Design Principles Week 1 / Exercises

 24.8.2021 ~ xx.x.2021 ( Week 1 ~ Week 6 )

Seojeong Kim

0350085

Design Principles / Bachelor of Design in Creative Media

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Lectures

Week 1: Introduction and the Module

- Today was the first class of the Design Principles class. I first met Dr. Charles Sharma. A briefing has begun regarding how the class will be conducted and what lectures will be studied. All students must upload all their work on their blog as a link to Google Classroom. Next, he continued his lessons on what design means. After that, we learned about composition and framing.

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Instruction

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Lecture 1.1 - Elements and Principles of Design

- Visual communication is a work in which information is represented graphically to create meaning efficiently and effectively. Examples of places where visual communication can be used include meetings, websites, fairs, social media posts, and presentations.

- Elements of Design

1. Point

2. Shape

3. Line

4. Texture

5. Form

6. Space

7. Color

LINE is a continuous mark made on a surface or the edge created when two shapes meet. May be actual, implied, vertical, horizontal, diagonal, and/or contour. 

SHAPE and FORM is a self-contained defined area, either geometric or organic. Shape refers to a two-dimensional element with area on a plane, while form refers to a three-dimensional element with volume in space. 

SIZE refers to the relationship of the area occupied by one shape to that of another. 

SPACE is the distance or area around or between elements in a work. 

COLOR is the visible spectrum of radiation reflected from an object. Color is also sometimes referred to as hue. 

VALUE refers to how light or dark an object, area, or element is, independent of its color. Value is also sometimes referred to as tone. 

TEXTURE is the surface quality of a shape, or how it appears to feel: rough, smooth, spiky, soft, hard, and glossy, etc. Texture can be real or implied.

Fig. 1 / Example of Elements

- Principles of Design

1. Contrast

2. Emphasis

3. Balance

4. Movement

5. Rules of Thirds

6. Repetition/Pattern/Rhythm

7. Hierarchy

8. Alignment

9. Harmony

10. Unity

11. Proportion

EMPHASIS is created by visually reinforcing something we want the viewer to pay attention to. This is often used to train the viewer’s eyes on the center of interest, or a focal point – the area of interest the viewer’s eye naturally, instinctively skips to. Some of the strategies employed to create degrees of importance are contrast of values, use of color, placement, variation, alignment, isolation, convergence, anomaly, proximity, size, and contrast. 

BALANCE is the distribution of interest or visual weight in a work. A balanced work will have all the elements arranged such that the work will have a sense of visual equilibrium or stability. Balance can be symmetrical, asymmetrical, or radial. Objects, values, colors, textures, shapes, etc. can be used in creating balance in a composition. 

CONTRAST is the juxtaposition of opposing elements (opposite colours, value light / dark, direction horizontal / vertical). The greater the contrast, the more something will stand out and call attention to itself. 

REPETITION of elements in regular or cyclic fashion creates interest. Repetition strengthens a design by tying together individual elements and bringing a sense of consistency. It can create rhythm (regular, alternating, flowing, random, progressive) and patterns. Variation introduced to repetition increases the level of interest. 

MOVEMENT is a visual flow through the composition. In some works, movement is implied by the use of static elements to suggest motion and direct a viewer’s eye along a path through the work. In a still image, aspects such as lines, diagonals, unbalanced elements, placement, and orientation can play the role of active elements. In others, movement can be real, giving some elements the ability to be moved or move on their own. 

HARMONY brings together a composition with similar, related elements (adjacent colors, similar shapes, etc.). Harmonious elements have a logical relationship, connection, alignment, or progression. They work together and complement each other. 

UNITY is created by using harmonious similarity and repetition, continuance, proximity, and alignment. It is the visual linking of various elements of the work. This allows the disparate elements and principles to create a unified whole that can be greater than the sum of its parts.

Fig. 1.1 / Example of Principles

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Lecture 1.2 - Contrast and Gestalt Theory

Contrast - 

Contrast can be defined as the difference between two or more elements in a configuration. The larger the difference between the elements, the easier it is to compare and understand, and then it is to contrast each other.

