Morgan Mitchell | Design 3102 | Susan Melsop | Interior Design | Fall 2015
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Visual Literacy: Design Principles and Elements of Design
Project Description Sorting and Classifying Figure Ground & Paper Relief 3D Model Objectives & Reflection
A Single Chair Museum
Donald Judd Object Analysis Concept Statement Concept Development Design Development Perspective Renderings AU 15 Reflection
Visual Literacy: Design Principles and Elements of Design
Project 1: Visual Literacy: Understanding Design Principles and Employing Design Elements Selection of Images from Nature
Pen Drawings
Project Description
Process
Reflection
Find images from nature that fit in each of the categories: centralized, linear, radial and cluster. Then from these images create abstract drawings with heavy detail.
I chose images i felt would be interesting and different from images others might choose, I thought that these four images would be good visuals of the categories that were assigned. The elephant represents a radial design, the pine cone and orange have centralized designs, and the fish are a linear or a cluster design.
The pen drawings show a very basic interpretation of what the image originally is, without giving too much away or being too precise. I think had i used pencil instead of or in addition to pen, these images could have been shaded in a way to give them more texture and depth, which might have made them more interesting.
Visual Literacy: Design Principles and Elements of Design In Class Exercise: Sorting and Classifying This process was meant to give us an understanding for the terms that designers use on a daily basis in the creation of their work. The organizational strategies that become apparent during any designers process reflects on the world we live in, and the way nature has shown us pattern. Using the pen drawings, collaborate with other people in the class to create a chart that shows the correlation between specific design elements and principles.
Elements
♦ Point ♦ Line ♦ Plane ♦ Volume ♦ Grid ♦ Datum ♦ Pattern/ Texture ♦ Color/ Tone
Principles
♦ Balance/ Symmetry ♦ Asymmetry ♦ Heirarchy ♦ Size ♦ Scale ♦ Proportion ♦ Rhythm ♦ Repitition
Reflection I think that this process was good for learning about all of these different design elements and principles, and how it might look if they were combined. Before this process there a lot of terms that i already had understood, but never thought of really using to describe how something might be organized, or how it might be paired with something else. To have us make these drawings, not knowing these terms, and then have us find out where they fit was a very productive exercise that gave me a new understanding and appreciation with how things naturally occur, and how we, as designers are always trying to replicate nature in some aspect.
Visual Literacy: Design Principles and Elements of Design Figure Ground Studies
Paper Relief Models
Objectives
Process
Create two figure ground images from the pen drawing ideas to study the impact of foreground and background and how the two play off of and feed into one another. Then translate the figure ground images into three dimensional relief models while combining two design principles with two design elements.
I liked the two patterns for the city scape and the tree bark the best as far as demonstrating figure ground relationships. And feel that they conveyed the positive and negative space very well. As far as the relief models for the tree bark i wanted to combine the elements of movement and plane with the organizational strategies/ design elements of datum and layers. For the city scape the elements, volume and dimension would be paired with static and repetition to create this model.
Reflection
I like the ideas that I tried to convey in these sculptures, but i feel that they were done a bit too quickly, and without much exploration. Had I discovered a much more exact process with which I could carry out my design (mostly for the tree bark), I think the model would have come out much cleaner and more precise.
Visual Literacy: Design Principles and Elements of Design Translating 2D to 3D Interior Design (2) Models at 1/2” = 1’-0”
Expanding the Scale 1 Model @ 1” = 1’-0”
Objectives
Process
Reflection
I chose to further explore the idea that came from the city scape relief model. I thought that to three dimensionally travel through a space that has the resemblance of a city, yet can function as some other type of space would be very interesting. The tall tubes with squares cut out represent the different heights of buildings in a city, the rectangles at different heights and angles in the corner are like what you might see from a distance, and the cubes on the floor and ceiling are like a central plaza that invites people in to take time out and relax in the space.
I think the concepts that I wanted to convey are successful in my compilation. I really like the three round tubes i created to be buildings that bring the light in and funnel it into the space from the oculi. If i were to do this piece of the project again I would try to figure out spatially how to make the space more interesting so that there is not such an easy and direct path through the model, if there were more space or a different scale i would like to make the journey more meaningful to really give insight to the feeling and function of a city.
Explore the organizing principles represented in one of the relief models to create a spatial experience that elaborates on the original design principles and elements. Program Brief: ♦ Entry/ Threshold ♦ Path/ Walkway ♦ Focal Point ♦ View ♦ Exit
Visual Literacy: Design Principles and Elements of Design Objectives | Process | Refection Based on the full scale model that has been built, draw the appropriate plan, reflected ceiling plan and two section cuts. Create the information that would allow another person to recreate this model with only the technical, information given.
