A method and apparatus for utilizing graphical representations of programming objects to reflect the state of programming objects. State reflection is unique in that it reflects the state of programming objects at the time of programming, rather than during execution, in a visual programming language. The visual programming language comprises a set of graphic aspects which are associated with data element states via a set of graphic aspect references. Each programming object used in the visual programming language comprises a set of data elements. The programming objects may be related via super and subclass objects structures. The method detects when a data element has changed its state and reflects that state change in the visual representation of the programming objects and their respective graphic aspects. A list of graphic aspect references points to a number of graphic aspects which may or may not be applicable to the detected state change. All applicable graphic aspects are applied to the visual representation of the data element whose state has changed. As other data element state changes occur, the applicable graphical aspects are applied accordingly.