HONOURS- RESEARCH Primary research- BOOK 1 My project is about the principles of graphic design and how I can represent these within an editorial format in an effective way. This research from this book is helping to understand from other perspectives the design elements and about them. This project will benefit the audience in educating them about the principles and why theyre important when making a piece of graphic design. A designer uses imagery,symbols,type,colour and materials whether printed or on screen to represent ideas that must be conveyed and to organise them into a unified experience that is intended to evoke a particular response. A designer should understand that instructional strategies, data representation, legibiity and usability, cognitive ordering and hierarchic problem solving extending into typography all go into the making of pieces of design works.
To understand design you must consider things such as socially what the design means, to realise that design is also commentary, opinion based, point of view, and culturally changable- these all come into it when you are creating a piece of design because you must think about who it is effecting and how the principles effect this- making the designs cleaner and more applicible to a wider audience.
What are Design Principles?
Graphic design is greater than just various aspects that comprise it. Together they estavlish a totality of tangible and often intangible experiences. A designer is responsibe for the intellectual and emotiaonl experience when an audience views their work.
When designing you should:
“Rules can be broken but never ignored.” Interesting quote from the book showing that the principles should be followed and can be broken sometimes but only if you have knowledge of them in the first place.
“To design requires analytical and technical mastery of image making- how shapes, colours, and texture work to depict ideas, achieve aesthetic cohesion When people talk about ‘good’ or ‘bad’ and dynamism and signify higher-order design, theyre refering to the QUALITY concepts while evoking a strong THAT THEYVE PICKED UP FROM emotional response”EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE. The principles are important here because this quote shows that to be able to create a piece of work that is effective you must have a clear understanding of the principles and how to apply all of the techniques to create a piece of design effectively overall.
These are just some of the principles of design- they are explained through infographics, which are inspiring for my project because I could use that infographics technique to create my editorial explaining priniciples to an audience and why theyre important to ME and the DESIGN INDUSTRY.
Design Principles are widely applicable laws, guidelines, biases and design considerations, all reflecting researchers’ and practitioners’ accumulated knowledge and experience. Design Principles draw from many disciplines—e.g., behavioral science, sociology, physics and ergonomics. Designers apply them with discretion.
Keep users informed of system status with constant feedback. Set information in a logical, natural order. Ensure users can easily undo/redo actions. Maintain consistent standards so users know what to do next without having to learn new toolsets. Prevent errors if possible; wherever not, warn users before they commit to actions. Don’t make users remember information; keep options, etc. visible. Make systems flexible so novices and experts can choose to do more or less on them. Design with aesthetics and minimalism in mind – don’t clutter with unnecessary items. Provide plain-language error messages to pinpoint problems and likely solutions. Offer easy-to-search troubleshooting resources, if needed.
HONOURS- RESEARCH Primary research- BOOK 1 Honours Research ---------------------Book
This research is abll about me looking into this book that I bought called design elements, this book is all about the elements of design, what makes a good piece of design technically. This really interested me when I first read it. It had all sub sections about typography, layout, colour, hierarchy and when breaking the rules of design was viable.
Make work understandable to wide audience.
Drew these when you were younger- familiar and nice a ‘smile in the mind’
Could show this in honours piece
Focal point
Understanding the basics of design to me is really important, i think like in every aspect of learning, without the foundation knowledge you cant really build onto anything.
Creates a resting space for the eyes of the audience- thats why its pschologically nice to look at- doesnt clutter your mind as a piece of design- apply this to my work for honours- could represent all content as lines, dots etc- make an interesting pattern.
This is where i came up with my idea for honours on creating something that would explain the basics of design (the design principles) using something visual that would entice an audience that needed to know about them ( up and coming designers) in order to create effective design. This book was the back bone to my research because of all the knowledge it had inside of it about the elements of design and the rules/principles of design and their importance and the role they play within a finished design. This research is effective and crucial to my honours project because it was the starting point. It includes all the information about design elements i needed and this is why i am analysing it and looking at what i could include within my editorial.
