Design Principles Exercises

Design Principles
Exercises
28/03/18
Afsah Faheem (0334242)

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Week 1 Contrast
29/03/18
The principle of contrast is when a person experiences two similar things in succession, the perception of the second is influenced by the first.

The idea for this piece was initially the writing only but having the writing and nothing on the other side made the composition look unbalanced. So I added the robot and argued about removing the writing but they ended up complimenting each other and both ended up int eh composition.

1.1 Contrast

Week 2 Gestalt

05/04/18

Gestalt is a psychological term that means 'unified whole,' and it refers to the theories of visual perception. These theories attempt to describe how people how people tend to organise visual elements into groups or unified wholes.

The idea for this came from a very random thought in my mind. There's a certain phrase, "my lips are sealed and the key has been thrown away." The man merged into key is to represent that saying, the man and the key are one because its a key that holds the secrets of others. 

2.1 Gestault

Week 3 Symmetry, Asymmetry, Balance and Emphasis

12/04/18

Symmetry: where one part has another identical part. There are a few types of symmetry such as line symmetry, rotational symmetry and point symmetry.

Asymmetry: creates an equal balance but the visuals do not mirror each other.

Emphasis: one specific element in a composition is made to stand out either through size, colour or shape.

This week, we were asked to pick one of the design principles from symmetry, asymmetry and emphasis and create a composition based on that principle. I decided on emphasis.

My initial idea was to do symmetry, but after drawing the tower, I played around with the idea of emphasis. The sun was going to be the point of emphasis but then I found a picture of the gargoyle and changed the colour and added it to the top of the tower. The cat gargoyle filled in the missing piece to my composition in my idea.

3.1 Emphasis

Week 4 Surface, Texture, Repetition and Pattern

14/04/18

Surface:-

-The outermost or innermost objects of a space.

-A surface is what we see in two dimensions, we can find perceptible characteristics on the surface  such as texture.

Texture:-

-What we feel, and can see, we can imagine the texture by seeing it.

-Real texture is something you feel by touching it.

-Visual or implied texture, when you see something, you imagine there to be a texture but there isn’t actually a texture, we only imagine the texture.

Repetion:-

-Even, regular, or irregular or uneven.

-Radiation is repeated at a centre point.

-Anything that is visually recognised in a repetitive element can be seen as a bold font, a certain bullet, colour or format.

-Its used to create unity and clarity.

Pattern:-

-Simply a repetition of more than one design element working together. it can create depth by using different colours.

-In conclusion, it is an underlying structure that organises surfaces or structures.

Similar  to last week, we had to choose one of the topics and create a composition. This week was a little bit tricky because all the topics given were very simple but the simplest things are the hardest to create. For this week, I decided to go with repetition. 

This week was stressful we have a four hour class and I couldn't think of anything and stress gets me to in different ways. Last week, stress got to me and I started feeling homesick and then it hit me. Cats, this whole composition was a bit random and spontaneous but once cat led to another, which then lend to the changing of size, and then different colours. Initially, the green cats were purple but after getting my teacher's critique, I decided to change it from pure to green. I also changed the background colour and think it turned out much better. 

4.1 Pattern

Week 5 Direction, Alignment, Hierarchy and Placement

25/04/18

Direction:-

-Something that leads your eyes to a specific place in the composition. There are vertical, horizontal and diagonal. Each direction gives off a different feeling, horizontal is calm, vertical gives off formality and balance, and diagonal are dynamic or action. 

-The main  direction has to be decide first, objects are placed at that direction, other ways o imply direction are through colour and saturation. 

Alignment:-

-It is the placement of visual elements so they light up a composition. 

-There are two principles. edge alignment, either to the left, right, top or bottom. The other principle is centre, where things are aligned in the centre.

Hierarchy:-

-It is where the eyes look first, and where they look after.

-Hierarchry in scale is thin to thick, the bigger scale is more dominant.

-Dark colours are more dominant regardless of size

-Hierarchy in perspective, our eyes are focused to look at the bigger thing before the smaller.

Placement:-

-Placement is where individual or groups of visual elements are placed on a paper.

-There can be no placement without shapes.

This week our assignment was to create something that didn't require our laptops. Ms.Sherry told us to leave our laptops at home and work hands on.

5.1 Alignment 

Week 6 Lines and Dots

02/05/18

Dots:-

-Dots and lines are the fundamentals of design.

-Dots are the smallest unit in art, dots are the building block for all other elements of arts.

-Dots are also found in nature, ice and bubbles.

-When two dots intercept, foreground and background are created.

Lines:-

-Lines are used to separate objects and are usually the starting point for most artistic creations.

-Every line has a different weight and length.

-There are 12 types of lines.

6.1 Coloured

6.2 Coloured with windows

6.3 Final with background

Week 7 No Class

09/05/18

This week we had no class, due to the election.

Week 8 Harmony, Movement and Rhythm

16/05/18

Harmony:-

-Harmony is achieved when unity and variety are effectively combined. Compositions are focused on unity and not contrast.

-There are two types or harmony, visuals and conceptual harmony.

-Visual harmony is artwork that is unified by colour, shape, composition. Visual harmony is achieved through grid, repetition and colour.

-Conceptual harmony is when an artwork has a common theme and concept through it.

Movement:-

-Movement is the path our eyes follow when we look at a work of art. Movement can be created by using lines, diagonals, tilted elements, blurring, placement, motion lines and afterimages.

Rhythm:-

-Rhythm unifies and shows consistency and can be ac hived by repeating any element of design such as line, dot, colour, scale and proportion.

7.1 Movement first idea

7.2 Movement final idea (pending). I decided on this one because a dinosaur running from a meteor makes more sense.

7.3 Final. After putting up my work for critique, Mrs.Sherry told me that the meteor looked to bright and could be darkened a little

Week 8 Shape, Form, Figure and Ground

23/05/18

Shape:-

Shape is used to create focal points.

-Shapes are used to organise information through connection and separation

-Create movement and texture.

-Three types of shapes: geometric, organic and abstract.

-Geometric shapes have angles, give a feeling of control and order.

-Organic shapes are flowing lines.

Form :-

-Shapes with volume by the addition of tone.

-Form is used to define space.

-Two types: geometric and organic.

-Geometric are constructed and man made.

Figure and Ground:-

The relationship between shape and visual perception

-Known as positive space and negative space.

-Three types: scalar, ever figure, ambiguous figure.

8.1 Shape and Form. I wanted to get off the computer and try something new. I played around with some very basic paper folding and was quite happy with the way it turned out.