03/02/25 - 17/02/25 ( Week 1 - Week 3 )
Carren Yeliandi / 0376990
Bachelor of Design (Honours) in Creative Media - Design Principles - Taylor's University
Task 1
Carren Yeliandi / 0376990
Bachelor of Design (Honours) in Creative Media - Design Principles - Taylor's University
Task 1
Table of Content
Instructions
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"For task 1, we are required to learn and explore the design principles within the module and choosing an artwork to be analyzed based on the design principles used"
Lectures
Topic 1 - Contrast & Gestalt Theory
1. Contrast = A strong difference between elements in terms of color, tone, texture, size, shape, or any other visual attribute. It helps in guiding the viewer's attention and in creating impacts. (Source)
Example :
Figure 1 shows a 'muted green' background contrasting with the 'bright red' color from the door opening highlighting another person that is colored with a dark color (Black - Dark green). The contrast gives the artwork somewhat of an eerie feeling as if something bad is going to happen based on the colors used.
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| Fig. 2 A photographic poster (Katabasis) by Jaoa Silva (9/2/25) |
Figure 2 is a photographic reference to show contrast, This poster shows a person wearing a 'muted dark green' coat contrasting with the 'red' wall. The contrast helps to guide our focus on to the main point of the poster which is the person wearing the green coat.
2. Gestalt Theory = A psychological theory on how the human brain is wired to see patterns, logic and structure, seeing them as a whole rather than separate parts. (information : Source 1 ; Source 2 ; Source 3)
a. Principle of Similarity : A principle on how humans naturally groups similar elements as one group based on the color, size or orientation. It is possible to create emphasis using this principle just by slightly changing the pattern, normally this is called as an 'Anomaly'.
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| Fig 3. Ad for a classical NYC radio station WQXR (13/2/25) |
b. Principle of Continuity : A principle on how the human brain often perceived elements that are arranged on a line or a curve as more related compared to elements that are not arranged on a line/curve. Human eyes instinctively follow the flow of the line or curve so it can be use to guide how we want the viewer see the design.
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| Fig. 4 Illustration by Francesco Bongiorni (13/2/25) |
Figure 4 is an example of principle of continuity, the flow starts from the person in the middle that's talking and from there starts a line that curved towards us slowly becoming closer and larger the closer it is to use, our eyes instinctively follow that curved shape because our eyes prefer to see a continuous line in a design rather than one that has a broken flow.
c. Principle of Closure : A principle on how the human eyes prefer to see a complete shape and can perceive a complete shape in an uncompleted design by automatically filling them in in our head if given enough hints on what the shape should have been.
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| Fig 5. An illustration based of the principles of closure by Hina Javed (9/2/25) |
Figure 5 is just a simple example of the principle of closure, despite it not having an outline you can still see a soccer ball because the hints given were enough to point to the shape being a soccer ball.
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| Fig 6. Murder by Katie Blank (13/2/25) |
Figure 6 is more or less the same as figure 5 just a more complex one. In figure 6, you can see an outline of a woman despite it still having some gaps in between the shape that makes the woman itself, the hints given is more than enough for use to see the pose, the face and some other details.
d. Principle of Proximity : A principle on how objects near each other tends to be viewed as a group as they seem to be more related than those that are spaced out.
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| Fig 7. Romeo & Juliet Poster (13/2/25) |
Figure 7 expresses the principle of proximity by using the gaps in between to group the graphic, texts and even the logo on the top. By doing so, you can easily differentiate between each elements. The texts was also given some gaps between the larger text and the smaller text on the left side of the graphic that we instinctively grouped together into the title being the larger one and the details of the show as the smaller text below the title.
e. Principle of Figure : How objects are instinctively perceived as either in the foreground/figure or the background/ground based on what stands out and what blends in with the rest.
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| Fig. 8 Save the animals poster (9/2/25) |
When seeing figure 8, people immediately perceived the white bird as the figure as they stand out compared to the black bottle that is the same color as the rest of the poster and is immediately classified as the ground.
Figure 9 is another example of the principle of figure. The figure is the part that stands out the most such as the smoke while the ground is most of the times the same color as the rest of the picture which is the face of a detective (Sherlock Holmes) that is shaped by the white smoke.
f. Law of Symmetry and Order : Elements that are symmetrical to each other are often perceived as one group.
g. Law of Uniform Connectedness : Humans sees elements that has similar characteristics as one group. (Source)
h. Law of Prägnanz : Humans naturally sees things in their simplest form.
i. Law of Common Fate : Elements in a same bounded area tends to be grouped together.
Topic 2 - Balance & Emphasis
1. Balance = How elements are arranged to have a visual weight with harmony instead of it only having mass.
a. Symmetrical Balance : How elements are placed with equal weight on both sides that is divided from the center point of a work or design.
b. Asymmetrical Balance : How elements are placed with unequal visual weight where one side have a more dominant elements compared to the other side.
c. The golden ratio : A mathematical concept that goes on indefinitely that can be used as a guide to create a perfect visual balance.
d. Rule of thirds : A composition guidelines that are divided evenly into thirds both horizontally and vertically.
