A Semester Long Journey:Introduction to Design By: Mackenzie Muha
Table of Contents I.Dot/Line II.Hand Lettering III.Object Iterations IV. How To Poster V.Continuous Line Drawings VI.Children’s Book
Dot/Line Objectives: To represent emotional qualities and words abstractly using dots and lines. Gestalt Theory is six elements of design to make that design interesting or pleasing to the eye. The principles of Gestalt Theory played a huge role in dot/line because they helped to convey the emotional quality in the piece. Making a well crafted object was extremely difficult, especially when the object was a circle. I tend to go fast and pay less attention to the details, so the biggest challenge was attention to little detail. The abstraction in this project was extremely interesting because when asked to use lines and dots to convey emotion, it seems crazy, but with sketching and re-working iterations, the project was a success. It was not too difficult to make the iterations without illustrating because cutting out the shapes and arranging them in a way that made me feel a certain way helped to get at the emotional quality abstractly. Using this in the future, abstraction is a great way to get the audience to feel something without telling them what to see or how to feel.
E N E R G E T I C T E R R O R
S T A B I L I T Y
O P R E S S I O N
Hand Lettering Objectives: To learn how to neatly and correctly make letters by hand. Also, to learn how to portray a word in as many creative ways as possible.
Hand lettering communicates as much more authentic and relatable than typed letters. It does not feel as generic or as mass produced. When actually taking the time to measure hand letters and use a ruler, they can turn out just as well as computer letters, and have that certain authentic quality that can make them have a style unattainable on the computer. The word iterations were extremely fun because they had very little creative limitations. My personal favorite was creating the word backwards on paper, holding a flashlight up, and creating a shadow to show the word. The most difficult part of the word iteration project was pushing iterations forward and re-making them to be better and more creative than in the previous iterations.
Object Iterations Objectives: To portray an object or animal of choice in as many unique and creative ways possible using different media. Two master artists also had to be imitated while still portraying the object or animal chosen. In this process, I learned that one animal or object can be shown in so many unique ways that I never would have previously thought of. The biggest challenge of the iterations was the continuous line because certain key details of an elephant were hard to capture on a continuous line. Master artists were also a challenge because trying to imitate a wonderful artist’s work is a huge task and I wanted to make it look my best out of respect for the artists. I am very happy with the way the Picasso iteration turned out because it is the most simple, yet the iteration that speaks the most emotionally. On the other hand, the most enjoyable was the sketch because the reference picture I used really captured the calm demeanor of an elephant, and having it come across in a drawing was extremely enjoyable to work on. Being new to photoshop, I learned so much through this project. The best skill I have learned in photoshop is that it is simple to clean up drawings and make them look neat and polished on the computer. If I could continue to represent the elephant, I would try to represent it in 3-Dimensional objects, such as fabrics, beads, and any nature- element such as leaves or small rocks. Painting an elephant would also be a great addition to mix up textures.
How To Poster Objective: To create a poster that gives easy to follow instructions on how to do a task using words and illustrations.
This project was very simple, yet took a lot of planning. The biggst aspect, and the most difficult aspect, was finding a grid to line up steps in an organized way that the reader could easily understand. I began by trying to plan to draw an illustration for every text, but quickly realized that a simple illustration would work best with so much text. I enjoyed making this poster and having a lot of freedom to create any kind of poster I wanted. However, I did have to re-work the poster mulitple times to get the best result and the best layout. Feedback was extremely important in the project; what seemed to make sense in my mind did not always seem to make sense in the minds of others. A correct format and layout is difficult because everyone has a unique idea as to which layout is the easiest to read. In all, I was happy with the final result- although it is very simple and the drawings are hand drawn- I think those aspects give it a welcoming quality.
I tried to make the poster have a certain feel of simplicity. The drawings make the audience believe the poster is authentic and that pumping gas is a simple process. The poster is approachable to all audiences.
Continuous Line Drawings Objective: To capture the important details of the subject by looking at the subject without picking up the pencil, and often without even looking at the paper.
The continuous line drawings was by far one of my favorites activites of Introduction to Design. At first it was extremely challenging not looking at the piece of paper or picking up my pencil while drawing someone. However, as we repeatedly practiced, it became much easier to pick up on key details of a person that should be drawn. The final products capture the important characteristics of people, and they have a simple emotional quality that speaks for itself.
Children’s Book Objective: To work with partners that act as clients and use their text to create images and a layout for a finished product children’s book. This project was extremely challenging. I made the images by hand and scanned them into photoshop to edit them. This was the most time consuming part, and this project was by far the most time consuming. The best part of this project was being able to get so much feedback and re-working the book so many times to get it to be exactly how it was invisioned. I was lucky to have partenrs who were not very picky and who were prompt and on time with their work. Although this was not the most enjoyable project, the end product turned out pretty well and it was definatley a great learning experience.
The most important steps for creating the book included creating thumbnails of ideas for each illustration and layout, and also creating many character choices and choosing how to draw the hedgehogs according to the ideas that my partners had in mind.
The final book took many revisions and several printed copies to revise. In the beginning, text was on both the left and right pages, and both pages were complete with images. However, when printed, the book looked too plain and lacked a definitive layout. As a solution, I decided to make a definitive layout, I would make all text on the left pages and choose key elements of the text to illustrate on the right page. As a result, the book looked much more neat and put together, and the different colored pages add a fun element for children.
Acknowledgments I would like to thank my wonderful art professor, Professor Ries, for the assingments that allowed for so much creative freedom and expression. I would lke to thank my children’s book project partners for writing such a great story and giving me freedom to create the book and placing your trust in me. Finally, I’d also like to thank my family for being supportive of my school work, especially my mother who was very supportive in times of stress during this class.