Design Principles: Exercise 1

on
24.8.2021-14.9.2021 (Week 1 - Week 4)
Chung Yi Ki / 0345014 / BDCM
Design Principles
Exercise 1

Main Menu

3. Reflection 

Sub-Menu (Tasks)

Lecture

Week 1/ Introduction, Elements and principles of design, Contrast, Gestalt Theory 

This week was an introductory week to the module. We met up with Dr. Charles and he gave us an introduction and explanation to the module as well as briefed us on important deadlines and our first exercise. But in addition to that, Dr. Jinchi also gave us two recorded lectures on elements and principles of design, and Gestalt theory and contrast.  These are my notes along with additional information I found while researching on the Internet: 

Elements and Principles of Design
Elements of design refers to the building blocks needed to create a design work, while principles of design refer to the guidelines in the ways to use the elements effectively. In other words, elements are the Lego pieces while principles are the instruction booklets. There are 7 elements of design: point, line, shape, form, texture, space and colour. Points form a line, a line can be different kinds of lines. Shapes are 2-D. 3-D shapes produce forms. Textures are tactile illusions, while spaces are the empty regions in a design. Colours have different tones, tints, and shades.

To put things more simply, here are some images explaining elements and principles that I’ve found from a website:
Fig 1.1 Tables showing a brief explanation of the elements and principles

Fig 1.2 A matrix graph showing the elements and their usage in each principles
Source: http://www.wheelerarts.org/elements-and-principles-of-art.html


Gestalt theory & Contrast 
Contrast
Contrast occurs when two very different elements are used in a design/artwork. It can be a light colour vs a dark colour, a soft texture vs a rough texture, or even blocky letters vs cursive letters. Contrast makes a piece more interesting and eye-catching, as well as helps to draw focus on the subjects in the design. 

Gestalt Theory
Reference website: https://www.usertesting.com/blog/gestalt-principles#similarity 
(note: these are combination of information gathered from the lecture recording and UserTesting's 2019 website article)
Gestalt principles are laws/rules that describe how human perceive visual elements. Based on these principles, it is found that the human eye tends to recognize patterns, group similar elements together and simplify a complex form. By using these principles, designers are able to turn a complex layout or idea to a more simplify version so the end product will be easier to understand. 

6 Gestalt principles are discussed in this week’s lecture:

1. Principle of similarity – We tend to group elements that are similar together and also tend to think that they have the same functions. (e.g: all blue words represent hyperlinks)

2. Principle of continuation – Our eyes naturally follow lines and curves so we perceive elements arranged in a line or a curve to be related to each other. 
Fig. 2.1 We tend to see a straight line and a curved line rather
than following the dots according to their individual colours

3. Principle of closure – Our brains tend to look for a recognizable pattern in a complex arrangement of visual elements. So, when looking at a design piece with missing parts, we tend to fill in the blanks to make sense of the complete image. 
Fig 2.2 Closure design of a Dalmatian

4. Principle of proximity – This states that elements which are related to each other should be placed close to one another, as our eyes group objects that are close to each other as one single unit.

5. Principle of figure/ground – Our eyes instinctively perceive objects as being either the subject of interest (figure) or the background (ground). While this principle can be used to draw focus on our subjects like in this example: 

Fig 2.3 The white areas stand out first so it lets us know
that the contents in those areas are important (the figure)

But it can also be used creatively by making both the figure and ground subjects of the design, much like making the use of negative spaces, for example: 

Fig 2.4 We see the white apple at first but the black
background also forms a silhouette of a face in the apple

6. Law of symmetry and order – This law states that objects or elements that are symmetrical to each other will be grouped together and seen as a singular unit. 

Tasks

Instructions


Exercise 1

We are tasked to produce 2 designs each for Gestalt theory and contrast. We are allowed to use any materials of our choice in our work. 

Visual Research 

For my visual research, I focused on researching about principle of figure/ground and principle of closure for Gestalt theory as they are interesting. I found a lot of interesting design works based on those 2 principles and here are the ones that inspired me:

Principle of figure/ground 


Fig 1.1 Batman vs Penguin poster 
Source: https://www.behance.net/gallery/2562707/Print-Selection-1

This poster might be simple but it uses Gestalt theory cleverly. When viewed upright, the silhouette of Batman can be clearly seen. But when turned upside down, the silhouette of Penguin (Batman’s villain) becomes apparent.

