Hierarchy: What Is That?
In the world of graphic design, there are rules and guidelines that help in the process of creating powerful graphics and messages. These rules are known as the Principles of Design. One of these Principles help to create order out of chaos, hierarchy.
Hierarchy
The arrangement of design elements in order of importance to convey a message.
Hierarchy, to put it simply, places emphasis on certain aspects of a design to provide a clear message. This can be done in a multitude of ways; from placing the most important part of the design higher on the page, to having the most impactful part of the design taking up a lot of negative space. Whichever part of the design that conveys the message must grab the viewers attention first, that is hierarchy. There are differing levels of hierarchy in a well-designed piece.
Level 1: Green text letters
Level 2: Subjects’ face
Level 3: World map
Level 4: Binary code
Level 5: Word “code”
These varying levels can be equated to foreground, middle-ground and background in traditional Fine Art work. Size and space can be big contributors to creating hierarchy and pulling attention in the right place. Like with the image above, the size of the subjects’ head and the amount of space it takes up does give it one of the highest levels of hierarchy in the piece.
Visual hierarchy can also be established with bounding information in boxes or frames; These frames can be implied spatially or be actual frames. In the composite image above, this is apparent with the large green letters framing the subjects’ face (these two elements have the highest level of hierarchy).
Utilizing other elements of design, like contrast, to bring attention and emphasis to the main point of the piece also creates hierarchy. This is seen a lot in advertising and editorial design, basically whenever you see a magazine, email advertisement or shop store window. Contrast can be implemented through color or through sizing. In the example piece, both forms of contrast are used between the green letters and the greyscale background as well as the size difference of the texts and the subjects’ face.
Hierarchy is a key Principle of Design when trying to convey a message through any medium, bringing order to the chaos. Utilizing size, shape, contrast and framing can help with creating visual hierarchy to speak to the intended viewers of a piece. Try finding the visual hierarchy in pieces that are seen everyday in order to grasp the message.