FOUNDATION
Introduction to Design Science and Liberal Arts - 1 Fundamentals to Visual Design Design Process
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS My first semester here at National Institute of Design has been a truly enriching experience. I was exposed to many interesting aspects of design which are very crucial for me as a design student. The journey of this semester has allowed me to develop many skills which will take me a step ahead in both my professional and personal life. I would like to extend my humble gratitude to Dr. TridhaGajjar, Mr. Tarun Deep Girdher, Mrs. Mona Prabhu, Mr. Jagdish Kumar and to all the visiting faculties for inspiring me at every step and being patient with me while I learned from my own mistakes. I also feel greatly indebted to my batchmates and my seniors (both UG and PG) who have been very forthcoming in giving me feedbacks and inputs whenever and wherever I needed them. A heartfelt thankyou to the NID Print Labs, Dilip Bhai, Hasmukh Bhai, Sachin Bhai and everyone else who worked with us during the production course.
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CONTENTS Introduction to Design
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Science & Liberal Arts
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Fundamentals of Visual Design Drawing Colour Composition
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Design Process
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Picture By : Valji bhai Solanki
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PG FOUNDATION 2016-17 5
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Anchor Faculty: Tarun Deep Girdher 1 week | 2 credits
INTRODUCTION TO DESIGN
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Introduction to Design – the first module with which the journey of this semester began. The course that ran for a week was anchored by Tarun Deep Girdher. Many accomplised design practitioners/ professionls/ educators from the industry came to deliver lectures and introduce us to the world of design. This course exposed us to the idea of ‘What is Design?’ in a broader sense. The lectures introduced us to design thinking, design as a profession and its importance and relevance in today’s world. Lectures were also delivered by the Discipline Coordinators of all the disciplines at NID, Ahmedabad, introducing us to each discipline and all the amazing accomplishments of our seniors and inspiring us to think big and never give up.
SPEAKERS Professor. Ashok Chatterjee Mr. Sudhir Sharma Mr. Praveen Nahar Dr. Tridha Gajjar Mr. Pravinsinh Solanki Mr. Shaktivel Mr. Dhiman Sengupta Dr. Gayatri Menon Mr. Amit Krishna Gulati Mr. E Suresh Kumar Mrs. Neelima Hasija Mr. Rajesh Dahiya Mr. Arun Gupta Mr. Vijay Khatiyar
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Gary Huswit’s documentaries Helvetica, Urbanised and Objectified were screened as a part of this module. The screening was an interactive learning tool. Watching and discussing the documentaries helped me understand and absorb what issues the films were trying to talk about by taking a visual route.
LEARNINGS We learned that design, is a process, an output, a profession, an attitude and a way of life. Design is about noticing the problems and finding the solutions and alternative solutions for the same problem. Design Thinking is about innovation, culture and business. We cannot solve problems by using the same kind of thought process we had while creating the problem in the first place. This course turned out to be an inspiring voyage all in a week. To be able to see and hear NID alumni who have achieved so much in their area of work, come back, talk to us and encourage us to see and explore the vast possibilities and opportunities that stand in our future and our time here, was admirable.
ASSIGNMENTS After one week of the course we were given two assignments. 1. Design a poster which reflects your thoughts on ‘what is design?’ 2. Identify an Indian Designer whose work/ approach/ philosophy/ ideas or process inspire you and design a poster on that designer.
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Design is not always visible. It exists, it helps, it communicates, it directs you towards where it wants you to go.Invisible design wins with it’s ability to communicate even without the user realising that this has been designed specifically. Example: Way Finding Systems
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Kriti Monga, Founder and Director of Turmeric Design, New Delhi is one of my favourite Indian Illustrator/ Graphic Designer. Her work always inspires me and her love for illustrations and hand lettering is infectious.
