STUCK?
An aid to Visual Literacy
CONTENTS PART A Understanding Visual Literacy What is visual literacy? Subjective Perception Colour Theory Decoding Hidden meanings and symbols Think
PART B Implementing Visual Literacy 5 ‘Wh’ Questions Grids Logos and symbols Typodraphy Fonts Principles of Design Less is more Space Simplification
Visual Representaion of Data
Processing and interpretaion of elements
Identification of Concepts and elements
Understanding and appreciation of Data
What is visual literacy? Visual literacy is a staple of 21st century skills, which state that learners must “demonstrate the ability to interpret, recognize, appreciate and understand information presented through visible actions, objects and symbols, natural or man-made.�
Subjective perception Subjective perception can mean more than one thing. The more popular meaning is your personal opinions and beliefs. Like if something is ugly or beautiful, if chocolate icecream tastes better than vanilla. They are personal because they are not factual beliefs, in the sense that there is no objective way of "knowing" if chocolate is in fact better than vanilla. It can be better to me, but maybe to you vanilla tastes better. In the alongside illustration is bacsed on the Gestalt’s Theories of perception. So here, according to previous experiences every peson will percieve the illustration differently. Some might see the the incomplete shapes first whereas the others might see the enclosed square or trianle formed by the negative space first. This variation in perception is due to Subjective perception
The psychology of color is based on the mental and emotional effects colors have on sighted people in all facets of life. There are some very subjective pieces to color psychology as well as some more accepted and proven elements. Keep in mind, that there will also be variations in interpretation, meaning, and perception between different cultures. Every colour has a emotive value to it. According to subjective perception every colour is percieved in a different way. For example, the colour red can depict anger as well as love. The colour green can depict hospitals as well as germs. When you analyze a design make sure you note the usage of colours and try to understand the emotive value behind it.
Colours and emotions Red: Anger, embarrassment, passionate, and lustful. Blue: Shyness, sadness, and calmness. Yellow: Cowardice, happiness, or caution. Green: Disgust, envy, sickness, friendly, or greedy. Grey: Depression and emotionless. Black: Cold or mournful. Pink: Cheery, embarrassed, and love. White: Sick, shocked, scared, cold, and mournful.
decoding hidden meanings and symbols Logos and symbols are one of the most important elements of graphic design. Every logo or symbol has a meaning to it. Most of the logo have hidden symbols in them. Hence analyzing and interpreting the logos is very important. Every logo conveys the meaning or the essensce of the brand. You have to thoroughly analyze the logo to understand its meaning. In the alongside images there are various logos which have a hidden meaning in them. The first one is the FedEx logo which has an arrow between the E and X which symbolises delivery. Baskin and robin has 31 hidden their B and R which symbolises the 31 flavors which the offer. The Mahindra logo is a combination of the letter M and a road. The logo of of fortis has a man enclosed in the hands which symbolises the care taken by the hospital.’ To understand the logo and find these hidden meaning you have to observe closely.
DON'T ONLY SEE
Analyse.think.understand
implementing visual literacy
WHAT? WHy? WHere? WHo? when? how?
WH QUESTIONS The design process is a very slow and detailed process. Hence to start with, you need basics to be strong. To establish this you need to ask all the WH questions before starting. The WH questions and and what they will answer is as follows: WHAT?- What am I designing? WHY?-Why am I designing this? WHO?-Who am I designing this for? WHERE?- Whera am I desiging this? (Photo shop, Indesgin, Handmade) WHEN?- When am i designing this? HOW?- How am I designining this? Once all these questions are answered you will have a clear idea of what has to be done.
elements OF DESIGN. Line Line is an element of art defined by a point moving in space. It is probably the most fundamental of the elements of design as it is usually the starting place for much of artistic creation. Lines can be vertical, horizontal, diagonal, or curved. They can be any width or texture. And can be continuous, implied, or broken.
SHAPE A shape is defined as a two or more dimensional area that stands out from the space next to or around it due to a defined or implied boundary, or because of differences of value, color, or texture. All objects are composed of shapes and all other ‘Elements of Design’ are shapes in some way.
