Aesthetics is a core design principle that is used to define a design’s pleasing qualities. Visually speaking this includes things such as balance, colour, movement, pattern, scale, shape, and visual weight.
As summer is upon us it is the perfect time for thinking about the beach aesthetic in the context of amazing graphic design.
The beach aesthetic demonstrates the importance for designers to think wholistically about design processes and elements. From typography, shapes, patterns, colour, movement, and all other tools at the fingertips of good graphic designers, the success of an overall concept relies on everything working together!
If you were to look up how to create a beach aesthetic in graphic design, you would find over 22 million results! So, how do graphic design artists manipulate visual elements such as colour, pattern, and scale to transport viewers to another world?
Rhythm is key to any successful graphic design, and it can be achieved by repeating elements where the intervals between those repetitions create a sense of movement. In the context of beach aesthetic think waves, rippling sand dunes, floating seagulls, waving palms fronds, schools of fish. Rhythm within design is deliberately used by graphic designers to evoke emotional responses, and can include rhythms that are random, regular, alternating, flowing or progressive.
Tips for creating different beach aesthetics can be found in the realm of interior design where ideas for architectural spaces flourish, and these useful principles are very much transferrable to the practice of graphic design.
According to House Beautiful, the beach aesthetic relies on the use of natural light, soft tones, and takes its cues from the natural environment particularly with regards to colour palettes and materials. Blurring boundaries between indoors and outdoors is key, and this can be achieved through the use of minimal interior elements keeping the indoor space light, open and airy.
Visual journeys that successfully immerse the viewer in a coastal other world via clever graphic design choices have the power to relax and prepare an audience for targeted messaging. One strategy for evoking that beachy feeling is by including patterns inspired from things typically found in coastal homes or at beaches such as beach grasses, seaweed, coral, patterned shells, wicker, driftwood, and seagrass matting!
A chic coastal aesthetic can be achieved by using colour palettes that have softer tones, accenting design elements with neutral colours such as warm beige, light blues, greys, and greens, and leaving enough white space to exude that minimalist look. Alternatively graphic designers can manipulate colour palettes to create different beach aesthetics such as combining crisp white with bright blues for a Mediterranean vibe, or bright coral with sky blue for an exotic coastal feel.
If you are interested to explore how you can create rhythm and achieve a unified aesthetic in your graphic design, and are keen to collaborate with a professional Sydney-based graphic design agency for your next project, then contact us at Fresco Creative.