Why Good Design is Easy as One, Two, Three

There’s something about the number three that feels so natural when it comes to creating. It’s almost like the world was created with three in mind. The day has three parts, and we have three meals a day. Most people think of life as having three phases. Three is a very common number found in nature. I could go on and on.

After 10+ years of working as a professional graphic designer & illustrator, I’m convinced that good design is as simple as the number 3. Because of that, I’ve come up with three simple rules to take your creative work from good to great:

1. The Rule of Thirds for Great Composition

Most of us have heard of the rule of thirds when it comes to design and photography. If you haven’t, it’s a game changer! The Rule of Thirds basically states that if you split and image into 9 quadrants, it will be the most visually appealing when the objects/focal points are positioned within or on the quadrant lines.

There are many ways to use this concept. While it’s a helpful photography rule, I constantly use it for my illustration and graphic design work as well. It really applies to anything visual.

If something looks off about your composition, no matter what you’re creating, I guarantee this will fix it. Below are some examples for how it can be applied to photography and illustrations.

2. The Triangle Rule for Cohesiveness & Balance

I’m not sure if this rule is a thing, or if I invented it in my head. I pretty much live by it every day. This Triangle Rule of mine mainly applies to color, pattern, and texture. It’s the idea that if you repeat any visual element three times (and in the shape of a triangle), it will look like it belongs with what’s already there.

I have a passion for interior design, and I’m often asked how I make so many weird things look good together in a space. This is my secret. I layer in groups of three. Say you want to add a brass accessory to a room. I’m convinced brass will work in any space if you add it three times and on opposite ends of the room (hence the triangle shape). I’ve included some examples below.

Here, I have three mint green accessories in my kitchen, so the use of the color feels balanced.

Here, I’ve used gold/brass accessories three times around our fireplace, so everything looks cohesive.

I also use this rule in my illustrations. Whenever I add a new color, I try to apply it three times to different parts of the piece. All of a sudden, the color looks like it belongs, no matter what colors were there before. If you do use this rule with color, the three color applications don’t need to match exactly. They just need to have the same tint or shade (ex: red/pink or hunter green/mint green).

For example, in the illustration below, I’ve used the color red in the rose (1), the fish (2), and the striped shirt (3).

 3. Groups of Threes for Interest

Everything works well in groups of threes - from accessories, to colors, to fonts. When doing graphic design work, I love having a header font, and subheader font, and a body copy font for blocks of text. Three typefaces makes any design feel perfectly balanced. Add four, and there’s too much going on. Only two, and there’s not enough interest. Here’s any example of how I like to use this:

When grouping accessories together, three is key. We’ve all seen the three staggered candleholders of different sizes. Or the group of three potted plants. Three is key. When staggering items, you want the sizes to all be a little different. If the sizes are all the same, this works best when the items are perfectly spaced and in a line (think three identical pendant lights or three hanging ferns on a porch).

When I’m illustrating, I like to think a piece as having three focal points. I often illustrate objects in threes as well, making each object have a slightly different shape and size.

I’m a big nerd, so I could write an entire thesis about how threes make for great design, but hopefully you get the idea. Whether it applies to graphic design, interior design, or illustration, think in threes and you can’t go wrong.