Limit flexibility-bare in mind when making editorial
HONOURS- RESEARCH Primary research- BOOK 1 These first couple of pages where the 20 most important things that the author thought you need to think about in a design processcoming up with the concept, less colour is more, treat type as you would image etc. These ideas were all about basic rules you should stick to to come out with an effective design that will attract a wide audience.
Could do a page on colours in different cultures as a principle-make up my own principles? Dont use too many colours Colour is pschologically importantconsider it when creating editorial piecewhy is colour important to me?
Fade from black to blueeffective.
Runway
not effective if you use more.
These pages really helped inform me on what is important within design and why. This has really started off my path on what im doing within my honours- i want to create something about the design principles that is interesting and doesnt bore the audience, i want it to be visually exciting and help them create better technical designs.
Effective piece of work just using shapes- could use this as inspiration for my work.
HONOURS- RESEARCH Primary research- BOOK 1
Form is shapes, lines, textures,words, and pictures --im going to use this research to create my editorial- based off of dots, lines, planes, could introduce words and textures- this is to explain what principles are to the audience- finding this quote from my research has helped me to think more about what my work will have in it.
Book
Depending on composition space is percieved differerntly
Our brains use the forms of things to identify them, the form is a message. When we see a circle, for example, our minds try to identify itsun? moon? earth? coin? pearl? no one form is any better at commnicating than any other, but the choice of form is critical if its to commnicate the right message.Making that form as beautiful as possible is what elevates designing above just plopping stuff in front of an audience and letting them pick through it. -Our brains pick through beautiful things based off of what they include, this is interesting for my research because it helps me to understand the phycology surrounding it and how I can interpret that into infographics about the principles and expand my ideas on what I could potentially create at the end of my honours, but it’s helpful to look at this research to further develop my ideas in my head before doing the practical things e.g. concepts, developments, finals.
Square- neutral,because of neutral sides.Vertical is controntational,
Vertical mirrors an upward standing body=threatening
upward thrust
Vertical = confrontational horizontal=calmer
Form=positive Space=negative
I have come across these pages within the book, these simple black and white patterns have really caught my eye, theyre so informative and get straight to the point, and the fact theyre so simple but really visually enticing is really effective because it makes you understand the idea straight away. *IDEA* I could create illustrations like this to go into my visual editorial? The psychology of colours helps me to understand why we use certain colours within our work. Colour is a main principle within design, we use it in every piece we produce, even if it is black and white, using space and form previously discussed. This research has really helped me to understand why we use certain colours and how I can convey this using simple shapes to an audience within my editorial piece that I am going to produce for my honours. I can manipulate the colours to form a certain thought within the audiences head.
HONOURS- RESEARCH Primary research- BOOK 1 Honours Research Book
This idea of dots explaining an idea, PERFECT!! it symbolises the idea without creating a really complicated visual presence- use this within my editorial as imagary- dots....
Colour effects space
A weak composition is one that isnt resolved and indecisive. It evokes uneasiness in a viewer and boredom- could show this within my editorial through shapes and use comparison on when you use this principle and when you dont and how it effects the composition.
Composition can be resolved when all elements fit together.
use shape to compare
DOTS LINES AND PLANES
This bit explains what a dot is. A dot represents certain parts in a composition and you can use them to show friction between elements etc- dots, lines and planes are what make up compositions.
This bit explains dots and shows visually how they interact on a page, this can be translated into aspects-pictures etc. This is where i got the inspiration for my honours project from, I would like to use elements like this, dots, lines, planes and create visual graphic pieces to explain principes les of design and show an audience why theyre important and understand them more myself by experimenting with them and how they work together and use colours and hierarchy etc. This research is really helpful because its helping me to understand the different ways I can visualise dots and show their patterns in work and how they visually work at groun zero before theyre translated into aspects such as pictures, typography.
HONOURS- RESEARCH Primary research- BOOK 1
Dots turning into planes.
