 It always feels very funny to speak English to an Italian audience, but it's okay. You know, hi. It still feels strange, but it's okay. You can all practice with me. I actually hate this. It always makes me get into karaoke mode, you know? Ciao Roma, that I can say that with a perfect accent. So before I start, I have to say this. I'm going to take 30 seconds to note and mention that last year, the first work on Proma was also my first work as a speaker. And so work on Proma will always have a special place in my heart. Also because it started my quote unquote career as a speaker at work camps, which I've been doing a lot lately. So, grazie Roma. Let's get to it. This is me. This is what I do, which is a lot of stuff. I actually do all of this and I actually get paid every once in a while to do it. So my topic today is about the seven basic principles of design, which you may or may not know, but also of how they can also apply to our lives. And this talk was inspired by a book by Alex White that is called The Elements of Graphic Design. So let's get to it. The general principles that guide visual graphic design can also relate to many aspects of our lives. And being aware and mindful of them can help us design better lives. But before, please, a note of warning. These are not rules. These are principles which should be considered as guides, not as mandatory. Thank you. And their indication, you can consider them as little dials like in the next picture, like sliding switches that you can turn on and off, switch something more of something, less of something to have, to achieve better, more appealing and value added design and lives. So let's go. The first principle is space. And we can define space as the area within, around, above or below an object or objects. It can be physical. That's three-dimensional. That's the space we occupy. And, you know, that it's filled with things. Or it can be visual, intangible. That's the space in a layout. April Greiman fills her space up a lot. Paul Rand lives at Empty. It's also the area at our disposal for the task we are working on. So that could be the final print size of a project. It could be the screen of the computer. Or it could be the mobile device that we design for. In life, space is what surrounds us physically, spiritually and mentally. In design, white space is especially important. White space is the space between the elements as well as the space within the elements. It's not empty space. Consider it like the pause that when listening allows you to understand the words. Or let me show you something. Hard to read, right? So white space is not no space. It's white space. It's a very powerful element of design. And it can enable some object to exist that actually don't exist. The arrow in Federal Express is white space. And the panda's head and body in, you know, the three W's is white space. In life, white space is that quiet time. It's a time to rest and recharge. It can be physical, like sleep. It can be vacation, time away from work. Or people in my case. As an introvert, I always need time alone after being with people. It can also be mental through meditation and running and simply unplugging. We can create white space that can make us breathe better. We need white space in life to see better and feel and appreciate the things that fill our lives. Just like in that words all attached together. If everything is attached together, it gets hard to get it and appreciate it. And the same is in design space. The second principle I want to talk to you about is that of unity in harmony. In a design, when all elements are in harmony, no individual part is perceived as more important than the whole, like here. We see a picture, we don't see a stone amongst other stones. Achieving harmony is the main goal of good design. And just like in a design space, when all elements in our lives are in harmony, our quality of life is superior and better. So to avoid chaotic or boring and lifeless, which is the opposite design, we need a good balance between unity and variety. And to avoid boredom, we need a good balance between the known and the new and the safe and the exciting in our lives. We achieve unity in design in four ways. The first principle is proximity. That's elements that are physically close are seen as related. You see here, that's the same exact elements, the same number of squares. But in the first case, it's a square made of squares. And in the other case, it's just squares scattered around. When objects are placed together, they're perceived as group. Proximity in life is community. It satisfies our need for belonging. The second way we can do it is through similarity. Elements that share similar positions, size, color, shape or texture are seen as related to form a group or a pattern. Similarity in our lives makes us feel safe and belonging, like here now. We are amongst people we know and we feel close to and we feel safe. But it can also make us curious or suspicious about the unfamiliar and unknown. So it's something that can be good, but if it's too much, it can be bad. The third way is through repetition and rhythm. Recurring position, size, color or use of graphic elements create unity. Rhythm is repetition with a focal point interruption. In life, this translates into having routines and breaking those routines in appreciating comfort and breaking out of our comfort zones. The fourth way we can achieve unity is by using variations on a theme. Variations provide continuity, but they retain interest. And in life, well, we all like pasta, but not with the same sauce every day, right? The next principle is Gestalt. Pragnanz, which is the psychological principle underneath it, is the German word for pithiness, which means concise and meaningful. It states that humans tend to order their experience in a matter that is regular, orderly, symmetrical and simple. So we tend to simplify. So here, for example, we tend to see the white shapes or the orange background. We have to focus to see the single pieces in the background. It also states the principle that minds perceive external stimuli as