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Anchor Faculty: Shilpa Das Visiting Faculty: Deepak Kannal 1 week | 2 credits
SCIENCE & LIBERAL ARTS
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Science and Liberal Arts – the second module with a duration of one week. The course was anchored by Dr.Shilpa Das and taught by our visiting faculty, Mr. Deepak Kannal. In this module we learned Aesthetic Theories in the context of art and culture. We learned about both the Indian and western theories of aesthetics. This course familiarized us with the various philosopies and ways of veiwing and understanding art. Aesthetics was earlier considered to be a notion of Art. This discipline goes back to the 4th century. Most statements on art are not absolute. It’s always based on the era it’s been said in. Immanuel Kant. Indian word for aesthetics is ‘Soundarya Shastra’. LEARNINGS This course gave me an insight into the emotions that run behind a work of art. I learned that art and emotion go hand in hand and that everything has a contextual and a time bound meaning attached to it.
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Every dramatic presentation was aimed at evoking in the minds of the audience a particular kind of aesthetic experience, which is described as “Rasa”. The concept of “Rasa” is the most important and significant contribution of the Indian mind to aesthetics.
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FUNDAMENTALS TO VISUAL DESIGN Anchor Faculty: Kaushik Chakraborty 6 weeks | 12 credits
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DRAWING 17
Drawing was the first course in Fundamentals to Visual Design module which was anchored by Kaushik Chakraborty. The drawing course extended for a period of two weeks. Visiting Faculties for the drawing course were Mr. Vijay Punia, Mr. Rajesh Thakare, and Mr. Mahan J Dutta. The drawing course started with freeing our hands by drawing lines and circles repeatedly on imperial size newsprint sheets. LEARNINGS I learned that my hand was not very steady or confident while drawing lines on a large sheet and the lines were’nt necessarily straight. This assignment was great fun. It was time consuming but it taught me to pay attention to and concentrate on each line and how close or far from each other they were.
Our first assignment was to draw lines very close to each other which made us more aware of how our hand moves across a page.
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NATURE STUDY After the process of freeing our hands to drawing we were asked to go pick one branch, one tree, and different patterns or textures found in nature and draw it with as much detail as we can. At this stage we were taught how the line thickness helps show perspective. It was based largely on understand light and shadow outdoors and how to show depth on a sheet of paper.
LEARNINGS My main take away from nature study was that observing is very important. Each small detail will add to how the full drawing looks at the end of it.
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PERSPECTIVE STUDY We were taught the theory about perspectives. Persoectives are drawn keeping in mind our eye level and where the vanishing point is. We were taught to draw one point and two point perspective in this part of the course.
LEARNINGS After nature study which was about looking at something closely, perspective study helps us draw the larger picture. It taught me how to show distance in any drawing.
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HUMAN STUDY We were taught to draw human figures in a step-bystep manner. We were first explained how the human anatomy works and how the size of the head is taken as a rule to draw the rest of the body. Then we were taught to draw each feature separately i.e., eyes, nose, mouth, ears, and hands.
LEARNINGS I always shyed away from drawing human figures. This class gave me the understanding on how to draw humans and the confidence to attempt to draw them.
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VISUAL NARRATIVE The agenda of this part of the course was to teach us how to narrate a story in limited number of frames and chart out a storyboard. We were asked to make up one story and illustrate it in 8 frames. MY STORY The title of the story I chose to illustrate was ‘My Story’. The story was of a girl who loves the KMC in NID. LEARNINGS From this exercise, I learned how to build a short story visually. How to bridge the gap between the beginning and ending of a story with a set number of frames. Learned how to imagine stories as stills and then draw them. It was a great exercise and experience.
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FUNDAMENTALS TO VISUAL DESIGN Anchor Faculty: Kaushik Chakraborty 6 weeks | 12 credits
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COLOUR 25
Colour was the second course in Fundamentals to Visual Design module which was anchored by Kaushik Chakraborty. The colour course extended for a period of two weeks. Visiting Faculties for this course were Mrs. Bela Raval and Mr. Parthiv Shah. Colour has three dimensions - Hue, Value, and Intensity. Hue: is another word for colour. It is a colour’s position within the 360º circle of the colour wheel. Some hues have commonly used names such as blue, violet, and blue-violet. Primary Colours: Blue, Red, and Yellow. Secondary Colours: Violet, Orange, and Green. Tertiary Colours: Yellow- Green, Blue- Green, Blue- Violet, Red- Violet, Red- Orange, Yellow- Orange.
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Value : is a term that relatees to how light or dark a colour is on a scale of black to white. Value plays a critical role in the creation and application of any palette’s colours. Saturation/ Intensity : is a measure of the hue’s purity. A fully saturated hue is a colour in its purest form. Less saturated colours are those that have been muted by the addition of its complementary colour.
