CDF S19 P2
Print / Illustration
2019
Individual Project
About the Project
Using only black squares, we created 4"x4" digital illustrations that depicted the following emotive words:
- order
- tension
- congestion
- playfulness
- comfort
We were allowed to have overlapping squares to create other shapes, such as rectangles, and squares could hang off the edges of the illustrations. The purpose was to show that a shape as basic as a solid black square could be used in different positions, angles, patterns, with other squares, or by itself, in order to convey a certain emotion.
Project Process
I began by ruminating over each word and writing down what objects, memories, or related emotions were sparked in the process. Next, I drew 5 small thumbnails for my ideas of each word, before choosing some of the ideas to play with in Adobe Illustrator. Finally, after tweaking the contrasts between sizes, angles, and distances between squares, I chose my top design for each of the words based on how close the feeling that the iteration gives me is to the original word.
Early iterations were rather similar or uncreative. I drew the first idea that came to mind, but by the 3rd or 4th thumbnail for each word, I found myself creating very similar thumbnails. I was unsure as to how to be creative with my medium that consisted solely of black squares.
Eventually, I adjusted the relative sizes and angles of the squares more, and made use of negative space instead of relying only on square shapes. I also took advantage of letting squares bleed off the edges of the thumbnails in order to create larger dark spaces on the sides.
Order
Squares felt very orderly to me as the shape itself has angles of the same size and sides of the same length. But I wanted to do a little more than just create a grid of squares. I tried to align a large number of squares at 90-degree angles, not playing much with overlap or with changing the sizes of the squares. The closer in size the squares were, the more uniform, and therefore the more orderly they felt.
In early iterations, it felt as if I was just drawing patterns that I knew: the checkers on a chessboard, a Vicsek fractal, which is made up of small squares. However, I wanted to continue creating more illustrations until I came up with a more original depiction of order instead of borrowing from a pattern.
For my final iteration I took inspiration from the sign in front of elevators that says, “in case of fire use stairs”. I imagined a bunch of small squares evacuating a building via staircase, lined up one by one. I thought, if each square moved down one more step on the staircase, the illustration would still preserve its previous appearance, and this felt very orderly.
Tension
I wanted my illustration to include some conflict between squares as physical tension, and convey a feeling that something was about to happen in the next frame after the one illustrated.
My initial iterations showed a large square pressing down on a small square, with both resting on a group of medium-sized squares. However, there wasn’t a clear purpose as to why I had gaps between the medium-sized squares along the bottom, especially since I wanted to create a cliff along the bottom of the illustration.
My final iteration has the small square made even smaller, and the large square now bleeds off the edge of the illustration. The small square was moved to the edge of the now-solid cliff, to portray an impending sense of doom for either the large square, the small square, or both.
Congestion
I looked to congestion in a very literal sense when ideating — traffic. I wanted to draw a bunch of squares trying to crowd into one area, and in order to create a sense of busy-ness, I made the squares small and look like TV static.
At first, the tiny squares were all squeezing into one path, but why were they squeezing? What is preventing them from moving around and spreading out? Nothing. Also, having the squares break free after squeezing through a tight spot provided too much sense of relieve. The squares additionally seem pretty organized, as they are all rotated to the same angle.
I recalled a trip to Yosemite in 8th grade, with the rest of my school. In our hiking group, we were tasked with navigating The Spider Cave, a pitch-black traverse where at the tightest point, we had to crawl feet-first without backpacks and rely on instructions relayed by the person in front of us. If one person got stuck, everyone would have to evacuate the cave. My final illustration conveys The Spider Cave, but with no opening — there is no breaking free from the tightest spot, which conveys more congestion.
Playfulness
For this word, I tried to channel bits and pieces of what I remember from my childhood. Squares doing weird things, squares balancing by a corner, squares moving around freely.
In one of the initial thumbnails, I balanced some squares on top of each other at angles that should’ve been impossible according to the laws of physics. I thought that this would bring about a whimsical feel; instead, I got some Japanese rock balancing vibes instead. This seemed a little too peaceful to be playful.
I thought of a game similar to Club Penguin from my childhood, where players can animate their characters to roll around in “play” mode. I tried to animate the path of a square rolling from side to side in my illustration, to show that the square was moving around in a silly manner. The tradeoff between showing more motion of the square was the size of the square; a previous iteration had slightly larger squares but fewer snapshots of the animation sequence.
Comfort
I had the most trouble with my designs for comfort. Black squares did not feel very comforting initially, so I worked on creating comfort by designing warm interactions between the squares.
In an early thumbnail, I tried to show support and being surrounded for a center square. However, having the surrounding squares be the same size as the center square started to feel more like congestion, trapped, smothering.
I opted to make the outer squares smaller, so that if the center square wanted to break free, it was free to do so, but if it did not, it could enjoy the support of many smaller squares. It also reminds me of a table, where small squares gather around to support each other and enjoy each other’s company.
Through this project, I learned about the importance of shape placement and properties in conveying emotions, and I learned that even a simple black square can be a powerful tool in design.
