ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Gina Khouth was born in California (1995) but relocated to Alaska a couple months after GinaAfter Khouth was born being born. 14 years in thein California (1995) to northern state, she but haverelocated also Alaska after a couple months since resided in Florida and Massabirth. After 14 her years in the northern chusetts during high school state, she have also resided years. Although much compli-in Florida and cation andMassachusetts hardship fromduring relo- her high school years.toAlthough cating, Gina ability adapt to much a complication and hardship from new environment comes from relocating, her parents. Gina ability to adapt to a new environment comes from her Originally from Camboparents. dia, her parents met at a refu camp Originally fromfleeing Cambodia, gee in Thailand, her parents met at a refugee from the Cambodian genocide.camp in Thailand, fleeing from the CamThis admiration pushed Gina bodian genocide. This admiration to work even harder, eventually pushed Gina work evencolharder, becoming a firsttogeneration eventually first generlege student.becoming Gina haveaalways ation college student. Gina have dreamt of becoing a graphic dealways dreamt of becoing a graphsigner. She not only showcase ic designer, and is on the path her knowledge on design theo- to achieving ries, but alsoit.display her ability to create designs.
LINE
CLIENT
With a single stroke of a pencil (or a computer mouse) you can call this element into play. You can then manipulate the mood of your design or organize your page, depending on the kind of line you’ve drawn and its placement in your format.
Consumer Reports
AUDIENCE Those interested in the statistics of fitness and health products
LINE IS BEING USED IN THE DESIGN TO: __ x x x
Create a mood, establishes a linear mode of expression, a linear style Organize other elements on the page—visually organize a composition and/or delineate boundaries and define areas within a composition Create texture through illustration—define shapes, edges, forms; create images, letters, and patterns Assists in creating a line of vision; the movement of one’s eye as it scans a composition: line of movement or a directional line
ANALYSIS From Consumer Reports, this is the main illustration from an article that informs their reader with data on fitness trackers. The primary audience of the design are those who are interested in fitness and health products. Although the focal point of the design are the fitness trackers, the backdrop certainly plays a huge role in the design. Within the backdrop are white solid lines that conveys the pattern of a track field. If the lines were to be removed, it would no longer look like a track field and wouldn’t have as much of an impact towards the fitness concept. The lines from the design also function as an organizer. It creates alignment for the placement of the fitness trackers, and creates columns for texts. The alignment of the products create movements, allowing readers’ eyes to look at the fitness trackers one by one diagonally. This design was a well thought out piece, giving readers an easy grasp of the concept through using lines for their runners/fitness concept.
SHAPE
CLIENT
Shape is another element that can be used alone or in conjunction with line and type to help communicate the concept of a design. Shape can be defined as any element that’s used to give or determine form; defined as a closed form or closed path. Shape can exist as a design element all by itself, without the aid of line or type. It is two dimensional and measured by width and height, and is created by lines, color, tone, or texture (or any combination of these.)
Sun Chips: Garden Salsa
AUDIENCE Those who are into healthy snacks.
SHAPE IS BEING USED IN THE DESIGN IN THE FOLLOWING WAY(S): x __ x x x x x
Photos and illustrations are creating shape through the actual shape and content of the art. Line or a line illustration is creating the predominant shape Type is creating the predominant shape Shaded or colored areas are creating the predominant shape Shape is sustaining the viewer’s interest Shape is organizing the page Shape is helping the viewer understand the concept
analysis A vivid orange design, this is an advertisement for Sun Chips: Garden Salsa flavored. Targeted towards women because this ad was found in People: Style magazine, and specifically towards those who love healthy snacks because the use of vegetables within the ad. The vegetables are actual photos that is layered onto an illustration and are used for typographic shapes. The organic shape of the vegetables, whether sliced or not, replaces some of the letters to complete the slogan of the ad. The reasoning for using vegetables is to also represent the flavor of the Sun Chips, helping the audience understand the concept of their product. As for the rest of the letters in a white bold font, they’re also typographic shaped that contrast the vegetables and balances the overall design. This Sun Chip advertisement has achieved the overall mood of brightness and health through using organic shapes of vegetables to literally depict what’s in their product and take typography to the next level of interest.
