• Try “portfolio”, “ink”, “branding” or a code like “PRS 101”.

GDS 102Graphic Design

Composition and Visual Hierarchy

Arrange images, type and space so viewers see what matters first: balance, grouping, grids, reading paths and adapting one layout across formats.

Planned

About this course

Composition is how you control attention. This course moves from seeing (format, visual weight, balance and grouping) to structuring (grids and alignment) to directing the eye (contrast, scale, isolation and white space). The last module tests your layouts by adapting one message across a poster, a square social post and a wide web banner. Teaching combines short readings, annotated examples across design and fine art, thumbnail exercises and a critique-and-revise studio.

Who it’s for: Beginning designers and artists who want their layouts, posters and pages to feel intentional. No prior training needed; any layout or drawing software, or pencil and paper, works.

You will be able to

  • Explain how visual weight, balance and grouping affect what a viewer notices first.
  • Build a column or modular grid and use it to align a multi-element layout.
  • Create a deliberate reading path using contrast, scale, isolation and white space.
  • Adapt one composition to three formats while keeping its hierarchy intact.
  • Critique a layout using specific compositional vocabulary and revise it.

Studio project

A three-format layout series for one message, with thumbnails and annotations showing grid, reading path and focal point.

To complete this course

  • Complete every required lesson.
  • Have the assignment “One message, three formats” accepted by an instructor.
  • Records of completion are issued only for courses whose content has passed instructor review.

Part of

Syllabus

Working titles: they may change as the course is written.

  1. Module 1: Seeing composition

    The forces at work in any frame, and how to see them in your own and others' work.

    1. 1.1Format and frameReading · 25 min
    2. 1.2Visual weight, balance and tensionReading · 35 min
    3. 1.3Grouping: proximity, similarity and alignmentReading · 30 min
    4. 1.4Exercise: 24 thumbnailsExercise · 45 min

  2. Module 2: Grids and structure

    Invisible structure that makes layouts consistent and faster to design.

    1. 2.1Grid anatomy: margins, columns, gutters and baselinesReading · 30 min
    2. 2.2Building a modular gridStudio · 50 min
    3. 2.3Breaking the grid on purposeReading · 25 min

  3. Module 3: Directing the eye

    Tools for making viewers look where you intend, in the order you intend.

    1. 3.1Entry points and reading pathsReading · 30 min
    2. 3.2Contrast, scale and isolationReading · 30 min
    3. 3.3White space as structureExercise · 40 min

  4. Module 4: Composition across formats

    Keeping hierarchy intact when the same message has to work in many shapes and sizes.

    1. 4.1Adapting one layout to many formatsReading · 30 min
    2. 4.2Studio: critique and revisionStudio · 60 min

Author: Ricketts University curriculum team (draft for founder review) · Not yet reviewed

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