31.08.2022-21.9.2022 / Week 1- Week 4
Kor Qian Qian / 0359496
Design Principles / Bachelors of Design (Hons) in Creative Media
Exercise 1
INSTRUCTION
LECTURES
WEEK 1
In the first week of Design Principles class, we had to meet Ms Yip on pre-recorded videos because of a public holiday. There are 10 design principles: contrast, gestalt theory, emphasis, balance, repetition, mov
Contrast
The juxtaposition of strongly dissimilar elements, it is an obvious difference between two or more things. Contrast enriches the visual experience. It may express content, accentuate a point, and add visual intrigue. Contrast can be found in different aspects, such as shapes, colours, lightning and more.
Gestalt Theory
Gestalt means shape or form in German. Gestalt principles are rules that describe how the human eye perceives visual elements. It shows how complex scenes can be reduced to simple shapes and how the eyes perceive the shapes as a single. United form rather than the separate simpler elements involved.
Principle of Similarity: gathered the similar elements in a picture. For example, use virus shape in an epidemic prevention poster.
Principle of Continuation: Guide the human eye follows the paths/lines/curves, to see a continuous flow.
Principle of Closure: human eye prefers to see a complete shape even if it is some missing visual information.
Principle of Proximity: placed related design elements together, become one visual unit which helps to organise or give structure to a layout.
Principle of Figure / Ground: Objects are prominently in the foreground or the background. For instance, the bitten apple and the faces.
Law of Symmetry & Order: elements that are symmetrical to each other tend to be perceived as a unified group.
Balance
The distribution of visual weight in a design. The elements of visual equilibrium are what make the image appear balanced. Balance is not equal to symmetrical, it can also be asymmetrical.
Symmetrical balance: the elements placed equally at equal sides of a centrally placed fulcrum.
Asymmetrical balance: Unequal weight on each side of the composition. Elements are not completely symmetrical but the overall picture looks balanced, no part of the picture looks heavy and part of the picture looks light
Emphasis
Used to create dominance and focus in a design work.
Repetition
Creates rhythm and pattern, makes a composition look more active and avoid monotony.
Movement
The shapes, forms, and curves are the kinds of movement in a visual image.
Hierarchy: Choreography of content in a composition. It directs viewers to the most important information first. For example, facebook log in page, we can see where to log in and sign up when we first go to the website.
Alignment: Edges line up along common rows or commons centre. Create a sense of unity and cohesion.
Harmony
The selection of elements that have a similar quality is necessary for harmony. Harmony becomes monotony without variety.
Unity
Unity is achieved by using the same specific elements repeatedly throughout a design, whether they be colours, shapes, or materials. They are balanced when these elements are composed together.
Symbol
A sign, shape, or object that is used to represent something else.
Word and image
Choosing the right words to pair with the imagery is of high importance as it would deepen the meaning of the design. Suitable typeface and strategic positioning of the type will result in visual hierarchy and balance in a work of design. Typography is the design and arrangement of text to convey a message or concept.
Exercise 1
Select 5 principles from the list: contrast, gestalt theory, emphasis, balance, repetition, movement, harmony & unity, symbol, word and image.
Create 1 design for each chosen principle.
The principles that I had chosen: CONTRAST, BALANCE, EMPHASIS, REPETITION, MOVEMENT.
1. Contrast
-The juxtaposition of strongly dissimilar elements, it is an obvious difference between two or more things. Contrast enriches the visual experience. It may express content, accentuate a point, and add visual intrigue. Contrast can be found in different aspects, such as shapes, colours, lightning and more.
Visual reference:
Figure 1.1, Figure 1.2, Figure 1.3-contrast picture from pinterest
Idea exploration and description:
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Figure 1.4-photo from google
Sketches:
Figure 1.5- attempt 1 of contrast
I would like to try to make double contrast, which is on the color and the object. For attempt 1, I combined a yellow color banana skin and a red watermelon pulp.
Figure 1.6-attempt 2 of contrast
The contrast of the color seems like not strong enough, then I decided to add a blue background to make it more contrast.
Feedback: That is simple and have a good understanding in contrast. It is fine to use this as my final outcome.
Final Outcome:
Figure 1.7-final outcome of contrast
Although I got the feedback that said it is good to go with the figure 1.6, I felt unsatisfied with that because it is too empty and feels like something is missing. So I decided to add color to the background. I'm not sure if it looks better, so I will decide the final outcome after I receive Ms feedback.
Feedback: It looks interesting after I added the colors at the background.
Contrast is a situation that we can actually see in our life everyday. There are contrast of color, contrast of shape, contrast of object, even contrast of people‘ look and contrast of people’s attitude. Watermelon with a banana skin, like a wolf in a sheep’s clothing. So, this not only represents the contrast of the object, this also shows a human’s internal and external. So-called “you can’t judge a person by appearance”.
2. Balance
-The distribution of visual weight in a design. The elements of visual equilibrium are what make the image appear balanced. Balance is not equal to symmetrical, it can also be asymmetrical.
Symmetrical balance: the elements placed equally at equal sides of a centrally placed fulcrum.