Colour Interaction to understand how colours percieved by the eye are different with different background colours.
LEARNINGS I was able to absorb a lot of new learnings from the colour module. From the colour wheel to pointalism, each assignment came with a learning curve about colour, how it works, how different hues are created, how hues are perceived in different contexts etc.
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Pointslism, is a form of painting in which tiny dots of primary-colors are used to generate secondary colors. We were asked to paint a tree using the pointalism concept. I painted a cherry blossom tree with pink and blue dots, which created a purple tree.
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We were asked to redesign a movie poster and paint it by hand. In this poster designed for the movie English Vinglish, I experimented with two mediums, painted the background in watercolour, the foreground is painted with poster colours.
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FUNDAMENTALS TO VISUAL DESIGN Anchor Faculty: Kaushik Chakraborty 6 weeks | 12 credits
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COMPOSITION
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Composition was the third course in Fundamentals to Visual Design module which was anchored by Kaushik Chakraborty. The composition course extended for a period of two weeks. Faculties for this course were Mr. Pradeep Choksy, Dr. Tridha Gajjar and Mr. Jagadish Kumar. Composition is the act of putting things and elements together. It helps build heirarchy, centre of interest/ focal point and helps the eye movement of the viewer. In composition, there are two elements - Intrinsic and Extrinsic Elements. Intrinsic elements are conceptual elements, they may not be visible but they seem to be present. Example- Horizon, Perspective etc Extrinsic Elements are visual elements. Conceptual elements when employed through mediums becomes visible and extrinsic. These elements then have size, shape, colour and texture which are visual features of the element. Dots - Simplest, irreducibly minimum unit of visual communication. A dot is conceptual where as a point can be measured. Line - It is the trace of a moving point. A line usually has direction and purpose. It gives a visual thrust, it leads the eye in a given direction. It is an essential element of drawing. It rarely exists in nature but does appear in environment.
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In the two images (above) which was a part of our assignment, the dots depict movement. In the first image, the dots depict a snake’s movement and in the second imsge it is the movement of a feather falling.
PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN RHYTHM It is repetition with gradual variation, it can’t be predictable. Rhythm can be described as timed movement through space. It’s presence creates predictability and order in a composition. GRADATION It is a series of motifs patterned to relate to each other and a regular progression of steps.
REPETITION It involves the use of patterning to achieve time, movement, and a visual beat. This may be a clear repetition of elements in a composition or a moe subtle kind of repetition that can be observed in the underlying structure of design. If we don’t use variation in repetition, it becomes a pattern.
In the two images (above) which was a part of our assignment, the lines depict movement and rhythm. The placement, thickness and angle of lines show moveement. We can determine the direction of movement.
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BALANCE in composition is the concept of visual equillibrium. Reconcilation of opposite forces in a composition that results in a visual stability. Balance is of three types Symmetrical Balance is described as having equal weight on equal sides of a centrally placed fulcrum. Assymetrical Balance is when objects are placed in a way that will allow the objects of varying visual weight to balance one another around a fulcrum point. Radial Balance is when all elements radiate out from a central point and the visual weight is distributed equally. This type of a balance forms a strong focal point. PROPORTION is the relative size and scale of various elements in a composition. DEPTH gives the illusion of space and planes through size variation and orientation. To show that an object is close, one can increase the size or give the object a bright colour or high contrast. Warm colours make the object seem closer and cool colours make the object seem like the background.
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As an assignment to understand balance, proportion, depth, and emphasis, we had to create compositions using basic shapes.
EMPHASIS is the point of focus, or interruption or a break in the rhythm. Emphasis can be achieved by repetition, contrast, and placement. Repetition is calling for attention to the repeated element through sheer force of numbers. Contrast of colour, texture, shape, size, and direction brings emphasis to certain points. Contrast by setting the point of emphasis apart from the background. Also contrast of size and scale creates emphasis. Placement of objects in a strategic position will call for attention and isolation is also a way of building emphasis through contrast.
LEARNINGS Composition is an extremely vital concept for graphic design. I learned that one needs to pay attention to how our eye travels in a given composition. How to create emphasis, heirarchy, balance, depth etc.
