Color for any art printing and graphic design will definitely effect the overall mood of the piece. If you choose predominately blue and light colors your design will have a calm and peaceful mood. Shades of red in art printing can represent love or passion.
Lines can be used in a variety of ways in graphic design and art printing. Line quality will also bring out an overall mood to the piece. Are these lines slim or bold? Squiggly or firm? Lines interacting parallel can bring out a professional mood, while lines in abstract angles could bring out a chaotic mood for a graphic design piece.
Considering shapes of objects in your graphic design is equally important and add feeling and focal points to the overall piece. For example if you go with firm square shapes in your piece, this can represent trustworthiness and stability. Circles can be visually pleasing and add an organic feel to a design. Some research even shows that triangles come across as masculine and feminine design feels will have more curves and circle shapes.
You can also use balance of objects in your piece. Is the weight of your design balanced in harmony or offset in chaos? Is your design scaled to be life sized or 'larger than life' on a billboard or similar?
White space is tied in with balance and weight of the design. White space can work well to make sure a design is not crowded and adds simplicity to the design. A great example of this is the Google logo which comes across as 'simplicity is key' from all of the white space around the logo and their web design in general.
Finally, textures used can add realism to any printing art or graphic design. Programs like Photoshop and GIMP have tons of textures available to use ranging from cotton textures to brick textures, you name it. Textures can add an abstract look to graphic design as well as realism. It's your choice! But it's easy to go overboard on texture use so keep it simple when first starting out. Adding textures is said to be one of the most fun aspects of graphic design.
Remember you are communicating a message about a certain brand or idea with your graphic design. Choose the mood with colors, lines and shapes. Use white space and scale of shapes to balance the weight of your design and finally use textures and type of shapes to add realism or abstract qualities. These must know fundamentals are essential to help you become a top graphic designer.
Work by Anthony Harmon