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[lilyannemorgan]

Growing Design: To Plant the Seed

Blog Post #10

Growth is the result of an attentive and nurturing environment. It cannot be forced, for the timing of growth is unique to each object and individual. Audrey Hepburn once said, “To plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow”. To plant a seed is to make a promise. A promise to take on the responsibilities of nurturing the growth of the plant.

As designers, we owe it to ourselves to make the promise of planting the seed. As we are starting our education, we need to plant the seeds of design principals and methodologies, so that they may grow and thrive as we start our careers. This growth will stretch our artistic minds, blurring the boundaries of disciplines and processes. We will build artistic bridges made up of visual language to connect our craft, content and context.

Planting the design seed is all about setting yourself up for success. Every designer’s growth will be different, and as such each designer has unique relationships to their medium of choice. Planting the design seed as soon as possible is extremely important so that the designer can nurture their own talents through practice.

With lots of practice over time, the artist can experiment with typography, mixed media, painting, fibers, information design, digital interaction, printmaking and photography. This period of experimentation is irreplaceable in the artist’s body of work, for allowing creativity to flow without preconceived limitations is essential. It is like the gardener allowing the grapevine to grow along its own path rather than forcing the vine to trellis up the ladder.

Individuals—gardeners especially—understand that to nurture is to learn. Planting a garden is to learn about each individual plant. How does the plant grow? When does it need water? How much sunlight does it need? What does the plant need to be successful and bear fruit? When you translate these questions to artistic language, they change into questions about color, contrast, direction, process, and audience. When artists start to actively learn as they grow their body of work, that is when they will bear the fruits of their labor.

Patience and space are essential for growth to occur. Letting the object or individual that is actively growing have space and time they need is the best strategy. Forcing growth—on anything—will only create friction and stress. That is why patience is essential when nurturing the seeds that you choose to sow. 

Source: Bowers, John. Introduction to Two-Dimensional Design Understanding Form and Function. John Wiley & Sons, 2008.

[lilyannemorgan]

Blog Post #10

Photo 1: Twenty Seven Creative

Source: https://twentysevenlkld.com/collections/mental-health/products/everything-is-going-to-be-okay-card-1

Twenty Seven Creative, originally started by Jenna O’Brien, produces products that reflect retro stylings, bright colors, and messages of hope towards living with mental illness. This particular greeting card has an abstract pattern using bright colors. 

Photo 2: Carson Gilliland

Source: http://kissingeyesmagazine.blogspot.com/2012/01/carson-gilliland.html

Carson Gilliland is a photographer based in Sarasota, Florida. He is an expert at capturing the odd little details of American Architecture, particularly at night. 

Photo 3: Hannah Thornhill

Source: https://www.hannahcthornhill.com/

Hannah Thornhill is a beautiful photographer based in Santa Cruz, California. Her work plays with interpretations of the nude human body and the shapes that they create and form in different spaces.

Photo 4: Jacquelin de Leon

Source: https://www.jacquelindeleon.com/portfolio#grow-solo-exhibition

Jacquelin de Leon is an illustrator and comic artist who works digitally and with watercolor. Her use of negative space in this piece is particularly intriguing as it creates contrast. 

[lilyannemorgan]

When Lightning Strikes

Blog Post #9

Inspiration is like a lightning strike—it hits you suddenly and without warning. Inspiration can come from anywhere, that is why, as artists, it is important to keep an open mind to allow the world to influence us. Artists are also influenced and inspired by other artist’s works. 

Exposure to artworks in different mediums can glean a new perspective on one’s own work. I had a creative writing professor who wrote fantasy novels in his free time. To get inspired, he would read poetry. His wife, however, was a poet who would ready fantasy novels to get inspired. Knowing what inspires us to create is one of the most important aspects of possessing a creative soul. As artists, we must audit our own influences to truly understand our own creations and to ensure that what we are inspired by aligns with what we want to create. 

