28.8.20 - 2.10.20 (Week 1 - Week 6)
Sajiya Mir (0340836)
Design Principles
Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media
Taylors University
Exercises
Friday, 28 August 2020
During our first class, we met with our teacher, Mrs. Maria, who explained how our studies would be conducted. Our lecture classes by Dr. Jinchi would be uploaded on google classroom, which we would have to watch before beginning our practical course. She went through the MIB, which explained the rules and regulations and what the module had to offer. She also clarified the grading system and what resources we need for each class.
Lecture 1:
Elements of design don't work by itself, it has to be placed together or have to be repeated. Some of the aspects of design are Dot, Line, Shape, Form, Color, Value, Texture, and Space. |
Fig.1 Elements of Design
Principles of design are concepts used to organize or arrange the design. It gives the design structure of meaning. Some Principles of design are Balance, Emphasis, Repetition, Movement, Harmony, and Unity. - Balance: there is symmetrical, asymmetrical, and radial balance. Radial symmetry is when equilibrium is reached.
- Emphasis: on design can be brought about by the contrast of elements and colors. Its what captures the viewer's attention.
- Harmony: is achieved by colors or shapes that compliment each other.
- Movement: How the design moves the viewer's attention from one part to the other.
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Fig.1.2 Principles of Design
Contrast refers to the difference in value, color, texture, shapes, and other elements. It creates interest and excitement to the design.
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Fig.1.3 Contrast |
Gestalt Theory
Gestalt theory is that our mind has an inherent ability to see patterns. There are five principles to the theory, Figure-ground, Similarity, Proximity, Continuity, and Closure.
- Figure-ground: is recognizing objects through vision; in Gestalt, it is identifying a figure from its background.
- Similarity: similar elements are considered to be more closely related.
- Proximity: Objects or shapes that are similar to each other tend to form groups and therefore have a function together.
- Continuity: When the eye starts to follow something, it will continue to move in that direction until it finds another point.
- Closure: When you see an image that has missing parts, our mind fills in the blanks and makes a complete image to recognize the pattern still.
Emphasis is an area or object within the artwork that draws the viewer's attention. It is the focal point of the design.
Subordination is when the surrounding elements are toned down so to bring attention to the focal point.
The focal point refers to an area in the composition that has the most significance.
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| Fig 1.5 Richard Anuszkiewicz Deep Magenta Square |
As seen in this image, the Emphasis and the focal point is the Magenta box, while the Subordination is the lines. The lines carry your eyes from the outside and towards the box.
Unity is using similar elements in a composition to bring harmony and wholeness to an artwork.
Variety is using contrasting elements within a composition to bring interest to the piece.
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Fig.1.6 Duccio di Buoninsegna The Maestà
As seen in this painting by Duccio, Unity is shown in the same warm colors used and all the saints facing at Madona. While the Variety is the different sizes of the saints as some in the back are smaller, and others are more extensive. Balance is the distribution of the visual weight of objects, colors, texture, and space. There are symmetrical Balance, asymmetrical Balance, and radial balance. Symmetrical Balance is when similar elements are used on both sides. They have equal weight on each side. When the elements are arranged equally on either side of a central axis, the result is Bilateral symmetry—approximate symmetry in which equivalent but not identical elements are placed around the fulcrum line.
Asymmetrical Balance is when different elements are used, both sides still looked balanced.
Radial Balance is when elements surround the central point; these elements may or may not be similar. Fig.1.7 Balance
Friday, 11 September 2020 Once again this week Ms. Maria took turns to look at our blogs and gave us feedback on what we can improve. While waiting for our turn to speak with Ms. Maria we watch the videos provided on times on the topic Repetition and Movement.
Lecture 3:Repetition: makes a design seem active. It can create movement, rhythm, and pattern. Variety is needed to keep the rhythm active.
Fig.1.8 Repetition
Movement: is a way design can move the eye through the composition. There is real movement and implied movement. The real movement is 3-dimensional can showcase continuous movement. The implied movement is e-dimensional and can capture movement.
