VISUAL METHODS AND PROCESSES By Madeline Nave Section 1598
spring 2016
Table of Contents Project 1: Pinterest Boards
Page 3
Project 2: Book Covers
Page 54
Project 3: Icons
Page 58
PINTEREST BOARDS PROJECT 1 This first project was meant to teach us the basics of design throuh the meany design principles. We were to choose 25 and make a pinterest board for each, filling each board with at least 10 examples in design of those principles. This was really just a time consuming project, but it did train my eye to be able to look for and identify how principles of design were used in a design, whether they were intentional or not. That’s a funny thing about the principles, because some of them are intuitive, is that sometimes a designer or artist my apply a principle whithout even realizing it. I laid out each of the following pages to showcase how each principle could be used, highlghted with explales from the actual boards I made. Included are only a few so if you’d like to get a better feel for the principles, below is a link to the boards where there are more examples. https://www.pinterest.com/mn6347
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Closure Here we have a collage that takes images and textures that are farmiliar to the eye, and creates a playful harmony between the similar textures of the clouds and cotton candy. The clouds and the candy become a single element.
This piece is a great example of Gestalt’s Closure principle. As all the parts unify, and this unity creates the whole portraiture of the person. Simple and effective hierarchy as well as good usage of negative space in the composition.
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A tendency to perceive a set of individual elements as a single, recognizable pattern, rather than multiple, individual elements.
In this advertisment, the rolls of paper are arranged to trick the eye into seeing actual recognizable shapes. Here closure emphasized the simplicity of the material.
In this artist’s piece, buttons come together to create a portrait, we first see the woman then the buttons. Designers gain the ability to inject deeper meanings into their peices through the collage like elements of closure.
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Color The color added to this vintage photo is eye catching as a contradiction in theme and time period. Instead of just adding realistic color that would have been of the time, the designer used color to create something new and exciting.
The Lighting in this piece is, in reality, quite flat. It is simple color and form that creates the spotlight affect. Through recognizeable iconography of light, the designer tricks the eye into believing there is a spotlight when its just paint and color-play.
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Color is used in design to attract attention, group elements, indicate meaning, and enhance aesthetics.
The bright, eye-catching colors of these package designs highlight their brand name, Loving Earth. Color is very effecting in manipulating the emotions of viewers, so use it wisely! It can make or break a design.
This palette sample is a good example of taking what you feel from a colored image that already exists and translating that into a palette. You can then use that palette in a design to evoke a similar feeling.
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Gutenberg Diagram In this PSA style poster, the diagram (through harmony of text and image direction) leads the viewer to a shock value ending at the amputee’s missing limb.
With just two elements of this image, the gutenberg diagram is still exemplified in the slight angle of the baguette, and the logo in the bottom right.
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A diagram that describes the general pattern followed by the eyes when looking at evenly distributed, homogeneous information.
This poster takes using the diagram to a very literal level. The diagonal stripe that bisects the poster leads the eye to the most crucial information, in a storm of cluttered type.
As a principle of readability and organization of information, the Gutenburg Diagram has been instinctively around and used by artists for a long time. Even this medieval print follows the readable layout of the diagram.
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Highlighting This is a fan-made minimalist poster of a movie. The spaceship is highlighted as not only the highest thing but also by being the only other element the same color as the title.
Using monochromatic and highly contrasting white on black, and using texture, the words and images are highlighted as a single message from the subjects of the images themselves
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A technique for bringing attention to an area of text or image.
The hard negative figure ground relationships highlight the text and themes. A very simple way to highlight an aspect of a piece is to play with stark contrasts.
In this poster, the only Sans Serif fornt is largest and, as the title, it immediately draws the viewers eye. Font styles and combatting styles can really highlight certain elements of a piece easily.
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Proximity The proximity of the concentric circles, and the brightness of the red against the white creates a vibrating effect on the eyes. Sometimes proximity can be used to confuse the eye in accordance with a piece.
In another example of good use of figureground and contrast, The coke bottle shapes are put in a close enough proximity and size variance to resemble a smile.
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Elements that are close together are perceived to be more related than elements that are farther apart.
Proximity can also be used to protray motion. In this simple design the proximity and opacity of overlayed shapes mimic th emotion of a bird’s wings.
The proximity of the forks in the sea and vines ad creates the illusion of a wine glass. at a second glance we see the forks. A good use of proximity to portray an event.
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Comparison An interesting point of view on how creatives around the world use negative space to communicate their message in advertising. By showing the different value systems next to eachother, the single shine mark in the black shape gives it volume, and the design a new menaing.
