Design Principles - Exercises & Projects
29/08/19 - 10/10/19 (Week 1 - Week 7)
Ahmed Yaman Ibrahim (0341119)
Design Principles
Exercises & Projects
EXERCISES & PROJECTS
WEEK 12-13 (14/11/19 - 21/11/19)
Final Project
Our task for the final project is to, as with the previous project, explore areas in KL, look into its culture and create a composition based on our research. However as opposed to a self portrait, this time our composition was to represent culture itself.
This involved quite a lot of visual research, and I felt that I needed to explore KL one more time to properly take in the sights and form my own opinions of the culture. For my second trip, I decided to visit Petaling Street and the nearby areas. As I explored the area, I found that each of the areas I visited had their own unique qualities that one could notice easily but would normally find difficult to explain. It gave these areas their own unique personalities in a way and I found that quite interesting. As I continued exploring, I also discovered some amazing graffiti art around the area. I decided to take some pictures:
I spent almost the entire day exploring these areas and my main takeaway from the experience is that Kuala Lumpur (and Malaysia in general but KL in particular) is an incredibly diverse city due to its multicultural population bringing in various aspects of their own culture and putting them together to create something unique for itself. This applies to the food, architecture, clothing and more less every other aspect I could think of. To me, KL is a giant melting pot of multiculturalism and diversity, and I wanted to convey that in my artwork for this project. A lot of what I experienced during my trips to KL was all incredibly new to me as I'd never seen sights like this back in Maldives, and as this is still essentially my first time in Malaysia I still feel very much like a tourist.
As mentioned before, I wanted to convey in my artwork the idea that KL is a large "melting pot" of various aspects of culture from the multiple ethnicities living in the area. I started off by creating a simple circular illustration to serve as the foreground of my design.
For the foreground, I added pictures of buildings that stood out to me during my trips to KL. Some of the pictures used are my own, while others are from the internet. The general idea of my composition is that I wanted to create a collage of the various aspects of the city's culture that resonated with me, while also displaying the city's diversity and multiculturalism. I added small elements under the foreground image to depict the "melting pot" I mentioned before. I also added cutout-esque outlines to all the images on the composition to give it a collage-y feel.
I then began to add elements to the background. I started off with the graffiti art I saw around Petaling Street as I felt it served as a good example of the amazing street art you can find in parts of KL. I also added a bit of shadow to the foreground to give it some depth and to differentiate it from elements on the background.
I continued by adding various aspects of KL's culture that I took away from my trips, such as food, transport and lights. My reason for specifically including public transport in the image is because that also is a new experience for me; I never used public transport in Maldives as the city is so small and I walked everywhere. As opposed to that, I spend a reasonable amount of time here everyday to travel using public transport, so it has become a part of my daily life here without me realizing. I also added the Malaysia flag as I saw it quite a lot over shops and other building facades.
Final Project - Final result
This involved quite a lot of visual research, and I felt that I needed to explore KL one more time to properly take in the sights and form my own opinions of the culture. For my second trip, I decided to visit Petaling Street and the nearby areas. As I explored the area, I found that each of the areas I visited had their own unique qualities that one could notice easily but would normally find difficult to explain. It gave these areas their own unique personalities in a way and I found that quite interesting. As I continued exploring, I also discovered some amazing graffiti art around the area. I decided to take some pictures:
I spent almost the entire day exploring these areas and my main takeaway from the experience is that Kuala Lumpur (and Malaysia in general but KL in particular) is an incredibly diverse city due to its multicultural population bringing in various aspects of their own culture and putting them together to create something unique for itself. This applies to the food, architecture, clothing and more less every other aspect I could think of. To me, KL is a giant melting pot of multiculturalism and diversity, and I wanted to convey that in my artwork for this project. A lot of what I experienced during my trips to KL was all incredibly new to me as I'd never seen sights like this back in Maldives, and as this is still essentially my first time in Malaysia I still feel very much like a tourist.
As mentioned before, I wanted to convey in my artwork the idea that KL is a large "melting pot" of various aspects of culture from the multiple ethnicities living in the area. I started off by creating a simple circular illustration to serve as the foreground of my design.
I then began to add elements to the background. I started off with the graffiti art I saw around Petaling Street as I felt it served as a good example of the amazing street art you can find in parts of KL. I also added a bit of shadow to the foreground to give it some depth and to differentiate it from elements on the background.
I continued by adding various aspects of KL's culture that I took away from my trips, such as food, transport and lights. My reason for specifically including public transport in the image is because that also is a new experience for me; I never used public transport in Maldives as the city is so small and I walked everywhere. As opposed to that, I spend a reasonable amount of time here everyday to travel using public transport, so it has become a part of my daily life here without me realizing. I also added the Malaysia flag as I saw it quite a lot over shops and other building facades.
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| Final Project - Final result |
Rationale
My final project is meant to represent the aspects of Kuala Lumpur's culture that resonate the most with me, based on my experiences during my trips there, which were mainly in Ampang, Petaling Street and the surrounding areas. To that end, I wanted to depict Kuala Lumpur as a "melting pot" of various elements of culture from the multiple ethnicities living in Malaysia. Kuala Lumpur's cultural diversity is visible in its architecture, food, clothing and several other aspects, and I felt that this would be best illustrated in a collage-style depiction where I can literally add the elements individually to create a composition; this is why I included cutout-shaped outlines around each element on the artwork, to further add to the collage-style. Additionally, I wanted to highlight which aspects of KL and its culture I most often associate myself with; which in this case would be food and transport. The foreground depicts the diversity in Kuala Lumpur's architecture; I felt that this was the most visible distinction that represented the city's multiculturalism. The Malaysian flag is included for the sake of identity, and also because the flag was very prominently visible in several areas during my trips to KL.
