Perception
- Gestalt or "shape"
- typography & imagery
- figure & ground relationship
* foreground
* mid ground
* background
Search for Simplicity
- Principles of visual perception
- each mark made is interpreted
- interplay of tensions between shapes on flat surfaces (every element that is put into a design will create some
kind off tensions to the audience)
Semiotics
- "something that stands for something"
- Symbol has culturally accepted meaning
- index ~ visual that we learned to associate with meaning
Figure/Ground
- Groupings ~ white in profile?
~ white & black combine into single figure
- Categories ~ Stable, reversible, ambiguous
- Stable with tension - ambiguous (Japanese puzzle pictures)
Ambiguous
- Reversible ~ recognise words (grouped) by white space
- Conditions ~ richly complex
~ letter forms
- Letter forms ~ see shapes of letters & space between them
~ typography must be recognized as design
Shape
- Design is arrangement of shapes
* shapes are created by enclosed boundary
* describes 2-D work
* volume describes 3-D work
* figure/ground
* see patterns
* repeating similar shapes in different objects
Abstraction
- simplified existing shapes
- emphasis on design shapes subject
- letter forms
- geometric shapes
Digital focus
- vector & raster graphics
Vector graphics
Raster image
Dynamics of colours
- colour is vital to designer & fine artist
Designing with colour
-Isaac Newton
Colour wheel
- pigment based
- R,G,B
-subtractive primaries
- pigment "absorbs" or "subtracts" white light to reflect back blue
Properties of colour
- Hue = colours
- Value = degree of lightness or darkness
* tint - lighter than normal value
* shade - darker than normal value
- Intensity = saturation
Effects
- complementary hues with varying intensities
Colour schemes
- complements = grouped opposite on colour wheel
- split complementary = combining a colour with 2 colours on either side of its colour complement
(opposite each other)
- analogous = colour combination are those that combine colour adjacent to each other on colour wheel
(next to each other)
- triads = yield harmonious results
= draw a triangle on the colour wheel
Colour theory
- no real absolutes
- range of intense drama to soothing harmony
- strong value of contrast
Colour perception influence
- simultaneous contrast ~ colour affected by what surrounds it
~ gray against white will have different value than placed against black colour
Power to evoke
- red, yellow ~ warm, stimulate
- blue, green ~ cool, calm
* If play with different value of each colour it will change the aim (power)
Psychology of colour
- Associations (cultural)
* red - dramatic, aggression, sexuality, national colour
* blue - authority, clean, honest, sooth, positive
* yellow - food packaging, warmth, good wealth, optimism
* green - environment, naturalness, used by non-cola beverage companies & menthol cigarettes for "healthy"
environment
5 psychological factors to consider
- cultural associations
- profile of audience
- characters of organization represented
- designer's personal relationship with colour
- awareness of colour trends
Making sense of image
- depends on artist & viewer
- abstract dots appear as people
- painting "read" by viewer
Colour gamut (understanding electronic colour)
- eye see more colour than the computer or print capabilites
Colour in printing
- Cutting costs
* half-tones
* duo-tones & tri-tones use spot colours for black & white photography
* digital proofs
*coloured papers
In changing technology design the principles stay the same!!
* good design sense
* colour theory knowledge
* basic foundation of computer graphics
