If you were to close your eyes and scribble on a piece of paper, would you be creating art? What if you assembled a piece of furniture, painted a wall or dropped a bottle of ketchup? Is this art?

While arguments about what is and isn't art have been debated for millenia, most people don't think of random scribblings, household chores or messy accidents as true art. Usually, for something to be considered art, it has to combine elements of art together in thoughtful ways to express meaning.

The elements of art are visual components used to create interesting and successful artwork. They are the ingredients artists use to express and share their intentions, ideas, and emotions with the world. These ingredients are different for every piece of art, but in this lesson, we'll discover some of the common elements of art and how they help convey a designer's vision and purpose.

You may have heard the phrase, “There is no such thing as bad art.” This is true. But as a designer, your job is to understand and use contrast, emphasis, movement, space, patterns, and other artistic elements to get your meaning across in a way that is clear, memorable, and engaging to your viewers.

Look around and you will see many different types of shapes and lines in the natural world: the veins of a leaf, the spiral of a spider web, the globe of an eye, the triangle of a volcano. What about texture? Have you ever contemplated the smooth surface of a glossy lake or the soft petals of a rose? How about the coarse bark of a tree or the rough surface of lizard skin? Did you ever consider the motion of a dragonfly carving a path through the air, or appreciate the contrast in a cheetah's spots? The elements of art are everywhere, you just have to look to see them.