I am mainly a two-dimentional creator. With that being said, I find a lot of inspiration from three-dimentional artists. Some of my favorite 3D artists are Nick Cave, Roxy Paine, Phoebe Washburn, and Sarah Sze. All these artists deal with spontaneity and improvisation in their works. They also play a lot with juxtaposing the familiar and unfamiliar. Since I am personally a graphic artist who focuses on creating commercial art, it is a welcome break to focus on an artist who creates more of an experience and less propaganda. 

All artists deal with the interrelationships of form. Some interrelationships of form are coordination, distance, parallel, angle, negative, positive, transparent, opaque, tangent, overlapping, compound, subtraction, coincidence, penetration, extrusion, influence, modification and variation. These relationships of form can be evoked and controlled in all mediums of creation. 

One of my favorite artists, Nick Cave, utilizes the interrelationships of forms in a unique way. He creates pieces, called Sound Suits, that utilize movement, texture, sound, and pattern. He covers suits with twigs, beads, crystals, buttons, and various other found materials in order to create the texture that he desires in his piece.

Nick Cave’s Sound Suits act as sculptures and costumes for performances. The differences among the movement and static viewing of each piece can change the interpretation, for the unnatural and unorthodox movement and dancing of the individuals wearing the sound suit juxtaposes the way that the viewer understands what it means to be human and how humans operate. He would not be able to create such pieces without a thorough understanding of how objects relate to one another. 

Lightning never strikes the same place twice, so it is essential to keep moving forward as creative individuals. We need to keep our mind wide open and be available to find inspiration because you never know when inspiration will strike.

Source: Leborg, Christian. Visual Grammar. Princeton Architectural Press, 2006  

[lilyannemorgan]

Blog post #9

Photo 1: Sarah Sze

Source:https://www.sarahsze.com/

Much of Sarah Sze’s work plays with variation. Using found objects she can create repetitional varying alterations of objects by altering the width, height, and displacement of said found objects. 

Photo 2: Nick Cave

Source: https://www.seattlemag.com/arts/seattle-arts-profiles/meet-me-hammering-man-diy-nick-cave-soundsuits-parade-downtown-today

This is an example of Nick Cave’s work. Using bright colors and the repetition of both organic and man-made objects, Nick Cave reinvents the interpretation of the human body.

Photo 3: Phoebe Washburn

Source: https://www.artsy.net/artist/phoebe-washburn

This example of Phoebe Washburn’s work plays with overlap. The artist was able to create form using overlapping found cardboard pieces. This works well as a three-dimentional form because of the contrast of each layer. 

Photo 4: Roxy Paine

Source: https://www.invaluable.com/artist/paine-roxy-83twx8gewq/sold-at-auction-prices/

Roxy Paine’s work is a three-dimentional interpretation of influence. The previous dried layer of paint determines how the next layer of paint will form and dry.

[lilyannemorgan]

Dating Design

Blog Post #8

Navigating relationships can be extremely difficult. Strong communications skills are essential in navigating relationships with friends, love interests, colleagues, and family members. As designers, we need to have strong verbal and visual communication skills to create successful compositions, as well as exercise control over the interrelationships of form that exist within our own creations.

Humans are constantly comparing relationships in order to understand the world around them. As the audience views a completed work, they compare how the visual objects within that creation relate to the format, margins, and other visual elements throughout the composition. The audience also compares the piece with themselves to further their interpretation of how the piece impacts their own unique world.

Relations exist in every corner of the universe, including the creative world of design. The kinds of relations throughout design include: attraction/static, symmetry/asymmetry, balance, groups, fine/coarse, diffusion, parallel, angle, transparent/opaque, overlapping/compound, penetration/extrusion, modification, direction, position, space/weight, amount/dominance, neutral, background/foreground, coordination/distance, negative/positive, tangent, subtraction/coincidence, influence and variation.

Attraction is one of the first things designers learn on their creative journey. Grouped visual objects will either attract or repel each other. This attraction can help to create the illusion of movement and direction within a piece of work. Direction can be an implicit or explicit sense of movement. It can be achieved through the use of lines and placements of groupings.