An example of how inspriration can come from unexpected places. When comparing the inspiration to the finished product, it creates a harmony in the connection of the images.
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A method of illustrating relationships and patterns in system behaviors by representing two or more system variables in a controlled way.
In terms of design, the readability of this design may need some work, but it is still a great example of using comparison, in terms of the fruit and food, to create different modules.
In the first panel, the woman is set next to a generic and universal symbol for a woman, humanizing herself and women in general next to a statistic. Here the designer knew that when presenting statistics it would be difficult to humanize their subjects without universal symbols for comparision and ease of understanding.
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Hierarchy The motif of triangles in this work size down hierarchically. This creates dynamic lines, and an overall sharpness to the image and cohesion.
For centuries humans have understood that in general aspects of design and composition, the larger something is in a composition, the more important it is. Take this piece by Cimabue for example.
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Hierarchical organization is the simplest structure for visualizing and understanding complexity. Increasing the visibility of the hierarchical relationships within a system is one of the most effective ways to increase knowledge about the system.
The main title of the salida wine fest poster comes out of the wine glass design highlighting the text The main title of the salida wine fest poster comes out of the wine glass design highlighting the text.
The napizza menu works down in text size hierarchy and from top to bottom. In this case the hierarchy establishes order.
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Layering the layers of texture in this piece create depth and play with perspective. Layers don’t have to hide everything behind them.
This chair design relies on the different layers of planks to create depth. Proximity also comes into play in this design.
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The process of organizing information into related groupings in order to manage complexity and reinforce relationships in the information.
The layers in this piece really exemplify depth and creating a 3 dimensional space on a 2 dimensional plane.
This is a pretty literal example of how layering can be used to make compositions, and create actual depth.
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Readability This typeface is really detailed and abstract, but still readable from an icon standpoint.
The juice jar design is clear, readable and color coded. The entire design is very approachable and sleek this way.
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The degree to which prose can be understood, based on the complexity of words and sentences.
An interesting take of the readability of two dimentional infographics, and turning on a three dimensional head.
Really like how this pulls me in with a great heading. The design is simple and not cluttered but has all the information and branding.
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Balance The yin yang symbol has always represented spiritual balance, here its mimicked
Simple shapes, colors, and forms arranged in a very balanced composition. Notice that even though it is asymmetrical it is still balanced.
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It is a state of equalized tension and equilibrium, which may not always be calm.
This is so balanced it looks like a wheel spun clay sculpture.
This is actually a very symmetrical and balanced despite the chaotic composition.
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80/20 rule The whole concept of DIY stems from repurposed objects. The little effort to come up with an idea creates a lot of outcome
The simple concept of the role of a bathtub contains the opportunities for infinite designs for use.
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A high percentage of effects in any large system are caused by a low percentage of variables.
In terms of seeing things in unconventional mediums, this unlikely newspaper sure ended up holding a lot of dogs.
A single compisition creates a palette with infinite possible applications.
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Constraint The dots in this design constrain the eye area, giving it organization and direction.
Through constraint, the color and shape create a hidden landscape within the frame of constraint.
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A method of limiting the actions that can be performed on a system.
The constrained images create a new image to trick the eye into another shape
The frame of the arch contains the composition of the tub room and mirror.
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Form The wood work here mimics the form of an organic cave or grotto
Sometimes simple forms are the more attractive to the eye, more to rest on, less to follow.
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F orm can be measured, from top to bottom (height), side to side (width), and from back to front (depth). Form is also defined by light and dark. It can be defined by the presence of shadows on surfaces or faces of an object.
The stairwell of the harbin opera house weaves and slopes with a smooth form, unassuming of the rigid wood material and raw wood texture.
Auguste Rodin-Le Baiser (1882) soft forms are exposed through hard stone.
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Mimicry Taking social cues and putting them in different contexts is a form of mimicry
Darfkin Gloves: some things with purpose designed for humans take from the abilities of other beings
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The act of copying properties of familiar objects, organisms, or environments in order to realize specific benefits afforded by those properties.
This packaging is meant to mimic flower anatomy, a lot of mimicry in design is taken from nature yet is wholly artificial.
The curve of the wave mimics the human curve of a neck, so the artist combined them in a collage.
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Texture Here we see how certain textures added to a generally smooth interior design can add a dynamic rhythm.
Certain textures can mimic each other, like how these macro images of mushrooms look like chiffon.
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Meaning the way a surface feels or is perceived to feel. Texture can be added to attract or repel interest to an element, depending on the pleasantness of the texture.
