7 Visual Elements of Art Used in Advertisement

by Walter Johnson

Advertising uses an array of techniques in their aesthetics to accomplish its task: to promote a product. The purpose of the art is to provide the product and the firm that manufactures it with an image. An image is a set of emotional associations the consumer, is meant to have with respect to the product. The artistic methods of advertising revolve around the creation of such an image.


Lines can suggest speed, solidity and purposefulness. Lines are the basic building blocks of all art because they are the visual basics of all reality. In general terms, horizontal lines suggest passivity, while vertical lines suggest power and activity.


A shape can suggest anything. Curves suggest feminine voluptuousness, while angles suggest masculine practicality. Depending on the product, the dominant shapes in the ad can provide the impetus to build images and associations based on these basic ideas. A circle can imply eternity and virtue, while a line, like a road leading to a horizon, suggests freedom. Triangles, squares and parallel lines all suggest different concepts and emotions. Triangles focus the mind upward, while squares often suggest practicality and usefulness.


Forms are more complex than shapes. They are the outward manifestation of inward content. A form is the synthesis of line and shape, and establishes the groundwork for all the other elements.


Texture is the surface qualities of an object. They can be smooth, suggesting refined tastes, or rough, suggesting toughness. This might be the distinction, for example, between an ad for Lexus and one for Chevy trucks. The surface features suggest the different associations attached to those different vehicles.


Colors are powerful image builders. Red is almost always used to depict youthfulness, power and action. Blue is often relaxing. Blue is often the dominant colors used in furniture or sleep-aid ads. Green almost always suggests growth, hope and the organic. Yellow and red together can suggest speed and power in a single object such as an automobile.


Values refer normally to color. It refers to changes in the actual color in the "form" of an object, but also can change in intensity. Intense colors suggest speed, youth and virility. These are common in sports car ads and certain types of clothing aimed at youth. More cerebral ads focus on muted values, while ads aimed at youth often use bright, overpowering values.


Space is the most comprehensive of all artistic elements. It is the synthesis of all other elements in the campaign. It is the stage on which all other artistic elements come together. It is not empty space, but is rather a spatial distribution of objects in a defined environment. An automotive ad stressing speed and freedom might use few objects in an ad campaign, and stress the road and the horizon. A truck, more about strength and utility, might be in a cluttered space such as a construction zone.

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