WEEK 11-12 (07/11/19 - 14/11/19)
Project 2: Self Portrait
For Project 2, we were tasked with creating a self portrait using any medium of our choice in a way that represents us; we were to ask ourselves questions such as:
"Who am I?"
"How has culture affected me?"
"How do others see me?"
"How do I see myself?"
We were also asked to conduct research by exploring the city of Kuala Lumpur for this project (as well as the following final project) to help us understand how we could present our self portrait based on the inspirations we drew from what we saw during our exploration.
Before the trip, I did some self-reflection to try and think of how I might want to represent myself in the self portrait. I spent a lot of time thinking about how other people's perception of me as well as my perception of myself; how I've been inspired by the things around me and how that affects my general outlook on things as well. This was a lot more difficult than I anticipated as I'd never really sat down to reflect on myself before. After a lot of thinking and brainstorming, I concluded that my personality around other people varied depending on the kind of people I was around. As for how culture had affected me, I had way too many ideas I could think of and I figured that I needed to go out and explore on the trip to see if I can narrow down my interests and personality into something that I could truly represent myself with.
On the trip, I visited the KLCC and Ampang areas and took a few pictures to try and see if I could get any inspiration. I tried not to think too hard about the kind of pictures I wanted to take, and only focused on taking pictures of what I thought would interest me. This seemed like the right choice to make, as at the end of the day I noticed that most of the pictures I took were of one or two common subjects. I mostly ended up taking pictures of high-rise buildings and other landmarks that I found interesting, as well as some pictures of nature and graffiti art. I was not particularly interested with taking pictures of other subjects, such as people or vehicles. The pictures of the buildings I took were also somewhat unconventional in design, as they stood out from the other skyscrapers around them. I figured I mainly took pictures of things that I felt were much more visible or noticeable compared to what was around them (unconventional buildings, graffiti wall art, an abundance of nature in areas of high-rise buildings). Below are some of the pictures I took:
In all honesty, I had a lot of trouble throughout the whole project trying to link my KL exploration to the actual self portrait. As much as I was inspired by what I saw and gave me some ideas of how I could present myself on the self portrait, I felt that it still didn't accurately represent how I saw myself or how others saw me, for that matter. I decided I might as well get started on the self portrait and see how I can answer the questions I asked myself, during the design process.
I started off with a picture of myself on camera:
Sure enough, I was already stuck. I didn't really know how to progress with creating the self portrait as I couldn't decide which aspects of myself I could depict on the image to accurately represent me; at this point, I realized that that in itself was essentially a part of who I was—as mentioned before, different people saw different versions of me based on the personality I have around that person. In other words, I had different facets of myself that were visible to different people. Phrasing it this way in my head gave me an idea of how to create my self portrait. I started off by switching my portrait to grayscale on Photoshop:
I then cleared out the background in a dark color to add contrast, and began to create triangular shapes on and around my face. My inspiration for this came from the cubism art style—I was reminded of this when I saw the red facade of a parking lot in Ampang, pictured above. The facade itself does not really follow the style, but that is what it reminded me of and it gave me some more ideas on how I can create my self portrait. The triangle shapes are meant to represent different "facets" of my personality based on how different people see me differently. This turned out to be very time consuming as I wanted the triangles to loosely follow the shape of myself without making it too apparent; I also wanted to give the triangles varying shades of color to give them some sort of depth.
I purposely lowered the opacity of the "facet" shapes just enough that my face was barely visible behind it; I wanted to convey the idea that despite the fact that there are different versions of me visible to different people, I still have what I believe is my own personality beneath all that, which you can see if you look closely enough.
I decided to add color to the composition as well; people often tend to assume that my personality is somewhat dull or mundane as I tend to stay quiet in class and around people, and that I don't really come off as someone who likes using or wearing bright and vivid colors. I wanted to contest that notion by using two vivid and highly contrasting colors (red and blue) and using shades within a spectrum of those two colors for the "facet" designs. The end result turned out like this:
Project 2: Self Portrait - Final result
"Who am I?"
"How has culture affected me?"
"How do others see me?"
"How do I see myself?"
We were also asked to conduct research by exploring the city of Kuala Lumpur for this project (as well as the following final project) to help us understand how we could present our self portrait based on the inspirations we drew from what we saw during our exploration.
Before the trip, I did some self-reflection to try and think of how I might want to represent myself in the self portrait. I spent a lot of time thinking about how other people's perception of me as well as my perception of myself; how I've been inspired by the things around me and how that affects my general outlook on things as well. This was a lot more difficult than I anticipated as I'd never really sat down to reflect on myself before. After a lot of thinking and brainstorming, I concluded that my personality around other people varied depending on the kind of people I was around. As for how culture had affected me, I had way too many ideas I could think of and I figured that I needed to go out and explore on the trip to see if I can narrow down my interests and personality into something that I could truly represent myself with.
On the trip, I visited the KLCC and Ampang areas and took a few pictures to try and see if I could get any inspiration. I tried not to think too hard about the kind of pictures I wanted to take, and only focused on taking pictures of what I thought would interest me. This seemed like the right choice to make, as at the end of the day I noticed that most of the pictures I took were of one or two common subjects. I mostly ended up taking pictures of high-rise buildings and other landmarks that I found interesting, as well as some pictures of nature and graffiti art. I was not particularly interested with taking pictures of other subjects, such as people or vehicles. The pictures of the buildings I took were also somewhat unconventional in design, as they stood out from the other skyscrapers around them. I figured I mainly took pictures of things that I felt were much more visible or noticeable compared to what was around them (unconventional buildings, graffiti wall art, an abundance of nature in areas of high-rise buildings). Below are some of the pictures I took:
In all honesty, I had a lot of trouble throughout the whole project trying to link my KL exploration to the actual self portrait. As much as I was inspired by what I saw and gave me some ideas of how I could present myself on the self portrait, I felt that it still didn't accurately represent how I saw myself or how others saw me, for that matter. I decided I might as well get started on the self portrait and see how I can answer the questions I asked myself, during the design process.
