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takes 5 Steps to Design Success
Visual Arts Ceramics mean art objects such as figures, tiles, and tableware made from clay and other raw materials by the process of pottery. Some ceramic products are regarded as fine art, while others are regarded as decorative, industrial or applied art objects, or as artifacts in archaeology. They may be made by one individual or in a factory where a group of people design, make and decorate the ware. Drawing is a visual art that makes use of any number of drawing instruments to mark a two-dimensional medium. Common instruments include graphite pencils, pen and ink, inked brushes, wax color pencils, crayons, charcoals, chalk, pastels, markers, stylus, or various metals like silverpoint. The relative ease of availability of basic drawing instruments makes drawing more universal than most other media. Painting is a mode of expression and the forms are numerous. Drawing, composition or abstraction and other aesthetics may serve to manifest the expressive and conceptual intention of the practitioner. Paintings can be naturalistic and representational (as in a still life or landscape painting), photographic, abstract, be loaded with narrative content, symbolism, emotion or be political in nature. Sculpture is three-dimensional artwork created by shaping or combining hard materials, which is typically stone, marble, metal, glass, or wood. Softer materials can also be used, such as clay, textiles, plastics,
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polymers and softer metals. Materials may be worked by removal such as carving, or they may be assembled such as by welding, hardened such as by firing, or molded or cast. Surface decoration such as paint may be applied. Sculpture has been described as one of the plastic arts because it can involve the use of materials that can be molded or modulated. It is an important form of public art. Printmaking normally covers only the process of creating prints with an element of originality, rather than just being a photographic reproduction of a painting. Each piece produced is not a copy but considered an original since it is not a reproduction of another work of art and is technically known as an ‘impression’. Printmaking is not chosen only for its ability to produce multiple copies, but rather for the unique qualities that each of the printmaking processes lends itself to. Photography is the art, science, and practice of creating still pictures by recording radiation on a radiation-sensitive medium, such as a photographic film, or electronic image sensors. Photography uses foremost radiation in the UV, visible and near-IR spectrum. Filmmaking (often referred to in an academic context as film production) is the process of making a film, from an initial story idea or commission, through scriptwriting, shooting, editing, directing and distribution to an audience. Video is also a part of filmmaking, but is usually a lot shorter. FULL BLEED
Typography Text Typography text is composed to create a readable, coherent, and visually satisfying whole that works invisibly, without the awareness of the reader. Even distribution of typeset material, with a minimum of distractions and anomalies, is aimed at producing clarity and transparency. Choice of font(s) is the primary aspect of text typography—prose fiction, non-fiction, editorial, educational, religious, scientific, spiritual and commercial writing all have differing characteristics and requirements of appropriate typefaces and fonts. Legibility is primarily the concern of the typeface designer, to ensure that each individual character or glyph is unambiguous and distinguishable from all other characters in the font. Legibility is also in part the concern of the typographer to select a typeface with appropriate clarity of design for the intended use at the intended size. Readability is primarily the concern of the typographer or information designer. It is the intended result of the complete process of presentation of textual material in order to communicate meaning as unambiguously as possible. A reader should be assisted in navigating around the information with ease, by optimal inter-letter, inter-word and particularly interline spacing, coupled with appropriate line length and position on the page, careful editorial “chunking” and choice of the text architecture of titles, folios, and reference links. Display typography is a potent element in graphic design, where there is less concern for readability and more potential for using type in an artistic manner. Type is combined with negative space, graphic elements and pictures, forming relationships and dialog between words and images. Color and size of type elements are much more prevalent than in text typography. Most display typography exploits type at larger sizes, where the details of letter design are magnified. Color is used for its emotional effect in conveying the tone and nature of subject matter.
Page Layout A typographic grid is a two-dimensional structure made up of a series of intersecting vertical and horizontal axes used to structure content. The grid serves as an armature on which a designer can organize text and images in a rational, easy to absorb manner. A page layout may be designed in a rough paper and pencil sketch before producing, or produced during the design process to the final form. Both design and production may be achieved using hand tools or page layout software. Producing a web page may require knowledge of markup languages along with WYSIWYG editors to compensate for incompatibility between platforms. Special considerations must be made for how the layout of an HTML page will change when resized by the enduser. Cascading style sheets are often required to keep the page VOLUME 5 • ISSUE 5 • MONTH 2011
layout consistent between web browsers. Visual communication as the name suggests is communication through visual aid and is described as the conveyance of ideas and information in forms that can be read or looked upon. Visual communication solely relies on vision, and is primarily presented or expressed with two dimensional images, it includes: signs, typography, drawing, graphic design, illustration, color and electronic resources. It also explores the idea that a visual message accompanying text has a greater power to inform, educate, or persuade a person or audience. Information technology (IT) is the acquisition, processing, storage and dissemination of vocal, pictorial, textual and numerical information by a microelectronics-based combination of computing and telecommunications.
