Design Principles - Exercise 1
Design Principles
31/03/2021 - 23/4/2021 (Week 1 - Week 4 )
Rusydina Fazlin Athirah Binti Fauzi ( 0344000 )
Design Principles / Bachelor of Design ( Hons ) in Creative Multimedia
Task 1 / Exercises / Lectures
INSTRUCTIONS
Class Sessions/ LECTURES
Week 1
[Introductions and Conceptual Elements]
March 31st, 2021
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Starting off the first week in Design Principles, Mr. Charles introduced the class with a brief explanation of what this particular course is all about. We scanned through the module information book with the whole class together and there was a short Q&A about it. The next session was going into the tutorial session where Mr. Charles did a live demonstration and explanation on our first learning topic about 'Conceptual Elements', drawing illusionary visuals for the class to participate and discuss our various ways of interpreting the topic. After that, Mr. Charles showcased a few various ways of accumulating our works and information into one big e-portfolio to finalize our projects with different platforms of websites and blogs and note/sketch taking.
[Elements & Principles of Design, Contrast, Gestalt Theory]
April 2nd, 2021
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The first week's lecture was a live stream regarding the elements and principles in design and two topics about contrast and gestalt theory that will be applied to doing our exercises.
Figure - 1.1 - examples of elements of design
"They are individual “ingredients”, when
put together in a composition adhering
to principles of design, produce a work of
design that communicates an idea."
Throughout the lecture, it was more of a reminder and look back that using the elements of design is one of the main things and quite important to include and plan when working on a design or when designing.
Moving on from that, the lecture slowly dove into more on the 'principles of design'.
Figure 1.2 - the principles of design
"They are concepts used to organize or
arrange the elements of design. Design
principles are a way to give structure to
design work and meaning to the piece."
In a sense when it comes to the principles in design it helps the elements of design to be put in a more vivid or visible way of looking at art, which makes up a design! Even from the tiniest dot to a straight line, those elements along with the help of principles creates in-depth behind the creation.
Next on the list was 'Contrast', contrast is a principle of design, the lecture brought more in-depth on the subject to start out our exercises correlating to it.
Figure 1.3 - Prime example of 'contrast displayed by the colors of the birds on a wire.
"Contrast refers to differences in values,
colors, textures, shapes, and other
elements. Contrast creates visual
excitement and adds interest to the work."
Though contrast can come in all sorts of aspects, at times it's the reflection and through lighting at certain angles that projects onto the main subject in an entire environment. Creating one of the principles in design; contrast.
Lastly, the lecture focused on 'Gestalt's theory', a very interesting topic that may be very few people know about, even I was unfamiliar with what it was until seeing it. The fact that Gestalt's theory happens in the designs or branding of our everyday lives.
Figure 1.4 - Examples of the Gestalt's Laws
Gestalt's theory has a sense of contrast within it, but at the same time it's doesn't necessarily have a visible form or shape nor lines. It's a way our brains perceive the elements of design in its own principles regarding Gesalt's theory which are; Figure-ground, similarity, proximity, continuity, and closure.
Figure 1.5 - Gestalt's Theory prime visual example
"The elements and principles of design
covered in this lecture provides you with
fundamental knowledge to further study,
explore, discover, and apply them to create
interesting and communicative design work.
Understanding contrast and Gestalt theory
facilitates in producing good design work."
Exercise 1
March 31st, 2021
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The first exercise that was assigned to do is to apply contrast and the gestalt theory to the designs of our works.
I started off by doing research on visual contrast and everything about the gestalt theory before exploring the kind of ideas that I can apply in starting out my sketches.
Visual Research:
Contrast visual research
Figure 1.1.1 - Sunflower contrasting with sky blue background.
Figure 1.1.3 - Yellow ballon being contrasted by the dark blue background.
Before I could engage in researching topics to do with gestalt theories, I had to look through a bunch of images and photography. I didn't experiment so much in creating physical works, it actually took me a while to get a grip on differentiating contrast to gestalt's theory. Although, I wouldn't be able to progress if I didn't try.
Therefore I made it a little simpler for myself, I started off by looking at monochromatic photographs to see what could be extracted from them if it were applied on black and white paper. From there it gave me an easier way to identify contrast through a lack of color in an image.
