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.

5th Amendment

This project taught me about hierarchy. More specifically, I'll always think about "What Really Matters" whenever I think about hierarchy. It was also interesting in making four separate pieces that all have the same theme. I feel like there is a lot to say about the 5th amendment, which is really about not speaking. 

 Picture-Specific

 Collage

 Interdependent

Additive

Exercise: Car

So my story was how my mom and I got a flat tire and caused even more traffic as we waited for AAA to get there. My scribbles were far more fascinating than my story. It was just a bunch of lines with loops in them. When I drew it, I wasn't really thinking about how it relates to the story. But now, Squiggly lines like that are pretty representative of getting a flat tire. There are parts where it's flat and then there are parts that are curvy.

This is what I came up with:

Closure

Closure is a method the brain uses to complete an incomplete shape. You see it a lot in logos but it can be used to enhance a design.

Examples:

World Wildlife Foundation

Even though, the Panda isn't complete, the eye knows it's a panda.

USA Network

Framing

Like hierarchy, framing is a way to highlight what really matters. I always confuse framing with cropping. But after looking this up, framing is how a photo is shown and cropping is cutting certain aspects of the photo. So, if you take a picture of a cow, for example, you'd possibly frame it by putting the cow, that is eating grass, in the middle of the picture. Cropping would be to cut out the cow's legs (metaphorically) and only use the top half for whatever reason.

Examples:

Sources

http://www.gdbasics.com/html/framing/framing.html

https://videohive.net/item/hands-join-together-to-make-finger-framing/8517335

http://photographyblogger.net/framing/

Exercise: Ten Duel Commandments

What stood out to me when I read the lyrics to the Ten Duel Commandments was how official the rules are to something that is so archaic. It was also interesting that there was so much double-checking, even triple-checking, to make sure they all want to do it. This song is pretty self-aware about how pointless the duels actually are. I love that Lin-Miranda chose to do it this way.

When asked to create something, I thought of listing the rules like a document. But that had already been done. This is Hamilton we are talking about. I went back to the drawing board. I looked at how the Ten Commandments were written on a stone tablet and thought this could be on something duel related. I found a picture of a guy with a gun upwards (which is fitting considering the ending) and I made a silhouette.

The tricky part then became how am I going to fit all the rules onto the silhouette. Should I have the words over the gun? What lyrics should I include? Then I remembered what we learned in class on what really matters. I didn't use the exact phrasing for a lot of the rules but basically the bigger text is the main rule and the text under adds to it in some way.

Here is the final product:

Gap

Gap is a well-established brand with a highly limited style palette. Working within these confines was challenging but ultimately fun. Gap is already well-known, so the style shouldn't be "too out there", but that was my thought process throughout.

I started to understand the challenges that Gap has. Most of Gap's advertising is simple, centered, and white text. That is boring from a design perspective. I had to use four different marketing materials but still remaining consistent, which made it difficult. I took on this challenge by adding typography into the figure/ground compositions to create both a consistent series and visual diversity to avoid boredom. Ultimately, I isolated the point size and color of the word “Sale”—much like Gap does in their actual advertising. 

SPRING: "Iris, Monochrome, inspired by windy weather 

SUMMER: “Nile”, analogous, inspired by a river surrounded by grass.

FALL: “Navy”, complementary, inspired by Halloween and the orange leaves

WINTER: “Fortress of Solitude”, neutral, inspired by Superman’s home