Each and every shape has its own meaning and influences our minds differently. Right here in this slide presentation, we are going to present the power of shapes that can knock down any design. Understand from basics till advanced stage step by step. Learn about the Psychology of Shapes from the perspective of experts in an interactive way.

1. A P R E S E N T A T I O N B Y R A V I B H A D A U R I A
Psychology of Shapes
LEARN TO USE SHAPES IN DESIGNS

2. Designs
speak
louder
than
words
So shapes
too.
“

3. The success of any visual composition highly relates
to how people perceive it.
There are many factors influencing human perception
and the significant part goes to psychology.

4. The aspect which we want to cover in today’s class is
called the psychology of shapes.

5. Let’s see what this direction studies and how it can
help designers like you in the creative process.
All the visual objects can be
analyzed in terms of shape.

6. For example, an average house may be perceived as a rectangle with a triangle on the
top and the sun is often presented like a circle with lines around it.
People may not always notice what figures and shapes surround
them still they have a great impact on our consciousness and
behavior.

7. The science studying the influence of shapes
on people is known as the psychology of
shapes.

8. WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO LEARN TODAY?
⚫ What is the Shape?
⚫ Meaning of Shapes
⚫ Why Shapes are Important?
⚫ Types of Shapes
⚫ Negative and Positive Shapes
⚫ Use of Shapes
⚫ Use of Line
⚫ Activity Using Shapes

9. Why this topic?

10. What do you feel when you see a circle,
a square, a triangle, or a heart shape?

11. Do you feel same?

12. Do you feel same when seeing
an object with soft gentle curves
and when see another object
with sharp jagged edges?

13. Shapes have very special
meanings and are an important
building blocks in the visual
grammar and visual thinking.

14. How designers use psychology of
shapes?
• Shapes are essential elements in
all design directions
• They can serve as components of
a visual composition and a
content organizing tool
• Helps in dividing or connecting
design elements into groups
• To make the sophisticated design,
experts need to consider the
meaning of shapes and the impact
which they have on users’ mind.

15. The Grammar of Shapes
✓ Shape by definition is a portion of space
delimited by the perimeter.
✓ Shapes are two-dimensional areas with a
recognizable boundary.
✓ They can be open or closed, angular or round,
big or small.
✓ Shapes can be organic or inorganic.
✓ They can be free-form or geometric and
ordered.

16. How to Get a Shape?
Simple shapes can be combined to form complex shapes.
Complex shapes can be abstracted to make simple shapes.
For Instance, following given basic geometric shapes can be
used to create many shapes.

18. Shapes are
powerful to give
universal
messages.

21. The Line
Lines are the simplest yet the most important element
of Graphic Design.
What is the Line?
Line is a section connecting 2 points.

22. Adjectives of Line

23. An Use of Line
You would be amazed how many
things you can communicate
using just few lines.
Arrangement of lines is
vital. It may help you to
lead the viewer to the
basic concept of the work.

24. An Use of Arrow in Real Design

25. The Line Styles
Line can have variable width and styles such as
solid and dashed.

26. The Line Types and Patterns
A pattern is
something that
repeats in a
design.
Repetitive but
still interesting.

27. The Line Endings Type
The ending may be blunt, curved, and ragged.
Blunt Curved
Ragged

28. Use of Line
Lines can be used to create textures.

29. Lines can be used to create shapes.

30. Use of Line
Lines can be used to manage the followings:
Connect
Separate
Organize
Movement
Texture
Convey a Mood or Emotion
Define Shapes
Provide Emphasis

31. 1. Connect

32. 2. Separate

33. Example of Separate:

34. 3. Organize

35. Why Shapes are Useful?
➢ The different characteristics of a shape convey different
moods and meanings.
➢ Changing the characteristics of a shape alter how we
perceive that shape and make us feel differently about a
design.
➢ Shapes are a powerful way to communicate.

36. The Use of Shapes
➢ Organize information through connection and
separation
➢ Symbolize different ideas
➢ Create movement, texture, and depth
➢ Convey mood and emotion
➢ Emphasize and create entry points and areas of
interest
➢ Lead the eye from one design element to the next

37. Types of Shapes
There are 3 basic types of shapes
Or Natural

38. 1. Geometric Shapes
➢ Geometric shapes are what most
people think of as shapes.
➢ Circles, squares, triangles, diamonds
are made up of regular patterns that
are easily recognizable.
➢ This regularity suggests organization
and efficiency. It suggests structure.
Geometric shapes tend to be
symmetrical further suggesting order.

39. Examples

42. 2. Natural/ Organic Shapes
➢ They are irregular. They
have more curves and are
uneven. They tend to be
pleasing and comforting.
➢ All of shapes found in
nature such as leaves,
rocks, and clouds are
organic shapes and these
shapes add interest and
reinforce themes.

43. Often designers
use natural shapes
to improve and
enrich the view of
geometric shapes.

46. 3. Abstract Shapes
➢ Abstract shapes have a
recognizable form, but are
not real.
➢ They are stylized or
simplified versions of
organic shapes.
➢ Often the meaning behind
such shapes is cultural (a
red octagon as a stop
sign).

47. The Meaning of Shapes as Abstract

48. Abstract Shapes Real Example

50. 4. Negative and Positive Shapes
Shapes can be either positive or
negative. They can be figure or
they can be ground.
The area around positive shapes,
the background, is negative
space.
A solid piece of layout occupies
space, and makes the space
around it come to life.

51. Role of Negative and Positive Shapes
Positive and negative space play an important role in
determining the overall composition in a work of art.