TEXTURE
CLIENT
Texture can be defined as an object’s visual or tactile surface characteristics and appearance, or as something composed of closely interwoven elements (such as a woven cloth). In graphic design, texture is most often used as a secondary element to reinforce an idea, rather than a primary element to communicate a concept. However, it is a powerful addition to your design because it can add depth and interest to an ordinary flat design. Especially in the world of computer design where the effort to design a usable interface often leads to flat color or white backgrounds, the skillful use of texture can add a new dimension to your design.
The Kettle is a restaurant located on Manhattan Beach, California http://www.thekettle.net/index.html
TEXTURE IS BEING USED IN THE DESIGN TO: x Create a particular mood or feeling x Fill individual shapes or areas x Reinforce or support the concept of the design
audience Locals or tourists around the Manhattan Beach area looking for food.
ANALYSIS The designer uses texture to create the mood of a vintage time. It goes along with the retro concept of their restaurant. Their logo, “The Kettle,” has visual textures that uses what looks like red aged paper to fill the shape of the letters. It looks aged because it uses the effect of scratches overlay, and scapes out part of the shape of the letters to let the cream background show through. Touching on the background, it fills the space of the website with a grainy paper texture. Advancing, the focal point is definitely the two illustrations, one being of a car parked on a beach boardwalk, the other of a boardwalk bridge. Both resemble a vintage postcard, with scratches that overlays the illustrations. The scratchy texture are then used again for their navigation in red circles; menu, photos, map, and contact. The texture fills the shape of a circle, and compared to the rest of the texture, this seems to be the most grainy and scratchier than the rest. The overall use of aged paper textures throughout the design, exhibits what the restaurant is known for, a vintage restaurant on the Beach since 1973.
Balance
CLIENT
Imagine yourself sitting at one end of a teeter-totter at your local park: you with the seat you occupy on the ground and the seat across from you empty and lifted off the ground. What kind of weight is required in the opposite seat to balance your weight evenly across the beam? The logical answer—and probably the first one that springs to mind—is that a person of equal size to you would properly balance your weight. However, that’s not your only possibility; for instance, couldn’t two persons, if each weighed half your weight, likewise balance you if they both were to sit at the other end of the teeter-totter? Of course.
Twix is a chocolate candy bar. http://www.twix. com/twix
AUDIENCE Twix may have a broad audience
BALANCE IS BEING USED IN THE DESIGN IN THE FOLLOWING WAY(S): x To create a mood through visual weight and impression of force within the design x Symmetrical balance is reinforcing the message—such as; serious, conservative, sophisticated, stable, elegant, etc. __ Asymmetrical balance is reinforcing the message—such as; relaxed, informal, freeform, creative, energetic, etc. __ Radial balance—elements radiate out from a point in the center of the composition to support the message. __ To create visual tension by being obviously unbalanced.
analysis Twix designed a balanced website by using their famous campaign concept of Left Twix vs. Right Twix. The center draws the audience eyes with a packaged Twix in the center, demanding attention from its size, being the largest element on the site. To represent left vs. right, they organized the website vertically in half from the center; Left Twix’s factory on the left of the packaged Twix, and Right Twix’s factory on the right of it, symmetrically mirroring each other. Even the menu and navigation droplist are symmetrical, being placed on the top corner of their sides. Although the website may seem symmetrical, the header navigation that goes straight across the top of the whole site is one the only thing that isn’t symmetrical. Their “Like on Facebook” button is centered, meanwhile the “Twix” logo on the far left is on its own compared to the right side of the “Like” button that is accompanied with multiple links and fills up the right side. Although an asymmetric balance, the Twix logo has far more dynamic such as the font and the colors compared to the multiple links that are in plain text. The heaviness of the Twix logo distributes somewhat equal weight distribution that it doesn’t overwhelm the fact that there’s more links and texts on the far right.
contrast
CLIENT
Contrast is an especially important principle in graphic design, and a crucial tool to communicate an idea. It is also one of the most effortless principles to put into action. As soon as you add any element to a blank page, no matter how subtle, you’ve used contrast.
