Defining Design

•To plan, delineate or define (as in designing a building)

•To create a deliberate sequence of events (as in a storyboard)

•To organize disparate parts into a coherent whole

•An arrangement of elements into an artistic, unified whole.

Design is deliberate.

•Designers explore a wide range of solutions, and choose the most promising option.

•Chance may be used to generate ideas, but choices are made before results are shown.

•Design creates a bridge between intent and compositional conclusion...without careful composition, a great idea may be lost.

The best way to have a good idea is to have many ideas.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0vDWqp6J7Y

Elements of Art&

Principles of Design

ElementsThe basic building blocks from which designs are made.

LineShapeTextureValueColor

Frank Stella, Lac Laronge iv, 1969

Principleshow the elements are organized...

BalanceUnity & VarietyScaleRhythmEmphasisSpatial Illusion

Frank Stella, Lac Laronge iv, 1969

Focus on: Texture

The surface quality of a two-dimentional shape or a three-dimentional volume.

It engages our sense of touch and vision.

Types of TexturePhysical Texture creates actual

variations in a surface.

Visual Texture is an illusion, and be created through using multiple marks or a descriptive simulation.

Invented texture can activate a surface using shapes that have no reference to perceptual reality.

Giorgio Morandi

Texture and Space•Visual texture is created whenever

lines, dots, and other shapes are repeated.

•Longer, darker marks advance outward.

•Finer marks, tightly packed, pull us inward.

•Impact is strongest when size, density, and orientation are combined.

Cy Twombly

Glenn Lignon

Taken to an extreme, visual texture can resemble reality so well, a deception occurs. This effect is called Trompe L'oeil, a french term meaning “to fool the eye”.

Richard Haas

Marks we make can add or subtract from the unity of the whole. When texture is random or innapropriate, the composition appears cluttered. Deliberate use of texture increases unity.

Chuck Close

Unity and Variety•Unity is defined as similarity, oneness,

cohesion.

•Variety is defined as difference.

•These two principles are the cornerstones of composition, and when combined effectively, make a work both cohesive and lively.

•Excessive unity can be monotonous, while excessive variety can be chaotic.

Strategies for creating Unity:Gestalt Theory and

Application•Grouping

•Containment

•Repetition

•Proximity

•Continuity

•Closure

Grouping: creating order and relationships by location, orientation, and shape.

Sahibdin and workshop, Rama and Laskshmana Bound by Arrow-Snakes

Containment- a unifying force created by the outer edge of a composition or by a boundary within a composition. Helps us seek connections among visual units.

Repetition- unity is created through repetition. Repetition is a visual effect created by using the same shapes or element over and over. It is almost most effective when the pattern in broken.

Proximity - the distance between visual elements.The closer objects are placed to one another, the more unity is created.

Continuity- a fluid connection between elements in a composition which create a sense of movement. Can be actual or implied.

Closure- refers to the mind’s ability to connect fragmentary information. Closure makes it possible to communicate using implication.

Rythym

•Created when multiple units are presented in a deliberate pattern.

•Rythyms can be regular/repetitive, alternating, progressive, flowing, or random.