I started off with a picture of myself on camera:
Sure enough, I was already stuck. I didn't really know how to progress with creating the self portrait as I couldn't decide which aspects of myself I could depict on the image to accurately represent me; at this point, I realized that that in itself was essentially a part of who I was—as mentioned before, different people saw different versions of me based on the personality I have around that person. In other words, I had different facets of myself that were visible to different people. Phrasing it this way in my head gave me an idea of how to create my self portrait. I started off by switching my portrait to grayscale on Photoshop:
I then cleared out the background in a dark color to add contrast, and began to create triangular shapes on and around my face. My inspiration for this came from the cubism art style—I was reminded of this when I saw the red facade of a parking lot in Ampang, pictured above. The facade itself does not really follow the style, but that is what it reminded me of and it gave me some more ideas on how I can create my self portrait. The triangle shapes are meant to represent different "facets" of my personality based on how different people see me differently. This turned out to be very time consuming as I wanted the triangles to loosely follow the shape of myself without making it too apparent; I also wanted to give the triangles varying shades of color to give them some sort of depth.
I purposely lowered the opacity of the "facet" shapes just enough that my face was barely visible behind it; I wanted to convey the idea that despite the fact that there are different versions of me visible to different people, I still have what I believe is my own personality beneath all that, which you can see if you look closely enough.
I decided to add color to the composition as well; people often tend to assume that my personality is somewhat dull or mundane as I tend to stay quiet in class and around people, and that I don't really come off as someone who likes using or wearing bright and vivid colors. I wanted to contest that notion by using two vivid and highly contrasting colors (red and blue) and using shades within a spectrum of those two colors for the "facet" designs. The end result turned out like this:
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| Project 2: Self Portrait - Final result |
Rationale
My self portrait is meant to represent the various facets of myself that are visible to people; different people see different versions of me. I have my own personality beneath what is seen by others, and part of creating this self portrait was to help me understand that in some way. This is why there is no immediate visible expression on my "face" on the portrait, but you will able to see my actual face if you look closely enough. The colors used on the portrait are also meant to represent this same concept in a way—I tend to use vibrant colors that stand out in my art and design work, but based on my conversations with other people, I am not someone that would appear to use colorful visuals and have a very apparent personality at first glance, as I am generally known to be quiet in class and I tend to wear muted colors. The "facet" designs on my face are also inspired by the kind of visual designs I tend to lead towards—polygonal and triangular shapes that I often see in cubism as well as postmodern art and design work, and on building facades with unconventional designs.
WEEK 10 (31/10/19)
Symbolism, Image & Words
Once again, the lecture was held by students. The presentation is attached below:
Exercise
For this exercise, we created a composition using software (Adobe Photoshop/Illustrator) to create a composition for the above topics. I had an idea for this exercise from a photograph I took when I was in Maldives during the Deepavali break:
This is a picture of a malfunctioning digital billboard over a public area in Malé; it appeared quite surreal so I decided to snap a picture of it. I realized I could use it later for this exercise—I could project an image onto the billboard or even make an animation out of it, and I eventually decided to do both. I imported the image to Photoshop and replaced the error message on the board with a gradient background; I then adjusted the colors of the background to match the colors that the gradient was giving off.
I then decided to use the principle of symbols to add an image onto the gradient board; the building below the billboard is the police headquarters in Malé so I thought I'd do a sort of "Big Brother is watching you" theme by drawing an eye symbol onto the board.
I tried giving the eye symbol a sort of futuristic look as I felt that the colors of the image gave off a very cyberpunk aesthetic, but on second thought I realized that it wasn't apparent enough that the symbol was an eye; so I redid it to make the symbol more obvious.
After the image was done, I wanted to animate it so that the eye moved around the board, looking down at the people below. I imported the image to After Effects and animated it so that the eye moved around the board, with the pupil moving inside the eye to make it a bit more dynamic.
Exercise 8 - final image
Exercise 8 - short animation
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This is a picture of a malfunctioning digital billboard over a public area in Malé; it appeared quite surreal so I decided to snap a picture of it. I realized I could use it later for this exercise—I could project an image onto the billboard or even make an animation out of it, and I eventually decided to do both. I imported the image to Photoshop and replaced the error message on the board with a gradient background; I then adjusted the colors of the background to match the colors that the gradient was giving off.
I then decided to use the principle of symbols to add an image onto the gradient board; the building below the billboard is the police headquarters in Malé so I thought I'd do a sort of "Big Brother is watching you" theme by drawing an eye symbol onto the board.
I tried giving the eye symbol a sort of futuristic look as I felt that the colors of the image gave off a very cyberpunk aesthetic, but on second thought I realized that it wasn't apparent enough that the symbol was an eye; so I redid it to make the symbol more obvious.
After the image was done, I wanted to animate it so that the eye moved around the board, looking down at the people below. I imported the image to After Effects and animated it so that the eye moved around the board, with the pupil moving inside the eye to make it a bit more dynamic.
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| Exercise 8 - final image |
Exercise 8 - short animation
WEEK 9 (24/10/19)
Field trip to Ilham Gallery & research on a Southeast Asian designer
Field trip
This week, we took a field trip to Ilham Gallery to view the artwork on display. The trip was quite insightful and my experience is documented below:
Research on a Southeast Asian designer
The designer I chose for this report is a Singaporean graphic designer named Ella Zheng. My research is documented below:
WEEK 8 (17/10/19)
Harmony, Rhythm & Movement
Once again, the lecture was held by students. Their presentation is attached below.