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GESTALT THEORY is that things are affected by where they are and by what surrounds them. This theory deals with human perception. LAWS OF GESTALT Law of Enclosure a line which encloses a surface tends to be seen as a unit. Law of Proximity those elements closest to each other tend to form groups. Close Edge - Closer the forms are to one another, the more likely they are seen as one group. Touch - When items touch they seem like one unit, on the same plane. Overlaps - Strongest gestalt happens when shapes overlap. Combining - When various elements are grouped together by using an external element ( like an underline in text) that acts to combine items. Law of Symmetry The eye notices symmetrical forms and tends to group them together. Law of Even Width Lines having equal width in between are grouped and read together and easily.
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As an assignment to understand emphasis through size or direction, isolation or scale we had to create compositions using letter forms
Law Of Figure And Ground/ Ambiguity The forms are recognized because of the difference or light value between figure and ground. Law of Common Fate/ Continous Shape Independant of the previous experience the eye always tries to correct and complete an incomplete shaoe, the tendency is strong enough to overcome the resistance, including a psychological resistance. Law of Simple Good Shape Human eye always tries to find simple and good shape in any composition.
LEARNINGS The Gestalt theory and laws are very fascinating. All these theories we always saw but never noticed or articulated. As a graphic designer in order to communicate something visually, understanding these principles thoroughly is very important. Learning these helped me understand how to create emphasis using different composition methods.
Law of Similarity Those which are similar tends to form groups. Groups are formed based on size, location, orientation, colour, and direction. Law of Self Intersection Lines will form areas and read as one form until path is disturbed. Law of Experience/ Association The comprehension of a form is dependent on the experience of the same form which we have earlier, provided the conditions of the experienced object is met.
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As an assignment to understand emphasis through size or direction, isolation or scale we had to design a story with 7 frames to depict change in the environment.
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DESIGN PROCESS Anchor Faculty: V S Katiyar 2 weeks | 4 credits
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Design Process was a combined course for all disciplines, which was anchored by V S Katiyar. The design process module extended for a period of two weeks. Faculties for this course were Mr. Tarun Deep Girdher, Mr. Anupam Jain and Mr. Amar Gargesh. This course started with lectures from all faculty and we had to work on assignments simultaneously. For assignment 1 we were divided into groups of 12 and asked to identify a simple product.We had to probe the selected item for its attributes and perspectives using the framework given to us and articulate our findings using appropriate means.
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Our group picked the Indian kitchen tongs
LEARNINGS Through this assignment of design process, I learned how to understand the product first and then the people involved. An effective study is only carried out when a product is looked at and understood from the perspective of the user and the maker and the process of the product itself. I also understood the need and process to come up with a problem statement.
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Assignment 2 in Design Process was to identify an existing system that caters to a group of people or a community. Study it comprrehensively in terms of attributes and utility in sociocultural and economic contexts. And formulate a design brief. For this assignment we picked the system of KalamKhush. KalamKhush is a sole khadi handmade paper manufacturing and retail unit in Ahmedabad. It keeps the Gandhian philosophy of self- reliance and self- sustainability alive, by providing employment. It creates a platform for many artisans to preserve the age old tradition of making paper sans machines. After multiple visits to KalamKhush, we gathered a lot of raw data from the worforce. We then tried to identify the potential problem areas in the organization
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POTENTIAL PROBLEM AREAS
SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS
Workers Low pay and low incentives Health hazards Retail Customer Stores are not organized Not accesible Lack of variety of products Internal authority Communication gap between workers and authority. Shop managers are to adhere to Gandhian principle Corruption within the system Not fit for export Outsourcing produced from Astrakhan due to cheaper products
LEARNING Through this assignment of design process, I learned how to understand a system and how it functions, the methods in which we can collect data from the system or its users and then use that data to identify the problem statement for the product or system. This module and the methods taught here helped me in brainstorming for ideas in other modules.
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SPECIFICATIONS Page Dimensions A5 - 148 X 210 mm Headline Typeface Avenir LT Std 95 Black, set in 10pt Body Text Typeface Avenir LT Std 45 Book, set in 10 pt and 8pt Avenir was designed by Adrian Frutiger in 1988.
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