You don’t realize what you don’t know until you come across it in the wild. And there’s no place more wild than the world of design. So many people with years of experience are creating fantastic content. Yet when I have a single question, I can’t find one who answers with practical steps. That was my situation with designing depth, so here’s a post for all the creators like me.
We all understand depth. 2D becomes 3D when you add visual distance between elements. Illustrators have thousands of methods from hatching to shading. Photographers use nature to their advantage. But what do designers have? Can we create depth? Absolutely. It takes a little finesse, but there are a few ways to create visual depth with little effort.
Overlap
Perhaps the easiest option in your deck. Our eyes recognize stacked objects as being stacked, one behind the other. This common occurence in nature opens opportunities for layering and visual direction. Below are a couple variations I messed with in order to showcase overlapping. I know, I know. Child’s play. But the simplest and easiest effects can have a big impact when applied with intention.
When it comes to good overlap, consider the example of nature. Things that are further away tend to be darker and smaller. While you can throw a black square onto a yellow circle that’s larger than it, this doesn’t create depth. Most occasions, it will flatten your design. Receding, darker shapes are a consistent method for obvious depth. I also like playing with opacities, as you can see in “layering,” so let your eye guide the process. Better yet, let someone else stare it for a while and see what they think. Trust me, you’ll go cross-eyed after a while.
Drop Shadow
Nature has a lot of shadows, so it stands to reason digital shadows will have the same effect. Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop have drop shadow adjustments along with transformations that can expand the shape (check out “Distort & Transform > Transform” to see what I mean). There’s a lot of different ways to do this, but my favorite is the Appearance panel in Illustrator. With this feature, you can edit text and shapes without having to recreate the shadow each time (see below).
Best practice for shadows is to have two sides where it diverges from the text/shape and that it diverges unevenly. Hopefully the pictures make more sense than my word salad, but basically shadows aren’t one-sided and 1:1 ratio. This effect can be similarly done in the Effects panel of Photoshop, though it renders faster in Illustrator.
One thing to note is to not make your shadow too strong or too big. I intentionally made mine a little thicker so you can see it, but all you needs is a subtle shadow for most designs. Layer modes, shadow color, blur, and opacity are all methods for toning down strong shadows. I highly suggest messing around with the Appearance panel in Illustrator; there’s a lot to discover.
Tints & Shades
I talked about color theory a while back, but I somehow missed tints and shades. When you take a color and add white or black, you create a tint or shade. These variations of your original color can be used for realistic shadows or fascinating highlights. Texturing, layering. Text hierarchy, palette building. Tons of options.
Easy way to get tints and shades is through Blend mode in Illustrator. You can use the Blend tool on the sidebar, but I like to jump into Edit at the top so I can specify wanting steps (see above). After expanding the blend, I select all the blocks and add them as swatches so I can throw them into different elements without hitting the eyedropper all the time.
This method can be used to create other color combos based on a careful progression from one hue to the next. Just keep in mind the basic color rules. For example, a blend of green and red would become more gray since they’re complementary. A mix of yellow and red will craft various oranges. While the blend is active, you can change the position of your blocks and the color of your primary shapes. Basically, sky’s the limit.
Gradients
Along the lines of tints and shades, gradients can create some texture and depth to a flat background. Whether you use two different colors or fade through a single hue, gradient blocks can give the effect of distance and create direction. Below are a couple examples I messed with, but I won’t stick around here. Texture is the primary result you’ll get without overlapping and fine-tuning.
Gradients are easy to find in Illustrator, though Photoshop likes to make things tricky. In order to set a new gradient, you have to create a new preset. This can be tweaked after the fact in regards to rotation and where the center point sits in the layer. Honestly, Illustrator allows more freedom on this front. The only consideration is what you have on top. As you can see by the third image, green type might not be the best option. If text is directly on the gradient, fine-tune it in a way that you can have one consistent hue for the text without losing readability.
Final Thoughts: Design Without Intention
Hear me out. Whenever I’m working on a project, I can’t move past my task. Wasting time trying multiple methods doesn’t cross my mind because I have set options I’ve used that will work. However, when I pull myself away from my project, I’m able to tweak and play with features I’ve never tried before.
Practice builds a library of knowledge. Even if you don’t have a client, play with Adobe or Affinity. Learn what’s possible in each of the applications. Mess around with masks, shapes, gradients, whatever. Pull up tutorials or Envato so you can learn different effects. This exploration will resurface when you need it most, and your designs will be more dynamic because of mindless discovery.
