--- title: Layout & Composition description: Layout and composition focus on the arrangement of visual elements on a page or screen. You will master grid systems, alignment, white space, and focal points to organize information clearly and guide the viewer's eye through a design. category: arts-design subcategory: graphic-design difficulty: beginner, intermediate, advanced url: /subject/layout-and-composition --- # Layout & Composition Layout and composition focus on the arrangement of visual elements on a page or screen. You will master grid systems, alignment, white space, and focal points to organize information clearly and guide the viewer's eye through a design. ## Available Resources 2 Books • 1 Courses • 3 Websites ## Websites ### 1. The Futur Design-business education company founded by Chris Do, publishing videos, podcasts, and courses on brand strategy, client pricing, and running a creative practice. Useful for designers who want to charge and position their work commercially. **Difficulty:** Beginner | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://thefutur.com/ **Tags:** branding, brand-strategy, design-business, creative-freelancing, pricing ### 2. canva.com/learn/design Canva Learn is a design education hub offering free tutorials, articles, and guides on layout, composition, typography, color theory, and branding. It provides practical, step-by-step instructions and ready-to-use templates to help you create polished visuals. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://canva.com/learn/design **Tags:** websites, arts-design, graphic-design ### 3. smashingmagazine.com Smashing Magazine is a design-focused publication offering practical articles, tutorials, and ebooks for web designers and developers. It covers layout, composition, typography, UX, and responsive design, with code samples and design patterns. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://smashingmagazine.com **Tags:** websites, arts-design, graphic-design ## Courses ### 1. Fundamentals of Graphic Design Graphic Design is all around us! Words and pictures—the building blocks of graphic design—are the elements that carry the majority of the content in both the digital world and the printed world. As graphic design becomes more visible and prevalent in our lives, graphic design as a practice becomes more important in our culture. Through visual examples, this course will teach you the fundamental principles of graphic design: imagemaking, typography, composition, working with color and shape... foundational skills that are common in all areas of graphic design practice. I don't just want you to watch a video of someone talking about design, I want you to MAKE design! If you want to be a designer you have to be a maker and a communicator, so this course will offer you lots of opportunities to get your hands dirty with exercises and with more practical projects. At the end of this course you will have learned how to explore and investigate visual representation through a range of image-making techniques; understand basic principles of working with shape, color and pattern; been exposed to the language and skills of typography; and understand and have applied the principles of composition and visual contrast. If you complete the course, along with its optional (but highly recommended) briefs, you will have a core set of graphic design skills that you can apply to your own projects, or to more deeply investigate a specialized area of graphic design. To succeed in this course you will need access to a computer. You can complete this course without one but it will be tougher. Access to, and a beginner's level knowledge of Adobe Creative Suite programs, such as Illustrator, Photoshop and InDesign will help you, especially if you want to complete the optional briefs. **Difficulty:** Beginner | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://www.coursera.org/learn/fundamentals-of-graphic-design **Tags:** graphic-design, typography, composition, color-theory, design-fundamentals ## Books ### 1. Grid Systems in Graphic Design **Author:** Josef Müller-Brockmann The Swiss modernist designer's systematic manual for constructing typographic grids, from column and module proportions to placing text, images and captions. Shows how to design consistent layouts for books, posters, catalogues and corporate materials using a rational, repeatable structure. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid **Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/3721201450?tag=edmonddante07-20 **Tags:** books, arts-design, graphic-design ### 2. Layout Essentials **Author:** Beth Tondreau A visual handbook of 100 principles for using grids in page layout, illustrated with annotated real-world examples of single-column, multicolumn and modular grids. Helps designers choose a grid, structure hierarchy, and keep multi-page publications consistent. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid **Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/1592537073?tag=edmonddante07-20 **Tags:** books, arts-design, graphic-design --- *This content is part of Dantes.io - Your Treasure Map to Knowledge* *Curated by humans at Dantes.io. Personal study use welcome; republishing this curation requires permission (team@dantes.io).* View this page online: https://dantes.io/subject/layout-and-composition