Unity brings diverse elements into a cohesive whole. A song is a bunch of notes—unified. A painting is a lot of color and form—unified. A creative project should be unified before you present it to others. (Of course, there are exceptions to every rule.) When your project seems scattered and directionless, what you are missing is unity.
Identify the theme—the underlying message, point of view, or mood—of your project to begin unifying. Make sure to relate every element back to the theme. Within the theme you can develop many variations to avoid boredom.
From a visual perspective, unity can be achieved by proximity. Putting things close to each other implies a relationship. Unity can also be achieved by color. Using a limited color palette makes the pieces hold together as one. Unity can be achieved through shape. Repeating the same shapes, e.g., squares, spirals, or stars, throughout a work unifies it.
For a publication, presentation, or website, use styles. Consistent use of styles tells your viewer clearly that all the parts belong together, and the hierarchy of those parts. A style can consist of a background color or pattern, a font, a size, a weight, a type color, a column width, and other attributes.
In three dimensions, unity can be achieved with choice of materials, textures, colors, shapes, and arrangement of objects in a space. Movement can be unified by pace and point of view in addition to the rest.
Music is unified by tempo, choice of instruments, style, key, texture, and dynamic level, among other qualities.
A work is also unified by the emptiness around it. Think about the few seconds of silence between cuts on an LP. Imagine the white wall of the art gallery that surrounds the paintings. This leads us into a discussion of another design basic: contrast.
