Visual Hierarchy

Dominate, Sub-Dominant and Subordinate

By definition, visual hierarchy means a group of visual elements arranged according to emphasis. This emphasis is achieved through contrasts, which stress the relative importance and separation or connection of typographic elements (the gestalt principles of proximity and similarity). The study of visual hierarchy is the study of the relationship of each part to the other parts and to the whole. It emphasizes the relationship of each typographic element to the expressed content of the page. This emphasis can be broken down into three levels; dominant sub-dominant and subordinate.

A visual hierarchy of typographic elements is partly governed by punctuation. As a writer uses standard punctuation marks to separate words and clarify meaning, a designer introduces visual punctuation (space intervals, rules, or pictorial elements) to separate, connect, and emphasize words or lines. Visual punctuation stresses a rhythmic organization that clarifies the readers or viewers understanding of the content and structure of a typographic message, visual accentuation is the stressing of particular qualities important to the typographic structure of that message. Here the concern in with relative emphasis; the properties of a typographic arrangement that create a hierarchy of dominant, sub-dominant and subordinate.