The Rhythmic Pulse

Up to this point, as we’ve talked about the Principles of Design, we’ve had clear visual markers. Balance gives us symmetry. Contrast gives us light and dark. Alignment gives us lines. Our next principle requires intuition as much as it does biology. We’ve discussed discovering patterns and the importance of breaking them. For rhythm, we’re going to look at pattern and how it creates movement for the viewer.

When we discuss rhythm, we can discuss it easily with other art forms. In music, the bass line drives a song forward. However, it’s the melody that we follow. Without the steady bass, the melody would be freeform and feel as if it didn’t have a destination. Without the melody, we wouldn’t have a reason to follow the bass. Your mileage may vary based on personal musical preferences.

There is another important factor to consider, and authors know this one well. We’ve all written a novel with a second-act slump. The start of the book takes off, we’re turning pages, and then at some point, we’re forcing ourselves to turn the page. Pacing will vary throughout a novel, but if it speeds up too much, we lose the reader. If it slows, they wander off to mop the floors. Now we have the important elements: repetition, movement, and pacing. 

Visual rhythm works much the same way.

A reader doesn’t consume a book cover all at once. Their eye lands somewhere, moves to the next element, pauses, and continues. Rhythm encourages directional movement. It creates a visual beat that carries the viewer through a composition. If repetition creates familiarity, rhythm gives that familiarity a direction to travel.

Think about a row of fence posts disappearing into the distance. A line of streetlights. Waves rolling onto a beach. The individual elements aren’t particularly interesting on their own. However, once repeated, they create a pattern. The eye naturally wants to follow that pattern to see where it goes. We find ourselves staring into the distance, looking for their origin. Designers take advantage of this instinct all the time.

This is where rhythm differs from repetition. Repetition and Variety ask, “What belongs together?” Rhythm asks, “Where does the eye go next?”

Why should authors care? Because rhythm fights to keep the reader’s attention. While the focal point is the “wow” that grabs their attention, rhythm helps guide them there. More importantly, once they’ve absorbed the focal point, it’ll help their eye move to the other important areas. The longer a view is engaged, the more likely they’ll take action.

At this point, you’re probably thinking, “Author Design Academy talks about controlling the reader’s eye,” a lot. The Principles of Design were created to “help” the reader get to the destination we want. Rhythm is one of the principles that makes it possible. Without rhythm, the eye jumps randomly around a composition. With rhythm, the viewer moves naturally from one important element to the next. They don’t have to work to understand the design because the design is already guiding them. Designers love control.

So we have the principle, but how does it work in practice? Great question. Let’s break it down using a few examples.

Shapes

Shapes naturally create rhythm because they can establish patterns. A row of circles creates a very different feeling than a row of triangles. Repeated shapes create a visual beat, encouraging the eye to move from one to the next. We see this frequently in fantasy covers with repeated runes, decorative flourishes, vines, or symbols wrapping around the composition. The individual shape isn’t necessarily important. The pattern they create is.

Color

Color can create rhythm as well. Imagine a cover where a single accent color appears repeatedly throughout the composition. A glow reflected on a character. The same glow repeated in typography. A small accent hidden in the background. The eye naturally hops between those related elements. This is one reason glowing magic, neon lighting, and repeated accent colors work so well. They create visual stepping stones for the viewer to follow.

Typography

We often discuss typography through the lens of hierarchy. What should the reader see first? Rhythm asks a slightly different question: what should they see next?

The title leads to the subtitle. The subtitle leads to the author name. The author name leads to the imagery. If hierarchy establishes importance, rhythm establishes movement between those elements. This becomes especially important on websites and advertisements where the viewer is consuming larger amounts of information. Strong typography guides as much as it communications.

Series Branding

Think about your favorite long-running series. Chances are the covers aren’t identical. Yet somehow they feel connected. The title sits in a familiar place. The typography remains consistent. The imagery follows similar rules. The eye learns the pattern and begins to anticipate it. That anticipation is rhythm. It helps readers instantly recognize a book belongs in a particular series, even before they consciously process the details.

Of course, rhythm has the same weakness as repetition: predictability. A song with no variation becomes boring. A novel with no twists becomes forgettable. A design with perfect rhythm can become mechanical. This is where our old friend variety sneaks back into the conversation. The strongest designs establish a rhythm and then interrupts it.

A repeated pattern suddenly changes. A bright color appears among muted tones. A decorative border breaks to reveal an important symbol. The rhythm creates expectation and more importantly, the interruption creates interest.

Now, for the chaos gremlins reading this. There is another extreme that we don’t typically discuss. This is where rhythm turns to chaos, structured chaos. It’s seldom seen in commercial design because it goes against modern conventions. For this, we have to turn to our more experimental mediums. Jazz loves a trumpet solo that starts as a cacophony and just when we think we’ve lost the melody, pulls us back with the familiar. In painting, we have Jackson Pollock who creates a rhythm in his splatter paintings. 

Is there a marriage between the two that creates interest and focus? You’ve most likely already seen it. If we turn to Urban Fantasy or Dark Fantasy, we have plumes of smoke with no pattern. This is our chaos, and laid over it is a sense of rhythm through color, shape, and typography. This proves when it comes to rhythm, order and chaos can be a powerful combination.

Homework

We’re going to let our eyes take a journey. Find a cover, poster, or advert from a magazine. We don’t want to use the blurry-eyed technique™ for this. We’re looking for details that help direct the eye.

• What repeated element catches your eye first?
• How does it guide your eye through the composition? Pattern? Spacing? Color? Size?
• Is the spot where the pattern breaks the intended focal point?