Project Two

Here are my 5 final designs for project two.

For project two, we were given 5 different words and asked to portray those 5 words using only black squares. The black squares could be different angles and sizes, or overlaping. First, we created 5 thumbnail sketches for each of the words. I struggled with the word “tension,” so to help me, I looked up the definition and also synonyms to help my creative process. Here are my thumbnail sketches for the 5 words.

After the 25 thumbnail sketches, I got feedback on my ideas. I was asked to think about movement, balance, composition, symmetry, and white space. After considering these important design principles, I iterated my sketches and began to digitize the best sketch for each word (5 sketches total).

Here are my different iterations for the digital component of the project. I received some feedback and kept brainstorming and tweaking my ideas until I came up with a more refined idea that I was satisfied with. When I would get stuck, I would take a break from the project as a whole or move on to a different word. I received more feedback and was asked to consider negative space, scale, and spacing between the black squares.

Finally, after much thought and iteration, I found the ones I was most moved by and also portrayed the word the best. For order, I thought of counting and used increasing block sizes. My playfulness design was influenced by children climbing on top of things. It has a “jester” feel to it. I depicted congestion as blocks falling and creating a “congested” pile of black squares. Through the use of different angles and spacing between the black squares, I created movement. Comforting designs for me are simple and clean, thus I chose a design that was simple, clean, but familiar to represent comfort. For tension, I used foreground/background, and negative space to show tension. One could look at the white space as pulling, or the black space as pushing.

Throughout this project, I learned more about the design principles, how to use them individually, and how they interact together to form an eye-catching and moving piece. There are many design principles to consider when designing.