Don’t worry, you can leave your dancing shoes at home. In design, rhythm hasn’t got anything to do with the way you move your hips. It’s about giving your composition a feeling of action and movement.
Designers create rhythm by repeating lines, shapes, colours and other elements. This makes a path for our eyes to follow, builds patterns and imbues the design with a sense of flow. There are a few different types of rhythm:
Random rhythm: Repeating elements without any regular interval.Regular rhythm: When the elements are of a similar size and length and spread out over predictable intervals.Flowing rhythm: Natural patterns where the intervals are organic (like a tiger’s stripes or a bunch of flowers in a garden.)Progressive rhythm: A gradual change or sequence of elements that change over a series of clear steps (like a colour gradient for example.)
Rather than letting the viewer’s eye settle on a focal point, rhythm encourages viewers to move their eyes across the entire piece, following the lines and forms to their natural endpoints. It’s something you see reflected across nature and works of art.