A Perfect Guide for Achieving Visual Hierarchy in Logo Design

Visual weight refers to the concept that every design element possesses a particular weight. This concept allows designers to develop symmetry, balance,and visual hierarchy in designs. When implemented intelligently, visual weight helps designers to guide visitors’ eyes towards intended elements.

In this post, we will discuss the concept of visual weight and the factors that influence it.

What Does Visual Weight Refer To?

Visual weight emphasizes on the idea that particular elements in any logo or corporate identity design possess varying heaviness, as compared to other elements. In certain cases, visual weight is easy to understand. For example, large-scale items appear heavier than small-scale objects because they occupy greater space.

However, it is not always easy to identify which elements are heavier than others. Let us assume that few people are asked to compare blue with black, against a white background. While some people would find the black as visually heavier, others will consider blue as the heavier color.

Factors that Affect Visual Weight

Color

It is true that colors have respective visual weight. Certain colors appear heavier than others. Also, saturated and darker colors attract more attention than unsaturated and lighter colors. In general, it is believed that red is the heaviest color, with yellow being the lightest.

Recently, some psychologists have also pointed out hue as another factor affecting visual weight of a color. For example, if you compare red and blue (both of them possessing similar lightness and saturation), you would find red heavier than blue. This has encouraged some psychologists to declare that hue has a powerful impact on the visual weight of a color.

If you want to provide users with an aesthetically appealing experience, avoid using only heavier colors in your brand logo design. Rather, stick to a single heavier color and balance it by opting for a lighter color.

Contrast

Contrast can make a design appear heavier, as compared to others. This is because contrast highlights particular aspects of a design, thus assigning more weight to them.

If one of your designs appear heavier because of its high contrast against the background, achieve visual hierarchy by taking help of other factors, such as color and size.

Size

Size is another important factor that influences visual weight of a design. As compared to a smaller design, a bigger design would obviously appear heavier because it would take up greater space.

This means that if you are planning to incorporate a larger design in your website, balance out the weight by using a smaller design.

Achieving visual balance in designs may not be an exactly easy task because it highly depends on instinct of the designer. Still, you can consider these tips for acquiring a basic idea about visual weight. In case you require professional help, getting in touch with a logo design company would be the perfect idea.