Hierarchy: is the choreography of content in a composition. It directs viewers to the most important information first then the second. Fig.2 Hierarchy
Alignment: is the placement of elements in a way that edges line up along common rows. It helps create a sense of unity and cohesion. Rhythm: when elements are repeated to create a sense of rhythm. Random rhythm is repeating with no regular interval. Regular rhythm is the same intervals repeatedly. An alternating rhythm is when an alternating element is repeated. Flowing rhythm is when elements are repeated flowing curves or bends. Progressive rhythm is when elements increase or decrease as it's repeated.
| Fig.1.6 Duccio di Buoninsegna The Maestà
As seen in this painting by Duccio, Unity is shown in the same warm colors used and all the saints facing at Madona. While the Variety is the different sizes of the saints as some in the back are smaller, and others are more extensive. Balance is the distribution of the visual weight of objects, colors, texture, and space. There are symmetrical Balance, asymmetrical Balance, and radial balance. Symmetrical Balance is when similar elements are used on both sides. They have equal weight on each side. When the elements are arranged equally on either side of a central axis, the result is Bilateral symmetry—approximate symmetry in which equivalent but not identical elements are placed around the fulcrum line.
Asymmetrical Balance is when different elements are used, both sides still looked balanced.
Radial Balance is when elements surround the central point; these elements may or may not be similar. Fig.1.7 Balance
Friday, 18 September 2020 Lecture 4: Harmony involves the selection of elements that share a common trait.
Unity occurs when these elements are composed in such a way that they are balanced and give a sense of oneness.
-Visual Unity is when a group of elements is aligned along the same axis
- Conceptual Unity is when the elements are placed to give meaning or purpose to the design. For example, an image of a mansion and lots of money would give the concept of wealth.
- Unity emphasizes the concept or theme that you are trying. to communicate with the viewers.
Fig.1. Unity and Harmony Variety is a slight change or difference in elements and composition.
Alignment is when elements share a common axis to appear to be more related to each other. - Close composition and the color scheme arrangement can achieve unity but harmony.
- Symmetry can bring harmony to design with many different shapes and weights.
- Harmony and unity must be used to aid the purpose of the design.
- Keep in mind how the elements compliment to achieve harmony and unity.
- Variety and unity can work together to create a more interesting design because too much unity can sometimes dull the design and variety can add an interesting factor. Proportion is the relationship of two or more elements in design and how they compare with one another.
- Proportion can achieve harmony when the correct relationship exists between the elements and their size.
- A visual hierarchy should exist between the elements.
Fig.1.2 Proximity
Friday, 25 September 2020 Lecture 5: A symbol is a sign, shape of an object that is used to represent something else. In design, Symbols can convey information or even tell a whole story. The need to communicate brought about the use of symbols during ancient times. Symbolism is also found in colors, for example, black represents negativity, death, night while white could represent purity, life, and positivity. There are two types of symbols Figurative Representations and Non-Figurative Representation.
- Figurative Representations include graphic symbols and Visuals
- Visuals can be Pictorial symbols, Abstract symbols, and Arbitrary symbols.
- Pictorial symbols: are image-related and simplified pictures. They can be used for graphics and also science such as the life cycle of an insect of the way the heart pumps blood.
Fig.1. Pictorial - Abstract Symbols: look like the object they represent but with fewer details. Abstract different from abstract art. Fig.1.2 Abstract
- Arbitrary Symbols: has no resemblance at all to the objects or the ideas they represent. Many are based on geometric shapes and colors.
Fig.1.3 Arbitrary Imagery is a vital part of the design. Users and viewers can connect to a definition if the right images are used. It is also very important to recognize and select appropriate images when designing. Typography is the design and arrangement of text that conveys a meaning or idea. Effective use can result in visual hierarchy and work balance. |
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Task 1: Contrast and Gestalt
[Inspiration]
I looked at a few designs by other artists and looked at how they applied the Gestalt Theory to their work. Most of the design work with negative space, using Figure-ground and closure to bring two or more elements together. Proximity is displayed in Fig.1 as you can see even though the black part and the white part of the pen are not perfectly aligned because they are at such close proximity, we can distinguish the picture as a whole and identify the pen.