Exercise
For this exercise, I wanted to make a composition for the principle of harmony. I looked up a few images for inspiration and found one that caught my attention:
Endless Rhythm, Robert Delaunay (1934)
I wanted to create a composition inspired by this as I felt it showcased the harmony principle quite well (with the semicircles creating undulating lines of varying thickness), despite being named Endless "Rhythm." I used collage materials such as newspaper and magazine paper for this exercise. I started off by cutting up circles of various sizes and laying them out in a manner similar to the reference artwork, but with some variation.
Circles from newspaper and gold paper
I then laid out some more circles around these to balance out the rest of the white space.
Balancing out the composition using magazine paper
I then added half circles from shades of blue paper and placed smaller circles with silver paper in the middle to complete the composition.
Harmony - final result
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| Endless Rhythm, Robert Delaunay (1934) |
I wanted to create a composition inspired by this as I felt it showcased the harmony principle quite well (with the semicircles creating undulating lines of varying thickness), despite being named Endless "Rhythm." I used collage materials such as newspaper and magazine paper for this exercise. I started off by cutting up circles of various sizes and laying them out in a manner similar to the reference artwork, but with some variation.
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| Circles from newspaper and gold paper |
I then laid out some more circles around these to balance out the rest of the white space.
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| Balancing out the composition using magazine paper |
I then added half circles from shades of blue paper and placed smaller circles with silver paper in the middle to complete the composition.
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| Harmony - final result |
WEEK 7 (10/10/19)
Dot, Line, Scale & Size
This week's lecture was held by students as well, and their presentation on the topic is attached below.
Exercise
I was absent for this lesson and most of my other classes for the week due to falling ill, and I had a bit of trouble catching up with all the work that I missed. I was not able to do my best work, but as I didn't want to leave any assignments incomplete I decided to make something with the time that I had. For this exercise, I decided to do a simple minimalist-style composition with polygonal lines, which was inspired by geometric line art.
Geometric line art
I also tried to see if I can make the difference between large and small polygons apparent by making the polygons on the left smaller than the ones on the right, as part of the scale principle.
Line - final result
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| Geometric line art |
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| Line - final result |
WEEK 6 (03/10/19)
Alignment, Hierarchy, Direction & Perspective
This week's lecture was done by my group; the full presentation (including research omitted from the presentation we made for class for the sake of clarity) is attached here.
Exercise
For this exercise, we were to use paper and other recycled materials to create a composition for one of the aforementioned topics. I decided to go with perspective.
One-point perspective image for inspiration
My idea was to depict one-point perspective by pasting paper of various colors and newspaper to create a landscape image. I started out by outlining the image for the composition—I decided to go with a simple one-point perspective image of a bridge over water, receding into the center of the image. I then cut up newspaper in the shape of the outlines I drew for the bridge, and pasted it over the sketch.
Outline of drawing and pasting paper over the sketch
I then cut and pasted different shades of blue for the "sea" and "sky" of the image.
Blue paper for the "sea"
I decided to keep the frame of the bridge white as I felt it would contrast better with the blue instead of the grey from the newspaper.
Perspective - final result
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| One-point perspective image for inspiration |
My idea was to depict one-point perspective by pasting paper of various colors and newspaper to create a landscape image. I started out by outlining the image for the composition—I decided to go with a simple one-point perspective image of a bridge over water, receding into the center of the image. I then cut up newspaper in the shape of the outlines I drew for the bridge, and pasted it over the sketch.
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| Outline of drawing and pasting paper over the sketch |
I then cut and pasted different shades of blue for the "sea" and "sky" of the image.
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| Blue paper for the "sea" |
I decided to keep the frame of the bridge white as I felt it would contrast better with the blue instead of the grey from the newspaper.
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| Perspective - final result |
WEEK 5 (26/9/19)
Pattern, Repetition, Texture & Surface
Class began with a presentation on the topics of pattern, repetition, texture and surface in design.
Pattern simply refers to the repetition of elements (i.e. line, shape or colors) to create an arrangement on a composition. The basis of the principle is that any element can be repeated continuously on a composition to create a pattern, but there are several ways the actual design can be implemented.
A simple pattern of repeating rectangles
Meandering patterns created by a single, undulating line
Branching patterns that extend outwards from one or more points
A spiral pattern that consists of lines extending outwards at a constant curve
Repetition works hand in hand with patterns, and essentially has the same definition as well. One way to differentiate between patterns and repetition is that patterns found in design most often consist of regular arrangements that follow an invisible grid (but not always), while repetition in itself can be regular, irregular, even or uneven. As with patterns, there are numerous ways of how repetition can be implemented in a design.
Regular repetition created by an even arrangement (this is an image of window awnings rotated sideways)
Irregular repetition created by an uneven arrangement of pencils
Texture is the principle of design that defines the surface of a shape or form. Texture can also be presented in several ways:
Physical/tactile texture is texture that you can physically feel upon touching
Visual/implied texture refers to the illusion of physical texture on a surface depicted on a composition.
Tactile texture can also be achieved on paintings with heavy use of paint in order to convey how the painting looks as well as how it feels when touched
Surface by definition refers to the topmost layer of any composition, which is where the texture, design or artwork is usually applied.
A design applied on several types of surfaces
Pattern simply refers to the repetition of elements (i.e. line, shape or colors) to create an arrangement on a composition. The basis of the principle is that any element can be repeated continuously on a composition to create a pattern, but there are several ways the actual design can be implemented.
