Project Two: Form & Composition
Print/Digital Illustration
September 1–13, 2016
Individual Project
About the Project
The goal of this project was to explore the conveyance of meaning through the placement of objects within a space. This placement was facilitated by Gestalt principles in design, which the class learned about prior and which we had to apply during the project process. To further hammer these principles into our approach, we were tasked with only being able to use solid black squares to fill space, thus prompting us to consider aspects like size, angle of rotation, position within the space, etc. The final result was five pieces, each corresponding to one of five words: order, tension, congestion, playfulness, and comfort.
Project Process
Below, I highlight the work process that went into conveying each word.
Order
This was the first word I tried to convey through preliminary sketches, and one of the harder words for me to convey. With order, the concepts of “symmetry” and “support” come to mind. Although these concepts can be expressed very simply, simplicity was a creative direction that I didn’t want to take immediately. As a result, I made a variety of sketches that expressed those concepts in a non-straightforward manner. Sketch B, D, and E, for example, were created with the intention of conveying support even if that support wasn’t perfect. Meanwhile, Sketch I was supposed to exhibit symmetry, but I took some creative liberties in adding non-symmetrical elements. In hindsight, these sketches did little to convey order strongly, and I realized that, in lieu with the idea of “communication design,” the most effective pieces were the ones that succinctly conveyed the given idea (Sketch G and H).
As such, I chose to refine Sketch G. Originally, I intended for the diamonds to be larger, and for the ones on the side to be partially outside the space. However, for the final piece, I ended up reducing the diamonds in size as it felt more visually satisfying and conveyed the sense of order even better. I felt that, had I gone with the diamonds at the side extending outside the space, the possibility was open to them seeming not balanced (which would have affected the final sense of order).
Tension
The idea of tension was synonymous with “contact.” Sketch B exemplifies this; although the diagonally-stationed squares touch each other in that instant, their precarious positioning seems threatened by one suddenly breaking out of line. Sketch A also exemplifies contact through the idea of tentative contact: the two massive shapes aren’t touching but look like they might converge at any second. I also associated tension with awkwardness, prompting me to sketch some spaces featuring black squares randomly placed throughout them (ex. Sketch C, E, F). My aim in doing this was to have viewers ask “What are these shapes doing here? Will something happen as a result of them being placed where they are?”
For the final piece, I chose to refine Sketch A and simplified the bottom shape, so a corner of a square stuck upward like a pyramid. By translating Sketch A into digital form, I realized that I could view the negative space in an appealing “reversible” manner. While it was meant to be two squares about to touch, it was also a bridge whose two ends converged toward a middle that could possibly break. I wanted to play with that image, and felt that using the pointed corner of the square would best convey this in a direct manner.
Congestion
With congestion, I wanted to convey the sense of objects being enclosed. All my Sketches aimed to exemplify this, with E being a slight exception. Having scale in mind, I wanted to create the image of the mass in the bottom-right corner of Sketch E being closed in on by the other three squares. After creating my sketches, I settled on translating Sketch A into a digital context. To me, it seemed like the most visually interesting, akin to a large spaceship in Star Wars that had a multitude of smaller ships flying into it.
In receiving feedback on my version of Sketch A in Adobe Illustrator, I came to understand that more could be done to fill the gap between the two large squares, as it felt too airy between the smaller squares. I originally worked toward creating more squares that would fill the gap. But in the process of doing that, I felt that it’d be interesting to veer in an opposite direction: “Rather than fill the gap between the two squares, what if I closed it?” I brought the two large squares closer together and placed more large squares next to them in a similar manner. Doing so resulted in the final piece, which I felt succinctly expressed congestion while being more pleasing to the eye than the original idea that was Sketch A.
Playfulness
Playfulness meant “looseness” and “free form” to me, and, at first, I aimed to convey these through my placement of squares. Sketch A, B, and C were the result of this. For B and C, in particular, I had used a pencil to trace some lines, then drew squares along the lines to reinforce the wiry structure I had devised. After completing A, B, and C, I realized that “playfulness” could also be synonymous with “intimate interaction.” Sketch D and E exemplify this; for both, I thought of imagery involving two people interacting, and tried to translate that into squares. These were, I found, to be more intriguing and provocative expressions of playfulness than my first three sketches.
My final piece was Sketch D translated into digital form. Based on earlier feedback, I realized that the white space within the black squares (the space that starts from the bottom, rises upward, then abruptly juts out like an arrow in an upper-right direction) could be manipulated based how I placed, sized, and rotated the black squares. With that being said, I spent a lot of time working with the white space till I felt satisfied with its current appearance.
Comfort
This was another word that was hard for me to convey visually. With comfort, I tried to convey it through a few approaches. One approach was to express “rest”; Sketch D, A, and B (the latter 2 being preliminary sketches for D), featured one square comfortably resting on another. A second approach was to express self-assuredness; Sketch G illustrates that by having one square comfortably sitting by itself within the larger space. The last approach, as illustrated by Sketch C, E, and F, was to create a cluster of shapes that would be comfortable on the eyes. However, with the texture of the squares being solid black, I realized that this approach wouldn’t work effectively.
I settled on refining Sketch D in Adobe Illustrator, moving the shapes toward the bottom border of the space so they’d look like they were stationed on the ground and, as a result, more stable. I went about editing it too, re-sizing and slightly moving the two squares in different ways to see what kind of visuals could result (note that each result was similar every time: a large square leaning on a smaller one). With each attempt, I felt unsatisfied. I wanted the white space to play a part in this piece, and with the two squares it seemed like the white space was awkward to look at. In turn, it made the whole piece awkward to look at. I then stripped my approach down, taking the smaller square away and having it so that the larger square rested on the borders of the space. It was through this approach that I ended up with the final piece for comfort. The large black square now comfortably fits within the borders, and the white space isn’t as awkward to look at now.
In Retrospect
All in all, this project taught me a lot about how to properly apply Gestalt principles and express ideas through visual design. The biggest realization I had was that, for a lot of the words I sought to convey, my approach relied upon simplicity and reduction for the sake of visual appeal. During the critique, I received a lot of feedback that noted how my final pieces were satisfying to look at. Perhaps this is a future direction I should work to develop in future projects, or one to avoid in case my work becomes too simplistic and insipid.
