The 7 design elements and their impact on your client's home

Mar 7, 2023

6 min

    3D

Consider the potential effects of the design elements you intend to use before presenting them in your client's residence.

Aerial view of a home's landscape as represented by different design materials

The design world has seen enough mishaps to add more to it. Do your part by getting the right rendering artist! The right rendering artist knows the elements below, their entirety,  and their impact on your client's home. 

The 7 Design Elements

1. Space

Space can be categorized into two: Positive and Negative space. The part of your home which doesn't have any furniture is called "negative" space. The part that contains furniture is known as "positive" space. 

Space is bounded by the house's floors, walls, and ceilings. The area between the home's floor and ceiling determines the room's height or the house's space. The higher its height, the better it is for your clients who want an expansive feel for their home, especially if they have window walls that allow for more natural light and ventilation. However, note that if there is more space in your client's home, it will be more difficult to heat or cool the place, so better inform your clients about this.

2. Colors

The next design element that could impact your client's home.

The colors of one's home, as we all know, could liven up a mood or the other way around. Here's a summary of what colors can do:

  • Red: stimulates vibrancy, excitement, and appetite
  • Orange: brings creativity, energy, and enthusiasm
  • Yellow: helps increase one's focus and allows one to make quick decisions
  • Green: incites balance and relaxation
  • Blue: creates a feeling of security and orderliness
  • Purple: instigates sensitivity and compassion
  • White: clears emotional clutter and silences the inner critic
  • Black: intimidates and creates an eerie atmosphere
  • Brown: encourages connection with mother nature
  • Gray: spur practicality and conservatism
  • Gold: fosters a feeling of success
  • Silver: conveys grace and elegance
  • Bronze: promotes elegance or humility

The list that you have seen above can be a helpful guide in making sure that you have used this design element fully. However, this guide may sometimes be different from how your clients perceive colors, so if you want your client to feel comfortable with their home, you have to know the sets of colors that make them comfortable, cozy, and warm. Do you think painting the walls of your client's home white could make them feel happy? Then go ahead and paint it white.

If not white, do you think it's the color of the year? Then tell your artist to accent the house with green and include plants in their rendering. Keep in mind colors are not only limited to wall paintings. They could also be the colors of the decoration, furniture, and other materials your clients plan to display inside their homes. 

3. Textures

Whenever this design element is discussed, most of us think about the roughness or smoothness of the house surface. However, this design element is not only limited to that. 

The texture could also be described based on the illusion of textures painted or designed on a  surface. This type of texture is known as visual texture. For example, the mural of a boreal forest painted on a surface may create a cool-freezing feel, even if the surface feels different. 

If physical and visual textures are used wisely, your client's home could be more exciting and unique. Tell your artist to create a new look for your client's home by combining different textures during the rendering. If your client requested a Transitional home style, ask your artist to incorporate distressed wooden wall furniture with a neutral color palette that matches the credenza in their living room. Adding a modern waterfall kitchen countertop and a reclaimed wooden bench with some touch of the countertop's design would also be a good idea for the client's kitchen.

4. Line

Rendering artists frequently employ lines as a key design element to convey various impressions in their work, in addition to color. There are three main types of lines - horizontal, vertical, and dynamic - that can have different effects on your client's residence. Horizontal and vertical lines can create a serene ambiance, while dynamic lines can evoke a sense of energy and motion. When designing living spaces such as the living room, kitchen, home gym, and music room, artists often incorporate dynamic lines to infuse these areas with liveliness and vitality.

5. Form

Form is one of the earliest design elements that most of us learned; however, we used a different term. We call it shape.

Form refers to the shape of objects in a room, whether open or closed. These shapes can be straight, angular, or curvy. Straight shapes like rectangles and squares are known to encourage purity and rationalism. Meanwhile, angular shapes like triangles portray toughness and stabilize emotion. If your client wants to create a strong impression for their home, advise your artist to incorporate more straight and angular shapes in their renderings. But if your client wants to get trendy, your artist may include a curvy, circular, or round shape in their renderings. These forms can provide soothing energy, tranquility, and fluidness to a space that perfectly complements the current condition of our world today. 

6. Pattern

Patterns, Patterns, Patterns. 

That design element showcases other design elements - lines, forms, texture, shape, and color - in a repetitive order. 

Patterns, along with other design elements, can make the rendering appealing or not.  

Patterns can also make a room look bigger. If your client wants a spacious-looking room, ask your rendering artist to use larger, repeating geometric or natural patterns.

On floor tiles, the rule remains the same. Choosing a horizontal stripes pattern could also be helpful. Lastly, if your clients want to create a high-ceiling illusion, tell your artist to incorporate more vertical lines in their rendering. 

The right rendering artist doesn't just place patterns on walls or furnishings for the sake of putting them. The best ones use patterns to create continuity, an impressive look, or an expansive feel on your client's home. 

7. Light

The last design element on our list. 

Artists use proper lighting to reveal or add a beautiful impression to your client's home. If they don't, the house may feel dull, no matter how comfortable and cozy the furniture could be. Your artist can use different types of lighting for their rendering. The most common types are: 

  • Natural lighting - comes from the sun, which passes through the home's window walls or regular windows or glass doors. Natural lighting makes one's home more comfortable and suitable for a home office. 
  • Artificial lighting - lighting that artists must consider right after deciding how many parts of the house will be illuminated by natural lighting. There are three kinds of artificial lighting: 

    a. Ambient lighting - lighting that illuminates the whole area; may come from chandeliers and wall lights
    b. Task lighting - lighting meant for a particular task; may come from recessed kitchen lights, desk lamps
    c. Accent lighting - decorative lighting meant to add beauty more than illuminate.

Using different lighting could impact the overall feel of the house; make sure your rendering artist knows how you want each part of the house to feel so that they can allot proper lighting to give you the result you want in every area of their rendering. 

Final Thoughts

All design elements play an important role in your client's home. Each design element's impact may look complicated if not adequately mixed. That is why it is very important to start a home project excellently by getting the "right" rendering artist with a keen eye and creative taste. Someone who can mix and match all the design elements beautifully. Do you know where to find those artists? Well, we have some of them at HomeRender! Get in touch with them by creating your HomeRender account today.

This article was last updated on Sep 21, 2023

    3D

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