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| A simple pattern of repeating rectangles |
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| Meandering patterns created by a single, undulating line |
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| Branching patterns that extend outwards from one or more points |
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| A spiral pattern that consists of lines extending outwards at a constant curve |
Repetition works hand in hand with patterns, and essentially has the same definition as well. One way to differentiate between patterns and repetition is that patterns found in design most often consist of regular arrangements that follow an invisible grid (but not always), while repetition in itself can be regular, irregular, even or uneven. As with patterns, there are numerous ways of how repetition can be implemented in a design.
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| Regular repetition created by an even arrangement (this is an image of window awnings rotated sideways) |
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| Irregular repetition created by an uneven arrangement of pencils |
Texture is the principle of design that defines the surface of a shape or form. Texture can also be presented in several ways:
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| Physical/tactile texture is texture that you can physically feel upon touching |
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| Visual/implied texture refers to the illusion of physical texture on a surface depicted on a composition. |
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| Tactile texture can also be achieved on paintings with heavy use of paint in order to convey how the painting looks as well as how it feels when touched |
Surface by definition refers to the topmost layer of any composition, which is where the texture, design or artwork is usually applied.
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| A design applied on several types of surfaces |
Exercise
I had quite a lot of trouble with this one. As we did not initially have a lecture on this subject due to class being cancelled the previous week, I did a bit of my own research into the subject to see what I could come up with. I decided to go with 'pattern' as my theme as I was not very familiar with the materials we were to use and I figured I could try something simple first. I decided to choose vegetable stamp as my material as it was easily accessible. This is where things got tricky; I tried making stamps out of lemons and onions and struggled quite a bit—the stamps did not show on paper as well as I wanted them to. I couldn't tell if it was because I was using too little or too much paint, as I tried both ways and the result was still the same.
After numerous failed attempts and cutting up the vegetables all sorts of ways to see if that changed anything (it didn't), I decided to try making stamps using ladies' fingers. This proved to be somewhat successful as it atleast made a visible print on paper, so I decided not to risk it further and stuck with it. Using this, I made a simple pattern out of alternating stamp directions and complementary colors.
WEEK 4 (19/9/19) - Cancelled
WEEK 3 (12/9/19)
WEEK 2 (05/9/19)
WEEK 1 (29/8/19)
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| Failed attempts at trying to get a pattern going |
After numerous failed attempts and cutting up the vegetables all sorts of ways to see if that changed anything (it didn't), I decided to try making stamps using ladies' fingers. This proved to be somewhat successful as it atleast made a visible print on paper, so I decided not to risk it further and stuck with it. Using this, I made a simple pattern out of alternating stamp directions and complementary colors.
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Pattern 1 - final resultLater on in class, I attempted another design, this time cutting up a carrot in two different shapes and applying lots of paint with only a little bit of water. I expected the worst but it turned out alright. |
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| Pattern 2 - final result |
WEEK 4 (19/9/19) - Cancelled
Pattern, Repetition, Texture & Surface
No lecture today as all university classes were cancelled due to the worsening haze conditions.
WEEK 3 (12/9/19)
Symmetry, Asymmetry & Balance
From this week onward, lectures consisted of presentations done by students in groups, based on their own research. Today's presentation was on symmetry, asymmetry and balance in design.
Symmetry by definition means a sense of harmonious balance and proportion. In design, the general understanding of symmetry refers to when elements are mirrored on both sides of an axis. There are three main types of symmetry in design:
1. Reflection symmetry
The most commonly understood type of symmetry, which is when elements are mirrored around a central axis, either horizontally, vertically, or both.
Reflection symmetry
2. Rotation symmetry
Rotation symmetry refers to when elements rotate based on a central axis, regardless of angle or frequency.
Rotation symmetry
3. Translational symmetry
This refers to when elements are repeated in different locations within a space, without altering its orientation.
Translational symmetry
Conversely, asymmetry refers to the absence of symmetry of any kind. Asymmetry is often used in order to depict some form of movement or dynamism as opposed to symmetry, which is usually more structured and orderly.
Symmetry vs Asymmetry
Balance refers to the distribution of visual weight on a design in terms of the elements, colors and space. When it comes to design, balance often goes hand in hand with symmetry. As with symmetry, there are various types of balance that can be applied in design:
1. Symmetrical balance
As with general design symmetry, this refers to when the visual weight is balanced on both sides of a design composition, around an axis or center.
Symmetrical balance achieved on a photograph
2. Asymmetrical balance
In a composition with asymmetrical balance, one side has a much heavier visual weight than the other, usually from that side having a dominant element that grabs the viewer's attention.
The Great Wave off Kanagawa by Hokusai presents an example of asymmetrical balance
3. Radial balance
Similar to rotational symmetry, radial balance involves elements on a design radiating out from a common center. Mandalas are a common example of radial balance in art.
An example of radial balance
4. Mosaic balance
Mosaic balance is achieved when visual weight is distributed on a composition without any distinct focal points for your eyes to single out, resulting in a sort of balanced chaos.
Mosaic balance
After the lesson, we had a pin-up session of our figure-ground exercises from last week. Ms. Sherry gave us feedback on our work and gave us our exercise for next week, which was to make a composition on paper representing either symmetry, asymmetry or balance using watercolors or oil pastels.
Symmetry by definition means a sense of harmonious balance and proportion. In design, the general understanding of symmetry refers to when elements are mirrored on both sides of an axis. There are three main types of symmetry in design:
1. Reflection symmetry
The most commonly understood type of symmetry, which is when elements are mirrored around a central axis, either horizontally, vertically, or both.
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| Reflection symmetry |
2. Rotation symmetry
Rotation symmetry refers to when elements rotate based on a central axis, regardless of angle or frequency.