Groups are repeated objects within a composition. The units can be named after the form of the underlying structure. Some common names of groupings are linear groups, triangular groups, rhombic groups, and circular groups. The grouping of objects can create symmetry or asymmetry depending on the structure of their grouping.

Symmetry is when objects are identically arranged on both sides of an axis. This arrangement can be monosymmetric or multisymmetric depending on the number of axes. Utilizing symmetry can be a successful tool in creating balance throughout a composition. The optical equilibrium of balance can be created between the same form or contrasting forms.

The number of interrelationships of forms are only growing. Artists are constantly discovering new ways to relate two visual objects to one another. Junior designers just starting out their careers need to ask design out on a first date. They need to experience design first-hand and throw fear out the window to further their understanding of exactly how to navigate the relationships they create. Designers have only just begun to scratch the surface with their relationships.

Source: Leborg, Christian. Visual Grammar. Princeton Architectural Press, 2006.

[lilyannemorgan]

Blog #8

Photo 1: Abstract Expressionism Poster

Source: https://www.redbubble.com/people/masabo/works/12014821-abstract-expressionism-simple-digital-art?p=poster

This composition is a good example of asymmetrical design and relation. Although each shape is completely organic and unique, the audience starts to relate each curve to each shape to interpret the composition. 

Photo 2: Charity Poster

Source: https://venngage.com/blog/graphic-design-trends/

This charity poster can fuel a discussion about tangents. Many of the shapes created within the composition are just barely touching each other, creating tangents. 

Photo 3: Women with clouds

Source: https://venngage.com/blog/graphic-design-trends/

This piece has patterns made of groupings. The flowers and the polka-dots are most likely created through a linear grouping that is repeated at a diagonal. This is also a symmetrical composition.

Photo 4: Orange Circle

Source: https://alvalyn.com/design-fundamentals-understanding-shape-relationships/

This composition suggests background and foreground. Since there is limited contrast between the grey color of the triangle and the black background, the audience interprets the triangle as being in the background. The circle is in the foreground because there is more contrast and because warmer colors come forward within compositions.

[lilyannemorgan]

The Garden of the Mind

Blog Post #7

The artist’s touch grows in the garden, purposefully cultivated, weeded, and contained. But the true blossoming of the artist occurs sporadically, hidden between the wildflowers as a seed planted with inspiration. The artist grows wildly, sprouting in the most unexpected crevices of the mind, for the mind of the artist is the garden of the soul.

Since each artist has different social, cultural, and educational backgrounds, each garden is planted differently with a unique purpose. The garden of the mind serves each artist well, as each artist has a purpose and calling. Every garden is planted intentionally, with each petal purposefully placed, but who plants our gardens?

Color acts as the flowers in the garden, and when picked thoughtfully, the most beautiful bouquets translate into dynamic and powerful compositions. The interpretation of color is constantly shifting depending on comparing color relationships. The condition in which a color is displayed can alter the audience’s perspective and interpretation of the piece. It is essential to have a thorough understanding of color theory in order to intentionally use colors that will attract the target audience. The gardener will engage with their knowledge of botanicals to use sage to attract hummingbirds, marigolds to attract butterflies, and lavender to attract bees, just as the designer will engage in their knowledge of color theory to use blue colors to excite the brain and pink or red colors to calm it.

Color affects the audience sociologically, physiologically, and psychologically. The meaning of color is dependent on cultural context, so extensive color research is essential to create lasting compositional masterpieces. Color, when practiced successfully, creates a powerful visual language that can shift viewers emotionally and spiritually.

There are two main kinds of color, subtractive and additive. Subtractive color is when an object reflects a wavelength of color and absorbs all the rest. The color that is reflected is how the audience perceives the color. The primaries of subtractive color are red, yellow, and blue. When printing, the primaries are cyan, magenta, yellow, and key/black. Additive color is a combination of light, most frequently used with screens. When adding all the colors together, designers create white light. The primaries of additive color are red-orange, green, and blue-violet.