[Materials]: Black and white Paper
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| Fig.1.3 Design 1 progress |
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| Fig.1.4 Final Design 1 Paper vs. Illustrator |
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For my first design, I used together Vangogh and his famous painting Starry Night. I use the houses and the mountains to create his beard and shape of the face. Then I used the moon to create an illusion of his eyes. I also used the swirly clouds of the night sky to highlight his hairline.
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| Fig.1.5 Design 2 progression
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| | Fig.1.6 Final Design 2 Paper vs. Illustrator |
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For my second design, I based it on the movie Coraline. I used the shape of the trees to outline her face and hair. Then I used the house where the roof creates the illusion of the nose, and finally, I used the moon as one of the eyes. The other eye is a button that is very common in the movie as most of the characters from the different dimensions have buttons as eyes.
Task 2: Emphasis and Unity
[Inspiration]
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Fig.1 Lonely house in Empty landscape- Monica Dixon
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| | Fig.1.3 Summer Fox- Unknown |
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| | Fig.1.5 Cristiana Couceiro |
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Looking at all the artwork on Emphasis, it was fascinating to see how Emphasis can be brought about in very detailed work. Figure 1 shows that the red house's Emphasis is quite evident as the sky in the background doesn't have anything other than a gradient. Although the grass it quite detailed, it doesn't take away the viewer's eye from the house as the green is complementary to the red. In figure 1.2, the Emphasis is on the couple in a crowded room. This is brought about by lighting and her red dress; even though there is some lighting falling on the crowd, her red dress brings the viewers eyes to focus on them. Figure 1.3, the forest background, is very detailed; however, this doesn't take away from the fox because compared to that, the fox is less detailed and very bright red. In figure 1.4, the hands are colored in red tones and are quite large compared to the tiny blue box; still, the Emphasis is on the box because of the change in size, color, and how the hands are moving in one direction.
In figure 1.5, I think its asymmetrical Balance even thought the rectangle is split in half. This is because of the way humans and the sun are placed. On the blue side, there is the sun and the one person, and on the red side, there is just that one person, but it's balanced because the person on the red side is much larger than the person on the blue side. The man walking in the middle is equally split in both the blue and the red side.
[Materials]: Color Pencil and Marker Pen
Fig.1.7 Sketches Emphasis
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Fig.1.8 Sketches Balance |
Fig.1.9 Balance asymmetrical
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Fig.2.0 Balance Symmetrical
For my first Balance concept, I chose to experiment with symmetrical Balance. I was influenced by the yin and yang symbol, which is about Balance, so I drew the two fish, almost matching each other. I kept the size of the fish the same, so it was balanced on both sides.
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| Fig.2.1 Emphasis |
For my emphasis design, I was influenced by Figure 6 and how the hands were used to highlight the blue box. In my design, I wanted the focus to be on the two hands holding, and the subordinate is the hand trying to stop them. As I tried to highlight the two hands, I colored them using color pencils and used a red marker to outline them. The surrounding hands are left black and white to contrast with the red.
Task 3: Movement and Repetition
[Inspiration]
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Fig.1 Vangogh
  Fig.1.2 Marble paint
Fig.1.3 Pattern
In most of these artworks, the movement was brought about with the use of curvature lines. Like in Vangoh's paintings, his brushstrokes of lines and curves were used to paint the wheat field. These brushes are what make the grass, the wheat, and the sky look like its moving. In repetition, the same elements were repeated to create a pattern. As seen in figure 1.3, the bees, flowers, and honeycombs were repeated with a few changes in position to make a pattern.
[Materials]: Watercolour
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| Fig.1.4 Sketches movement |
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| Fig.1.5 Movement sketches 2 |
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| Fig.1.6 Repetition sketch |
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| Fig.1.7 Movement progress |
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Fig.1.8 Movement Final
For my movement design, I was inspired by a photograph I saw of a woman underwater. Even though it was a picture, you could almost see how her clothes were flowing through the water. I applied implied movement to my work as I capture the movement of the clothes and the hair of the girl. Initially, I wanted to make the clothes pink, but I decided to keep it blue because it went well with the background and made the painting more cohesive.
