The Visual Elements

Design builds from an awareness of the 
Visual Qualities that comprise all visible, material things.

Space        Line       Shape or  Form        Texture        Tone

Color        Mass        Contour                  Illumination         Size

The visual elements do not occur alone but are inter-related.

The Design Elements
The 2 aims or end purposes of design are:
Form follows function.
Variety in Unity (Unity in diversity)

Design Elements:

Design elements describe the effects which occur when visual elements are placed together in any way.
Contrast:  The difference which happens when two or more elements are compared.
Movement:  The apparent direction that the eye will take when viewing the forms and elements in their space.

Rhythm:  The effect of units repeating at a particular rate or interval.

Dominance: The apparent emphasis of one form or color or another element.

Opposition: One movement or direction meets an opposing movement (vector.)

Confusion:  Two many different forms or directions: It produces a general strangeness or lack of clarity in a composition.

Field: The space that surrounds or encapsulates a certain form.

Quality: The essential type which characterizes an element. such as, line quality: curving, angular, energetic, textured, colored, heavy, etc.

See web page devoted to pattern making in design:

Repetition: The repeating of any element.  A certain element is repeated, such as, vertical lines; rounded forms; the color brown, etc.

Alternation: A sequence in which two or more elements are repeated in a sequence.