There are four characteristics of color, hue, value, intensity, and temperature. Hue is color in the purest form. There is no added white, black or grey. The basic hues are red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet. Value is the lightness or darkness of a color. When black is mixed with a color, it creates a shade. When white is mixed with a color, it creates a tint. When grey is mixed with a color, it creates a pastel. Intensity, also called saturation, is the brightness or dullness of a color. Pure hues have the highest intensity. Temperature is the warmth or coolness of a color. Individuals typically associate red, orange and yellow as warm colors, and blue, green and purple as cool colors. Despite these associations, any color can be warm or cool.

When growing a color palette, it is important to cultivate a harvest of colors that drive the central message of the design. The bouquets of color picked from the garden of the mind will create a lasting, meaningful expression of visual language. 

Source: Bowers, John. Introduction to Two-Dimensional Design Understanding Form and Function. John Wiley & Sons, 2008.

[lilyannemorgan]

Blog #7

Photos 1-3: Meal Illustrative Paintings

Source:  https://www.behance.net/gallery/10949421/Triad-Color-Compositions-Meals

These meal illustrations were created by artist and graphic designer Emily Geering. This series of paintings show a triadic color scheme that rotates through the dominate colors, creating almost an inverted color affect. 

Photo 4: Night Lights Painting 

Source: https://iblog.dearbornschools.org/kobeissiart/2018/11/20/warm-cool-colors/

This painting is a great example of contrasting warm and cool colors. The artist was able to divide the page with color to create a soft warm lighting that contrasts the darkness of the night. 

Photo 5: Park Illustration

Source: https://www.freepik.com/free-vector/illustration-people-autumn-park_5172957.htm

This illustration is a great example of a dyadic color palette. The artist was able to create contrast while still only using two color families because they used shades and tints in their composition.   

Photo 6: Let Equality Bloom

Source: https://www.teepublic.com/poster-and-art/2449060-let-equality-bloom

This poster was originally created by Brooke Fischer for the Women’s March. It is a beautiful example of how color can drive the content further towards its meaning.

[lilyannemorgan]

The River Carves the Stone

Blog Post #6

Water connects the world in a cooling pond, and we may drink from its knowledge. Rivers litter the Pacific Northwest, nestling themselves throughout the land. Over time, the rivers erode parts of the Cascade Mountains, deeply cutting through the bedrock. This process leaves stripes on the rocks, creating a pattern.

As designers, pattern is one of the many tools that we have in our toolbox to utilize in our compositions. Pattern is essentially a repetitional grouping. It is often influenced and inspired by nature’s rhythms and movements. It is shaped through sequencing and rhythm. Pattern is one of principals of design. The other principals of design are contrast, hierarchy, emphasis, rhythm, and time.

Contrast is like the rocks at the bottom of the river. Each one is smooth and rounded, but different in size and color. The rocks have a degree of variation that is achieved through shape, value, and scale.

Hierarchy is the different levels of organization and importance surrounding information. In graphic design, hierarchy is achieved through primary, secondary, and tertiary information. In more traditional fine art pieces, hierarchy is achieved through use of foreground, middle, and background. Emphasis is strongly associated with hierarchy. Strong use of emphasis to distinguish a focal point can direct audience interpretation of a piece, just like the currents of the river can guide a raft.

The principals of design are the wood that builds the boat. How the boat is put together is like the methods of design. The methods of design are structure and proportion. Proportion is how the composition is built. Grids are one of the most popular forms of structure. Proportions help to describe visual forms and compositions. They can always be compared, measured, and analyzed. The Fibonacci series, also called the golden ratio, is one of the most popular proportion ratios used today. It is represented many places in nature.

Throughout each composition, the waterfall flows to create movement. In two-dimentional design, much of movement created within a composition is just an illusion of a movement or activity due to the static nature of working in two dimensions. To create movement in flat composition, designers can use rhythm, frequency, mirroring, mirroring against a volume, rotation, upscaling, downscaling, movement, direction, path, superordinate movement, subordinate movement, and displacement. Movement is just one of the tools that can convey visual language.  