These pages explain about dots and lines- these two aspects of visualisation of design explain how a dot represents anything, just like in maths ‘x’ represents any number- a dot represents the content within a designthis idea has really interested me, the fact that you can explain a design element that is important to remember when designing, through imagary as simple as a dot or line. They use lines to explain how they interact with eachother on a page, then replace the line with whatever content you have, e.g. typography- the lines represent typography, and it shows when you put lines too close together that they start to merge into one, and you cant decipher the two lines anymore, its the same as ledgibility within typography, if you put two sentences too close together, theyre no longer two sentences, but a jumble of lettersThis primary book research is really moving my project forward because of all the ideas that are coming from it. These patterns will be really interesting reference for when i begin my concept portion of this project, i can use them as reference when i start to come up with my visual ideas.
This page shows how I can show lines in a pattern like state and then compare them to a piece of work, this is really effective because it enables me to create pieces of flat graphics whislt also explaining how principles work through lines.
HONOURS- RESEARCH Primary research- BOOK 1
Space is space until its broken by form- a line in the middle of a white page- why is this important to principles? because using the principles enables you to create space that is balanced and effective to the brain that can be translated to aspects that make an effective composition for a piece of design.
More visuals that can be used and manipulated to create my piece of editorial for my honours. These patterns will serve as visually pleasing but will also enable the viewers to understand what the principles are and how they work effectively. This research is really helping me to understand how I can communicate the message of principles to an audience that might not e have even heard of them before. This will help with my developments because when I am concepting my ideas I can explore all these different ways of visualising the principles using dots, lines and planes. This page is shownin different rules found in design using dots,lines and planes- this is helpful for my development because I can be inspired by this when creating my editorial piecse and apply them to pieces of work as an overlay of patterns.
HONOURS- RESEARCH
Primary research- BOOK 1
This page starts to go into how depth within designs can be explained through dots lines and planes, this is really effective and will enable me to see how I can do this when creating my pieces of work- depth is important within designs because it enables the audience to see how near and far elements are meant to be giving them a sense of reality, a lizard really close to the front of the image next to a human will make it look massive, but in depth, you can use the elements to make it look how big it is in reality. This page really sums up alot of different comparisons used within design and hlpes you to visually understand them. This will be really helpful when I start to complete my concepts and developments because I am ablke to look back at this and see how simplicity of shapes can be used to explain principles and rules of design and how spaces and aspects interacte with eachother effectively.
This type of imagary is exactly what I want to go for within my editorial- its simple, explains an idea without getting to complicated, and is an aesethetically pleasing piece of graphics. The audience that i want are going to be first year university students, so for them to look at something visual with some explaination will entice them way more than if i were to write pages and pages on a principle, all they need to know are the basics, and then can work ontop of that, this is what i intend my editorial to create, something for them to go off of and learn from when creating their designs and reference.
HONOURS- RESEARCH
Primary research- BOOK 1
This page talks about levels within a composition using compositional hierarchy, which means making some elements stand out more than others based off of their importance. This is effective and helpful because I am able to take what they have created using shapes to explain hierarchy and use it differently when I create mine to explain it to an audience. They apply the shapes within the book to an actual piece of design, to show the audience how it would actually work- this is effective because it shows the ideas put into practice are actually effective.
The achievement of ‘totality’ using all the elements circled on this page is what you should use within principles to create a piece that is totiality ‘sound’ in terms of design principles, it would be completely comfortable withi the brain to percieve a piece that uses all of these or some depending on the context, which is what I want to portray within my honours, so thi pbook is really helping with that.
The principle unity- the feeling of wholness within a design, could realte to this and include all of this.
HONOURS- RESEARCH Primary research- BOOK 1
Identity of colour Meaning transmitted by colour because it results from reflected light waves transmitted through an imperfect organ the eyes- to an imperfect interpreter- the brain- is also profoundly subjective. The mechanism of colour perception is universal among humans. HUEa distinction between colour identites as defined by their wavelengths
When it comes to colours within a composition as a principle I will be able to quote and use this research because it shows me about hue, saturation and tempreture and value within colours, which are all really important andn i can use my dots, lines, planes and add colour to them to explain to the audience how they work, I could even apply it to my own work or give my own opinion as a pointer towards the audience when designing. Looking at this is really helpful because one of the principles of design is colour theory, by looking into it and understanding it i will be able to explain it at a more basic level using visuals.
