Project #2

Digital Image & Print

2018

Kianna Gonzalez

About the Project

The above images are the final products of Project #2 in the course Communication Design Fundamentals Spring 2018. Each student was assigned the challange of creating individual images that represent order, tension, playfulness, comfort, and congestion using only black squares. The purpose of this assignment was to practice effectively conveying messages, feelings, and or information using the simplicity of black squares. Our individual works were shown and critiqued by our peers in order to determine the success of our attempts to create meaning in images.

Project Process

We all began by making a minimum of five hand drawn sketches for each word. This was meant to be a quick, low commitment way of brainstorming. We then took our sketches to Adobe Illustraitor to get a more accurate feel for how our sketches would look. After some editing and experiemnting we all chose our preferred images for each category to be displayed in class.

My personal progress followed this general outline, but I found the begining stages to be the most challenging. My sketching felt limited due to the graph paper I was sketching on and it prevented me from thinking on a much larger and smaller scale. Very few of my sketches made it into a fleshed out Illustrator image. I found using Ai to be the easiest, and fastest, way to create multiple images. I was able to copy and paste, delete, resize, transfer, and so on much faster and more accuratly than I was able to on paper. With this method, my experiemntation with images and messages was more accurate and satifying than with sketching. I valued the process of sketching becuase it helped introduce me to various layouts, but I felt more passionate about what I made digitally. Arriving at the last stage, choosing my final images was difficult becuase I had to choose between very simple compositions and fairly complicated ones and decide which conveyed the assigned words the best. Each word had its own concept and strategy, but I stand by my final choices.

Order

These were my priliminary drawings for order. Most of them exhibited some style of pattern while others had an extreme amount of negative space not utilized to the fullest. I could have benefited from using a micron in my sketches to help me anticipate the white and black spaces.

These are my digital iterations of order. I find them to use white space more effectivly. Finding a balance between the amount of white space and black space was difficult. In these iterations I focused more the idea of patterns and repetition that create a sense of order.

I ultimatly decided on this composition because it was the most aligned and had a better variation in square size. I really enjoyed recreating larger squares with smaller squares because it gave solid concept of size.

Playfulness

In these sketches I only focused on the idea that rotating the squares was the only way to represent playfulness. Another problem with the sketches was that the layers I drew would not have shown in the digital versions.

These iterations were completely different than my sketches because it was much easier to see the issue of layering black, opaque squares. I was still focused on the rotation of the squares to represent playfulness but I was less reliant on just the rotation but also the relationship with other squares.

This final iteration was the most successful in the use of varied square size as well as utilizing the negative space. Without the negative space, the illusion of falling cubes would not be as successful.

Tension

Of these sketches, there was a limited variation in style and composition that was difficult to break out of.

In these iterations, I was trying to channel physical pressure and the anticipation of force to simulate tension. I also attempted to create movement and direction using angles and points.

This was the only instance where my sketch made it to the final iteration. Its simplicity is very effective as an image of tension and the best example of continuity.

Comfort

I struggled the most creating these sketches because the restrictions of the grid paper and the lack of contrast made it very hard to envision what these layouts could look like.

In these digital iterations I was focused on creating a sense of comfort through physical protection and surroundings. I pictured motherly hugs and general home life when compiling these compositions.

I chose this as my final image because I think it embodies safety and comfort because it is visually similar to a house. The jagged edge acts as protection for the squares sitting comfortably within the black space.

Congestion

Once again I ran into the issue of not being able to visualize positive and negative space accurately. Because of this my sketches were very restricted and did not convey congestion in a way that I thought was relatable.

There are fewer digital iterations here because despite being able to see the white and dark spaces I had a difficult time finding a balance that also represented congestion. When creating these I was focused on the feeling of traffic or busy cities that are overcrowded.

I created a new composition based on scrapped iterations. The white space creates a scattered and busy nature that also simulates congestion. This layout also has an extremely varied used of squares that create secret and indistinguishable shapes.

Conclusion

This process of this assignment has taught me to both accept and reject my initial sketches. I accept them because they proved to be useful the brainstorming stage that created a good introduction to my visions. I reject them because I realized my sketches do not have to be perfect nor be the final image I choose. I feel confident in the final images I chose because it proved that creating an image using only black squares can be complex or simple but still prove effective. This was a challenging but essential first project that was able to bring learned concepts and skills to a hands on experience that will later inform projects to come.