Asymmetrical balance: Unequal weight on each side of the composition. Elements are not completely symmetrical but the overall picture looks balanced, no part of the picture looks heavy and part of the picture looks light
Visual reference:
Figure 2.1-balance picture from pinterest
Idea exploration and description:
Sketches:
Figure 2.2-attempt 1 of balance
This is the first attempt of balance. It presents the sun and moon each occupying half of one day.
Figure 2.3-draft of balance
Figure 2.4-attempt 2 of balance
Final outcome:
Figure 2.5-Final outcome of balance
Morning and midnight, beach and city, bright and dark… …it seems that they are contrasting everywhere, but I used circles and divided the picture into two parts. I presented my idea in a circle, to make the picture look balanced.
Feedback: I must show my idea exploration and those drawing steps.
I decided to present it in a circle because the earth is round, half day and half night, and we get a balanced lifestyle. The sun and moon are slightly beyond the border to make the picture look more solid.
3. Emphasis
-Used to create dominance and focus in a design work.
Visual references:
Figure 3.1 & Figure 3.2-picture from pinterest
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Figure 3.3-picture from google
Idea exploration and description:
Sketches:
Figure 3.4 - attempt 1 of emphasis
This is a whole row of red canned shelves and mixed a cyan can inside of it.
Feedback: red color is brighter than cyan in this picture, swap the two colors to get better effect.
Figure 3.5 - attempt 2 of emphasis
I decided to darker the red color tone and change the cyan to light yellow to present more emphasis.
Feedback: I should show the changes that ms suggest. For Figure 3.5 seems not emphasis enough, use the first attempt and swap the color maybe will be better.
Figure 3.6 - attempt 3 of emphasis
For attempt 3, I follow Ms.Yip instruction to make the changes, I swap the red color and cyan color.
Figure 3.7 - attempt 4 of emphasis
Figure 3.8 - attempt 5 of emphasis
After viewing other peers' compositions, I got some new ideas.
Figure 3.7: There is a spotlight lighting the red can, letting the can become the main role of the picture.
Figure 3.8: A prominent red can emerges among the many dark black cans.
Final outcome:
Figure 3.9-Final outcome of emphasis
Figure 3.9: There is a torchlight lighting the red can in a dark place.
Feedback: It looks interesting than other attempt, just go with this.
I mainly want to express that we often see neat rows of cans on the shelves when we go to the supermarket. As long as the cans of other colors are accidentally mixed in the middle, it will be obvious. After these few weeks, I also learnt that emphasis is not just like repetition and mixing a different color between it.
In a whole picture, we can see at a glance who is the subject, also called emphasis.
-The shapes, forms, and curves are the kinds of movement in a visual image.
Visual reference:
Figure 4.1 & Figure 4.2-dancing picture from pinterest
Idea exploration and description:
Figure 4.3-draft of movement
Figure 4.3-attempt 1 for movement
A ballet dancer dancing on a music box idea came to my mind when I saw the dancing picture in pinterest.
Feedback: can add a shirt to make it more like turning around on the music box.
Figure 4.4-attempt 2 of movement
I don’t think my first attempt did well, so I followed Ms.Yip instruction to make some changes. I added a cloth to make it look like the girl was turning around on the music box and some musical symbols in the background, like the dancer dancing with the music and also added some "legs" and reduce the opacity as if it was lifting the leg.
Feedback: That’s good to be my final outcome.
Final outcome:
Figure 4.5-Final outcome of movement
I would like to add more detail on my attempt 2, so I added a symbol of turning at the leg of the ballet dancer to make it look more like turning around. I had also changed the background color to dark blue to look more comfortable. There is a reflection of her leg at the surface of the music box, let it look like a mirror.
The ballet dancer is following the flow of the music, and enjoys dancing what she likes. Ballet is an art form created by the movement of the human body. It has a beautiful movement when a ballerina is dancing.
-Creates rhythm and pattern, makes a composition look more active and avoid monotony.
Visual reference:
Figure 5.1 & Figure 5.2-repetition picture from pinterest
Idea exploration and description:
Figure 5.3-draft of repetition
Figure 5.4-attempt 1 of repetition Figure5.5-attempt 2 of repetition
The bouquet is where my inspiration comes from. I try to group it with pencils into a bundle of pencils. For figure 5.5, I am just trying another design to have more choices when I am done.
Feedback: Figure 5.3 is good, just go with it. Figure 5.5 is too simple and normal.
Figure 5.6-attempt 3 of repetition
I decided to choose figure 5.4 for my final design. I added some pencils and lowered the opacity to regard it as a background so that it doesn’t look too monotonous.
Feedback: That’s good to be my final outcome.
Final outcome:
Figure 5.7-Final outcome of repetition
I added a shadow to let it look more solid and changed to a more suitable background color.
My idea actually came from figure 5.1 and I remember the pencil we often used when I was a kid that looks black and yellow strikes. I think this is a nice memory, so I decided to add it into my composition. I love flowers too, so I combined both ideas and presented it as a bouquet of pencils.
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