SATURATIONThe relative dullness or brightness of a colour
TEMPRETUREA colours perceived warmth or coolness
VALUEwhether a colour appears light or dark.
HONOURS- RESEARCH Primary research- BOOK 1
These pages explain more and give example of value and tempreture within pieces of work. This research is really helpfulk and effective for my work because I am able to look further into why these effective pieces of work and how if you take down the value of a colour, it creates a completly different mood to the piece, and also effects whether the pieces within the composition actually work together. This more in depth look into colour is really helpful for my project because it has helped me to further understand about colour and the different visuals i could potentially use that come with it.
HONOURS- RESEARCH
Primary research- BOOK 1
Visual hierarchy within compositons is discussed within these sections refering to colour. Colour can create visual hierarchy on its own thats why a designer must think about it when creating a piece. This is really effective because this is one you don’t think about sometimes when youre creating a piece that already has colorus e.g. a sunset etc because the sun is yellow, the sky is orange/yellow,blue and the ground is green, you don’t think about how the colours interact with eachother, even in nature, so its interesting to read about and will really help me to develop my ideas within my project.
biggest type therefore the first thing you look at- hierachy.
These pages are explaining about colour hierarchy- which i hadnt even thought about. Colour hierarchy is the idea that some colours stand out more than others because of the way the brain processes them, this is a subcategory that i could include within my editorial piece - could use visuals to show the difference in colours and explain why there is a hierarchy within colours- the psychology behind it.
This book points out the importance of colour hierarchy and how a designer should take this into consideration as much they do as actual contrast between aspects of their designs.
HONOURS- RESEARCH Primary research- BOOK 1 Phycology of colour- principle research.
This page shows what colours show what emotions within compositions- this is important to research and look at in terms of my principles project because colour is a principle and understanding the pschology behind it is of importance as well. Knowing this will really help me to create a piece where I am able to explain this through pieces that feature colour and understand more why using certain colours in certain contexts is so important.
This page shows the pschology of colour being used on actual products, which, as a graphic designer I would be creating, and being able to understand and think about what colours I’m using and why in certain contexts is really important for me to develop within my future and be able to create effective pieces of work that fit e.g. I wouldn’t use green on a cupcake company because in your brain, that colour makes you feel sick.
Colour psychology is really important when designing because you have to get the right colour palette to match the product, you wouldnt make a product trying to promote food a sickly green colour etc- this is important and the audience that i am using needs to know this when designing, so i will be able to quote this book on the psychology and use it to apply my designs and show them the difference colour really makes.
HONOURS- RESEARCH Primary research- BOOK 1 These pages are talking about typography as a principle. They talk about how to use differnt types to convey a message, much like colour pschology, type has a pscollogy too, you assosiate different type faces with different emotions or themes. e.g. using a decoative font wouldn’;t be appropriate for a bank logo or letter because it wouldn’t look professional and it wouldnt be ledgible enough, but using it for a flower company would because it reflects the mood of the company. This researc is really effective in helping me to understand that more clearly.
To be critical, because i want to create an editorial that is very much imagary based, i dont know whether ill create a bit that includes typography. But learning about the features of it is really furthering my understanding of other principles because of how much they releate, e.g. not using types arent in the same family because they contrast, releates to contrast as an actual principle.
There are many different situations to use different typography and they are all suited to whatever it is. E.g. you wouldnt use a sans serif font that was decorative for a bank logothese things are critical to remember when designing, as all design gives of a certain theme.
HONOURS- RESEARCH Primary research- BOOK 1 Semiotics- principles relate to how images communicate.
The processes of perception and cognition or what the brain does with visual form to arrive at understanding, are the focus of a branch of visual anthropology called semiology. Developed in the 1800’s. Visual stimuli or signs consist of two parts: The signifier- the visual form itself and its signified: the concept it calls up. In working with an image, sign a designer must always be conscious of two aspectsIts syntax or purely formal qualities (what it looks like) and its semantics (what it means) and their mutual interplay as these aspects of a sign may be adjusted independently. Many kinds of syntax may point to the same signified or semantic meanning and many kinds of meaning may be embodied in a single kind of syntax. A viewer first assimilated the syntax of a sign and then compares it to prior knowledge to identify it.
