Basics of Design 105: Proximity

The fourth and final principle of design is proximity. Proximity is something you must be aware of, especially if you have multiple points of interest in your artwork or design.

Proximity is the act of physically moving items together to show a relationship. If they are close, they form a group. This information should all be related. If things are far apart, they are unrelated or have a different relationship to other data.

Proximity is crucial as the readers’ eyes travel around the page. Use the other principles of design to grab the attention, and use proximity to show relationships.

Pretty simple in theory, but when designing, sometimes we want everything to be covered and aligned. This may not be the best way to convey our point. We have to contrate on where we want the eyes to flow and how we want them to interpret information.

Let’s take a look at some examples. After we look, I will show some samples without commentary to decide how I used proximity in the art. Let’s get started. 

I moved the text to the far right, so the viewer must separate the writing and the art.

The good and bad ladies are close enough to the main lady to show a relationship. If they were further away, the viewer might not make the connection. 

Ther dogs are moderately close to one another. If I had put the dogs into one big group, it might have changed the piece’s dynamic.

The Llamas, on the end, are just a fun addition. They are not really part of the overall narrative of the piece. So I positioned them far away from the writing. Okay, now for some sample for you to try. How was proximity used to change the meaning of the art?

Are the people on the same team or different teams?

Why is there a space between the desserts and the writing?

If there was no writing, would you understand the meaning of the piece?

Is the man on the far right a part of the family?

I hope you enjoyed those samples. If this stuff interests you, go ahead and buy the book “The Non-Designer’s Design Book” by Robin Williams. I would be doing a massive disservice to her by trying to re-create her teachings. I absolutely adore design after understanding these simple principles.

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