Emphasis

Focus and Emphasis

Focus and emphasis promote unity by steering the viewer’s eye to one spot in the composition.Focus orients the element of a composition toward this spot, while emphasis brings out one part of the composition as dominant.Increased scale, stronger coloration, and more psychologically intense shapes are a few means used to increase emphasis.A composition may have more than one area of focus or emphasis.Often a strong dominate area may balance off satellite areas of lesser focus.

Isamu Noguchi Big Boy, 1952

Emphasis

Emphasis is also referred to as point of focus, or interruption. It marks the locations in a composition which most strongly draw the viewers attention. Usually there is a primary, or main, point of emphasis, with perhaps secondary emphases in other parts of the composition. The emphasis is usually an interruption in the fundamental pattern or movement of the viewers eye through the composition, or a break in the rhythm.

The artist or designer uses emphasis to call attention to something, or to vary the composition in order to hold the viewers interest by providing visual "surprises."

Jerry Uelsmann Small Woods Where I Met Myself 1967

Emphasis can be achieved in a number of ways. Repetition creates emphasis by calling attention to the repeated element through sheer force of numbers. If a color is repeated across a map, the places where certain colors cluster will attract your attention, in this instance graphing varying rates of mortality from cardiovascular disease.

Contrast achieves emphasis by setting the point of emphasis apart from the rest of its background. Various kinds of contrasts are possible. The use of a neutral background isolates the point of emphasis.

John Gutmann Strange Visitors W. Eugene Smith Burial at Sea Jerry Uelsmann Untitled 1975 Contrast of color, texture, or shape will call attention to a specific point. Contrast of size or scale will as well.