Week 2 - Class: Design Foundations and working with "Tension"

First of all, I gotta say my supplies fit so damn nicely in this container. So much win here!




Okay now guess who was the idiot that did his assignment all wrong???

ME!

Here are some of my classmate's thumbnails they did for the homework assignment.









Yeah had I known that this was what we were supposed to do, things would've been a lot different haha.


Observational Exercise Review

Class started off (and will always start off) with the presentation of what we thought was good design. We hung them all up on a wall and went around talking about what we liked about the design that we brought, while simultaneously taking attendance.




Here are more close up shots of what people brought in.









It's interesting to note that all of our tastes are slightly different.



Lecture

So on class number 2 of the series, we had our longest lecture we're ever going to have.


I was really happy to see a familiar term 'Gestalt'. I saw this term everywhere when I was studying Psychology in my undergrad studies.



The Gestalt psychology movement was an effort to explain things as a whole instead of separating thing into smaller components.

As human beings, when we look at images/designs, we analyze it as a whole instead of dissecting it into certain pieces then analyzing.

Then the lecture continued on with some core concepts of design.


Similarity





The bird, leaf, and fish all have things in common to indicate they are part of a group yet they have differences to indicate that they are not the same.


Proximity





The instructor had multiple examples but I really like this one because it's the most subtle when trying to explain proximity. The logo "the cookie studio" had to be carefully placed to give the maximum effect as well as the correct message.


Continuation

It looks like there's two lines creating an "X" eh?






Closure





We don't need all the lines to know that this is a panda. Although there isn't a line at the top of the panda's head, we know where the head ends and where the background begins.




This kinda makes me barf. I think it looks like shit but they do get the name across in an edgy way.


Figure/Ground




Ahh the images that everybody has seen in grade school.






So once the lecture was over it was time to work on an in-class activity.



The in-class activity

We are working with "Tension".

Tension could be energy between to objects or people.

The relationship of an element to another element or the relationship of an element to the edge of the canvas.


The assignment:

Set up: Make 5 horizontal frames, each 3" x 6"

1. Place two 1-inch squares next to each other, square to the frame & without touching, but to visually read as one shape.

2. Move two 1-inch squares to opposite edges to read as two discrete shapes.

3. Slide two 1-inch squares back and forth until you find that exact point where it cannot be determined if it is one or two shapes - that will be the tension point.

4. Recreate the composition from #3 and add one element (shape or line) which pushes the balance
of tension, making the two squares one shape.

5. Recreate the composition from #3 and add one element (shape or line) which pushes the balance of tension, making the squares decidedly two shapes.



First the instructor gave us a demo so we don't make stupid mistakes.




Here is me making the rectangle squares.






So on my first page I have:

1. Two squares visually read as one shape.

2. Two squares visually read as two discreet shapes.

3. The squares at the tension point.





For the last two, I am to modify the 3rd one so I cloned it.



I have:

4. One square added to join the two squares.

5. One square added to separate the two squares.




As we were all working on our in-class assignment, the instructor walked around and gave us all feedback on our homework assignment.

This is absolutely the most valuable part of any class. Direct individual feedback.

I wish I really did the homework assignment correctly, but I nevertheless got good feedback and encouragement to continue on the paths that I was walking with my designs.


We saw some examples of other students work and there were some pretty good ones. I wish that I took some pictures but I got pretty mesmerized.

Well hopefully my design will mesmerize everyone that is reading this!!!