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Fig.1.9 Repetition progress
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| Fig.1.8 Repetition Final |
For my Repetition design, I kept it simple; I chose one element, such as the lemon, with a few leaves and repeated that. Each time I changed the direction the lemon was facing, this allowed me to create a pattern. Initially, I wanted to give a dark blue background, but in the end, I decided to keep the background white because it looked more 'fresh' and colorful.
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Fig.1.9 Reworked Repetition
After Ms. Maria's Feedback, I added more texture to my lemons and leaves.
Task 4: Harmony and Unity [Inspiration]
Fig.1 Em Niwa
Fig.1.2 Em Niwa
Em Niwa is one of my favorite illustrators and with the Harmony and unity task I took a lot of inspiration from her. She displays both harmony and unity in her work with the composition of elements and colors. I liked the idea of all the leaves and flowers together and came up with a few sketches of my own.
[Materials]: Arcylic Paint and Poster colors
 Fig1.3 Sketches
Fig.1.4 Fox Progress
Fig1.5 Harmony Final
In the harmony design, I drew a few elements and repeated them into different compositions and sizes. These elements are the leaves and flowers. Throughout the painting I kept the same hue of blue, all the grass and leaves all have different shades of blue. I kept the proportion in mind and had different sizes to the leaves and kept a balance in the placement of the leaves. I wanted to add variety so I drew a fox and to give it emphasis I made it a dark orange, a complementary to blue. Fig.1.6 Flower Progress Fig1.7 Unity Final
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In the unity design, I had a variety of elements on my design, so I tried to achieve unity by with the composition. I placed a lot of the elements in close proximity to show that they belong together. With the colors of the circle, I used orange and blue as they are complementary to each other to give emphasis. I tried to keep the rest of the colors light and use lots of different shades of blues and purples. I brought all the elements together by drawing the detail line using a light blue color.
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| Fig1.8 Unity Final Reworked |
Task 5: Symbols
[Inspiration]
Fig.1 Symbols
Fig.1.2 Symbols
[Materials]: Illustrator
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Fig.1.3 Sketches
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Fig.1.4 progress
Fig.1.5 Symbol 1 Final
The first symbol is Arbitrary Symbols. I used the letters of my name to design a symbol for myself. I initials are S and M, but this is a common factor for my family. We all have the same initials as all of our names start with S, and our last name begins with M. One thing that differentiates our name is the middle letter; for me, its J, for my sister its M, and my brother its H. So when designing this symbol, I wanted to use SJ as it is unique to me. The J I tried to emphasize, so I made it more prominent and put S in the back. I added another element to my design: the curvy line wrapping from top to bottom; this is because one of the meanings of my name is 'stream of heaven.' That's why I wanted to incorporate a river or a stream flowing through the design. The line itself doesn't look interesting, so I added the flower feature to make the design look more feminine. I choose the colors so the design had harmony and unity.
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| Fig.1.6 Symbol 1 Reworked |
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| Fig 1.6 Progress |
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| Fig.1.7 Symbol 2 Final |
The second design is a Pictorial Symbol. It's about the life cycle of fish that I have interpreted in my style. So the first stage is the eggs that are depicted by the orange circles around the aquatic plants. The second stage is fry, where I drew some small fishes swimming. The third stage is adult and can be seen by the large fish at the top. The design of the adult fish I made it more dynamic by drawing the tails a different. This was so that its understandable to fishes are now at a different stage of life. Coral reefs and limestones represent the last stage as when fish die; they sink to the bottom and decay into limestones. I kept the phases of birth and death together, so when you look at the design, the eyes move around the circle. I added the circle to signify the life cycle. In the end, I added the seashell and the arrow to the circle to make the concept more unique. The yellow color is repeated throughout so that you know that the various elements belong together.