Visual language is the mode of expression and style that the artist employs in their work. The style is created as a result of a strategy or agenda. Vernacular design is often something that occurs when an artist does not have formal design training. Vernacular design style is often based on the region that the work was created. Each one of these tools can be used to convey visual language. Reading visual language is one of the primary jobs of every designer, and it is the thing that connects each and every one of us, just like water. 

Sources:

Leborg, Christian. Visual Grammar. Princeton Architectural Press, 2006.

Bowers, John. Introduction to Two-Dimensional Design Understanding Form and Function. John Wiley & Sons, 2008.

[lilyannemorgan]

Blog Post #6

Photo 1: The Great Wave of Kanagawa

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Wave_off_Kanagawa

The Great Wave of Kanagawa is a woodblock print created by Japanese artist Hokusai. The piece has a great illusion of movement with the texture and pattern within the shapes of the wave. 

Photo 2: Water Current Pattern

Source: http://hsuandesign.com/water.html

This piece was created by Hsuan Chen, a UI/UX product designer based in San Francisco. This piece exemplifies the use of pattern. This pattern depicts the currents and movements of water without diving into realism. 

Photo 3: Ocean Plastic Pollution Infographic

Source: https://www.boomerangalliance.org.au/plastic_pollution_resources

This infographic is a good example of hierarchy. The audience knows the main idea is plastic pollution with one quick and easy look. The information is organized with the primary, secondary, and tertiary information so it is easy on the eyes. 

Photo 4: Liquid Photograph

Source: https://www.freepik.com/free-photos/liquid

This picture shows a great deal of implied movement, while also showing the specific characteristics of water. The droplets create great repetition while still maintaining a balance of contrast and variety.

[lilyannemorgan]

The Sun, the Moon, and All the Stars

Blog Post #5

In rural areas, when the sun goes down, the stars come out. As they twinkle in the night, the stars whisper the secrets of the sky, the moon, and space itself. Successful design acts as the night sky. All the visual elements swirl together to create a lasting impression.

The issues with space occur in more densely populated areas, like cities, because there is too much light pollution to see many of the stars. This applies to design because much of design is becoming convoluted with copy-and-paste plagiarism and computer-generated graphics. When this occurs, it becomes more difficult to differentiate between the individual characteristics of each star in the sky to create unique compositions that come directly from the mind of the artist. When the artist finds the ability to create from within, each piece of the composition whispers hidden meaning through semiotics and visual form for those who look.

There are three components of visual form: elements, characteristics, and interactions. The elements act as the planets in space, each distinctly different but working together within the composition. The elements are dots, lines, planes, and volume. Dots are the visual representation of points, and they usually indicate a specific location. Lines are the connection of two or more dots. Lines can be a continuous mark, series of short dashes, separate dots that are visually connected through placement, or a grouping of type, images, symbols, or simple markings. Lines create shapes and divide space. Planes are the areas outlines by lines, and can be defined by groups of images, type, markings, or symbols. In two-dimentional design, the plane is typically referred to as the picture plane.

Each element in compositional form shares specific characteristics. The characteristics are each star in the sky. Each planet in the Milky Way Galaxy shares the same stars, just as each element shares the same assigned characteristics. The characteristics are size, texture, and shape. Size is best understood through comparison of relationships. Texture is not tactile in two-dimentional design, but when done successfully, can imitate tactile forms such as smooth, bumpy, or coarse. Shape refers to the contour lines of outlined areas, with each shape being defined as either geometric or organic. Geometric shapes are structures and applied to design when easily recognizable form is essential. Organic shapes are fluid and based on natural movements found in nature.

The relationship between elements and characteristics create interactions. The interactions are the gravity of space. It glues moons to planets and dictate how we understand the earth’s revolutions around the sun, and therefore how we understand our own place in the world. The gravity of a composition dictates how the audience will understand and interpret the piece. The possible interactions of elements and characteristics include positive space, negative space, figure and ground, depth, perspective, visual weight, and visual balance.