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| Rotation symmetry |
3. Translational symmetry
This refers to when elements are repeated in different locations within a space, without altering its orientation.
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| Translational symmetry |
Conversely, asymmetry refers to the absence of symmetry of any kind. Asymmetry is often used in order to depict some form of movement or dynamism as opposed to symmetry, which is usually more structured and orderly.
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| Symmetry vs Asymmetry |
Balance refers to the distribution of visual weight on a design in terms of the elements, colors and space. When it comes to design, balance often goes hand in hand with symmetry. As with symmetry, there are various types of balance that can be applied in design:
1. Symmetrical balance
As with general design symmetry, this refers to when the visual weight is balanced on both sides of a design composition, around an axis or center.
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| Symmetrical balance achieved on a photograph |
2. Asymmetrical balance
In a composition with asymmetrical balance, one side has a much heavier visual weight than the other, usually from that side having a dominant element that grabs the viewer's attention.
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| The Great Wave off Kanagawa by Hokusai presents an example of asymmetrical balance |
3. Radial balance
Similar to rotational symmetry, radial balance involves elements on a design radiating out from a common center. Mandalas are a common example of radial balance in art.
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| An example of radial balance |
4. Mosaic balance
Mosaic balance is achieved when visual weight is distributed on a composition without any distinct focal points for your eyes to single out, resulting in a sort of balanced chaos.
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| Mosaic balance |
After the lesson, we had a pin-up session of our figure-ground exercises from last week. Ms. Sherry gave us feedback on our work and gave us our exercise for next week, which was to make a composition on paper representing either symmetry, asymmetry or balance using watercolors or oil pastels.
Exercise
Our third exercise was to use either watercolors or oil pastels on A4 paper and create a composition that represents either symmetry, asymmetry or balance. I decided to go with balance as my theme, as I had a kind of image in mind that I wanted to try out.
In East Asian culture, a pair of koi fish are often used in symbolism to represent focus and balance, and in most of the art that they are depicted in they are often seen circling each other. I wanted to expand on this idea and try and stylize it a bit, and depict the fish as mirror images of each other, while also being able to distinguish one from the other, if that makes sense.
A pair of koi carp - my inspiration
I started off by drawing a circle in the center of the paper and lightly sketching the outlines of the fish with pencil (I tried uploading an image of this to show progess but the pencil lines were too light to be visible on camera). I then filled these in with oil pastels; I tried to be as careful as possible due to how messy it gets when using them. I filled the main bodies of both fish in orange, and left the spots and fins of one fish white, while filling in the same areas for the second fish in black. In doing so, I tried to stay within the theme of balance while also attempting to add a bit of visual weight to one side over the other, with the use of black.
Balance - final result
Our third exercise was to use either watercolors or oil pastels on A4 paper and create a composition that represents either symmetry, asymmetry or balance. I decided to go with balance as my theme, as I had a kind of image in mind that I wanted to try out.
In East Asian culture, a pair of koi fish are often used in symbolism to represent focus and balance, and in most of the art that they are depicted in they are often seen circling each other. I wanted to expand on this idea and try and stylize it a bit, and depict the fish as mirror images of each other, while also being able to distinguish one from the other, if that makes sense.
I started off by drawing a circle in the center of the paper and lightly sketching the outlines of the fish with pencil (I tried uploading an image of this to show progess but the pencil lines were too light to be visible on camera). I then filled these in with oil pastels; I tried to be as careful as possible due to how messy it gets when using them. I filled the main bodies of both fish in orange, and left the spots and fins of one fish white, while filling in the same areas for the second fish in black. In doing so, I tried to stay within the theme of balance while also attempting to add a bit of visual weight to one side over the other, with the use of black.
In East Asian culture, a pair of koi fish are often used in symbolism to represent focus and balance, and in most of the art that they are depicted in they are often seen circling each other. I wanted to expand on this idea and try and stylize it a bit, and depict the fish as mirror images of each other, while also being able to distinguish one from the other, if that makes sense.
 |
| A pair of koi carp - my inspiration |
I started off by drawing a circle in the center of the paper and lightly sketching the outlines of the fish with pencil (I tried uploading an image of this to show progess but the pencil lines were too light to be visible on camera). I then filled these in with oil pastels; I tried to be as careful as possible due to how messy it gets when using them. I filled the main bodies of both fish in orange, and left the spots and fins of one fish white, while filling in the same areas for the second fish in black. In doing so, I tried to stay within the theme of balance while also attempting to add a bit of visual weight to one side over the other, with the use of black.
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| Balance - final result |
WEEK 2 (05/9/19)
Gestalt Principles
We had a pin-up session of our contrast exercises from last week. Ms. Sherry gave us feedback on our work and where improvements could be made when necessary.
Today's lecture was about the Gestalt principles; also known as the Law of Prägnanz or Law of Simplicity, the basis of this principle is that a whole object is perceived differently from the sum of its parts. In terms of design, these principles address visual perception in different ways.
1. Figure-ground
The figure-ground principle addresses the fact that your eyes perceive objects on a design as being part of either the foreground or background. In other words, they will be prominently visible at the front of the design (figure) or they will blend into the back (ground). This principle can be applied to design in a way that causes the eye to essentially blur the line between foreground and background. Although in most figure-ground designs the lighter color is considered the foreground, it is also possible to make background elements visible in a way that the lighter color seems less prominent, if that makes sense.
The most popular example of the figure-ground principle, based on Edgar Rubin's "Hidden Faces & Goblet"
Poster for the Melbourne Food & Wine Festival that cleverly uses the foreground and background to depict a fork and wine bottles
2. Similarity
The principle of similarity states that our eyes tend to group together similar elements in terms of their shape, size or color. Regardless of the location of the elements on a design, our eyes will subconsciously categorize them based on these variables.
