9th Grade — Elements & Principles of Design: Emphasis

⏰ Do Now — Start Here

Look at the "Emphasis" section of our reference chart. Find one object in the room that shows this concept.

🎯 Today's Big Question

What is emphasis, and how do designers use it on purpose?

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

Define emphasis using the class Elements & Principles of Art reference chart.
Identify emphasis in at least 2 real design/art examples.
Create a composition with one obvious focal point, using contrast or isolation to create it.

🧰 What You'll Need

Elements & Principles of Art reference chart (posted/handout)
Drawing paper
Pencils, erasers
Colored pencils, markers, or crayons
Rulers

📋 Your Plan for Today

Day 1: Understanding Emphasis

Do Now (5 min): find one object in the room that shows today's concept.
Mini-lesson (10 min): define emphasis using the reference chart and 2-3 real examples.
Guided sketch (10 min): as a class, sketch a quick shared example showing emphasis. Independent studio time, part 1 (18 min): begin your own paper piece exploring emphasis.
Quick check-in (2 min): show a neighbor where you're starting.

Day 2: Finishing & Critique

Do Now (5 min): explain emphasis in your own words, no notes. Studio time, part 2 (25 min): finish your paper piece, applying emphasis intentionally throughout.
Self-critique (3 min): before posting your work, write your own "I notice / I wonder" sentence about it.
Gallery walk & peer feedback (10 min): post finished work; using the "I notice / I wonder" protocol, leave one specific sticky note on a classmate's piece naming exactly how they used emphasis, not just a compliment.
Written artist statement (5 min): 1-2 sentences on how you used emphasis, and whether the feedback you received matched your own self-critique.

🖨️ 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

🖥️ 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

📚 Key Words

Emphasis: The created center of interest -- the place in an artwork where the eye lands first.
Composition: The overall arrangement of elements and principles within a piece of design or art.

✅ What Your Finished Work Should Include

Finished piece scored with a simple rubric: correctly demonstrates emphasis, shows effort/craftsmanship, and includes the 1-2 sentence artist statement.

Exit Ticket: In 1-2 sentences, explain how your piece uses emphasis on purpose.

📊 Before You Leave

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

Class Check-In

📤 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.

📁 Portfolio Update — Once a Week

Once a week (e.g. every Friday, or your class's last meeting of the week), photograph or save your best finished or in-progress piece from that week into your portfolio folder (a physical folder for now, or a Google Drive folder once one is set up) with a 1-2 sentence caption: what it is, and one skill it shows. In Grade 10 this becomes your Google Sites portfolio -- keep adding to it weekly from here on so you're not trying to reconstruct a whole semester of work at the end.

✍️ Example description for your Google Sites portfolio (fill in YOUR blanks -- don't just copy this):

For this piece, I made ______________ (name what you made) for “Elements & Principles of Design: Emphasis.” This project asked: “What is emphasis, and how do designers use it on purpose?” I used Emphasis by ______________ (explain how you used it in THIS piece). The hardest part was ______________, and I solved it by ______________. I'm proud of ______________ because ______________.

🎓 ACP Exam Prep

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

🔗 Want to Learn More?

Elements & Principles of Art reference chart (Project ARTiculate)

🚀 The Extra Mile

Cross-Class Connection: The same "thesis statement" logic English class teaches — emphasis is what a design is actually trying to say.

Career Connection: Emphasis and hierarchy are directly tested on the ACP exam and the core skill in Advertising & Marketing.

Go further -- turn this into a portfolio piece:

Design a single-page ad or flyer for a real product or club where exactly one element is the obvious focal point. Start here: decide which single element will win on contrast, size, and color and write that decision down in one sentence before you open a design file.
Take an existing busy design (a worksheet, a flyer) and redesign it so a viewer's eye knows exactly where to look first. Start here: circle the one thing on the busy design you want the eye to hit first before you remove anything else.