the actual words or images used (semantically). The six elements such as points, lines, shapes, form, texture, and colour are the fundamental alphabets of design for desktop users. Other terms which you might hear described as elements of design are form, space, value and saturation (as in lightness or darkness of colour).

For our classes we'll expand on the definitions of lines, shapes, form, texture and colour and focus primarily on learning to recognize these fundamental design elements in our layout or composition. When we talk about a layout or composition, it is always important to know about how to make a layout framework, composition or a drawing; the question should come from within how to use. Practically speaking, after knowing the basics of” how to', to acquaint with the material presented here in, we should practice by doing practical studio work a lot in order to achieve a proper layout for a specific context. Therefore, this course focuses on practical manual on what we learn, rather than only theoretical inputs. This course structure distribution is conceived keeping that in mind. Thus the author concentrates on illustration based lectures in all the modules.

The web course is designed and dedicated to students of design, art and all those who wish to pursue the field for their own interest.