Composition Composition in an illustrated image is a great concern. In creating an image, designers sometimes forget that they are not bound by the realities of arrangment imposed by the scene they are rendering. Using formal relationships of figure and ground on an abstract level particularly within a realistic reprensentation contributes to the illustrations power to communicate beyond the literal as well as helps engage the viwer and direct te eye. To simply place the subject in the central area of the illustration without regard to the subjects outer contour, tension and contrast of negative space, and so on prevents the illustration from being resolved and creates a static presentation. This talks about composiiton and how important it is to use principles of composition to create something effective that wouldn’t be static and make the audience not want to look at it- interesting because I can understand further why this principle is so important because it makes your piece way less effective if you don’t apply itfurthering my knowledge in graphic design.
HONOURS- RESEARCH Primary research- BOOK 1
Grids are important to know about because i will have to apply a grid to my editorial piece in order to keep it legible for the audience and well balanced- without a grid my editorial would become something that cannot be communicated properly.
A grid can be loose and organic or rigorous and mechanical. grids are used to solve communication problems of great complexity. The benefits of a grid are clarity, effiviency, economy and continuity.
Grids create proportion and precision within a composition. They also make the overall composition look more professional and balanced- looking into grids as research is really helpful because it is effective in showing me how I can create
HONOURS- RESEARCH Primary research- BOOK 1
These pages discuss more about grids. This is imporatnt to research because one of the principles of design is based off of grids. This research dsicusses how images and text can effect a grid layout and column logic and rythmn on a grid is effective to enable the audience to be able to read the content and images effectively using recognition patterns and enable the text and images to flow properly within a composition. This will help my developments because I can look at this and use lines and dots to re create this principle and show patterns on how this is effective and apply it to pieces of work to show the audience effectively.
Columns- when creating my editorial i will need to think about columns and how many i am going touse within my magazine to make it effective enough- after my research i discovered that most magazines use 3 columns within them so i will probably do the same. They use three columns because its the most effective way in getting text and image across in an ordered fashion that looks effective. my magazine will have columns of text to show the underlying grid and show the neatness of my work.
HONOURS- RESEARCH Primary research- BOOK 1
These pages consist of talking about ordering content and rules and varicble which enforece consistancy and create flexibility , this is all important to look at when looking into the principles of design because you have to know how to order things because otherwise youll end up with alot of out of context material and being able to create consistancy within a piece if effective because you’re able to link it with other known pieces that share the same subject. Looking at this research has really helped me more to understand how I can create my editorial piece using shapes and help the audience to understand principles further.
Figuring out the order of content is what this part of the book is about- this research is really helpful to my project because it helps me understand the underlying meaning behind why things are ordered like they are in pieces of design and how it effects them- this can be linked to my project because i can show my audience why the principles are like they are and the reasoning behind them.
Explinations on why each aspect has been used to fit with the theme of the product- effective in showing me why priniples are used to make a product look better.
HONOURS- RESEARCH Primary research- BOOK 1
When to BREAK the rules- principlesresearch about breaking the rulesdiscourse... Could do a section in my editorial piece for my honours when to be able to break the rules- effectivecould give my own opinion on whether I think you should be able to- also make pieces that break the rules but in a clever way.
Looking at these has helped me to understand when it could potentially be ok to break the rules of principles, althought you have to know the rules first in order to break them effectively, and this should only be done when its comppletly appropriate and not just whenever you feel like breaking them within a piece of work- these examples have helped me to look furhter into this and could help me when producing my book to include a section about breaking the rules and inc;lude dots, lines and planes that break rules and compare them to ones that dont and say why theyre both fine to be designs.
HONOURS- RESEARCH Primary research- BOOK 1
When to BREAK the rules- principles- research about breaking the rules- discourse... Could do a section in my editorial piece for my honours when to be able to break the rules- effectivecould give my own opinion on whether I think you should be able to- also make pieces that break the rules but in a clever way.
symmetry within design can become boring- be more asymmetricalcould make this point within my editorial.