Stone patterns and cloth textures create an interesting piece, one thats memorable, and a bit unnatural.
The texture of the icing is the same stuff but application of texture makes it look very different.
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Archetypes A very typical art nouveau brooch, with pearl and jewels. Exemplifying the forms, colors, and riches of the artistic and design era for jewelry and small sculpture
His Her Bathroom Sign archetypal bathroom signs, a pretty universal symbol.
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Universal patterns of theme and form resulting from innate biases or dispositions.
These are crisp labels, and the hints of gold evoke and expensive feeling. Playing to certain archetypes can make a viewer feel a certain way about your design.
This poster is an example of modern speech and the designer’s lettering skill, an archetype of it, put into a colloquial piece of art.
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Baby-Faced Bias The turtle isn’t redered realistic, but a smoothed out baby version almost. This makes it cuter, and more appealing to a wider audience.
The famous gerber baby exemplifies the baby face bias in ads
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A tendency to see people and things with baby-faced features as more naĂŻve, helpless, and honest than those with mature features.
Most successful female models have a mature body but a round face and big eyes, a youthful face.
Children have always generated sympathy to the viewer, this wasn’t lost on propagandists.
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Golden Ratio Here are some simple logo design based specifically on the ratio.
Ukrainian Parliament Meeting Devolves Into Brawl, Again; even uncommon sources can hold the composition of the golden ration.
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A ratio within the elements of a form, such as height to width, approximating 0.618.
Another creative design from the ration, this time a cute parrot!
In this composition, the forms arm and curve of the neck and chin create a golden ratio.
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OperantConditioning In order to understand a lot of these, you have to understand the relationships between food and what it does for us
A lot of the point of ads is to communicate what is desirable in the eyes of society and make people want that, in the 50’s and 60’s it was pretty blatant.
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A technique used to modify behavior by reinforcing desired behaviors, and ignoring or punishing undesired behaviors
This budweiser ad is obviously sexist but in advertisement and with exposure, it dangerously normalizes the rhetoric and behavior it displays.
From a young age in wester culture, commodities are designed to be gendered towards a gender binary. This conditions us to follow a binary.
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Symmetry Simple designs in symmetry can create new and unexpected forms, like from a book’s pages.
The strawberries and the tongue become one in this ad for a strawberry flavored drink.
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A property of visual equivalence among elements in a form.
The drawing aesthetic appeal of the this chair’s strange curved design is because of its symmetry.
Wasp’s nest ~ although the thought of one of these nests usually strikes fear; the effort, design and execution is down right fascinating, the balance and symmetry seems artificial.
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Convergence looking at a barcode a different way can get creative, especially if they’re product specific
The strawberries and the tongue become one in this ad for a strawberry flavored drink.
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A process in which similar characteristics evolve independently in multiple systems.
All of these apples are the same type of shape and module, yet the permutations are natural.
The shapes and lines converge into a single icon but exist in different systems.
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Errors The choice to make the setting upside-down adds a whole level of dynamic to the composition.
Even through a distorted and crumpled depiction, the viewer can still tell who the subject is. The purposeful distortion adds narrative.
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An action or omission of action yielding an unintended result.
By hiding the real body, and superimposing a closeup of the body, this use of error emphasizes the rawness of the body.
A converging image of two faces, the hair emits the separation of the woman and mans shirts. There are no effects but creates dynamacy.
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Scale/Proportion A large part of what makes these photo combinations so impacting is the scaled up versions of mundane objects we all recognize.
The cups in this ad become a christmas tree, flattening the 3d image into a 2d tree.
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Using the relative size of elements against each other can attract attention to a focal point. When elements are designed larger than life, scale is being used to show drama.
The crayola building’s crayon sculpture creates such a grand tension at this scale.
Roman Cieslewicz; the scale of the eyes mimic the treads of a tire going down a road, hinted at by the bisecting yellow line.
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Modularity Thanks to attention to modularity, this design is easy to read because of how the space is directed.
Western indian: vodka, orange juice, pineapple juice & soda water, recipes that converge into the product also are very modular.
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A method of managing system complexity that involves dividing large systems into multiple, smaller self-contained systems.
Bathroom | his and hers with aqua blue engraved writing. Gendering objects is a strange but common way to create modularity.
Here, the topics and design of the charts are broken into modules, with the subjects of the topics themselves.
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Prototyping This textile is designed to mimic the qualities of fabric, without being it at all, it treats wrinkles and movement like joints.
Its easy to be more creative on paper than to execute in 3 dimensions, so sketches are a good place to start.