Fig. 2 / Example of Contrast

Gestalt Theory -

The Gestalt Theory is the principle and law of human perception that describes similar elements when recognizing objects, recognize patterns, and simplify complex images.

Fig. 2.1 / Example of Gestalt

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Visual Research

Contrast Design Research

- To create a contrast design, you first need to explore different designs and get some inspiration. In contrast design, color seems to be the most important thing because the color is monotonous. I've been looking for designs on Pinterest, and I've brought the most impressive ones.

Fig. 3 / Research of Contrast

Fig. 3.1 / Research of Contrast

Contrast Study Exercise

Fig. 3.2 / Example of Contrast Sketch 1

Fig. 3.3 / Example of Contrast Sketch 2

- At first, I couldn't come up with an idea of what I was going to do. But after a lot of research, I finally came up with some ideas. I drew various sketches based on 'contrast', and I liked the first idea of cigarettes and the second idea of drinking.

Fig. 3.4 / Example of Contrast Drawing Digital 1

Fig. 3.5 / Example of Contrast Drawing Digital 2

   

Fig. 3.6 / Final Outcome 1

 

Fig. 3.7 / Final Outcome 2

- Here is the final outcome. I brought the idea of criticizing society, because it seemed to go very well with the "contrast" design. 

The first idea was that if the smoke emitted when a person smokes is a human's face, they can be more alert. The second idea is, when a person drinks alcohol, they don't realize that alcohol is much harmful to the body, so if you think of that beer bottle as a gun, the beer cap and the bad stuff in, it will pierce human brain and go through to the head.

Gestalt Design Research

- Gestalt design was very interesting, when I did a search on Pinterest, I saw a lot of designs that inspire me a lot. In particular, I really liked the inverted design, and it was very new to use monotonous and inverted colors.

Fig. 4 / Research of Gestalt

Fig. 4.1 / Research of Gestalt

Gestalt Study Exercise

Fig. 4.2 / Example of Gestalt Sketch 1

- Having already learned something about 'contrast', the idea came out to me a little easier. As I said above, I took social criticism as a topic, and this time it was about the 'war'.

Fig. 4.3 / Example of Gestalt Drawing Digital 1

Fig. 4.4 / Example of Gestalt Drawing Digital 2

  

Fig. 4.5 / Final Outcome

- Here is the final outcome, in the war, jets and planes were mainly used. Wars in the sky caused especially more casualties. It was an idea after thinking about what it would be like the smoke from a jet plane contained the pain and suffering of many people.

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Feedback

- For my 'Contrast' and 'Gestalt' ideas, Dr. Charles gave me a lot of feedback.

In feedback, Dr. Charles said that my cigarette idea was too simple. He said it would be better than before if I added a little more detail to the smoke and cigarettes. So, I added more detail on the smoke, and after Dr. Charles told us it was okay to attach a picture, I took a real picture and put it in.

Fig. 5 / Contrast Drawing Digital After Feedback

Fig. 5.1 / Final Outcome After Feedback

- In the feedback of the second idea, Dr. Charles didn't understand my intentions at first, because my drawings were not detailed, but after he understood my drawings he said he liked it. However, he said that the jet is too simple, and maybe it will be better if I add more detail on the drawing inside the smoke. So I drew a new jet and added some more detail to the smoke.

Fig. 5.2 / Gestalt Drawing Digital After Feedback

Fig. 5.3 / Final Outcome After Feedback

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Reflection

Week 1: The first class was very novel, and it gave us a good direction for what we were going to construct and learn in the future. However, the words used in this class were a little difficult for me, and I think I will have to listen the class more closely in the future. Ask questions and search if there is something I don't know.

Week 2: This week's practice was very interesting and fun. I searched for various ideas and researched a lot to express the ideas in my head. This study helped me a lot to understand the class, and I wrote it down every day in my notebook so that I could find and remember the things I needed for the class as much as possible.

Week 3: Today's lecture was very impressive. It was a class to examined the design ideas I had been working on, and we were able to receive various feedback that we could not know our own, and Dr. Charles pointed out exactly which parts were positive section and where we needed to fix them.

Week 4:

Week 5: