Foo Hui Xin || 0351665
Design Principles || Bachelor of Design in Creative Media
Exercise 1
1 || Lectures
Week 1 - Introduction
In the first lecture, Dr Jinchi taught the basics of a work of design in the first lecture; Elements of Design and Principles of Design.
Elements of Design are individual 'building blocks' and there are 7 of them:
- Point
- simplest element - Line
- repetitive mark of points will create lines
- suggests motion or emotion - Shape (2D)
- boundaries made by lines
- 2 types: geometric (regular) & organic (irregular) - Form (3D)
- volume of enclosed spaces - Texture
- 2 types: actual textures (can be felt) & simulated/implied textures (only looks like real textures) - Space
- an area that a shape or form occupies (positive: filled space & negative: empty space)
- 2 types: 2D (height & width) & 3D (outside: mass & inside: volume & depth: an illusion of the 3D Space) - Colour
- visual byproduct of the spectrum of light
- light wavelength
- Value: lightness/darknessFig 1.1, Value
- Intensity/Saturation/Chroma: purity of a hue
- Colour Schemes:Fig 1.2, Intensity
> Monochromatic: value & intensity of a SINGLE (1) hue
> Analogous: colours next to each other on the colour wheel
> Complementary: 2 hues opposite to each other on the colour wheelFig 1.3, Colour Wheel
Principles of Design are the arrangements of the elements, such as Contrast, Balance, Emphasis, Rules of Third, Repetition/Pattern/Rhythm, Movement, Hierarchy, Alignment, Harmony, Unity, and Proportion.
Week 2 - Contrast & Gestalt Theory
In the second week, Dr Jinchi taught about Contrast and Gestalt Theory.
Contrast: juxtaposition of strongly dissimilar elements
-provides visual interest, emphasis & express content
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| Fig 2.1, image that shows contrasting elements (colours) |
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| Fig 2.2, Yin and Yang showing Contrast, Week 2 (4/4/2022) |
Gestalt Theory: how people perceive the world around them
- 'Gestalt' is 'Shape'/'Form' in German
- Principle of Similarity: perceiving similar elements --> complete picture/shape/group
- Principle of Continuation: follow paths/lines/curves --> continuous flow of visual elements
- Principle of Closure: see completed shapes, filling in missing visual information
- Principle of Proximity: related design elements are placed together // connected/related items --> 1 visual unit --> organise/give structure to a layout
- Principle of Figure Ground: objects perceived as being in the foreground/background
- Law of Symmetry & Order: symmetrical elements perceived as unified groups
Gestalt Principles/Law: rules of how the human eyes perceives visual elements
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| Fig 3.1, Gestalt Principles summarised |
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| Fig 3.2, Applications showing Principle of Similarity from categorisation of rows (top to bottom: Productivity, Social Media, Texting) and grouping of colours, Week 2 (4/4/2022) |
2 || Instructions
Visual Research
(Contrast)
Fiction
Contrast can be found in many games to emphasise on different elements in relation to the story told through it.
EXAMPLE 1: Games
OMORI is an indie game made by an indie studio called OMOCAT, released in 2020. Omori is the alter-ego of the main character, Sunny. Sunny would enter a make-believe world through Omori to cope with the death of his sister (source: https://omori.fandom.com).
Omori, compared to the rest of the characters (his friends in his imaginary), is monochrome while they are brightly coloured. This is because the game contrasts reality and dreams. Through the contrast of colours of the characters, it is painfully obvious that Omori (Sunny) does not belong in his dream world, unlike his imaginary friends who are, well, a manifestation of his imaginary in his dreams. Omori is different from the people in his dreams.
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| Fig 4, Omori contrasting against the rest of the characters |
The Danganronpa series, consists of games which are all visual novel, adventure games. It is developed by Spike Chunsoft and they had the first game, Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc, released in 2010. Danganronpa is about students forced into a Survival game. The characters are promised freedom if they murder another classmate and avoid getting caught by the rest. If a character is accused of murder, regardless or whether they committed it or not, they will face execution.
Instead of painting blood red, Danganronpa uses fluorescent pink for blood, which contrasts against the dark concept of murder. One of the reasonings of using pink for blood was actually because using red would increase the age rating for the game. Another reasoning was simply because of artistic choice. Kazutaka Kodaka, the scenario writer, explains that he wants to "shake user's hear by showing a devastating accident in not devastating ways." He also acknowledges the impact of the contrasting pink blood in the scenes, "by some measure, it might be more shocking than showing a devastating scene." (source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danganronpa)
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| Fig 5, Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc's first murder scene |
EXAMPLE 2: Shows
Squid Game is a Korean survival drama directed by Hwang Dong Hyuk for Netflix. This television show blew up on the internet when it was released in 2021. It is about 456 people, who are struggling with debt, taken in as contestants after accepting an offer to play a series of Korean childhood games to win a huge cash prize. They only soon find out that losing a game results in death and every time someone dies, 100 million won is added into the prize pool.
In the show, contestants are dressed in green tracksuits while the workers, in charge of addressing the contestants, are dressed in bright pink and are masked. The Front man, the overseer of the games, is dressed differently from these 2 categories of people, being dressed in fully black. Not only the contestants clothing colour contrast against the masked men's, the Front man stands out because he is the only dissimilar one out of all recurring characters in the show. This also suggests that there is more backstory to him than the rest. This makes the the audience more curious about the Front man as compared to their curiosity towards the other masked men, contrasting with everyone else.
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| Fig 6, Squid Game poster with the Front man in the middle of the other masked workers |
Death Note is a manga series written by Tsugumi Ohba for the magazine Weekly Shōnen Jump in 2003 to 2006. It is then adapted into an animated series, released by the animation studio Madhouse in 2006. It is about a boy, Light Yagami, who picks up a supernatural book called the 'Death Note' and gains the ability to kill anyone when he writes their names in the book. Ryuk, a Shinigami (literally meaning 'death god' in Japanese) and the original owner of the book, has dropped the book into the human world out of boredom and finds Light's actions regarding the book amusing.
Ryuk's favourite food from the human world, more like an addiction, are apples. He suffers from a withdrawal if he goes too long without them. Ryuk, as a Shinigami, has a dark colour palette for his character design, contrasting with the redness of an apple. Tsugumi Ohba has stated in an interview that there is no particular reason that he chose apples as Ryuk's favourite food, but because he simply thinks the idea of the redness of the apple contrasting against the dark colours of the Shinigami is cool.
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| Fig 7.1, screenshot of a bitten apple from Death Note |
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| Fig 7.2, screenshot of an apple contrasting with Ryuk |
Real Life
Contrast is seen everywhere in our daily lives. Contrasts are used to attract our attention.
EXAMPLE 1: Signs
Signs are usually in bright colours to contrast against the backgrounds the signs are usually in front of. This attracts the attention of people so they will be aware of their surroundings or so they do not disrupt anything.
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| Fig 8.1, Exit sign |
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| Fig 8.2, Live sign |
Traffic lights uses bright colours to direct the road flow to prevent accidents. Red, yellow and green are not seen in its background during any time of the day. During the day, the sky is blue so these colours contrasts against it. On the other hand, during the night, the surroundings are dark, so the light colours contrasts against the surroundings.
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| Fig 9, Traffic Lights during the night (for illustrative purposes only) |
Warning signs usually use yellow colour because it is the brightest colour to the human eye and it stands out from the typical surroundings. Yellow is used to indicate danger and to alert people.
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| Fig 10.1, General warning sign |
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| Fig 10.2, Yellow lines contrasting with the asphalt road |
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| Fig 10.3, Yellow edges contrasting the grey escalator steps |
EXAMPLE 2: Marketing
Ikea, a home furnishing brand which was founded in Sweden, uses the colours of the Swedish flag for their brand logo which consists of contrasting colours. Even without the work 'IKEA' on their logo which just consists of a blue rectangle and yellow oval, most people would recognise it.
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| Fig 11.1, IKEA logo without the word 'IKEA' on it |
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| Fig 11.2, IKEA logo |
Eve, a famous Japanese singer-songwriter under the label Harapeco Records, has a very recognisable black and white logo, seeming like a sketch or a doodle. He has used the logo as multiple album covers before.
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| Fig 12, Eve logo |
Adidas, a well-known German multinational corporation for designing and manufacturing sportswear. Their brand logo consists of 3 contrasting black stripes against a plain white background and they are so well-known that people could recognise their brand with just 3 stripes on any of their products.
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| Fig 13, Adidas logo |
Advertisements are meant to attract attention for brands or products to spread awareness of their existence.
Staedtler, a stationery company founded in German, has an advertisement of their yellow highlighter contrasting against a poster with a dark background. The contrast not only catches attention, but also exaggerates on how bright the ink of the highlighter is, passing on the idea of how effective the highlighter is to the viewers. Like the yellow road lines which contrasts against the asphalt to guide drivers on the road, the highlighter guides readings as well.
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| Fig 14, Staedtler's advertisement for their highlighter |
Design
Contrast is everywhere and, of course, design is not an exception.
EXAMPLE 1: Fashion
Vogue is an American fashion magazine published monthly by Condé Nast, a mass media company. For Vogue Korea's April 2022 issue, they have used a black and white photo of an entertainer, Kim Jisoo, to fit fully on the cover page. The difference in the cover page is the title "VOGUE" and other words (featuring idols and descriptions), coloured in 2 shades of purple. The contrast really makes the words pop and prevents the enlarged monochrome photo of the idol from overshadowing it.
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| Fig 15, Cover page of Vogue Korea April 2022 issue |
Featured in Vogue Korea's April 2022 issue, Kim Jisoo, unlike in the cover page, is shown in a full yellow outfit which contrasts against the plain white backdrop.
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| Fig 16, a page inside of Vogue Korea April 2022 issue |
EXAMPLE 2: Artwork
In March 2022, Japanese singer Eve has released a song 'YOKU' alongside a music video produced by P.I.C.S studio, directed and mainly animated by Yoneyama Mai. The music video plays around with the idea of contrast a lot as the song is about loving what you love even if it appears to be something 'useless' and chasing dreams that makes life colourful because life is short. In more than half of the music video, the background and the appearing characters are all in monotonous shades save for a few ob or animations.
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| Fig 17, Screenshots of YOKU MV |
Yoneyama Mai also has another artwork that plays with contrast. It was drawn for her feature on the cover page of an illustration book, "イラストレーション233号" (roughly translated into "Illustration No.233"), released in January 2022. The whole image is in shades of black and white save for the bits of colourful light in the character's eyes which contrasts against the rest of the image.
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| Fig 18, Yoneyama Mai's illustration |
(Gestalt Theory)
Principle of Similarity
I noticed that similarity is found when it comes to organising things, like in a grocery store or any stores with shelves, for things to be easily located. Similarity is also prominent when people want things to be easily differentiated.
An ice cream store in New York, "The Pint Shop", organises their pints of ice cream in their colour coded fridges according to their similar colours and flavours.
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| Fig 19, The Pint Shop |
Cells at Work!, an animated series, lets viewers easily differentiate which type of cell the characters represent with similar outfits for a cell of each type.
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| Fig 20.1, white blood cell, red blood cell, and platelet |
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| Fig 20.2, all these characters wearing similar outfits represent platelets |
Principle of Continuity
While doing my research, I realised that this principle is used a lot in relation to architectural projects.
Tianjin Binhai Library in China, designed by Rotterdam architecture firm MVRDV and local architecture firm Tianjin Urban Planning and Design Institute (TUPDI), integrates the law of continuity in their design, giving it a futuristic feel.
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| Fig 21, Tianjin Binhai Library |
A Stonescape showroom in Italy designed by Japanese architecture firm, Kengo Kuma & Associates, show the shape of water and terrain with stone using the principle of continuity.
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| Fig 22, Stonescape showroom |
Principle of Closure
By drawing in lesser lines and having more space, illustrations tend to look more simple. Our brains are wired to fill in missing lines to recognise the unconnected shapes.
World Wildlife Fund, WWF, is a leading organisation in wildlife conservation and endangered species. Their logo is not connected into an outline of a panda but it is still obvious it is a panda.
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| FIg 23, WWF logo |
Vogue Magazine hides the name of their magazine behind models a lot, but even with a letter missing from 'VOGUE', we still read it as 'VOGUE'.
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| Fig 24, VOGUE magazine with the 'U' hidden behind the model's head |
Principle of Proximity
When objects are placed together in close proximity, they are grouped together to indicate they are related. I noticed that this principle is more notable on websites and applications, or anything digital.
Game of Dice by JOYCITY Corp. is a digital board game with skill cards. Like most video games, they group together things that are related to one another for easy navigation.
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| Fig 25, Game of Dice menu screen |
With another more well-known game, FPS game Valorant, developed by Riot Games, shows a good example of how related icons are grouped together during a round of the game.
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| Fig 26, Valorant in-game |
Principle of Figure Ground
I realised that figure ground is used a lot for promotional posters of movies or brands or specific products.
The Coca-Cola Company, a famous beverage company, uses a lot of figure ground principle for their advertisements. It is a very creative way to promote their drinks while giving a deeper meaning to it.
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| Fig 27.1, Coca-cola advertisement also promoting friendship |
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| Fig 27.2, Coca-cola advertisement promoting eating together |
Melbourne's 2007 food and wine festival also used figure ground to promote both food and wine in a simple illustration to deliver the message with ease.
