Principles of Design
Repetition/Consistency
Essential Question:
 What are three examples of using repetition in a design?
What if Stop signs came in pink squares, yellow circles, or green triangles, depending on the
changing whims of a town and a few of its residents? Imagine the ensuing traffic jams and
accidents. Repeating design elements and consistent use of type and graphic styles within a
document shows a reader where to go and helps them navigate your designs and layouts.
Repetition strengthens a design by tying together individual elements. It helps to create
association and consistency.
Readers gain comfort from having certain elements repeat themselves at consistent intervals or in
the same position. It is much easier to flip to the desired page of a magazine if the reader knows
that the page number will be in the same location on every page. Specific columns or special
sections of a newspaper are more readily recognized, even when they change location, if they
look the same from issue to issue.
Here are a few examples of how to use repetition:
 Use the same font for all your headlines.
 Use the same graphic rule at the top of all pages in a multipage document.
 Put repeating elements (like page numbers) in the same location on each page of a
multipage document.
The consistent repetition of an element is widely used in multi-page documents and websites.
Elements can be as simple as color, shapes, typefaces or even texture.
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Within the second repetition illustration example above, the headline is repeated three times
using graphics that tie in the copy with the text blocks. The repetition of the colors in the shapes
and headline text that are in the copy help to reinforce the theme. Overlapping the graphic and
text elements unifies the elements of the design.
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Do
In your document titled Principles of Design, make a title called Repetition and Consistency.
Answer the following questions.
1. Define repetition.
2. Define consistency.
3. Name three things that Repetition does in a document.
4. What are three examples of using repetition in a design?
Team Assignment
Find one example of Repetition and Consistency and tell where you found it; i.e.,
I found a good example of repetition in the National Geographic March 2008 issue
page 79.
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