How to Create Epic Images with 7 Design Principles

Want to create images that soar?

Then buckle up to learn 7 design principles from Star Wars!

Truth be told, I’m geeking out over the Star Wars takeover at Disneyland.

But whether you’re a sci-fi lover or hater, these essential design principles will help you win the battle for your audience’s attention!

How to Use the Force to Win at Visual Marketing

The original Star Wars trilogy not only broke special effects barriers, but also utilized groundbreaking design principles to create epic and memorable scenes.

Incorporate these 7 galactic design principles into your next design!

Design Principle 1: Depth

Depth is achieved by creating a sense of spacing between the background, midground and foreground.

Place important focal elements on the foreground.
Overlap elements on different planes to create layers.
Alter color intensity of elements to appear closer of farther away.

Design Principle 2: Contrast

Contrast is achieved by placing opposing visual elements side by side to create a dramatic mood.

Place larger elements next to smaller elements to show dominance.
Make smaller elements less significant, or the center of attention.

Design Principle 3: Negative Space

Negative space creates drama and tension and provides a visual pause between elements.

Provide breathing room around main elements to bring out local objects.
Create visual drama by having more or less negative space.

Design Principle 4: Perspective

Perspective creates dynamic and visually interesting compositions, allowing certain objects to become more dominant depending on where they are placed.

Use lines to direct perspective, whether it’s a one-point or two-point perspective.
Use lighting, colors and angles to enhance the perspective of elements.

Design Principle 5: Symmetry

Symmetry creates balance and highlights a focal object.

Mirror design elements on each side of the composition to maintain balance.
Place focal objects in the middle of the composition to create symmetry.

Design Principle 6: Directional Cues

Directional cues assist and ease the eye’s navigation through visual elements and towards the focal point.

The most straightforward way to direct attention towards a focal point is to draw a line or arrow to it.
Place objects in the direction you want the viewer’s eyes to go.

Design Principle 7: Repetition

Repetition emphasizes an idea through the use of repeated visual elements, creating strength and unity between objects.

Repeat elements using patterns, lines and colors.
Repeat elements in close proximity to one another so they appear to belong to the same group.

7 Design Principles from Star Wars: Infographic

How to Design Amazing Infographics

I love creating visual content – especially from templates, which makes it fast and easy.

I popped over to Venngage the other day from a Pinterest post, and got lost in all the fabulous infographics templates there!

I ended up spending about 3 hours tweaking TEN infographics for future use. NOTE: I only tweaked designs they’d already created, I didn’t start from scratch. Trust me, no one can make an infographic from scratch in 20 minutes.

I switched out colors and fonts, and added my logo. I was having a blast!

If it sounds like something you’d like to try, sign up for a free account here.

Disclosure: If you upgrade to a paid plan, I may earn a referral fee.

I’ll be writing more about Venngage and have a lot more infographics to share. Can’t wait!

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7 Design Principles from Star Wars: Conclusion

We’ve looked at 7 stellar design principles:

Depth
Contrast
Negative space
Perspective
Symmetry
Directional cues
Repetition

Which one will make the most impact on your next design? Leave a comment to let us know which of the 7 design principles you need the most now.