Using the components of visual form, designers can present their work literally, abstractly, or symbolically to convey meaning. Each of the components can come together to create brilliant and colorful galaxies. Next time the sun goes down, look up in the sky and listen to the whispers of the stars. 

Source: Bowers, John. Introduction to Two-Dimensional Design Understanding Form and Function. John Wiley & Sons, 2008.

[lilyannemorgan]

Blog Post #5

Teeter Totter Design

Source: https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2015/06/design-principles-compositional-balance-symmetry-asymmetry/

This design is an example of symmetry. If the piece was split in have vertically, the design would have equal visual weight on each half. 

Meat Purse

Source:http://quemas.mamaslatinas.com/style/116614/the_10_craziest_handbags_ever

This purse design is an example of juxtaposition. The connotations surrounding what a purse should look like is contrasted with the texture of meat. 

Space Graphic

Source:https://www.vectorstock.com/royalty-free-vector/solar-system-planets-to-scale-size-diagram-vector-26215108 

This space graphic is an example of size and scale. Through comparison the audience can judge the size of each planet based on the previous. 

Perspective Drawing

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_LbQviO1K4

This drawing is an example of how perspective can be achieved using lines. The artist was able to create shapes that flow with the goal perspective based upon a preexisting series of lines and vanishing points.

[lilyannemorgan]

Building Design

Blog Post #4

Remember playing with multicolored building blocks as a child? The pieces would pile on top of each other, building objects ranging from castles and cities to create different little worlds. These building blocks allow for a stretching of imagination and innovation. When translated to two-dimentional design, our building blocks become the elements of art and the principals of design that we use to create compositions.

The elements and principals allow us to build meaningful compositions that promote a strong central message with a long-lasting interpretation and communication. As each designer is their own individual person with unique cultural and educational backgrounds, the blocks they each use to create are vastly different, with many blocks derived from unique, non-traditional places. Because of this, each designer creates work that is uniquely their own, even if they are religious in their use of the elements of art, principals of design and use of form.

There are three different types of form: geometric, organic, and random. Each form is typically a concrete object with defined limits called contour lines. Geometric forms are derived from mathematical facts about points, lines, surfaces, and solids. Organic forms are created by and based on living organisms. Random forms are created by accident, either through human error or an incidental influence of nature. Compositions can be made up of concrete structures. Concrete structures are when the inherent structure lines of a composition are visible and can possibly influence the form. Active structures occur when the structure lines influence the form of objects, with or without the structure lines being visible.

Designers also use color in their composition building. Color can be split into three basic components: hue, tone, and saturation. Hue is the wavelength of color in its purest form, separate from tone or saturation. Tone is the amount of black or darkness in a color, also called shade. Saturation is the amount of white in a color, also called intensity. The color sphere is a visual representation of the relationship between hue, tone, and saturation. Understanding color relationships is an extremely helpful tool and can build a strong foundation for successful design.

The toolbox for the designer is the same as the toybox for the child. Design is about playing and exploring meaning through semiotics. Form, contour lines, size/scale, color, tone, saturation, structure, and texture are just some of the tools that designers get to experiment with creating symbols and composition building.

Source:Leborg, Christian. Visual Grammar. Princeton Architectural Press, 2006.

[lilyannemorgan]

Blog Post #4

Captions

Photo 1: Cozy 

Source:https://www8.hp.com/us/en/workstations/creative-pros/graphic-designers.html

This typography design is a great example of texture. The furry quality of the typeface is created through inscription and application. The texture is extremely successful because it allows the audience to truly feel “cozy”.

Photo 2: Geometric Composition

Source: https://bashooka.com/inspiration/35-amazing-geometric-poster-designs/

This poster is a good example of geometric form. Each shape is based made from mathematical truths about points, lines, surfaces, and solids. Some geometric forms seen in this composition include: circles, and triangles.

Photo 3: Organic

Source: https://www.vecteezy.com/vector-art/223924-organic-eco-green-template-vintage-ecology-poster-banner-and-background-retro-grunge-design-vector

This poster is a great example of organic form. Due to the texture and shape of the form, it has a hand-drawn, natural quality. This style also lends itself nicely to the content and meaning of the design. 