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| Fig 28, Poster for the festival |
Law of Symmetry & Order
I also noticed that symmetry is used a lot in buildings and architecture. From my findings, this principle is the oldest and most continuously used principle in architecture. Many famous structures around the world are symmetrical.
A good example for this would be Taj Mahal of India is also famous and well-known for its perfect symmetrical design. It is supposed to be the largest symmetrical building of the world and it is believed that the principle of symmetry is maintained in every part of the building.
Fig 29, Taj Mahal
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| Fig 29, Taj Mahal |
The Petronas Twin Towers of Malaysia are 2 tall buildings side to side and identical to each other, making the entire structure symmetrical.
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| Fig 30, Petronas Twin Towers |
The infamous Eiffel Tower in Paris is structured symmetrically as well to build a good foundation to hold it up.
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| Fig 31, the Eiffel Tower from directly below it |
Idea Exploration/Sketches
When I think of contrast, I think of the Yin and Yang symbol which is just white and black. This led to me drawing a simple monotone design with a cat contrasting against the background and then I reversed it to show the contrast of black and white.
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| Fig 32, idea 1, Week 2 (4/4/2022) |
I had not developed this first idea any further after receiving feedback from my lecturer. I just wanted to include my thought process so I included this idea here nonetheless.
Then, I realised that contrast does not necessarily mean black and white, so I wanted to integrate some colours to represent a contrast. Thus, the second idea.
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| Fig 33.1, idea 2, Week 2 (4/4/2022) |
After receiving feedback from my lecturer who saw potential in this second idea, I had decided to develop it further.
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| Fig 33.2, development of idea 2, Week 2 (8/4/2022) |
I still liked the simplicity of black and white, and so for the third design, I had an idea to make it more large-scale compared to the first two.
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| Fig 34.1, idea 3, Week 2 (9/4/2022) |
I really liked this idea, so I had to develop it further and clean it up more to get a better look of my idea drawn out.
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| Fig 34.2, development of idea 3, Week 2 (9/4/2022) |
The first principle I explored was continuity. However, I did not develop any further on this.
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| Fig 35, idea 1, Week 2 (4/4/2022) |
Next, I tackled principle of figure ground as I felt that it seemed the most difficult for me. I was going to leave it as it is if I could not come up with any ideas. Surprisingly, I was able to come up with something, though I am unsure if it can be recognised as a figure ground illustration. The idea is that the drawing should look like a jellyfish at first sight, but then a figure can be noticed on a closer look.
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| Fig 36.1, idea 2, Week 2 (7/4/2022) |
I then searched for pictures of jellyfishes to understand it better to develop this idea further. Then, I decided to make the figure a mermaid.
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| Fig 36.2, development of idea 2, Week 2 (7/4/2022) |
For the third design, I wanted to explore the principle of similarity. I came up with an idea of a vending machine with each row having the same type of drink on them, but different drinks compared to other rows.
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| Fig 37.1, idea 3, Week 2 (10/4/2022) |
I developed it further with the idea of having different types of beverage packaging on each row.
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| Fig 37.2, development of idea 3, Week 2 (10/4/2022) |
For the last design, I wanted to explore more on figure ground because it was interesting to me. I was going to sketch a waterfall coming out of a cave, and decided to make the opening of the cave look like an eye so it looked like a stream of tears flowing out of an eye. However, I realised it looks kind of like a candle instead of tears flowing from an eye. And so, I made another sketch and changed the idea.
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| Fig 38.1, idea 4.2, Week 2 (10/4/2022) |
I then refined the latter idea because it looked less forced and better in my opinion.
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| Fig 38.2, development of idea 4.2, Week 2 (10/4/2022) |
Final Outcome (process)
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| Fig 39.1, Rough outline, Week 2 (9/4/2022) |
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| Fig 39.2, Process, Week 2 (9/4/2022) |
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| Fig 39.3, Lineart + Filling colours, Week 3 (15/4/2022) |
Fig 39.4, Final Outcome for 'Contrast', Week 3 (15/4/2022)
Gestalt Theory: Figure ground
Fig 40.1, Rough outline, Week 3 (10/4/2022)
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| Fig 40.2, Lineart + Colouring process, Week 3 (13/4/2022) |
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| Fig 40.3, First Outcome, Week 3 (14/4/2022) |
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| Fig 40.4, Changes made after receiving feedback, Week 3 (15/4/2022) |
Taking the feedback in mind, I also changed the angle of the drawing so it is 'less dynamic'.
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| Fig 40.5, Changing angle of the drawing |
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| Fig 40.6, Final outcome for 'Gestalt Theory', Week 3 (15/4/2022) |
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