May.01.2026 The Recipe: Using the Principles and Elements of Design

Do you like to cook?

If you do, you're in the right place.

Using the Principles and Elements of Dsign is like using a recipe.

The elements are your ingredients

and the principles are your instructions.

To use them effectively

you don't just pick one of each and hope it works.

You apply the principles to the elements...

to create something cohesive.

So what does that actually look like?

Let's stay with the recipe for a moment.

If your Elements are your ingredients~

Color, Shape, Texture, Line...

and your Principles are your instructions~

Balance, Contrast, Repetition, Harmony...

Then design isn't about what you choose.

It's about how you use it.

Because this is where most people get it wrong.

They go shopping and gather all of the ingredients...

beautiful materials, great colors, interesting textures...

And then they throw them together

without thinking about how they work with each other.

It's the equivalent of putting everything

from your refrigerator and kitchen cupboards into one dish

and then hoping it turns out well.

For the record...it doesn't.

Not in cooking.

Not in design.

Instead...

You choose your ingredients, aka Elements, with intention.

and then you apply the Principles to guide how they come together.

You create Balance so nothing feels too heavy in one place.

You use Contrast so the eye has something to notice.

You repeat Elements so it feels connected.

You build Harmony so it all belongs.

And when it works?

You don't always know why.

But you feel it.

Like a perfect souffle. Ready to serve and enjoy.

And when it doesn't?

You definitely feel that too.

Kind of like that crock pot

that you just loaded with everything from the refrigerator

and the kitchen cupboards.

The entire situation ends up in the trash bin.

And the thing is...

its not because the ingredients were wrong.

It's because the recipe wasn't followed

and that shows up everywhere.

In spaces.

In color.

In the things we create.

Intention matters.

...Next we'll take this out of the kitchen and into the real world.

My world...into the weeds.