COLOUR COLOURS are the main role in the elements of designW with the color wheel being used as a tool, and color theory providing a body of practical guidance to color mixing and the visual impacts of specific color. -Hue -Tint -Shade
Space In design, space is concerned with the area deep within the moment of designated design, the design will take place on. For a two-dimensional design, space concerns creating the illusion of a third dimension on a flat surface
FORM Form may be described as any three-dimensional object. Form 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. Form may be created by the combining of two or more shapes. It may be enhanced by tone, texture and color. It can be illustrated or constructed.
SHAPE 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. There are two types of textures: Tactile and Visual. Most textures have a natural touch but still seem to repeat a motif in some way. Regularly repeating a motif will result in a texture appearing as a pattern
Principles of design balance
Balance is the distribution of the visual weight of objects, colors, texture, and space. If the design was a scale, these elements should be balanced to make a design feel stable. There are three types of balances: Symetrical, asymetrical and radial.
contrast
Planning a consistent and similar design is an important aspect of a designer’s work to make their focal point visible. Too much similarity is boring but without similarity important elements will not exist and an image without contrast is uneventful so the key is to find the balance between similarity and contrast.
Unity
Unity is the feeling of harmony between all parts of the work of art, which creates a sense of completeness.
emphasis
Pattern
rhythm
Emphasis is the part of the design that catches the viewer’s attention. Usually the artist will make one area stand out by contrasting it with other areas. The area could be different in size, color, texture, shape, etc.
Pattern is the repeating of an object or symbol all over the work of art. Repetition works with pattern to make the work of art seem active. The repetition of elements of design creates unity within the work of art.
Rhythm is created when one or more elements of design are used repeatedly to create a feeling of organized movement. Rhythm creates a mood like music or dancing. To keep rhythm exciting and active, variety is essential.
typography Typography is the art and technique of arranging type to make written language legible, readable, and appealing when displayed. The arrangement of type involves selecting typefaces, point sizes, line lengths, line-spacing (leading), and letter-spacing (tracking), and adjusting the space between pairs of letters (kerning). The term typography is also applied to the style, arrangement, and appearance of the letters, numbers, and symbols created by the process. Type design is a closely related craft, sometimes considered part of typography; most typographers do not design typefaces, and some type designers do not consider themselves typographers.] Typography also may be used as a decorative device, unrelated to communication of information.
FORMAL F O R MA L FORMAL Formal Formal
fonts Fonts play a big part, it could sway the direction of our design response positively or negatively. For example, designing an app for the elderly. Using thin & narrow fonts could be trouble for the elderly as they might not be able to see the fonts clearly. Yes, it might look aesthetically better, but does it fit the users that are going to use the app? When choosing a font, we need to look at a few factors such as: The requirements of the project -The targeted audience -The design style Using a font just based on its aesthetics but not in consideration of the listed factors will result in an app that is might be hardly utilised by the targeted audience. However, even though you chose a font that is thicker and has a better readability for the elderly, it does not mean that the target audience will all be utilising the app. It could increase the probability but it is not guaranteed. There are many other elements that can affect that, such as the user experience, the graphics and even, personal preferences. The font also conveys the tone of the message. One can’t use a fancy, decorative font in a formal letter. The font adds value to the design.
Simplification Simplification, as an effective visual solution, is frequently applied in modern graphic design.This method was integrated with each project including identity design, package design and print design. As a result, it not only helped clarify thoughts in the creative process, but it also helped form a relatively consistent style. However, since graphic design refers to communication via visual elements, this presents the problem of whether simplification affects the transfer of information. In other words, the degree to which the visual language should be literal needs discussion and exploration. Contrary to the simplified expression of graphic design works, my illustrations developed in the opposite direction. Extreme details in a picture fully display the appeal of complexity. Instead, a straightforward message has more weight in graphic design; therefore, simplification helps achieve the accurate interpretation of meanings.
The golden ratio Closely related to the Fibonacci Sequence (which you may remember from either your school mathematics lessons or Dan Brown's novel The Da Vinci Code), the Golden Ratio describes the perfectly symmetrical relationship between two proportions. Approximately equal to a 1:1.61 ratio, the Golden Ratio can be illustrated using a Golden Rectangle: a large rectangle consisting of a square (with sides equal in length to the shortest length of the rectangle) and a smaller rectangle. The quick way If you've ever come across the 'Rule of Thirds' you'll be familiar with the idea that by dividing an area into equal thirds both vertically and horizontally, the intersection of the lines will provide a natural focal point for the shape. Photographers are taught to position their key subject on one of these intersecting lines to achieve a pleasing composition, and the same principle can be used in your page layouts, web mockups, and poster designs. Although the rule of thirds can be applied to any shape, if you apply it to a rectangle with proportions approximately 1:1.6, you get very close to a Golden Rectangle, which makes the composition all the more pleasing to the eye.