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| Fig. 10 The Commuter by Liam Neeson poster (13/2/25) |
Figure 10 looks symmetrical however due to one person colored a more dominant color making one side heavier than the other making this work actually asymmetrical. It is just a slight difference but it still manage to make one side heavier due to that slight difference.
2. Emphasis = How elements are made to stand out by differentiating them with a different shape , color or other things that can be changed to create a singular point of dominance.
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| Fig 11. The New York Times opinion of the fear of corona virus (13/2/25) |
Topic 3 - Repetition & Movement
1. Repetition = The repetitive or constant use of the same element to make the design more impactful. (Source)
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| Fig. 12 'Push for change' poster by Kevin (13/2/25) |
Figure 12 is one such example of figure of repetition that uses an anomaly (slight difference as a variety) to emphasize the title of the poster 'Push for change'. Technically, the first row is enough to tell what they want to convey. However, by using the principle of repetition, they are emphasizing how far the effect of the push could be.
2. Movement = How the flows in a design moves around and guides the eyes through the design.
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| Fig 13. Poster about saving the earth (13/2/25) |
Both example of figure 13 and figure 14 has movement throughout the design that is guiding the viewer's eyes. figure 13 starts from the title then to the large group of fish slowly going up to the singular big fish guiding the viewer's eyes out.
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| Fig 14. The Reenactments book By Nick Flynn (13/2/25) |
With figure 14, the movement instead guided the eyes towards or inside the poster starting from the top left corner where the curve of text started slowly swirling into the poster, there is some smaller text beside the swirl that leads from the inside of the poster near where the other swirl ended and guided the eyes out of the poster.
3. Hierarchy = The classification of each elements in a design.
4. Alignment = The position of each elements in a design.
Topic 4 - Harmony & Unity
1. Harmony = How different but similar elements either in colors or shape can complement each other.
2. Unity = How an element is used throughout the entire design to make it looks whole or as one.
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3. Scale = The overall size of each objects in a work.
4. Proportion = The size difference between each objects based on the scale used.
Topic 5 - Symbol, Word & Image
1. Symbol = A shape that have a very specific meaning based on what it was meant to represent. (Source)
a. Arbitrary symbol : Symbol that needs to be told to be known what it actually represent as it 'doesn't look like' it's meaning.
Figure 16 is just a pink ribbon to the unknowing however to those that have learned the meaning, this ribbon symbolizes breast cancer awareness and support for them.
b. Pictorial Symbol : Symbols that uses simplified images that is 'related' to what it was supposed to represent.
the Unilever logo in figure 17 is one such example that uses many symbol as their logo. You can actually see many symbol inside the big 'u' in the logo. every symbol is carefully thought of and has their own meaning that is related to Unilever.
c. Abstract Symbol : Symbols that actually 'looks like' what it was meant to represent but very simplified.
Figure 18 is a symbol used in many places that you can see, it is a simplified form of a drink and food and the line that crosses the diameter of the circle diagonally symbolizes rejection or no. It is a straight forward sign that tells the viewer exactly what it meant.
2. Word & Image = The right combination use of the typography and graphics or picture used on a certain design based on what the design is meant to convey.
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| Fig 19. Poster about freedom of speech (17/2/25) |
Figure 19 is one such example that actually uses the right combination of graphic and typography to convey what they want to tell us which the freedom of speech. The typography used is serious and not bubbly or fun because the topic is a serious topic to be talked about. Meanwhile, the graphic used showed a microphone as a symbolism to speech while the bird in the cage as the actually part of the mic that we used to speak to symbolize the lack of said freedom to speak. The use of the right combination of word and image can accentuate what they want to convey and the impact is multiplied.
The design of figure 20 is really eye-catching, I really like the colors used on the poster, the yellow tennis ball and the blue background to the gradients used on the net. I also really like how they used the colors to make the shadows and textures.
The design principles that you can immediately sees is the contrast between the bright yellow and the blue of the background, making the tennis ball pops out compared to the rest. Then there is movement of the tennis ball following the white curves that you can see with the after-image of the fast moving ball. The after-image within the white curves can also be included into principle of continuity as it follows a line that guides the eyes to the yellow ball , further giving the yellow tennis ball on the front dominance. This poster can also be said to be principle of image and word as the image or the graphic is the right one for the text of "US Open 2022" and is able to tell the viewer what the text is supposed to mean which is a sports tournament just basing on the image that was used.
Feedback
Week 1 :
There is no feedback only tasks briefing.
Week 2 :
The progress is alright and the images used is okay however some parts such as the reflection is not needed in task 1 and the instructions can be moved up because the lecture is already part of the task.
Week 3 :
Task 1 part 1 is all good, the description is enough and the image chosen is suitable. The only thing left is to further describe the reason why you like the design in part 2 and the feedback. You need to also consider the facts of the chosen artwork as you will need it for task 2 later on.
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