Fig 1.2 Disney's Brave poster illustration
Source: http://cromeyellow.com/michael-depippos-breathtaking-brave-poster/ 

The shape of Merida’s hair forms the shape of a bear in the negative space and an eye is added to the bear for clarity. This kind of figure/ground stylization is not as common compared to the others, as two figures are more easily seen at first look unlike the aforementioned Batman vs Penguin poster. 
Principle of closure

Fig 2.1 Closure illustration of an orca
Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/Design/comments/4dwuip/first_semester_student_studying_the_gestalt/ 

Fig 2.2 Closure illustration of a woman
Source: https://www.tedthomas101.com/gestalt-perception-meaning-and-design/ 

With principle of closure, I noticed that when enough shapes are used and correctly placed, closure can be achieved as the shapes around the unenclosed spaces are clear enough for people to perceive the outline of the complete image. 

At the end, I decided to use principle of figure/ground in coming up with my Gestalt design because I wanted to create something simple like the Batman vs Penguin poster but with the clarity of Disney’s Brave poster. Although I didn’t choose principle of closure, it gave me an inspiration on what I want to make for my design on contrast. 

Idea exploration 

Sketches

Fig 1.1 Thumbnail sketches for Gestalt theory (left) and contrast (right)

Fig 1.2 Thumbnail sketches for contrast 

 For Gestalt theory, I decided to create a design of a cat and a dog and apply the upside down idea that I got from the Batman vs Penguin poster and add eyes for clarity like the Disney's Brave poster. 

For contrast, I first came up with the umbrella idea (Fig 1.2) using different weights and direction of lines to create contrast between the subjects and the background. Later on, I thought of a sun bear idea (Fig 1.1) that applies a bit of closure and contrast between colours. I liked the latter on so I decide to go with that. 

Gestalt theory idea development
Fig 2.2 Pre-composition
Different element test for the idea

Fig 2.3 Pre-composition 
Rotated

I drew the sketch again on a piece of white paper and cut out the cat and place it on a black paper. I tested out the difference between not having any other elements beside the plain cat and dog, accentuate the dog's ear with a black 'u' shape and going back to placing the eyes for each of them. I still think that the eyes communicate the design better as it helps to show each of the subjects. 

Contrast idea development

Fig 2.4 Contrast digital try-out

Since sun bears are known for their yellow "V" pattern on their neck, I wanted to show that in my contrast design idea. Before making the physical artwork, I did a try-out of the idea digitally based on my sketch to get the right shape and see if it'll work. I used a yellow and black contrast for this idea. 

Fig 2.5 Tracing from the digital try-out

Fig 2.6 Physical work pre-composition

I then traced out the digital try-out on a tracing paper and made some refinements before cutting out the needed parts from white and black papers and placing them on a yellow paper. 

Feedback

Dr. Charles note that the gestalt theory design is a good experimentation from the Batman vs Penguin poster inspiration. Overall the feedback was that the works are on the right track in attaining their respective principles.

Final outcome

Gestalt theory 

Fig 3.1 Final gestalt theory outcome - JPEG

Fig 3.2 Final gestalt theory outcome - PDF
On an upright position, the cat catches our attention first as it's head is on our eye level. While on an upside down position, the dog becomes more apparent as it has taken the place of the cat. Since the black dog borrow its ear from the white cat, it would be harder to distinguish the two subjects separately if the eyes were not given to them. Besides that, the shape of the eyes also gives them somewhat of an expression.

Contrast

Fig 3.3 Final contrast outcome - JPEG

Fig 3.4 Final contrast outcome - PDF

Yellow having a lighter hue and value, contrast heavily with black which has a darker hue and value. The yellow background here doesn’t only act as the background, but it is also used to form the “V” shape neck of the sun bear. The white face of the sun bear, although it’s not contrasting with the yellow background, contrasts with the black body, eye and nose instead which helps to show its contour clearer.

Reflection

Through this exercise, I was able to learn more about Gestalt theory and the different kinds of contrast by doing additional research besides listening to lecture recordings. Gestalt theory was challenging for me as it was the first time I got to know about this principle. So, when doing the exercise I had to spend a lot of time looking at other people’s artworks (from the internet and from seniors) and read a lot of articles about it to understand how to create it. 

When thinking of an idea for contrast, I learnt that contrast doesn't have to be the usual black and white combination. If there’s very opposing elements included in a design, then contrast is present. It was interesting trying on a different idea in my contrast design and I was able to learn from it as well. 

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