Dyson Supersonic’s blow dryer
AUDIENCE Women interested in hair and beauty products
CONTRAST/EMPHASIS is being used in the design in the following way(s): x Strengthen an idea; support the message x Create a clear visual hierarchy and direct focal point __ Emphasis through isolation (isolated shape) x Emphasis through placement (placement of elements in the top left, center/middle of the page, or foreground) __ Emphasis through scale (shapes create the illusion of spatial depth) x Emphasis through contrasting colors, values, shapes, texture and/or typography __ Emphasis through direction and pointers (arrows and diagonal shapes/lines) __ Emphasis through diagrammatic structures (tree, nest or stair structures of information) __ To create a contradiction (BIG written in very small type)
analysis Dyson Supersonic uses their product, a hair dryer, as the focal point of their ad. They do this by using contrast to emphasize. To contrast, they desaturated everything in the photograph except for the hair dryer. This allows the blow dryer to stand out, the pink pops against the women who’s in grayscale. Below the photograph are all texts of the product information. The structure of the overall design emphasizes the photograph over the texts. It’s done by visual hierarchy. The contrasted photograph takes up most of the page, it’s sized larger compared to the texts below it. Centered texts, it showcases visual hierarchy through sizing; the texts get smaller if looked top to bottom. The header is the product name. “Dyson” in black and “Supersonic” in gray. Although subtle, it gives the header contrast, corresponding to the grayscale of the woman in the photograph. Then below are pink texts which contains what the hair dryer can do. The designer cleverly continued to correspond to the photograph by picking up the pop of pink from the hair dryer in the photograph and match the texts to that color. This allows the audience to get to focus on the product itself and have a clear idea of what it’s about.
UNITY Unity is the underlying structure of a design. Think of a house: it begins with a foundation from which everything else is built. If your foundation is shaky or poorly constructed, nothing will sit solidly in the rooms above. Unity is important in a design to make everything feel as though it fits together. Repeating elements are also important in design campaigns containing multiple formats so that they in turn fit together. When a company commissions a print campaign or website, the intent is that the viewer should always recognize the identity or product being sold, whether it is a print advertisement or a website.
AUDIENCE Those who are interested in collaborating with an architect
CLIENT Mussman Architects is an architect design firm located in Greenville, South Carolina. http://mussmanarchitects.com/
UNITY is being used in the design in the following way(s):
x Creates a visual rhythm with distinct repetition and variation of elements x Uses similarity (like elements, line, VALUE, texture, color, type, direction are used) x Uses proximity (elements are near each other; clustered together to form visual relationships) x Uses continuity (perceived visual paths or connections among parts. Elements that appear as a continuation of other elements are perceived as linked) __ Uses closure (the mind connects individual elements to produce a complet ed form, unit or pattern) x Uses common fate (Elements are perceived as a unit if they are moving in the same direction) x Uses continuing line (two or more lines that break are perceived as overall movement and the break is ignored) x Shows correspondence (visual connections/similarities in the design elements across a family of pieces or pages such as stationery—letterhead, business card, envelope, mailing label, book jackets in a series, multipage/ campaign advertising, websites) x Uses a defined structure (underlying grid of columns, guides and alignments of text and visuals) x Leads the viewer’s eye through the design (has a visual flow and movement with perceived relationships of similar elements)
ANALYSIS
The design of this website is aimed to showcase a modern design with sleek eye-catching design. They achieved this with unity throughout the website. The homepage contains a teal header illustration that fills the whole page from when you first see it without scrolling. The color teal is repetitively and mainly used within the website; monochromatic teal overlay on pictures, some teal-colored texts, and the solid teal footer. On every white background sections of the website, they use vertical dashed light blue lines. By the “gestalt” principle, if the audience weren’t to scroll all the way down the page, one would assume the dashed lines would continue down the page; and in actuality, their design does exactly that, until it hits a subsection of a different background color. They set up a rhythm to help unify the links on their website together. Including the hint of orange, accented in their main logo on the top left corner, the orange is then used again subtely, as hovering link colors for specific buttons, and then seen in the footer as a mark for their location on a map. Unity continues by using organization. Their market page contains three columns just like their process page, defining the structure of the website. Mussman architect does an excellent job to get their innovative way of design out there with this well themed website.