Photo 4: Roxy Paine

Source:http://kavigupta.com/artist/roxy-paine/

This is a picture taken of a piece created by Roxy Paine. This painting machine creates completely random forms that are created from dropping paint, drying the paint, and dropping more paint on top.

[lilyannemorgan]

Design Strategy: What’s the Game Plan?

Blog Post #3

Strategy is the chessboard of design. Possessing a cohesive understanding of design methodologies, semiotic theory, and gestalt psychology will allow you to differentiate between your pawns and your knights, therefore increasing your capabilities to use and understand the tools of design.

There is a difference between playing chess and knowing how to play chess. A novice chess player will take the game one move at a time, deciding a strategy each time they have an opportunity to make a move. An experienced chess player understands the intricacies of the game and will formulate an entire strategy before the game even starts. The same methodologies can be applied to the principals of design. Knowing how to design well, even before you start a project, will allow you to strategize, problem-solve, and formulate a meaningful design.

The main components of problem-solving are learning, identifying, generating, and implementing. These components mainly focus on divergent and convergent thinking. The first three components focus on divergent thinking, while the last component focuses on convergent thinking. Divergent thinking works toward broad-thinking and generating ideas with multiple options. Convergent Thinking focuses on narrowing down the options through deductive reasoning and instinct.

In order to problem solve well as a designer, there needs to be an understanding of Gestalt Theory of Perception and Semiotic Theory. Gestalt Theory of Perception is like the physical design of the chessboard pattern. Developed by Swiss psychologist Max Wertheimer in the early 1900’s, Gestalt Psychology focuses on organizing components into a meaningful whole to understand how we perceive visual form. The aspects of Gestalt Theory are closure, continuance, proximity, and similarity.

All the different chess pieces can be compared to Semiotic Theory. Semiotic Theory was developed in the 1930’s by American philosopher Charles Morris. It is the analysis of visual and verbal signs in order to create better communication and meaning. There are three major parts of semiotics: syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic. Syntactics focus on unity, organization and relationships. Designers can use a syntactic lens to strategize how to organize information using the methods of alphabetical, category, continuum, comparisons, location, and time. Pragmatics focus on application, effects, form, and context. Semantics focus on significance, purpose and meaning. Designers can use a semantic lens to focus on significance as it applies to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. It can also be meaningful to focus on semantics when conveying complex relationships and issues of social justice in design.

Whatever your design concept, developing a strategy for the game will help your project immensely. Utilizing the methodologies of process, collaboration, intuition, research, and strategy will help problem-solve and find success within compositions. And, if you are lucky and play by the rules, you may just earn a checkmate.

Sources: 

Leborg, Christian. Visual Grammar. Princeton Architectural Press, 2006. 

Bowers, John. Introduction to Two-Dimensional Design Understanding Form and Function. John Wiley & Sons, 2008.

[lilyannemorgan]

Blog Post #3

Photos 1-3

Sources: https://medium.com/literary-analyses/the-waste-land-and-ganga-versus-the-magic-mountain-metamorphosis-and-all-quiet-cebc5c888a2

https://www.flickr.com/photos/24503968@N02/2593878014/in/photolist-6dmah7-mWLzCx-wP5ET5-8cv4fW-4cS6Ks-9A6T46-5tPwV-5tN3L-9ecu7d-7sr8UZ-9v7SUF-8mFSAi-4X926n-4XdifQ-4X8ZBi-28iq2z-4X8ZQ4-4XdiPh-7iRgEK-7iRgB4-azi4tX-4XdiyJ-7UhWMF-akEcP5-3vtzH-5CupGX-5KFn8-G366iL-d1G3hU-9RVFqU-mWLzKr/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/24503968@N02/2593037903/in/photolist-6dmah7-mWLzCx-wP5ET5-8cv4fW-4cS6Ks-9A6T46-5tPwV-5tN3L-9ecu7d-7sr8UZ-9v7SUF-8mFSAi-4X926n-4XdifQ-4X8ZBi-28iq2z-4X8ZQ4-4XdiPh-7iRgEK-7iRgB4-azi4tX-4XdiyJ-7UhWMF-akEcP5-3vtzH-5CupGX-5KFn8-G366iL-d1G3hU-9RVFqU-mWLzKr/

These three images were created by artist Simon Russell as part of a commission for the magazine LBIQ. These pieces are based from T.S. Elliot’s ‘The Wasteland’ and have great examples of semiotics. 

