Cleaving

This was a fun project where we took squares from a magazine and then had to make a poem book from "I Felt a Cleaving in my Mind" by Emily Dickinson. It was a good lesson in experimenting and rhythm and balance. I tried to use what I learned from the previous projects in deciding what really matters. 

Play

Not just in design, but play is essential in life. It's good to make mistakes as long as one learns from them. It's one of the best ways to learn. If we don't know about something, we explore. We should be curious. In terms of design, play is a way to find solutions to a problem one wouldn't get to otherwise. The Eames were known for play. They would often get inspiration from toys that they "played" with and enjoyed. That spurned into ideas for larger and more complex concepts. Instead of being rigid and looking at textbooks, one also needs to interact with their surroundings. It's a big way to learn.

http://www.eamesoffice.com/blog/five-things-charles-ray-eames-teach-us-about-play/

Examples

Modularity

From my understanding, modularity is a way to organize design. It breaks things down into smaller parts. So it's more coherent and systematic. It's always good to have clear thoughts when designing. If the designer doesn't know what the message is, there is no chance the user will.

Examples:

Rhythm and Balance

Like hierarchy, rhythm and balance helps lead your eye on the page. Instead of highlighting what's the most important, rhythm and balance helps with the flow of the piece. It's where your eye goes after. Rhythm and balance helps with cohesion of the piece as a whole. It supposed to make the content/message clear and concise.

Examples:

Your eye often goes from top left to bottom right

Layers and Time

Layers and Time are important aspects in design.

Nothing is ever perfect on the first try. There is always something that can be improved upon or refined. As they say Rome wasn't built in a day. Every good design was endlessly worked on. You can go back an experiment with what could improve the piece. Also, when you stop thinking about a certain project for a while, some things can pop up at you and inspire to think differently. Oftentimes, you have to step out and be critical of your own work to understand what can be improved upon.

Layers are a way to improve upon a piece and make it intriguing. During our Installation election, what our first iteration looked very different from the last iteration. Also, each iteration had a different meaning to it. The first week, we were trying to capture the facts and accomplishments between the two. The second week, we were showing all the negative aspects to the campaign and the third week was simply relaying a message within our work. It doesn't have to be complex. Because the election was still going throughout, our feelings towards the election changed. This is how time and layers interacted with each other.

Examples

Grids

To be honest, I never really understood grids until I learned it in this class. Grids are important in making sure everything is aligned and balanced. But as we learned a couple weeks ago, there isn't a right or wrong way to use a grid. It's really up to the designer on what looks good. Grids are there as a guideline. It is a tool used to organize content, but the casual viewer will never know or will never really care. Generally, negative space is good and lots of pictures are a good way to go about organizing a spread.  Grids are not just vertically, they can also be used horizontally. But it really depends on the copy.

Examples:

Example I found of "The Helvetica Post" as a way to show grid.

Interesting ways to layout contents

The four most common grids. 

Every internet site uses grids.

Exercise: Sister Corita

When I read the article on Sister Corita, there were two things that really struck a chord with me. One was how she worked. I kind of had forgotten that Adobe is a relatively recent program and back in the day, if you wanted to manipulate something you had to use silkscreens and dark rooms to get the photo to what you want.

The second was her use of type was very precise and intricate. It always kept your eye to the page. It's just impressive that she did this all before the computer. She also would have a lot of motivational phrases to help her going. She was inspired by The Eames'.

So I tried to emulate her style in my own way. I think I was successful. "Make a movie with your eyes" was apparently a saying she had. It is also very Eames-like.