Color Color has the power to override value. Color defines the intent of a design, the feeling, and the structure. Warm colors can make the viewer feel a range of emotions from warm and fuzzy to tense to angry. Cool colors leave us feeling relaxed and calm. Viewers respond to color in part based on cultural and social influences, but color is very subjective and based on personal preference.
CLIENT
AUDIENCE
The New Yorker magazine cover
Sophisticated or urban chic Americans interested in reading about reportages, commentary, and more.
COLOR is being used in the design in the following way(s): x x x __ x x __ x
Creates a strong mood or feeling/emotional response Sends a specific message/meaning to the audience (historical, natural/ organic, cultural, regional, religious, influential, etc) The colors are primarily warm (reds, oranges and yellows + neutrals) The colors are primarily cool (blues, greens, purple + neutrals) Creates visual tension and movement Provides unity and balance throughout the design Provides a sense of order (via grid or structure) Creates harmony (a satisfying balance or unity of colors; pleasing to the eye)
ANALYSIS The New Yorker illustrated their cover with the excellent use of color within the design. The colors along with the design itself creates a strong mood of evil, destructive, and alarming. The overall concept conveys the underground subway as hell. The designer cleverly uses warm hues of red, yellow, and orange to display warm temperature within the illustration. The devil rides a red subway with yellow and orange flames coming from behind, creating visual tension from the the rest of the illustration that displays the civilians casted in an all red area. The darker and lighter shades of red within the red area creates shadows or lightness and darkness of the characters features and their clothing. The red devil against the yellow flame, allows the devil standout, providing a focal point. The color of the yellow and orange flames are also used for the title/header of the magazine, The New Yorker. This creates harmony, unifying the colors to create one satisfying balance of a warm color palette.
Value
Value is lightness or darkness of an object or color. Value exerts as a powerful influence on a design, creating mood, depth, and contrast.
CLIENT
AUDIENCE
A website for a movie, Iron Man https://marvel.com/movies/movie/19/iron_man
Fans of Marvel or movies
VALUE is being used in the design in the following way(s):
x x x
Creates a strong mood or feeling/emotional response Creates value contrast (high-key or low-key value contrast) Creates movement and direction (high contrast to lower contrast areas)
ANALYSIS The main focus of this website for Marvel’s movie, Iron Man, is the edited photograph poster that fills the space of the website. The poster contains the main characters, as they shine and standout from the poster with the use of value within the design. The darkness around the characters give a dark yet heroic mood that displays the movie’s concept. While Iron Man takes all of the left side and partially the center section of the poster’s space, the rest of the characters are on the right of him. In between Iron Man and the rest of the characters, cast this dark shadow that allows a seamless transition for the placement of the characters without it looking like a cheap cutout and placement for the characters headshot. In addition, the value allows the audience to see how shiny Iron Man’s mask is, as the level of lightness hits on the outer yellow. The light doesn’t hit the center of his mask, thus there’s a level of darkness there. Where the light projects on the mask, allows the mask become more 3d and lifelike as the color peeks through. Simultaneously, there’s a strong level of darkness that are cast on (our) right side of the character. Although the light are projected on the same side, the characters are angled differently, allowing value to have a different effect on each characters. For example: Tony Stark, top left, his chin is up and is angled away from the darkness, allowing him to look heroic; the bald villian, his face slightly tilts down, and the darkness surrounds his left side, having a hard time to see his face clearly, he looks mysterious; the woman, the shadow lightly bounces off her skin, giving her a more sultry effect, while the light hits most of her body, allowing the color of her hair show though.