a whole, rather than a sum of parts. So in the first example, we see one odd shape. We don't see the three different shapes overlapping each other. In design, this means that all the elements that are a part of a whole are affected by what surrounds them and each other. In life, it means that natural systems and their properties should be viewed as holes, not as a collection of parts. In fact, that's how we perceive experiences, holistically. We don't just hear something or see something or smell something. We do everything altogether at the same time. By manipulating the relationship between the parts, we can change the cumulative perception of the whole. For example, the work that David Carson does can take us aback and leave us intrigued. He challenges that in his work. So his work is always like, in addition to proximity and similarity, other Gestalt grouping principles include closure. That's when the minds tends to complete a figure, even if it only sees part of it. And that's why we see a bowl with spikes. Thank you. I was like, Italian for that. And we see a panda and we see an airplane, while in fact, that's not really what's there. Our minds fills up the spaces. In life, this may lead us to jump to conclusions. So we have to be careful. The fourth way is through continuity. Our mind perceives objects on a path as being grouped together. So the leaf in the age looks like it's flying out of there. Or the cats I love. That cat is always like, what? But it's true. We look at it and we kind of go, that can't be. In life, these can lead to prejudice. And so again, we need to be careful. Because it's not necessarily so that if everyone does that, means that it's like that. Or if something goes in a certain direction, then truth is that it's not. So we need to be aware of that. The fifth way is through simplicity. Elements of objects tend to be perceived as group. If they form a pattern that is regular, simple, and orderly. And so we see a U for unilever. And we see an X while in fact they're made up of smaller elements. In life, these can lead us to generalize. And it's again something we should be aware and careful about. So the Gestalt principles applied to life should be reminders that perception and reality may differ. And things may not be as simple or as predictable as we may think or like. The fourth principle we're going to talk about is hierarchy. Which is best expressed to proximity and it's necessary to express priority. In design we can achieve hierarchy through size, alignment, repetition. This is just an example where through type you can see certain words, certain concepts come out more strong and before others. In life, hierarchy can be determined in many ways and applied to many things. It can be an asset. It can be a goal. It can be an imposition or a privilege or an opportunity or a penalty. It still boils down to how we manage priorities. In design we can also implement hierarchy through contrast and color, which are two principles we're going to talk about next. The fifth principle is contrast and dominance. These concepts are closely related to each other and to hierarchy. In a group, if there is no dominance, equally weighted elements are forced to compete. And this is true in life as well. In design, lack of contrast and dominance create messages that are hard to decipher and offer unpleasant experience. Try reading the first part. That's why we add heathers, body sizes, font style to create a reading hierarchy that makes it easier to discern what's important from what is less important. In life, contrast generally manifests a need for change or for more balance. That's when we argue, right? We argue when we're not happy about something. The sixth principle is color. According to Alex White, who was my inspiration, color is partly artistry, mostly science and common sense. In design we use color to attract attention. We use it to identify and group elements. Virgos do that a lot. My closet is color divided. I'm not normal though. We use it to indicate meaning. Certain things, this is learned, but we know that if something is red, it's something we need to pay attention to. If something is green, we kind of know it's okay. It's also used to convey a mood. One of my favorite movie directors, Guillermo del Toro, does this amazingly well. In life, aside from the practical or fashionable application, this could be my library. It's not because I'm kind of messy, but it could be. Aside from that, color is found in our lives in more than chromatic expressions. People, emotions, friends, lovers, family, pets, music, food, passions, dislikes. This is color in our lives. The final principle is balance. It's the last one, but it's not the least important. In fact, it's probably one of the most important. Balance can be defined as the state of equalized tension, though not necessarily a state of calm. We define three types of balance, symmetrical or formal, and that's when elements are vertically centered and visually equivalent on both sides, and this type evokes feelings of stativity, classicism, formality, consistency, tradition, steadiness. Then we have an asymmetrical balance, or informal, and this works with white space and with aligning things with an eye, and this evokes feelings of dynamism and modernity and power and energy and vitality. And then we have a bad balance. Incredibly so, which is called overall mosaic balance, and that's when we present too much information without contrast or hierarchy. The result is that our eyes can't focus on anything. When we look at this, we don't know where to look, what to look, what's the message, what's important, what's not important, and so this is confusing and this is unappealing and in design is bad, like if you're my student, bad day, bad vote. In life, balance is a little harder to achieve than in design, and yet we should all strive for it. A good mix of harmony, priorities, contrast and color combined with an holistic vision and a wise use of the space we occupy are the key ingredients to design a desirable, valuable, interesting and worthy life. And with that, I thank you.