Process
Plan
Reflected Ceiling Plan
♦ A plan is a birds eye view that is taken of the model, but it is cut horizontally, four feet from the bottom of the model to get such a view. To get a sense of what is happening in the “floor plan” of the space. ♦ A section is a side view of the model but the view is taken like the model is vertically cut open on a line in the plan. ♦ A reflected ceiling plan is another birds eye view of the model, but only including things touching or going through the model.
Reflection
Section Cut A
Section Cut B
I think that this process would have been a lot easier and more exact had we created the plans and elevations before we constructed the models. But i do understand that the models may not have been as interesting and would have been far more geometric had that been the case.
A Single Chair Museum
A Single Chair Museum
Artist: Donald Judd Years Active: 1964 - 1994
Donald Judd, an American, Minimalist artist and designer was a significant artist of his time. Beginning in the art realm, he had a strong interest in architecture and he later discovered furniture design: became highly successful in designing minimalist, streamlined, pieces. His art was influenced by industrial materials, which also carried over to his furniture designing. His industrial style used materials like iron, steel, plastic, and plexiglas to create an impersonal factory like aesthetic. Judd made it clear that he had different feelings about his art and his furniture. They were not one in the same. Furniture must function, where this is not a requirement of his art. This principle is something Judd designed by and stood by throughout his career. His artistic goal was to create objects that stand on their own and don’t allude to anything beyond their physical appearance. Judd is sometimes considered a literalist, due to the fact that he wanted his creations to be exactly what he made them, he did not leave room for interpretation on what his object was intended for. He also made his works stand directly on the floor, as opposed to being on a platform like traditional sculpture. He wanted his art to be interacted with in a natural manner by having them stand directly on the floor in the same space as the observer.
A Single Chair Museum Object Analysis (Chair Drawings)
Elevation A
Elevation B
A Single Chair Museum Concept Statement In this chair museum chair project, my design intention was to create a space that emulates the design work of Donald Judd, especially his Stool #95. Donald Judd’s work is very geometric and angular, all of the planes in his furniture are squares or rectangles assembled to create varying designs. I wanted my space to give be like Judd’s planar work, by having a series of walls acting as planes that the occupant would have to walk through to get to their final destination. Each time one of the walls is crossed through, the occupant will be able to make a visual connection with one of the four chairs in the final area, guiding you into the space. The hallways are long and narrow to keep the person moving and not wanting to linger very long, and the final space is a large cavernous space with four windows and four chairs. The space has a lot of symmetry, and repetition in the space with the walls, the four chairs and four windows in the gathering area. Planes with the walls, and the very specific lines of sight from each corner to the new window. The stool that Judd created was a maroon and purple type of color which is very distinctive. I wanted to copy the color of the stool to be represented in the walls or windows of the space. I fluctuated between the two ideas. In the model the walls are solid and the windows have a purple tint to them to allow the light through to be purple. But upon further thought i realized the walls should be solid and purple, just as the chair is solid and purple. The idea for there to be a lot of shapes in the walls by extending the proper lines to draw the chair in perspective and the remaining shapes were the ones that created the cut outs in the walls of the space.
A Single Chair Museum Concept Development
A Single Chair Museum Design Development
A Single Chair Museum Perspective and Renderings
A Single Chair Museum Final Reflection Over the course of the semester i learned about design principles and elements and how the two are so connected, and that every design needs to incorporate the these things i their intention. There was a strong emphasis on poetry in this class and how that should relate to the project. In both of my projects i tried to create a poetic spatial experience that was a play on the justification behind the design of the project. In project one the idea was to create a city type experience, with tall objects that are like sky scrapers and sky lines far away. In the second project, the chair was the driving influence, and how to emulate the presence of a chair in a spatial composition. I worked mostly with the geometries, planes and color of the stool to make the organization for the space. There are five sides on the stool, which represent the five walls that one must walk through to get to the final space. The shapes cut out provide a glimpse at each corner to a chair just as the corner pushed back on the front of the chair. The biggest challenge for me in this class was the iterations in the model making. Coming in with one thing, but then having to make changes to the model was very time consuming and unappealing. I would have liked to learn to do things through drawings first to get all of the mistakes out before building the model. I think that doing a lot of drawings first would have helped the process along with more clarity as to what we should be building, which would have allowed for cleaner model building and less stopping in the process due to thinking road blocks.