Project 2
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2018
Class Project
About the Project
The goal of this project was to describe the following adjectives by only using black squares: tension, playfulness, congestion, comfort, and order. The squares could overlap, fall of the page, and be in any orientation of any size, but it absolutely had to be squares.
Project Process
Tension
These were my initial sketches of “tension”. I tried to think of all the different types of tensions there are and I decided that it split into two categories: emotional and physical. I believe unseen tension is the most emotionally straining — when both parties are aware of the problem yet still hide it from each other. That’s how I came up with the first sketch shown in pictures. I also thought that something is described as being emotionally tense when there is a hint of suspense that keeps you anxious and tight. The next three sketches, therefore, illustrate precariousness that was aimed to make the viewers feel the tension. The last sketch, which was my favorite along with the first one, shows the physical tension of “being stretched tight” along with the emotional tension of anxiety. The squares are aligned but stretched out very thinly to a point where one wrong movement could lead to a collapse of the whole thing.
When I moved my sketches on illustrator, I realized that I really liked the expression of unseen tension, so I decided to add that. First feedback I got from the first piece was that the square on the bottom left looked to intimidating and that it looked as if they were going to crash. What I wanted to convey in the piece was the unseen tension derived from not knowing what the other has up their sleeves, not whether one was more intimidating than the other. Therefore, in the next iterations, I tried to change the orientation of the black square to make it seem more as if it was hiding itself rather than it trying to charge at the other square.
This was the final piece I chose for tension. One feedback I got for the first few iterations for this piece was that it looked like Baymax from Big Hero 6, and that because of that it was hard to see the tension. Therefore, I decided to make the two large incompletely shown squares on both edges longer. The left one is a bit higher than the one on the right edge, and this was intended so that it makes it seem as if the left one is moving downwards and the right one is moving upwards, and because the little squares in the middle are already stretched out so thinly, any movement could break the tension and make the whole thing fall apart.
Congestion
Congestion can be defined as something that is blocked up or jammed. When something is congested, such as in a traffic jam, the most prevalent emotion is frustration. That’s what I focused on when I drew the sketches. The first one was a reference to Tetris, when you can’t get the pieces to fit perfectly. When you misplace a few pieces, the whole screen gets blocked pretty quickly and becomes congested. For the second sketch, I was thinking of two gears that don’t fit each other perfectly. When the gears don’t align with each other, they don’t turn, which consequently leads to a jam. In the third and fourth sketch, I tried to convey the physical congestion of not being able to get to the goal because it is blocked.
As I was transferring my sketches to Illustrator, I thought that the second piece would convey the action of the squares trying to move upwards better if there was some space on the bottom. However, the advice I got was that the white space makes the balance a bit uneven. Therefore, I closed up the bottom space to eliminate chances of opening up the unseen space below the canvas and tried to show the upward movement through the orientation of the squares. The third piece was supposed to convey congestion caused by disorganization, as the squares move from bottom to top through the dissimilarities. However, one of the feedback was that the messiness of it was distracting and took away the “congested” feeling, so I tried to think of ways to just show congestion, which ended up being showing continuation of the overall piece but keeping the sway of the blocks to highlight the blocked up sense.
This was my final selection for congestion. For this piece, I focused on the frustration arising from hindrance of freedom of movement. Freedom means to be able to strive to do anything you wish to do, and when the goal you want to reach is so close yet blocked by an obstacle, the congestion is more impactful. That’s why instead of trying to make the squares look crowded in limited space, I used the squares to emphasize the upward drift.
Playfulness
My initial thoughts on the word “playful” was interactivity, open-minded, light-hearted, and adventurous. Someone that is described as playful goes out of one’s way to bring energy to those around him/her. The first canvas anticipates the interaction of two sides, and the third canvas also illustrates the interaction of similar shapes to form the joviality derived from light-heartedness.
I chose this piece as my final selection for playfulness because I really liked the idea of playfulness being portrayed as something that’s not only just festive and light-hearted, but also as something that is adventurous and risk-taking. My first iteration had 4 squares in the center of the first platform and the square jumping, but in my final iteration, I changed it to convey the risk-taking aspect more by making it seem as if the square is leaving its original comfort zone to take a leap towards the something new. I believe this reflects the energy that the word playfulness has.
Comfort
This is the final selection for comfort. At first, when I thought about the word comfort, I thought of family and how family members usually sit around the table to eat together. This was what I tried to illustrate in the first sketch, but I got feedback that it seems a bit unorganized and that it’d be nice if the outer squares were more tight-knit. As I was trying to figure out a way to display the squares, I thought of a quote that my favorite artist said to his wife: “In this world full of sharp edges, I will be your circle.” I decided to rearrange the squares so that they surround the edges of the square from the outside. The squares are all different sizes because they represent all the different people in one’s life (friends, family members, significant other) that provide protection and comfort when needed from this harsh world.
Order
For order, I thought of different interpretations and implementations of the word. The first thought I had was recursion, as it can go on forever in the exact same format as you input , but in smaller forms. I also thought of how when something is in order, even if there are a few glitches, you can smoothly overlook those and achieve what you wanted to do. I also thought of order as in hierarchy, and also how when something is orderly, you can see it clearly.
This was my final selection for order, because I wanted to focus on the clarity that orderliness brings. I used the Gestalt principles of how our mind fills in the empty gaps when the right cues are given. I thought this overlapped perfectly with the word order because the particular sequence and arrangement of these squares allows one to see the inner octagon.
