February 15, 2025

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Immortalizing Ideas

8 Golden Rules of Composition for Graphic Designers

8 Golden Rules of Composition for Graphic Designers

Composition is mostly known within the photography and art industries, but it’s equally important in graphic design. Design must look visually appealing to users and serve a larger purpose, more than just being pretty, and implementing the rules of composition do just that.


To make your graphic designs more informational and functional to users while still retaining its aesthetic, follow these golden rules of composition.


What Is Composition, and Why Is It So Important?

Composition is the considered result of presented imagery. This can apply to photography—there are similar composition rules in photography—and also traditional art. Even the presentation of food in food photography uses composition to evoke specific reactions.

In graphic design, it’s about the arrangement of the elements and content. A well-rounded view of composition will consider layout, color, texture, and the elements themselves.

These principles are essential in graphic design, as the design is about displaying information while being aesthetically pleasing. Designers should always consider composition to guide the audience’s eye through the design.

1. Design to a Grid Layout

Column grid design in Figma.

Layout is one of the most important aspects of design composition. You might have heard of the Fibonacci Spiral and how many elements in nature follow it. Using the Fibonacci Spiral as a layout guide is great for traditional artworks or including radial balance in art and design, but spirals aren’t the only layout that humans respond well to.

Graphic design—especially layout design, web design, and UX/UI design—works best when set to a grid. Web design for desktop typically uses a grid of 12 columns, but that isn’t a hard and fast rule. Other design types work better with other grid sizes.

Grids provide consistency for your designs. The human eye likes to know what to expect and where, especially when reading important information. Following a grid helps your users absorb your design, and it also means every page is consistent with generic placement expectations.

2. Practice Typographic Hierarchy

Three typographically designed posters on wall.

Even if you’re new to graphic design, you would have experienced typographic hierarchy throughout your entire life. A newspaper is the perfect example of this composition rule.

The main headline article always has the largest and boldest text. This is shortly followed by the second most important article on the front page. Within these, you’ll find smaller, yet still bold, text below the headline to give some insight into the article. Lastly, the text size of the body of the article is the smallest, providing all the extra information.

The same technique should be applied to all design forms. The most important—yet often, the briefest—information should be the largest and clearest, followed by increasingly smaller text for less important, but relevant, information.

One thing to remember is to be selective with the number of sizes and typefaces used in each design. Choose a maximum of three fonts and three or four sizes depending on the use case. Less is usually more when it comes to typographic design.

3. Give Everything Space

The words Do More on a computer screen

To absorb information or visual design, there needs to be enough space. Too many elements together will overwhelm your audience, preventing them from taking in any of your design or information at all.

Providing negative space is a common technique in graphic design and traditional art forms; however, it isn’t the only technique for providing appropriate space in your designs.

Again, working to a grid will help you space your design appropriately. Knowing that less is more also helps you prioritize design elements, allowing you to place only what is needed in your composition.

4. Layer Elements

Red, white, and black layered typography design.
Image Credit: Atelier D’Alves/Behance

Even with plenty of space in a design, you can still layer elements on top of one another. Big bold text is still readable when it covers parts of an image. The layered effect plays to the artistic side of graphic design, but it doesn’t prevent it from being helpful and informational.

If designing for UX/UI or web design, layering elements can help the flow of user interaction. A title can animate across an image or disappear after being selected to reveal other elements, for example.

Layering helps to adhere to a hierarchy, balancing the information you need people to see with the design elements that add decoration or context. It’s also common to layer elements in photography compositions to guide the audience’s view through a photo.

5. Add Textures

Four poster designs with heavy texture elements.
Image credit: MA Cherry/Behance

Akin to adding layering, adding texture is a great way to improve your design compositions. Graphic design doesn’t have to feel flat.

Textures can include gradients, transparency, grunge textures, patterns, and even your text can add texture. If you’re designing in Canva, you can find some great textured elements using Canva codes.

6. Play With Color Harmony

Shape and color design on paper.

Color is one of the most important aspects of design. Choose colors that don’t only work for your branding and fit the WCAG ratio, but that also look good in your entire design.

Color harmony not only means colors that naturally work together, it also includes complementary colors or monochromes with a color pop. There should always be a reason to use a non-harmonizing color in your graphic design, but when done right, it will make your design pop.

7. Integrate Focal Points

Simple graphic design with large photo focal point.

Even if your design is purely for decoration or being pretty, including a focal point will draw people in. This is especially important for information design, as it could be the element that gets people to stop and read your design piece to begin with.

Consider where you want or need your audience to spend the most amount of time within your design. By using a grid system, color isolation, or providing suitable negative space, you can emphasize your focal point so it isn’t lost within the noise.

If following the other composition rules, a focal point should appear naturally within your design. Typographic hierarchy and image layering can push an element to the forefront as the most important design element.

8. Know When to Break the Rules

Typographic design layout.
Image credit: Hermine Maertens/Behance

As Pablo Picasso famously said: “Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist.”

Once you’ve got a handle on what makes graphic design great in the traditional sense, it’s time to start experimenting. Design a perfectly composed poster, following each rule to a T, and then change things up. See how it makes you feel when you look at your new design. Experiment more, or bring it back to the composition basics.

The important thing is to use your design instinct. Graphic design is more structured than traditional art, so there should usually be a reason for your design choices. As long as your design decisions make sense and your design still functions the way you intended, experimenting with composition can help you create the best graphic design you’ve ever made.

Always Apply the Golden Rules to Your Designs… or Don’t

These rules are not set by any gods of graphic design, they’re simply agreed upon by designers after decades of successful design. Follow Picasso’s advice and learn the rules first. Once you understand design composition, then you’ll have the experience to know if you need to follow it for every aspect of each design.