28/3/2022 - 8/4/2022 / Week 1 - Week 2
Trinity Wong Ka Yi / 0348778
Design Principles / Bachelor of Design in Creative Media / Taylor's University
Task 1 - Exercise 1 - Gestalt theory and Contrast
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LECTURES
WEEK 1 - LECTURE 1 - ELEMENTS, PRINCIPLES, CONTRAST & GESTALT THEORY
For our first lecture, it was split into 2 parts: Introduction to elements and principles of design & Contrast and Gestalt theory.
First, Ms Jinchi went through the elements and principles of design.
Elements of Design:
- Point
- Line
- Shape
- Form
- Texture
- Space
- Colour
Principles of Design:
- Contrast
- Balance
- Emphasis
- Rule of Thirds
- Repetition/Pattern/Rhythm
- Movement
- Hierarchy
- Alignment
- Harmony
- Unity
- Proportion
Moving on, Ms Jinchi taught us about contrast and Gestalt theory.
Contrast:
The juxtaposition of strongly dissimilar elements.
Gestalt theory:
Rules that describe how the human eye perceives visual elements: complex scenes are reduced to simple shapes as a single united form.
Within the Gestalt theory, there are 6 principles:
- Similarity
- Continuation
- Closure
- Proximity
- Figure/Ground
- Symmetry & Order
WEEK 2 - LECTURE 2 - BALANCE & EMPHASIS
Balance:
The distribution of the visual weight of objects, colors, texture and space.
3 types of balance: Symmetrical, asymmetrical & radial.
2 guides for balance: The Golden Ratio and Rule of Thirds
Emphasis:
Used to create dominance and focus in a piece of design work.
Elements that can be used to create emphasis: Colour, shapes & value.
The distribution of the visual weight of objects, colors, texture and space.
3 types of balance: Symmetrical, asymmetrical & radial.
2 guides for balance: The Golden Ratio and Rule of Thirds
Used to create dominance and focus in a piece of design work.
Elements that can be used to create emphasis: Colour, shapes & value.
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INSTRUCTIONS
Task 1: Exercise 1 - Gestalt theory and Contrast
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VISUAL RESEARCH
First things first, this exercise reminded me of the first assignment for Design Basics in Foundation.
Fig 1.1 & Fig 1.2 My submission for Design Basics assignment (1/10/2021)
We had to apply elements and principles of design into a pattern which was then hand-drawn. Fig 1.1 represents similarity and variety, whereas Fig 1.2 represents gradation and anomaly.
Gestalt theory
Fig 1.3 Figure/ground examples that show the hero or villain depending on perspective.
Taken from smashingmagazine.com
Taken from smashingmagazine.com
Fig 1.4 Continuation principle example. Taken from eportfolios.capilanou.ca
Fig 1.5 Closure principle example. Taken from eportfolios.capilanou.ca
Contrast
Contrast is something you see quite often, hidden in plain sight. You don’t really notice it until it’s not there.
Fig 1.6 Six different ways to create contrast. Taken from medium.com
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IDEA EXPLORATION AND DESCRIPTION
Gestalt theory
Draft 1: Inspired by a previous assignment from Foundation in Design, when we were required to make patterns out of design principles and elements. I thought of incorporating 4 principles of Gestalt, excluding the principle of continuation and proximity. How I infused the principles were:
Similarity: Repetition of elements
Closure: The inner diamonds are broken but the eye perceives them as whole.
Figure/Ground: It appears to have an invisible square grid from the broken diamonds.
Symmetry & Order: The whole pattern is symmetrical and arranged regularly.
Fig 2.1 First concept for Gestalt theory (3/4/2022)
Draft 2: Inspired by abstract artists we learnt about during Design Basics in Foundation, I decided to make my own abstract portrait but in a modern style. It depicts a lady kissing another man while another man kisses her, which suggests an affair is going on. Hence, I named the piece "Caught Red-handed".
Figure/Ground: A woman's figure can be seen between the two men's silhouettes which are drawn in red.
Fig 2.2 Second concept for Gestalt theory (3/4/2022)
Contrast
I decided to make simple and straightforward designs for contrast but I think they might be too simplistic.
Draft 1: This shows the contrast between the shapes, sizes and colours. The round circle contrasts the jagged lines, whereas the yellow is complementary to the blue. The blue spikes are also significantly larger than the yellow circle.
Fig 2.3 First concept for contrast (3/4/2022)
Draft 2: For this piece, I wanted to show the contrast between chaotic messy winding lines and a straight line. To further make it more interesting, I used red to contrast with blue.
Fig 2.4 Second concept for contrast (3/4/2022)
Fig 2.5 Third concept for contrast (3/4/2022)
POST-FEEDBACK
Contrast:
Concept 1: Explored a bit to make it look like a one-point perspective where a camper is looking up at the sky but I changed it to night time. This changes the point of contrast to the moon and the night sky.
Concept 2: Changed the colour as per Ms Jinchi's feedback so it looks more like noodles and chopsticks. Hence, I changed the colour palette to make it more complementary while making it look like curry mee.
Concept 3: Following Ms Jinchi's feedbacks, I turned it into something inspired by 007's iconic scene of James Bond. It reminded me of the perspective from a toilet roll so I made made it brown with the swirls. This drives the focus onto the person on the end which contrasts with the background.
Gestalt:
Concept 3: I made this by incorporating symmetry and firgure/ground to it. The idea sparked when I thought of women's hourglass figure, which reminded me of the ever looming inevitable death countdown. This also suggests that unhealthy beauty standards could kill you literally.
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FEEDBACK
Week 2
Gestalt theory:
Draft 1: Feels like contrast, repetition, pattern, etc. Can make it more focused on Gestalt.
Draft 2: Interesting. Like the last stage of Picasso.
Contrast:
Draft 1: Looks like the perspective of looking up in a pine forest.
Draft 2: Can duplicate the blue line to resemble chopsticks so the squiggles become noodles.
Draft 3: Remove the rectangle and change the colour of the circle. Possibly add a person waving like from the end of the tunnel.
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FINAL OUTCOME
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REFLECTION
This exercise gave us the freedom to create any design we want as long as we included the main concept of Gestalt and contrast. Hence, we had creative freedom which led me to try out different styles of design. I tried out new things like abstract portraits, flat illustration and one-point perspective. Overall, I enjoyed doing this exercise as it exercised my brain.
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