Photo 4

Source: https://venngage.com/templates/infographics/colorful-timeline-c38a9d92-774b-4505-93f4-ce5b1266dfa9

This infographic is a great example of a method of organization. The designer made the decision to organize the information in a timeline, so it is clearly understandable for the audience. 

Photo 5

Source: https://fineartamerica.com/featured/the-fools-rule-the-world-version-gyuri-lohmuller.html

‘The fools Rule the World Version’ is a painting by Gyuri Lohmuller. This painting is a great example of Gestalts Theory because normally, the audience would not see the subjects of this painting as related, but through closure, continuance, proximity, and similarity the audience can understand this painting as a cohesive whole. 

Photo 6

Source: https://www.123rf.com/photo_99609670_abstract-crazy-symmetrical-design-in-fractal-art-style.html

This piece is a great example of formal structure. The audience sees the recognizable patterns and symmetry throughout the piece, and it becomes visually pleasing for the brain.

[lilyannemorgan]

Design and Meaning

Blog Post #2

Meaning is like the tectonic plates, shifting and changing over time, completely unstable. As designers, we act as seismologists, trying to predict and study the uncertainty of meaning as it correlates with form. Designers need to understand that every person has biases, past-experiences, and different cultural and educational backgrounds that will influence their interpretation of messages. The audience, as receivers of messages, view each new message with a lens. The lenses can be anthropological, ethical, feminist, Marxist, psychoanalytical or semiotic. Theory can help us understand each lens and how the audience derives meaning from content and design.

Design can be split into two main periods: modernism and post-modernism. The modernism period started in the late 1890’s. It focused on structuralism and semiotics. Structuralism is the examination of structural components that contain meaning. Semiotics are the examination of signs and the process of determining meaning. The post-modernism period started in the 1960’s. It focuses on post-structuralism and deconstruction. Post-structuralism is expanding interpretation through examination of embedded codes. Deconstruction is the examination of opposites to find multiple meanings.

During the post-modernism period, themes of contemporary design started to emerge. The most well-known contemporary design themes are place, identity, ritual, and power. Each one of these themes deal with exploration. They explore sense of self, environment, culture, and control. Designers tell stories in their designs through their own narrative. They use a collection of memories, facts, and observations in their work that assist them in exploring contemporary design themes.

Communication is embedded throughout design. Some designers create propaganda that has a persuasive message in order to maintain or take power and control. In the past, political propaganda and appropriation were very popular during wartimes or political uprisings, but now negative propaganda is accepted as factual and can be found almost anywhere.

As designers we communicate mainly through symbols and typography. With growing technological advances, much of our communication happens digitally, either through e-mail or instant messaging. This computer mediated communication has been found to be just as effective as face-to-face interaction, that is why it is so important to understand and appeal to the targeted audience.

It is the job of the audience to interpret signals and cues, and to decode messages. It is the designers’ job to code messages and find balance in their design between denotation and connotation. When creating symbols, creators need to take advantage of metaphor to economize symbols that accurately represent an object. In order to accomplish this, designers use point, line, surface, and volume to represent objects and convey meaning. So as the earth starts to tremble, as meaning and tectonic plates shift, we need to remember the principles of design that are a part of our designer toolkits and use them wisely.

Sources: 

Leborg, Christian. Visual Grammar. Princeton Architectural Press, 2006. 

Bowers, John. Introduction to Two-Dimensional Design Understanding Form and Function. John Wiley & Sons, 2008.