Full implementation If you want to fully implement the Golden Ratio into your design, you can do so easily by ensuring that the relationship between your content area and sidebar (in a website design, for example) adheres to the 1:1.61 ratio. It's okay to round this up or down by a point or two to make the numbers worth with pixels or points – so if you have a content area of 640px, a sidebar of 400px will match the Golden Ratio well enough to work, even though it's actually a ratio of 1:1.6.
Sometimes called a block grid or single column grid, the manuscript grid is the simplest grid structure. It’s mainly a large rectangular area taking up most of the space inside a format. The primary structure is defined by large text blocks and margins, which position the block within the format. Its secondary structure defines the location and proportions of folios, footnotes, running headers, and other secondary information. Manuscript grids are good for extensive and continuous blocks of text. They’re used in books and long essays and perhaps lend themselves well to blog posts. They aren’t limited to text though. Images can be used to fill the block. By adjusting the margins designers can help create interest. More opportunity for this exists where two page spreads are used as in magazines or books, but even on a single page interest can be created through margins alone. Wider margins — lead to narrower text blocks, which helps focus the eye on the text and creates a sense of calm and stability. Narrower margins — force the text block to the edge of the format creating tension as the two near each other
When people think of grids, especially online, they likely think of column grids. As you would expect column grids are made up by placing multiple columns within the format. Column grids are good when discontinuous information needs to be presented. For example you might have various asides, pull quotes, etc in your design, which can occupy different
columns in the grid. One column might be reserved for text, another for images, and yet another for image captions. Columns can be dependent on each other, independent from each other, and crossed over by design elements. This leads to a large amount of flexibility when organizing information on the page.
You can separate blocks of information by placing them in different columns and yet still show a connection between them. Perhaps text in one column and images and captions in different column next to the text the image relates to. The width of a column should depend on some element internal to the design, most likely the size of the text.
Modular grids are like column grids with the addition of horizontal divisions marked by rows. The columns and rows and the gutters between each create a matrix of cells or modules.
Modular grids lend themselves to the design of tabular information such as charts, forms, navigation, schedules, and of course tables of data. They can help standardize the space in tables and help integrate tables with any surrounding text or images
Modular grids are good for complex projects that require more control than a column grid can offer. Image galleries and shopping carts are likely candidates for modular grids.
Each module in the grid can define a small chunk of information or adjacent modules can be combined to form fields or spatial zones each designated to hold a specific type of information.
Hierarchical grids are commonly found on the web. They’re based more on an intuitive placement of elements, which still conforms to the needs of the information. Customized proportions are typically used in hierarchical grids instead of regularly repeated intervals. Column widths tend to vary as do the location of flowlines. They can be thought of as loose organic grids. Development often begins by spontaneously placing design elements. Later a rational structure to coordinate those elements is determined. Hierarchical grids are good when a project requires an odd grid that doesn’t easily fit one of the other grid types and can be used to unify disparate elements and create a superstructure for organizing them.
If you’ve designed sites where you carefully align elements to each other without using one of the previous 3 grid types, you’re probably approaching a hierarchical grid structure in your design.
The use of negative space in design is very important.Every element must be given its breathing space. The negative space can be utilised very creatively if analysed well. Search Results Negative space is, quite simply, the space that surrounds an object in a image. Just as important as that object itself, negative space helps to define the boundaries of positive space and brings balance to a composition In graphic design of printed or displayed materials, where effective communication is the objective, the use of negative space may be crucial. Not only within the typography, but in its placement in relation to the whole. It is the basis of why upper and lower case typography always is more legible than the use of all capital letters. Negative space varies around lower case letters, allowing the human eye to distinguish each word rapidly as one distinctive item, rather than having to parse out what the words are in a string of letters that all present the same overall profile as in all caps. The same judicious use of negative space drives the effectiveness of the entire design. Because of the long history of the use of black ink on white paper, “white space� is the term often used in graphics to identify the same separation.
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