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The use of simplified and incomplete models of a design to explore ideas, elaborate requirements, refine specifications, and test functionality.
A practical drawing of a prototype, in itself can be art if the artist intends it to be.
Every design begins in a two dimensional prototype before a 3d one, and most designs are scrutinizingly refined before moving to 3d.
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Project Three: Book Covers
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How Do You Make a Unique Series of Covers, With a Cohesive Look? Each year, the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom records hundreds of attempts by individuals and groups to have books removed from libraries shelves and from classrooms. According to the Office for Intellectual Freedom, at least 46 of the Radcliffe Publishing Course Top 100 Novels of the 20th Century have been the target of ban attempts. For this project I was tasked to design a collection of 3 book covers meant to look like they were published by the same company. The images had to be a collage created in Photoshop. Then we were to splice the images together in illustrator. The books I chose to design covers for were Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut, In Cold Blood by Truman Capote, and Lord of the Flies by William Golding. I have a personal attachment to all of these stories, and believe that, though they contain violence, sexual content, and ideas of dissent, that they teach valuable philosophical lessons. The style of collage I came up with was meant to highlight what books represent to me. Books always start out as a raw form of paper, they’re a physical log of thoughts, ideas, in history. Some say that a write can see the story in a stack of paper much like a sculptor sees their finished work in an uncut pillar of marble.
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(cont. from page 17) Where their talent lies is using their experiences and ideals to reveal what is within the paper that only they can bring out. Thats why I depicted the paper being ripped away, and revealing the collage beneath. Both the images portray the stories and the ripped away portion of the paper shows a strong image from the story. For my Lord of the Flies cover (right) The main image in the story is the head of a boar, which in the story is the true “lord of the flies�. The Story is an exploration of the effects of desperation on humanity and innosence, especially the innosence of children. The most difficult thing about this particular cover was that I decided my entire cohesive layout and style while making it. It was the first cover I attempted of the three, and because I planned while working it definitely took the longest. The next cover I made was the cover for Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut. This, of the stories I chose to create covers for, is my favorite book. I think the reason I like this book so much is why I got so frusturated trying to find pieces of art that go with the themes in the story. In this incredible, non-linear science fiction novel, the hero of the story Billy pilgrim becomes un-stuck in time. The book explores the horrors of war and morality in extreme situations. However, there are also aliens, and many strange and humorous scenes. I finally found some great scenes to put in my cover. For the ripped away image, I decided to use the visage of the aliens described in the novel called Tralfamadorians, supposedly a hand mounted on what looks like a plunger, with an eye in the center of the palm.
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The final book cover I did was the one for In Cold Blood by Truman Capote. This story is commonly regarded as the very best true crime novel ever written. It is written like a novel, from the perspective of not just the victims of a vicious muder (the Clutter family) but also their murderers and the investigation team following the case. It is lauded, though it is writen in a novel like way, as being extremely close to truth. It is, in literary terms, a story about greed and the American dream, the promise of something better. This one was simple to think of the motif, I used the boots that were used to covict the two killers. Without the discovery of a boot print it would have been impossible to find the killers and convict them. The images I ended up choosing are meant to show what the American dream means to people, simple living, and man’s sturggle with greed and love. This cover is only slightly different than the others in how it has two “rips� instead of one, and the images underneath are still one image not split into two. If I were to change things about this project I would most likely change the style of the paper tecture I used for the sleeve background. I got some really valuable feedback during the in-class critique and that was th emost discussed aspect of the covers. I think If I were to change it, I would instead use a less wrinkly texture, paired with a more appropriate text.
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ICON DESIGN
The point of an icon is to create something that can be recognized at a level of resemblance. You can look at it and no matter how simple in form, it can be recognized at what it is meant to be. When creating an icon for use, and to sell, there is a lot you have to take into account. For example, how clear they will be on a large scale versus a small scale, the color schemes and transparencies, etc.
Pâtisserie
Black & White & Background
Above, is the black and white version of the icons I created, I was inspired by pastries that i’ve grown up with and enjoyed in my life. The name is the french word for a shop that makes pastries, I chose it because most of the pastries are french concieved.
For the color version, I wanted to have a scheme that was warm and delicious looking. Crisp browns for the buttery crusts, and creamy pinks and beiges for the cream fillings and doughs, warm purples and reds for the berries. I used about 15 different colors total and tried to use as few as I could while still making them look cohesive. In terms of line, they also couldnt just stay black, as seen below.
P창tisserie Color & Background
Below are the T-Shirt designs I came up with to utilize my icons. I enjoyed coming up with them a lot, and playing with the wordplay and image.