Understanding Visual Weight from a Design Perspective

When you create a design the design elements that you add to your design carry what is commonly referred to as visual weight. Objects in your design will appear heavier than other objects. With visual weight we can create symmetry and balance in our designs. In this article we will describe how elements within your design carry their weights and what it means to your design.

We know that if we have two design elements on a page that are identical but one is larger than the other then the larger element is going to carry more weight than the smaller element. Then you have the appearance of colors that give your design elements more weight. Darker colors will carry more weight than lighter colors. Colors have varying weights that can effect weight such as saturation, opacity, brightness, contrast, tone and of course there are others.

Higher saturated colors will garner more attention than unsaturated colors. A darker color of the same color will take on more visual weight.

Red will carry more visual weight than say blue. For example, red holds more visual weight than yellow or orange with low saturation.

Elements that have more contrast against a background will carry more visual weight. Implementing contrast can maintain visual hierarchy and readability.

Elements with greater proportion and density will be heavier and carry more visual weight.

Complex elements will give the appearance of greater visual weight. Complex images take the mind longer to process and will occupy more of our attention making it visually greater than something less complex.

Whitespace carries less visual weight but is extremely important to the look and feel of a design. An object with a lot of whitespace will give off the appearance of more visual weight.

The appearance of our designs carry great visual weight and as designers our concepts rely heavily on visual weight. Having visual weight and visual hierarchy and symmetry in our designs is an important factor to making our designs visually appealing.