Grade 9 • Unit 2: Understanding Digital Images • Lesson 9 of 32 • 3 Days

Design Principles for Layout: Repetition, Contrast, Proximity, Alignment & Scale

😄 Joke of the day: What do you call fake spaghetti? An impasta.

⏰ Do Now — Start Here

Look at the two flyers on the board. Which one is easier to read, and why do you think that is?

🎯 Today's Big Question

How do repetition, contrast, proximity, alignment, and scale make a layout stronger?

📈 By the End of Today, You Will Be Able To

Define repetition, contrast, proximity, alignment, and scale as they apply to graphic design layout.
Identify these 5 principles in a printed 'good vs. bad' flyer comparison.
Redesign a poorly-laid-out flyer by hand, applying at least 3 of the 5 principles.

🧰 What You'll Need

Printed "good vs. bad" flyer examples for each principle
2-3 real sample flyers per student/pair for annotation
A poorly-designed sample flyer (paper, one per student)
Rulers
Pencils, scissors, glue sticks

📋 Your Plan for Today

Day 1: Repetition & Contrast

Do Now (5 min): which flyer on the board is easier to read, and why? Mini-lesson (12 min): define repetition and contrast with good/bad examples.
Guided practice (8 min): as a class, find repetition in one sample flyer together.
Independent/pair practice (15 min): find repetition AND contrast in 2 more real flyers, circling and labeling examples.
Share (5 min).

Day 2: Proximity, Alignment & Scale

Do Now (5 min): define repetition and contrast from memory.
Mini-lesson (12 min): proximity, alignment, and scale with good/bad examples.
Guided practice (10 min): as a class, annotate one sample flyer together marking all 5 principles.
Independent practice (15 min): annotate a second flyer solo, marking where each of the 5 principles is used well or poorly.
Share (3 min).

Day 3: Redesign Workshop

Do Now (5 min): pick your weakest principle from yesterday and define it again in your own words.
Redesign workshop (30 min): redesign a poorly-laid-out flyer by hand (cut, rearrange, glue, or redraw), deliberately applying at least 3 of the 5 principles.
Written explanation (5 min): 2-3 sentences on your choices.
Quick gallery share (5 min).

🖨️ Print Your Handout

Word, picture, and definition for today's vocabulary, plus a place to write and draw. Available in English, Spanish, French, Arabic, and Chinese.

Day 1: EN · ES · FR · AR · ZH
Day 2: EN · ES · FR · AR · ZH
Day 3: EN · ES · FR · AR · ZH

🖥️ Today's Slide Deck

Short, on-the-board pacing slides — project these to follow along. (The full details are in the handout above, not here.)

Day 1

⬇️ Open / download this slide PDF

Day 2

⬇️ Open / download this slide PDF

Day 3

⬇️ Open / download this slide PDF

📚 Key Words

Repetition: Repeating a design element (a color, font, or shape) consistently throughout a piece.
Contrast: The visual difference between elements (e.g. dark text on a light background) that makes something stand out and stay readable.
Proximity: Grouping related items close together so the eye understands they belong together.
Alignment: Lining up elements along a shared edge or axis so a layout looks organized, not scattered.
Scale: The size of an element in relation to everything else around it.

✅ What Your Finished Work Should Include

Redesigned flyer + written explanation scored with a simple rubric checking for at least 3 principles applied correctly.

Exit Ticket: Pick your favorite of the 5 principles from today and explain, in one sentence, why it matters in a design.

📊 Before You Leave

Quick, anonymous class check-in -- takes less than a minute.

📤 How You Submit This — For Credit

Your physical projects don't stay in the classroom past the day you finish them -- you're responsible for your own completed work, the same way you'd be responsible for it in any job. The one exception is your class notebook: it has its own designated spot in the room (ask your teacher exactly where), and most students leave it there day to day -- but it's yours, so if you'd rather keep it with you or bring it home to study from, that's your call. Either way, always know where your own notebook actually is. Before a finished physical piece leaves your hands for good: ask your teacher for one of the classroom cameras, photograph your finished (or in-progress) work, then plug that camera's SD card into a classroom computer and upload the photo into your portfolio folder. That uploaded photo, with a short caption, IS your submission for credit -- the photo is what gets kept and graded, not the physical piece.

🎓 ACP Exam Prep

This lesson connects to the Photoshop Adobe Certified Professional exam: Domain 1: Working in the Design Industry

🔗 Want to Learn More?

Adobe -- Principles of Design

🚀 The Extra Mile

Cross-Class Connection: The same principles a Math teacher uses to make a worksheet readable, or a Science teacher uses to lay out a lab handout.

Career Connection: Layout is the entire foundation of Web Design and UI/UX — nothing else in those fields works without it.

Go further -- turn this into a portfolio piece:

Redesign a genuinely cluttered handout from another class (with permission) using these five principles — real, useful, and portfolio-ready. Start here: circle the three worst offenders on the original — too many fonts, no white space, cramped margins — before you open a design file.
Design a study guide page for a subject you're struggling in, applying layout principles to make it actually easier to read. Start here: pick one specific unit you're struggling with and list the five facts you most need to remember before you lay out a single element.