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| Fig.1.8 Symbol 2 Reworked |
[Materials]: Magazines, paper, and glue
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| Fig.1.8 Imagery and Typography Practice |
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Fig.1.9 Practice Collage
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For Imagery and Typography, I dried designing a collage on photoshop using pictures I found on Pinterest so I could get a better idea of the styles I liked. I even tried to add typography to existing pictures I had such as fig 1.8. I tried to follow the example given in Ms. Jinchi's lecture.
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Fig.2.0 Collage Process
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| Fig.2.1 Imagery Collage Final |
For the collage, I first browsed through all the magazines I had and selected the pictures that stood out the most, and then I tried to make a composition. I used some buildings from Japan and a picture of Darjeeling as the background. I made the girl the focal point and decorated around her. I found some typography such as Japan and History and felt they went well with the image so I added it. I cut out a few shapes our of colored magazine paper and just tried to make the design look like it belonged together.
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Fig.2.2 Imagery Collage Reworked
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Feedback
Week 1:
Ms. Maria listened to my explanation of my design and felt they were ready to submit as they were.
Week 2:
For my balanced design, Ms. Maria suggested I add another element, such as bubbles in my design. She suggested that I try approximately symmetry by changing the pattern of one of the fish. She had no comment for my emphasis design as she felt it was fine as it was.
Week 3:
Ms. Maria liked my movement design and said there was no improvement needed. For the lemon design, she suggested I add texture to the lemon and add elements to make the design more lively.
Week 4: Ms. Maria loved the result of the harmony design and said the fox color made him more dominant but not forgetting the combination behind. Overall the harmony design looks great. For the unity design, she suggested I add more of the orange color around that circle in the middle. Right now that's the only color that looks too sudden and lost in comparison with other colors surrounds it.
Week 5: For the first symbol try to choose a different color for the J so to make it more prominent. For the second symbol try to add more meaning like protect the sea or something like that. For the collage try to find Japanese attire, and add more images related to japan.
Reflection
Week 1:
Working with the gestalt theory and contrast was very fun and insightful. This task reminded me of the lightbox assignment we had for foundation last year. It's similar in the way we use negative space. The small bits, particularly the circles, were hard to cut because I couldn't get them to be perfect. Never the less the outcome came out how I wanted it so so I was happy. I found how commonly used the Gestalt principles are throughout my research. It can be used for movie posters, billboard design, informational design, etc. Unlike our task, black and white, contrast, and Gestalt theory can be applied in color. I wish to experiment with that in the future.
Week 2:
I created many more ideas in the emphasis task because the Emphasis can be applied to any artwork. I had trouble in Balance, as I wasn't sure if the designs were considered asymmetrical Balance or didn't reflect Balance at all. From task 2, I learned that the object or element doesn't have to be by itself to create Emphasis. Emphasis can be brought about in artwork by modifying the colors or composition of the surrounding elements. Previously, when designing, I never considered how my elements were balanced. Still, after reading and learning more about the various styles of Balance, I understand its value and intend to use it for my future work.
Week 3:
Working with the movement design, I didn't realize it would take so much time. To imply movement to a cloth of hair you need to use many shades of color from light to dark. Getting the shades and curves right was hard but the end product I was very satisfied with. As I spent so much time on one design I had very little time for the repetition design. I realized I should manage my time better so I can put an equal amount of effort into all my assignments.
Week 4:
The Harmony and Unity task was my favorite so far because I was really able to be creative and play with my idea. I used a lot of colors and different elements and was pleased with my end results. As harmony and unity usually go together it was a bit confusing how to create separate works that demonstrate the principals. However, I realized that instead of trying to focus on unity in one design and harmony in the other both designs could show the principals. I also made sure to incorporate the other principles I learned such as emphasis, balance, and repetition, this allowed me to bring a better design.
Week 5:
This week was a bit stressful because there were many things to do and because I couldn't decide what symbols I wanted to do. I decided to keep it simple and start with my name first. I designed a few sketches on Illustrator using my initials and picked the one I liked the most. For the second design, I tried to make it easier for myself and look at existing designs such as animal life cycles or other diagrams in my biology books and tried to reimagine in my style.
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