User Interface Design There are several phases and processes in the user interface design, some of which are more demanded upon than others, depending on the project.. Functionality requirements gathering – assembling a list of the functionality required by the system to accomplish the goals of the project and the potential needs of the users. User analysis – analysis of the potential users of the system either through discussion with people who work with the users and/or the potential users themselves. Information architecture – development of the process and/or information flow of the system (i.e. for phone tree systems, this would be an option tree flowchart and for web sites this would be a site flow that shows the hierarchy of the pages). Prototyping – development of wireframes, either in the form of paper prototypes or simple interactive screens. These prototypes are stripped of all look & feel elements and most content in order to concentrate on the interface. Usability testing – testing of the prototypes on an actual user— often using a technique called think aloud protocol where you ask the user to talk about their thoughts during the experience. Graphic Interface design – actual look & feel design of the final graphical user interface (GUI). It may be based on the findings developed during the usability testing if usability is unpredictable, or based on communication objectives and styles that would appeal to the user. In rare cases, the graphics may drive the prototyping, depending on the importance of visual form versus function. If the interface requires multiple skins, there may be multiple interface designs for one control panel, functional feature or widget. This phase is often a collaborative effort between a graphic designer and a user interface designer, or handled by one who is proficient in both disciplines. User interface design requires a good understanding of user needs.
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Print Making Woodcutting has the artist drawing a design on a plank of wood, or on paper, which is transferred to the wood. Traditionally the artist then handed the work to a specialist cutter, who then uses sharp tools to carve away the parts of the block that will not receive ink. The surface of the block is then inked with the use of a brayer, and then a sheet of paper, slightly damp, is placed over the block. The block is then rubbed with a spoon, or is run through a printing press. If in color, separate blocks can be used for each color, or a technique called reduction printing can be used. To make a print, the engraved plate is inked all over, then the ink is wiped off the surface, leaving only ink in the engraved lines. The plate is then put through a high-pressure printing press together with a sheet of paper (often moistened to soften it). The paper picks up the ink from the engraved lines, making a print. Etching prints are generally linear and often contain fine detail and contours. Lines can vary from smooth to sketchy. An etching is opposite of a woodcut in that the raised portions of an etching remain blank while the crevices hold ink. Like etching, drypoint is easier for an artist trained in drawing to master than engraving, as the technique of using the needle is closer to using a pencil than the chisel. Lithography is a technique based on the chemical repulsion of oil and water. The image is drawn on the limestone with a greasy medium. Acid is applied, transferring the grease to the limestone, leaving the image ‘burned’ into the surface. A water-soluble substance is then applied, sealing the surface of the stone not covered with the drawing medium. The stone is wetted, with water staying only on the surface not covered in grease-based residue of the drawing; the stone is then ‘rolled up’, meaning oil ink is applied with a roller covering the entire surface; since water repels the oil in the ink, the ink adheres only to the greasy parts, perfectly inking the image. A sheet of dry paper is placed on the surface, and the image is transferred to the paper by the pressure of the printing press. Lithography is known for its ability to capture fine gradations in shading and very small detail. Screen-printing creates prints by using a fabric stencil technique. Ink is simply pushed through the stencil against the surface of the paper, most often with the aid of a squeegee. Generally, the technique uses a natural or synthetic ‘mesh’ fabric stretched tightly across a rectangular ‘frame,’ much like a stretched canvas. Many surfaces can be used for this. Printmakers apply color to their prints in many different ways. In multiple plate color techniques, a number of
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plates, screens or blocks are produced, each providing a different color. Each separate plate, screen, or block will be inked up in a different color and applied in a particular sequence to produce the entire picture. On average about 3 to 4 plates are produced, but there are occasions where a printmaker may use up to seven plates. Every application of another plate of color will interact with the color already applied to the paper, and this must be kept in mind when producing the separation of colors. The lightest colors are often applied first, and then darker colors successively until the darkest. In printmaking processes requiring more than one application of ink or other medium, the problem exists as to how to line up proper areas of an image to receive ink in each application. Proper registration results in the various components of an image being in their proper place.
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