This back section of the book was on how to break the rules of design- this is an interesting factor because you actually have to have knowledge about the rules before you can even consider breaking them, and you have to break them in a clever way. This may be an interesting section to include within my editorial because i could have a book full of how to follow the rules, then a section on how to break them professionally, i may or may not do this because i dont want to confuse my audience with the content i include within my booklet.
HONOURS- RESEARCH Primary research- BOOK 1 When to BREAK the rules- principlesresearch about breaking the rulesdiscourse... Could do a section in my editorial piece for my honours when to be able to break the rules- effective- could give my own opinion on whether I think you should be able to- also make pieces that break the rules but in a clever way.
using two type families can be broken in some cases- would have to know how to use typography effectively before being able to do this.
sometimes the image is more important than the type- so the type has to take a step back in the hierarchy.
youre aloud to take influence from other peoples designsjust dont copy them- show this through shapes.
HONOURS- RESEARCH Primary research- BOOK 2 This second book of my primary research introduced the idea of the different aspects that shaped graphic design- this book is really interesting to look at for my project because it showcases the things that were most important in the history of design so far- these ideas could be communicated through my editorial to show the audience how important it is to apply these to their designs. This idea I came across within my book research is about illegibility and how designers used it to tangle,distort,mangle redibility, they wanted to essentially experiement with type as much as they wanted. This is helpful research because it gives me some background to illegible type and how it came about because it actually goes against design principles, which could be helpful for my project because I could show the audience why it doesnt ‘technically’ work. This has also helped to expand my mind in terms of research and give me ideas for my developments. White space is interesting to look at because it is a principle. White space allows the piece of work to breathe and give your eyes a rest when looking at something, it can also be used to your advantage by making negative space shapes out of it. This research has been effective because it explained more about white space, where it came from, the ideas behind it and how you can use it to your advantage within design work. This has really helped me and I’ll be able to use it in my developments.
white space gives designs room to breathe- can show this through shapes by having a singular shape within a page with nothing else, then the oposite page explaining about white space and the importance of it- this reserach has helped me to understand more about white space and the importance so i can communicate this to an audience.
HONOURS- RESEARCH Primary research- BOOK 2 Design handbooks were something that came about when designers were thinking about what makes good design?. This is really helpful research because it shows me that there was a point in time were designers started to define what was good within design-this is where the principles came from- this is important to know because I can include this knowledge within my editorial to educate the readers on the whole reason I’m doing this project- to educate and explore the principles.
This research gives me a strong back bone point of why i want to create an editorial on the design principlesbecause people in the past wrote design manuals on what they thought good design was, and it worked. The design they created was effective, because it was based on the human brain and what it likes psychologically- this will show through my explinations on why theyre important rules of design.
This research about good design is really important as well because it defines waht they thought good design was- less is more and clear communication and typography,posters, illustrators using all the principles are effective- this will help me when I produce my editorial because I’m able to reference this.
‘good design is defined’ good quote to use within my book to show that design has to be defined and structured with the principles or its just a jumble of images and text on a page.
HONOURS- RESEARCH Primary research- BOOK 2 Overall, looking at this second book for my backup information for my editorial has really helped me because ive gathered some good quotes and reasons on why the principles are important to include within design.
This research about vibrating colour is really helpful because it shows a branch off of colour theory, someone took colours that created a ‘vibrating’ piece and put them together to craete psychedelic style that took over the 60s. This was really important to look at because I can show this within my principle book because it shows how you can use colour to create something else by using certain tones etc. I can also use the lines to keep with the theme to show this. t
This piece of research is about the grid. The grid is something that came about in 1940’s, to bring order to disorder within poster designs, it also brings functionality because there are different grids for different reasons. This is really helpful research because it gives me more of an insight to grids and how you can use them to your advantage. I can also apply this to my honours because I now know more about them, by applying what I now know to illustrations using lines and dots to form a grid, I can also show the audience examples of pieces with grids applied and not applied to show the difference it makes to the overall composition, overall this research has been really effective because I now know more about grids and I can apply it to my editorial to make body text and understand examples I create.
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