DESIGN PRINCIPLES: Exercises

 

INTRODUCTION:

On the first week of Design Principles, we were given a briefing of our first assignment and also a self-study period in understanding the design principles properly through references and lecture videos.

EXERCISES INSTRUCTION:

Select 2 design principles and create a design for each two principles chosen.

1. Gestalt Theory

2. Contrast

3. Emphasis

4. Balance 

5. Repetition

6. Movement

7. Harmony & Unity

8. Symbol

9. Word and Image

After a lot of thought, I've decided to choose Contrast and Harmony & Unity.

Contrast: 

Contrast is the juxtaposition of strongly dissimilar elements. Without contrast in our life, visual experience would be monotonous.

fig 1.1  Contrast uploaded by Hugh (Pinterest)

Harmony & Unity:

Harmony & Unity sounds similar to each other, however, each plays a distinct role in the way we experience design.

1. HARMONY

• Involves the selection of elements that shares a common trait.
• Monotonous without variety
• 'Harmony' is the sense that all elements of the design fits together such as in the same theme, mood or aesthetic style.

fig 1.2  Harmony by Tracy477 (DeviantArt) 

2. UNITY

• Repetition of particular elements throughout your design, whether they are colors, shapes or materials to pull the look together.
• Unity occurs when these elements are composed in such a way that they are balanced and give a sense of oneness and creating a theme. 

 

DESIGN PROCESS: CONTRAST 

  

   I. VISUAL REFERENCES:

Artwork by Simon Predes

fig 1.5 Artwork by Lianna Cooper

fig 1.6 Artwork from Pinterest

II. IDEA EXPLORATION; CONTRAST

It took a lot of brainstorming to create the design, scrolling through Pinterest while brainstorming ideas to show vibrant contrast. The idea struck me when I started to dive deep in my interests in Celestial Artwork and Witchy art. 

        

First Idea: 

                                                              fig 1.7 Line art Process

                                            

fig 1.9 Galaxy themed inside the figure

I drew my first variation and inserted galaxy themed sky to fill the figure. At first, I wanted to create a flow in the hair to make the contrast more prominent, however, the picture become imbalance filling the right side more than the left  and it seemed as if the galaxy itself blended with the background too much.

Second Idea:

fig 2.0 I applied the second variation

   

                                   fig 2.1 Light Version                               fig 2.2 Dark Version

III. FEEDBACK

• The feedback that sir gave me was that the black was overpowering the figure and the moon. Sir Charles gave suggestion to make it less overpowering by enhancing the galaxy color or hatch the background to make it less overwhelming.

   

                                                

• After thinking long and hard on how to add more details without disrupting the figure, I decided to create a border along the figure with a hint of dusty fray galaxy to control the use of black. The empty grey area was filled with vines, since the whole concept of the design was the journey of Emotional Healing and vines symbolizes 'Life and Hard-work" during the healing process.

IV. FINAL DESIGN FOR CONTRAST

  

                                                          'Journey to Emotional Healing'

The idea was inspired from the references in my Pinterest that handled a lot of Galaxy-themed wallpaper, through a lot of brainstorming, I finally decided to apply the concept of 'A journey of emotional healing' into the contrast between vibrant colors and black. The journey itself can be explained in a chronological order; Firstly, with the figure closing herself off portrays people denying how they actually feels. Secondly, The phases of the moon shows the transformation period, where up and downs in situation occurs in the healing process. The galaxy patterns were presenting the future outcome of emotional fulfillment and also a sense of hope that could help people live a fulfilling life. 

 

DESIGN PROCESS: HARMONY AND UNITY

I. VISUAL REFERENCES:  

  

fig 2.2 Artwork by Jamie M

fig 2.2 Artwork by Nikita Ermakov

 

fig 2.2 Artwork by from Pinterest 

Raven Fan art from Pinterest (Anonymous)

I. IDEA EXPLORATION: HARMONY AND UNITY

• It took me a long time to find selection of elements that share a common trait and repetition, that was when I though creating a doodle with variety of elements under the same theme could work.

  fig 2.3 Initial Sketch 

III. FEEDBACK:

• Sir Charles told me to use existing elements to unite the rest, despite the overall theme that gives a sense of Harmony, the unity wasn't quite expressed.

• So I decided to alter the elements surrounding the witch to make it more united by using the same sort of design and repetition of color scheme.

fig 2.4 Added existing elements to give a sense of Unity

fig 2.5 Added Base Color (Purple Scheme)

fig 2.6 Added gradient color behind to emphasize the magical feel

III. FINAL DESIGN FOR HARMONY AND UNITY:

 

Final JPEG of 'Witching Hour'

The design was sparked from my interest of always doodling in my sketchbook and I've never actually created finalized doodle before, since the Design principles that I chose were Harmony and Unity I think this sort of Art style would look great. The figure was inspired by my favorite character from Teen Titans, Raven which became a huge inspiration in creating 'Witching Hour' using repetitive shades of purple. While the elements around her emphasizes a witch's tools for potion-making and their big influences on Halloween day.

REFLECTION

These two particular weeks of online lectures and creating design for the exercise have taught me quite a lot. First of all, the existence of new design principles such as Gestalt Theory. It was interesting to learn the principle of human perception that can be categorized into Proximity, Similarity, Continuation and Closure. In Addition, I was also able to comprehend the principle Harmony and Unity. I have never attempt to create design out of the principle due to my own weakness in composition, so I took it to myself to try and understand the principle to create 'Witching Hour' and creating the Contrast design really helped me in understanding the principle in the future through variety of expression. Furthermore, I was able to apply a trick or procedure that have helped me through Foundation in Design (FID) which was the design thinking process, this particular week have been nothing but a great recall of past working methods in battling creative blocks, experience in using blogger.com and overall preparing myself for future assignments that would require creative and critical thinking skills to complete.