Fig. 2.5: Although all the shapes are laid out on a grid, our eyes will identify the circles and triangles and two groups of shapes.
Here, we separate the shapes based on the color each row is in, rather than the shapes themselves.
3. Proximity
According to the principle of proximity, we identify elements closer together as their own groups and subconsciously separate them from elements that are further away. Our ability to distinguish elements based on proximity is so strong that it can override how we see objects based on the principle of similarity (i.e. we ignore similarity by color, shape and size in favor of the relative distance between the elements).
Although all the shapes are the same, we group them based on the distance between them
We identify elements based on proximity before we identify them by color
4. Common region
Similar to the principle of proximity, the principle of common region states that elements that are placed in a closed space will be perceived as separate group. One way to achieve this separation is by using borders around elements; they will be perceived as their own group regardless of their color, shape, similarity or proximity.
Although the circles are relatively evenly spaced, we perceive them in two groups due to the borders
Irrespective of color and distance, we still identify the circles inside the borders as groups separate from the circles without borders.
5. Continuity
Elements that are arranged on a straight line or curve are more likely to be associated with each other than elements that are not; in other words, even if the elements may be different in terms of color and shape, they will still be identified together if they are placed on a line or curve.
Although the circles are of two different colors, we identify them as groups based on the line or curve that they follow.
As seen on this logo, our eye follows the negative space as part of the curve on the letter H.
6. Closure
The principle of closure states that our eyes tend to identify a pattern it can recognize when looking at a complex set of design elements; in other words, our brain will attempt to fill in any blanks within a complex design to try and form an identifiable pattern so our eyes can better follow it.
Although these are essentially black shapes, our eyes can identify a cube shape through negative spaces by connecting them together.
Similarly here, we can identify this as the panda on the WWF logo despite it simply being a group of abstract black shapes.
7. Focal point
The focal point principle simply states that any element that visually stands out will grab the attention of the viewer first. Similar to contrast, any object on a design that is strikingly different from the rest, be it by color or size or shape, will catch the eyes of the viewer before anything else on the design.
The big red circle here draws the viewer's immediate attention as opposed to the square shapes.
The blue bird immediately stands out from the rest of the purple birds, despite all of them being the same shape and size.
At the end of the lesson, we were given our second exercise, which was to make a composition depicting the Gestalt figure-ground principle by using black marker on paper.
Today's lecture was about the Gestalt principles; also known as the Law of Prägnanz or Law of Simplicity, the basis of this principle is that a whole object is perceived differently from the sum of its parts. In terms of design, these principles address visual perception in different ways.
1. Figure-ground
The figure-ground principle addresses the fact that your eyes perceive objects on a design as being part of either the foreground or background. In other words, they will be prominently visible at the front of the design (figure) or they will blend into the back (ground). This principle can be applied to design in a way that causes the eye to essentially blur the line between foreground and background. Although in most figure-ground designs the lighter color is considered the foreground, it is also possible to make background elements visible in a way that the lighter color seems less prominent, if that makes sense.
 |
| The most popular example of the figure-ground principle, based on Edgar Rubin's "Hidden Faces & Goblet" |
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| Poster for the Melbourne Food & Wine Festival that cleverly uses the foreground and background to depict a fork and wine bottles |
2. Similarity
The principle of similarity states that our eyes tend to group together similar elements in terms of their shape, size or color. Regardless of the location of the elements on a design, our eyes will subconsciously categorize them based on these variables.
 |
| Fig. 2.5: Although all the shapes are laid out on a grid, our eyes will identify the circles and triangles and two groups of shapes. |
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Here, we separate the shapes based on the color each row is in, rather than the shapes themselves. |
3. Proximity
According to the principle of proximity, we identify elements closer together as their own groups and subconsciously separate them from elements that are further away. Our ability to distinguish elements based on proximity is so strong that it can override how we see objects based on the principle of similarity (i.e. we ignore similarity by color, shape and size in favor of the relative distance between the elements).
 |
| Although all the shapes are the same, we group them based on the distance between them |
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| We identify elements based on proximity before we identify them by color |
4. Common region
Similar to the principle of proximity, the principle of common region states that elements that are placed in a closed space will be perceived as separate group. One way to achieve this separation is by using borders around elements; they will be perceived as their own group regardless of their color, shape, similarity or proximity.
 |
| Although the circles are relatively evenly spaced, we perceive them in two groups due to the borders |
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| Irrespective of color and distance, we still identify the circles inside the borders as groups separate from the circles without borders. |
5. Continuity
Elements that are arranged on a straight line or curve are more likely to be associated with each other than elements that are not; in other words, even if the elements may be different in terms of color and shape, they will still be identified together if they are placed on a line or curve.
 |
| Although the circles are of two different colors, we identify them as groups based on the line or curve that they follow. |
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As seen on this logo, our eye follows the negative space as part of the curve on the letter H. |
6. Closure
The principle of closure states that our eyes tend to identify a pattern it can recognize when looking at a complex set of design elements; in other words, our brain will attempt to fill in any blanks within a complex design to try and form an identifiable pattern so our eyes can better follow it.
 |
| Although these are essentially black shapes, our eyes can identify a cube shape through negative spaces by connecting them together. |
 |
Similarly here, we can identify this as the panda on the WWF logo despite it simply being a group of abstract black shapes. |
7. Focal point
The focal point principle simply states that any element that visually stands out will grab the attention of the viewer first. Similar to contrast, any object on a design that is strikingly different from the rest, be it by color or size or shape, will catch the eyes of the viewer before anything else on the design.
 |
| The big red circle here draws the viewer's immediate attention as opposed to the square shapes. |
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| The blue bird immediately stands out from the rest of the purple birds, despite all of them being the same shape and size. |
At the end of the lesson, we were given our second exercise, which was to make a composition depicting the Gestalt figure-ground principle by using black marker on paper.
