Below is a list of important words that will be used in the course. Please refer back to this page if there is a word that you do not understand either in the written materials or class discussions. 

• Abstraction - art and design based on nonrepresentational forms
• Anomaly - an irregular form in a design in which regularity exists
• Asymmetry - a free, harmonious, and balanced arrangement of unequal elements
• Balance - a state of equilibrium; elements in equal opposition or attraction
• Collage - a composition of found materials
• Composition - an arrangement of design elements
• Contrast - difference between design elements in a composition
• Curvilinear - form defined by curves
• Design element - the parts of a composition
• Dynamic - expressing movement and energy
• Figure - a dominant form in a composition
• Figure/ground - the relationship between the dominant forms and background in a composition
• Focal point - a place in a composition that commands attention
• Form - a shape of definite size and color
• Geometric - form or composition based on mathematical measurement, usually created with mechanical tools or computers
• Ground - the background or non-figure parts of a composition
• Harmony - agreement between elements of a composition
• Hierarchy - the perceived order of importance of elements in a composition, based on contrast
• Medium/media - the material or technology used to create a work of art or design
• Montage - a combination of several distinct and complete compositions
• Nonobjective - nonrepresentational, abstract, usually geometric composition
• Organic - freeform; opposite of geometric
• Picture plane - the compositional field; the space within a frame
• Proximity - the relative distance between elements in a composition
• Rectilinear - a form defined by straight lines
• Rhythm - a sense of movement created by the recurrence of similar features
• Symbol - an abstract rendering of an object, idea, or experience
• Symmetry - form or composition based upon reflection and equality
• Unity - oneness; wholeness; the harmony of all parts of a composition
• Weight - the perceived lightness or heaviness of a form

Contrast of form

• geometric/organic
• rectilinear/curvilinear
• symmetrical/asymmetrical
• simple/complex
• abstract/representational

Contrast of size

• large/small

Contrast of direction

• vertical/horizontal/diagonal

Contrast of position

• top/bottom
• high/low
• left/right

Contrast of space

• active/empty
• positive/negative
• advance/recede
• near/far

Contrast of weight

• light/heavy

Contrast of texture

• fine/coarse
• smooth/rough
• even/uneven
• matte/gloss

• Gradation - transitions of colors in steps or stages
• Harmony - agreement between colors; Itten defines color harmony as groups of colors that when mixed result in a grayish neutral color, and refers to these sets as color chords
• Hue - the identity of a color; in the Color-aid system, hue refers to the purest version of a color
• Relativity - the changing appearance of a color based to its proximity to another color
• Saturation - purity of color; sometimes called intensity
• Shade - a mixture of a pure color with black, darkening the color
• Temperature - the sensation of a color as warm or cool
• Tint - a mixture of a pure color with white, lightening the color
• Transparency - seeing through colored materials such as film, thin paper, liquids; sometimes overlapping, resulting in color mixtures
• Transparency illusion - the perception of seeing through overlapping layers of color, achieved by combining non-transparent materials
• Value - generally, the relative importance of one color compared to other colors in close proximity; in the Munsell Color System, value refers to the lightness of a color

• Contrast of hue - the most basic of all color contrasts, achieved by combining forms composed of different hues in a single composition
• Contrast of light and dark - the difference between black, white, and various grays; also the difference between light and dark versions of a color achieved by adding white or black or by adding the color’s complement
• Contrast of saturation - the difference between pure and diluted, or intense and dull colors, achieved by adding gray or the color’s complement
• Complementary contrast - the difference between colors that are opposites on the color wheel, sometime including mixtures of the colors ranging from recognizable variations of each parent color to middle neutral mixtures
• Simultaneous contrast - the illusion of multiple contrasts that occurs simultaneously to a single color when viewed against different colors; the illusion of different color afterimages on the same gray ground
• Contrast of temperature - the difference between warm and cool colors and the sensations they produce; warm colors generally range from yellow to red, and cool colors from green to blue; however, variations of the same hue can be described as warm or cool
• Contrast of extension - the appearance of similarity or difference in a composition, based on the proportional amounts of light and dark colors; in essence, small amounts of bright colors will be balanced by large amounts of dark colors, while even amounts of light and dark colors will result in stronger visual hierarchy