52. What are Positive and Negative Space?
Simply, positive space is best
described as the areas in a
work of art that are the
subjects, or areas of interest.
Negative space is area around
the subjects, or areas of
interest.

53. Mostly
Positive Space
Balance of Positive and
Negative space
Mostly Negative
Space

54. Lets have a look on few
Popular Shapes

55. Circle or Circular Shapes

56. ⚫ Circles have no beginning or end.
⚫ They represent the eternal whole.
⚫ Representing the sun, the earth, the moon, the universe,
and other celestial objects between.
⚫ Circles are used to suggest familiar objects such as
wheels, balls, many kinds of fruit.
⚫ They suggest well-roundness and completeness.

57. Circles can be used in...
➢ Circles have free movement.
➢ They can roll.
➢ Circles are graceful and their curves are seen as feminine.
➢ They are warm, comforting and give a sense of sensuality and love.
➢ Their completeness suggests the infinite, unity, and harmony.

58. Real Examples of the Use of Circles

61. Circles as a big logo getting all the attention to the studio’s name.

62. Beautiful circular elements all over the page.
From foreground and background to navigation buttons.

66. Rectangle and Square Shapes

67. ➢ Squares and rectangles are stable.
➢ They’re familiar and trusted shapes and suggest honesty.
➢ Rectangles are the most common geometric shape encountered.
➢ The majority of text we read is set in rectangles or squares.

68. Where can be Used
Squares and rectangles suggest conformity, peacefulness, solidity,
security, and equality.
They are generally not attention getters like circles.

69. All most all the texts presented to us are organized in squares
and rectangles.

70. Two squares framing the main content.

71. Squared thumbs to organize content.

72. Big framed rectangle showing a nice image, getting the main attention of the page.

73. Rectangles to organize and display content.

74. Different sized rectangles to better organize content.

75. Combination of rectangle thumbnails and hover effect to organize the content and
create a nice layout.

76. Elegant grid layout based on rectangle thumbnails.

77. Our eyes are drawn to the blocks because the shapes and the colors are
attractive and interesting.
Shape can certainly be one of the strongest design elements.

80. Triangle or Triangular Shapes

81. ➢ It expresses actions and dynamism.
➢ A triangle can convey either a sense of strength or conflict.
➢ It exudes strength, movement and the future.
➢ Triangles can be stable when sitting on their base or unstable when not.
➢ They represent dynamic tension, action, and aggression.
➢ Triangles have energy and power.
➢ They are balanced and can be a symbol for law, science, and religion.

82. Uses of Triangular Shapes
FUTURISTIC
Triangle Suggests
ACTION

83. Uses of Triangular Shapes
➢ Spiritually they represent the religious doctrines in many religions.
➢ The strength of triangles suggests masculinity.
➢ Triangles can be used to convey progression, direction, and
purpose.
➢ Their dynamic nature make them better suited to a growing high
tech company than a stable financial institution when designing a
logo.

84. Use of Triangles

90. Spirals

91. ➢ Spirals are expressions of creativity.
➢ They are often found in the natural growth pattern of many
organisms and suggest the process of growth and evolution.
➢ Spirals convey ideas of fertility, birth, death, expansion, and
transformation.
➢ They are cycles of time, life, and the seasons and are a
common shape in religious and mystical symbolism.

92. Uses of Spirals

93. Use of Spirals
➢ They represent trust during change,
the release of energy and
maintaining flexibility through
transformation.
➢ Clockwise spirals represent
projection of an intention and
counterclockwise spirals the
fulfillment of an intention.
➢ Double spirals can be used to
symbolize opposing forces.

94. Double spirals can be used to symbolize opposing forces.

95. Use of Spirals in Background Making

96. Use of Spirals in Vector Arts

97. Use of Spiral in Nature

98. Use of Spirals in Layouts

99. Crosses

100. ➢ Crosses symbolize spirituality and healing.
➢ They are seen as the meeting place of energies.
➢ The 4 points of a cross represent self, nature, wisdom, and higher
power.
➢ Crosses suggest transition, balance, faith, unity, temperance,
hope, and life.

104. Don’t limited your creativity…
➢ You are free to experiment with many
shapes
➢ Make sure you don’t use similar shapes in a
design

109. Tips to Use Shapes
➢ We use shapes to add interest
in a design.
➢ Shapes of different visual
weight can be used to create
focal points in a design and
direct the flow of a design.
➢ Shapes organize elements by
separating some and
connecting others.

110. Tips for Using Shapes

111. Tips for Using Shapes
➢ Shapes that lean toward a protagonist appear to be blocking or stopping
progress. Shapes leaning away from the protagonist give the impression
of aiding progress by opening up space.
➢ Try to keep background shapes simple and large. Being large can help
attract attention and simplicity can put the focus back to the foreground.
➢ Try to use few shapes where possible. Don’t use 3 or 4 shapes to
communicate when one shape will do.
➢ Try to limit the number and size of shapes where possible for clarity in
conveying your message.

112. Activities on Shapes
Create a hard copy of poster/
chart (A2 size) which explains
all about the shapes in detail.
Topics can be taken yourself.

113. Activity 1
Use paper, cloth, board anything to create 3 objects.
Check the examples please.

114. Play with strips of
any material and
create a conceptual
background or
theme.
Activity 2

115. Create a greeting or
invitation card.
Activity 3

116. Pick a punchline or
quote and present it.
Activity 4

117. Designing of Abstract
Backgrounds
Activity 5

119. www.admecindia.co.in
Checkout our courses and blogs
R
An ISO Certified Institute
ADMEC MULTIMEDIA INSTITUTE®
[ YOU DREAM, WE ACCOMPLISH ]