Emphasis and Hierarchy – A Dynamic Duo
So, here we are, finally, at the last lesson in the design series I started last February. Although it has taken a year to go through everything, I thought was important for polymer and mixed media creatives to know about design, it will still take some time to master this stuff. So, don’t worry if you feel like you haven’t been able to soak it all in. Just stick with me and, over the coming months, we’ll have a grand old time reviewing and renewing that information so that, by a nearly effortless process of knowledge osmosis, you will continue to learn until it becomes second nature.
Our last lesson is about a pair of concepts that, like the contrast and variety concepts we talked about the previous couple of weeks, you actually already know. Well, you certainly should find them familiar if you’ve been keeping up with the lessons this past year.
They are the principles of Emphasis and Hierarchy. Both lean heavily on the Elements of Design and the other Principles of Design in order to work and have actually been part of our conversation on and off this whole year. So, the goal this week is to just bring them into focus so you have a clear understanding of how they work and why you use them. But first, let’s see what you recall.
What would you say emphasis is about? Well, if you said it’s about the thing that stands out, that is noticed first, or that could be thought of as the focal point in a piece, then yeah, you got this!
What do you look at first in the Laurie Mika piece above? It’s probably the face although you may register the red heart first. We normally just can’t help but examine a face before all else but the bright red among the relative neutrality of the metallics really puts up a fight for center stage.
If I ask you about hierarchy, and you start thinking about kings and queens or the political order of government, well, those are different subjects but it’s the same basic concept whether we’re talking about art or aristocracies. So, you have some basic knowledge about the concept of hierarchy as well.
You see, you’ve come to this lesson quite well prepared!
Of Power and Priorities
The role of emphasis and hierarchy are quite different even though they work hand-in-hand. Understanding these differences will help you create useful and engaging hierarchies while helping you to position your emphasis accordingly.
Let’s talk about what emphasis is and isn’t first. Emphasis, in its most important artistic role, is about drawing the viewer to a primary subject or the primary section of your piece, often referred to as the focal point. The focal point is usually imbued with the core or starting point of the subject matter, is a key representative of the concepts being explored, or epitomizes your aesthetic in a concise or introductory fashion. Everything else in the design will commonly work in support of that important element or section or will build off of it. The focal point is also generally the top element in the hierarchy.
The primary emphasis does not need to be dramatic or obvious. Carol Beal’s painted polymer pendants don’t have a focal “point” but more of a focal area in each of these pendants. Those areas are the ones that have the highest energy. In both cases it is about a quarter to one-third of the way down where the gold flecks are collected because the gold contrasts with the other colors and the finish of the paint but also because they appear to be layered on top, bringing them visually forward.
But emphasis is about more than just the focal point. Otherwise, why wouldn’t we just call it the focal point? Emphasis is comparative and relative.
You’ll see that in a hierarchy among secondary focal points or other sections. We often decide to give these parts variety or contrast and, in the process, some parts in a piece will stand out more than others. Our interpretation that some parts are more important than others is a comparative process as we determine their importance in relation to each other. So, the use of the principles of variety and contrast can play double duty by emphasizing or deemphasizing parts, something that you have full control over and can adjust as needed.
And once you start making certain elements appear more emphasized than others, you have created a hierarchy.
So, obviously, hierarchy defines where all the elements in the design fall in its visual pecking order. Unlike aristocracies, however, elements won’t be plotting to kill each other off to become the focal point. (But, gosh, wouldn’t that be a funny show?) But why is developing a hierarchy important?
Well, if you recall from my posts on composition, and especially if you were part of one of the clubs and got my step-by-step method for creating a path for the eye of the viewer, you may recall the concept of “leading the eye”. Those lessons were really about hierarchy as developing different points of interest starting with the main focus and defining additional sections with less and less importance is the definition of hierarchy. It’s tied into the viewers visual path through the piece because the viewer’s gaze will generally move around the composition from what is most important to what is least important, barring any strong directional lines that lead the eye around instead.
Although leading the eye is one of the primary reasons for creating hierarchy, you can do a number of other things with it as well including telling a story, developing a message, or giving the viewer an experience through the exploration and discovery you lead them on.
What do you think Laurie Mika was doing in the opening piece? Our eye goes from heart and face down the skeleton to the words below then up the columns of flowers and back down again. Notice how the flowers are just shapes, de-emphasizing them so they don’t fight with the detailed center elements.
Putting It into Practice
So, if you understand how emphasis works then you can develop hierarchies and if you understand the purpose of hierarchies then you can make intentional decisions about your elements that support these hierarchies.
For instance, let’s say you’ve developed a focal point on a pendant and it’s a red circle sitting at the central position of the Golden ratio. That is an extremely strong color and position so it shouldn’t be hard to create less emphasized secondary parts. But you still have to make the decisions about what those additional parts are and which of those will see more important than the others.
So, let’s say you have three other elements or sections you want to include. What color do you make them? You probably want to avoid red so as not to draw attention away from your focal point. Look to your other principles such as contrast or the characteristics of color that would support your intention to choose the colors for these other sections.
Let’s say you make the other elements various versions of cyan to contrast with the red. Because color has such impact, you won’t be able to create relative emphasis and your hierarchy if you don’t differentiate them with texture, size, proportion, etc.
So maybe you make one of them quite large and triangular and another quite small and circular. Give the large triangle an interesting rough texture and make the small circle smooth. The rough texture will have more energy, not to mention that the triangle is bigger, and therefore it will be noticed sooner than the small circle giving it a higher position in this hierarchy. In fact, the small smooth circle will be noticed last if registered at all because it has so little energy.
But what about that third section or element? If you make it of a medium-size, triangular or square so it is angular (angularity has more energy and feels more forceful than circles), with little to no texture, it will have subdued energy compared to the large triangle but will have a lot more going on than the small smooth circle. That way it should be the third thing noticed in the design.
Now, arrange these items so the viewers eye travels around the canvas in a manner that fulfills your intention. You’ll may to harken back to the lesson on line to really drive home how the arrangement can affect the feeling the viewer has about your work.
If you arrange this hierarchy in a straight line, from focal point to least emphasized element, it is going to feel very strong and fast. If it flows in a circle around the composition that will give it a much slower pace and one that is comfortable and inviting, as curvilinear lines generally are. If you arrange them so the viewer has to bounce back and forth across the canvas of the composition to look at the elements in their hierarchical order, it’s going to feel like a zigzag with more frenetic energy than the other options I just mentioned.
Are you starting to see how all this stuff works together?
Looking for Emphasis
I want to leave you with those ideas for now but I challenge you to start looking at the artwork of others and asking yourself where the emphasis is and what hierarchy has been established. See if you can recognize how it affects the way you view the piece and what you get out of it. Then, start doing looking at your own work the same way.
We will be looking more at hierarchy and emphasis in the coming weeks and then I will start circling back around to review the design lessons of the past year. In fact, although I did say I was probably going to do the blog every other week, I miss you all too much already and I’ve decided that I’m going to continue to write something for you weekly so we can continue to spend a little bit of our Sundays together. Some of the posts might be short but I should be able to get something out every week without it interfering with my personal projects. Sound good?
So, until next week, have a wonderful creative start to your February.
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