Exercise
For the second exercise, our task was to make a composition depicting the figure-ground principle, using black marker on white A4 paper. I had to do a bit of research to figure out what kind of design I wanted along with a bit of doodling (it was quite difficult to draw something that had elements in both the foreground and background while also being in harmony with each other), and I eventually settled on a design inspired by Sherlock Holmes; I figured that if I drew his signature pipe, I could make elements out of the smoke that comes out of it.
Figure-ground - initial sketch
I had a feeling my sketch was missing something, but I decided to follow through with it to see if I could make something out of it later.
Figure-ground - initial design
Once I filled it in with marker, I realized what was wrong; I hadn't included in any elements in the background to distinguish it from the foreground. I re-did the sketch and filled it again, this time adding elements inside the smoke to create an image within; I added the Big Ben tower in the negative space of the smoke, as well as the moon which I placed near Sherlock's eye so it might resemble a monocle.
Figure-ground - final result
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| Figure-ground - initial sketch |
I had a feeling my sketch was missing something, but I decided to follow through with it to see if I could make something out of it later.
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| Figure-ground - initial design |
Once I filled it in with marker, I realized what was wrong; I hadn't included in any elements in the background to distinguish it from the foreground. I re-did the sketch and filled it again, this time adding elements inside the smoke to create an image within; I added the Big Ben tower in the negative space of the smoke, as well as the moon which I placed near Sherlock's eye so it might resemble a monocle.
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| Figure-ground - final result |
WEEK 1 (29/8/19)
Contrast
Our first class began with an introduction by our lecturer, Ms. Sherry, of herself and the general lesson breakdown, and what the module consists of in terms of lectures, exercises and projects as indicated in the Module Information Booklet. We were introduced to the co-lecturer, Dr. Jinchi as well. We also got to know our classmates by filling in a questionnaire about the person sitting next to us and then drawing their face.
This was followed by a presentation on contrast as a design principle—how two or more elements of a design are presented as opposites of each other. Contrast is often used to draw your eyes' attention to a specific part of the design, by giving it more weight visually over another element on the design, or to distinguish different elements from each other by making them noticeably different. In a lot of situations, this helps your eyes better organize information on a page.
Contrast can be created in multiple ways; either by color, size, typography or texture, to name a few. As long as the elements are different enough that your attention is better drawn to one than the other or you can identify them as vastly distinct elements from each other, it can be considered a contrast.
An example shown in class—contrast here is created by both color and movement of the subject
The famous iPod adverts with their clever use of contrast in the posters
Following the lesson, Ms. Sherry gave us first exercise for next week, which was to make a composition that represents contrast, by using black paper on white. Afterwards, she took us to the CoDA Gallery to have a look at an art exhibition by a current student, and then dismissed us.
This was followed by a presentation on contrast as a design principle—how two or more elements of a design are presented as opposites of each other. Contrast is often used to draw your eyes' attention to a specific part of the design, by giving it more weight visually over another element on the design, or to distinguish different elements from each other by making them noticeably different. In a lot of situations, this helps your eyes better organize information on a page.
Contrast can be created in multiple ways; either by color, size, typography or texture, to name a few. As long as the elements are different enough that your attention is better drawn to one than the other or you can identify them as vastly distinct elements from each other, it can be considered a contrast.
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| An example shown in class—contrast here is created by both color and movement of the subject |
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| The famous iPod adverts with their clever use of contrast in the posters |
Following the lesson, Ms. Sherry gave us first exercise for next week, which was to make a composition that represents contrast, by using black paper on white. Afterwards, she took us to the CoDA Gallery to have a look at an art exhibition by a current student, and then dismissed us.
Exercise
For our first exercise, we were tasked with making a composition on white A4 paper that represents contrast, by pasting black paper on top. For this exercise, I first decided to sketch out the outline of how I would cut the black paper. I did a simple drawing of what I had in mind, which was a cat sitting at the doorway of a dark room. I wanted to emphasize the effect the light from the open doorway had on the shadow of the cat, so I increased its size quite a bit as I drew. I also wanted to be a bit more playful the design, so I gave the cat's shadow some extra features. I then cut out the background of the room and the outline of the cat using a precision knife and aligned it with the A4 paper.
Contrast - final result
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| Contrast - final result |
FEEDBACK
Week 13 - Final Project
Ms Sherry said she was quite happy with my final work and that I made good use of the foreground and background, as well as the colors.
Week 8
When meeting with the students individually, Ms Sherry commented that my work was good so far but she wanted me to include more progress work on the blog.
Week 6
Our group received positive feedback for our presentation from the lecturers and the students.
Week 5
For week 4's pattern/repetition/texture/surface assignment, Ms Sherry said that the design looks nice but she would prefer if I made the pattern seem like it goes off the page when I upload it to the blog.
Week 4
No feedback was given this week as class was cancelled.
Week 3
During this week's pin-up session, we presented the work of other students in the class instead of our own; the student who gave feedback for my image stated that she liked how I created a picture out of the smoke, and Ms. Sherry said that she found the composition of the whole image appealing as well as how I added the moon to make it resemble a monocle on Sherlock's silhouette.
Week 2
During the pin-up session, I was a little concerned that Ms. Sherry and the other students might not be able to distinguish the cat and its shadow from the light of the open door on my image, but fortunately it seemed to be quite apparent. Ms. Sherry mentioned that she liked the composition of the image, and also that she enjoyed how I decided to be playful with the shadow of the cat by giving it a sinister appearance.