Figure 1.1.4 - Black kitty at a graveyard
Figure 1.1.5 - Tryout of exercise 1, April 5th, 2021
It may seem quite rushed and well not neatly done but after a few feedbacks from Mr. Charles' in the second week of class (April 7th, 2021) and asking questions about whether I was going in the direction when working this out, surprisingly I was which puts me so much at ease. From there, I started brainstorming and I managed to find inspiration on what to try out next.
Idea Development:
Figure 1.1.6 - Kitty in black fedora and glasses
Figure 1.1.7 - Serious kitty in top hat and bow
My inspiration only got to my mind after feedback from Mr. Charles, he commented on my experimented work since it was only silhouettes as the foreground to make up what it was when first glanced at. Mr. Charles mentioned little small hats and a visible figure of a cat.
Finally, I had a subject and a form of an idea of contrasting a piece relating to the few images stated above somewhat reference and inspiration.
Contrast Sketch #1
Figure 1.1.8 - contrast sketch of a cat in a top hat, April 7th, 2021
This is a digital sketch that I took from my inspiration of a cat in a top hat. Sketching this piece out was challenging and confusing at times when I was in the process of doing it. I kept thinking about whether it's white paper on black or black on white paper.
Though from the looks of it, it's more of white paper cut out in a silhouette of the cat and pasted onto a black paper, meaning that the white thin lines would be connected as one whole piece to be glued on to the black paper.
Contrast Sketch #2
Figure 1.1.9 - contrast sketch of an evil mysterious cat in a top hat, April 7th, 2021
Still a digital sketch, but this time I tried improvising the expression of the cat, in the first sketch it seemed more of a white cat with a black top hat and a big black bow, it added essence of innocence to it, which seemed like something I didn't feel fit with the whole idea of monochromatic contrast, in my opinion.
Therefore I alternated the colors of the main subject (the cat) to be set in with the black paper. It had much more character to it, which surprisingly what I wanted to achieve in an unintentional way, and for this sketch it has a simpler and fuller figure to cut out of black paper to be pasted over the white paper which creates contrast.
Allegedly, the second sketch will be carried out in a manual manner to start off the contrast exercise.
.
Gestalt's Theory Visual Research
Figure 1.2.2 - peacock's tail feathers acts as eyes
After a few visual research, it still took me a while to wrap my head around the idea of it. Although I did figure out how it has some sort of similarities to contrast except it creates some sort of illusion of focusing on one subject that if we look more into it our brains perceive it as seeing two merged into one.
Idea Development:
The first thought that came to mind when I was brainstorming ideas, funny enough I noticed my black cat sitting in the center of a three-seater couch, fortunately, he was amongst little round cushions so in a way he seemed camouflage from the main subject which is the couch and it seemed as if my black cat was one with the cushions on the couch, which leads me to sketch something that maybe would turn out to be something I'm looking for correlating to gestalt's theory.
After I finished up the sketch, I realized it was more towards contrast, but I finally understood that gestalt's theory has a sense of subtly to it, and to be frank, there is a subtly in the sketch above. The cat with the z symbols has a close resemblance to the cushions. Though I wanted to experiment more on it.
Now that I understand the idea of creating illusions with this principle, I looked into designs with gestalt theory.
When a movie poster and a designed poster caught my eye:
Figure 1.2.4 - White dog movie poster (using gestalt theory)
Figure 1.2.5 - Raven formed into a gramophone
After a few references and scrolling and analyzing the lines on many different designs similar to the images above, it sparked an idea in my mind.
Figure 1.2.6 - Flowy fish acts as cats eye, April 8th, 2021
I think from this sketch, I finally understood the idea of what Gestalt theory can offer. It was still hard to figure out the lines connecting two of the animals' characteristics together seen in the sketch.
With two sketches decided and completed, it was time to start making it manually!
Final Outcome
Figure 1.2.7 - Manual Contrasted cat in a top hat, April 8th, 2021
I was quite impressed and satisfied with the results. It was definitely a very interesting process to create these pieces.
PDF Version:
Reflection
Week 1 Exercise
April 8th, 2021
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What I got to reflect on in the first week's exercise was being able to understand the deeper meaning when it comes to art and design. That certain designs genuinely have thought to it (not saying I didn't know that before) but it's fascinating to the principles and elements of design be put together to create something with such an emphasis.
With that being able to also try it out with the exercises made it so much more fun and adds greater understanding along with creative ideas merging with contrast and gestalt's theory.
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