Project 2: Form & Composition
Illustration// Individual Project// 2018
About the Project
This project is an exploration of how the most basic forms can convey complex concepts such as order, tension, congestion, playfulness, and comfort. These compositions were achieved through adjustments of count, scale, orientation, and relationship between form and space, many of which corresponds with the Gestalt principles presented in class. These compositions represented art works within themselves, but also taught students the basics of design that will be further built upon in future projects.
Project Process
Going into the thumbnails process, I had thought the squares had to be individual objects, and could not overlap to create new shapes or act as negative space. Thus, most of my sketches focus on the scale and relationship between shapes.
With my digital illustrations, I experimented a lot more with merging shapes and negative space, sometimes combining the two methods. For order, I used a lot of stable squares similar in size. Because of this repetition, it was very important for the spacing and alignment to be perfect. Starting with tension, I explored placing boxes outside of the bounding squares to create some interesting dynamics. I focused especially on the meeting points between edges and corners, as it often gave a sense of danger that corresponded with the concept of tension. When approaching the idea of congestion, the most immediate idea that came to mind was using an excessive amount of squares to highlight the feeling of being forced into small spaces, as seen in two of my illustrations. However, I wanted to challenge myself to convey the same situation with the least amount of square, and I once again played with the intersection of edges and corners. With playfulness, I wanted to show the juxtaposition of a still, stable square with ones with more movement. For this reason, I played a lot with the angling of the squares. Finally, for comfort, I wanted to convey a sense of containment or companionship, which are the ideas of comfort for me, so I worked a lot with stable squares and squares in squares.
Final Compositions
Order
For order, I chose this digital iteration that represented uniformity with the same sized squares and hierarchy with the different levels of squares. The feedback I received on my initial sketch was that the two ending squares seemed too balanced and still to suggest further levels above and below the existing squares. Thus, I made the slightest shift to the left so that the ending squares became different widths to suggest movement beyond the bounding box.
Tension
For tension, I played a lot with edges and precariously balanced boxes to imply stress and danger, which I felt encompassed the concept of tension. However, I felt that the alignment of the two balancing boxes was so perfect that it almost became stable. Thus, for the final iteration, I altered the angle of the two boxes so it seemed that they were connected but just barely. In addition, I also placed the focus in the top corner instead of the bottom to suggest that the objects are hanging from something and just almost holding on.
Congestion
When it came to the concept of congestion, I immediately thought of a traffic jam, where all the cars are packed together in a such a disorderly manner that there is no continuous path between any of the cars. I tried to convey this idea in my initial sketches with a mess of same sized squares. However, I wanted to challenge myself by conveying the same idea with fewer squares. I realized that I could zoom in on any of the square intersection could still properly convey the situation, because the way the squares are angled against each other made it clear that they were clashing head to head.
Playfulness
This was personally the most difficult composition for me. For the initial compositions of playfulness, I knew that I wanted to use different angles and levels to convey the image of bouncing up and down with excitement. However, the squares seemed disconnected due to the placement and spacing between each one. In addition, I did not like how there was so much white space above and below that made the squares seem like they were just floating in midair. For my revisions, I layered two of the squares to highlight their interaction. In addition, the scaling from large to small takes away that floating sensation and gave the composition a sense a depth as well as a flow that better connected the individual squares. Finally, having only one full square in the composition made it feel like a game of “hide and seek” that embodies the idea of playfulness. After all the transformation, this actually became my favorite composition.
Comfort
Comfort was another concept that I struggled with. I knew I wanted to explore the idea of companionship, but was stuck on the image of one person leaning against another, as seen in my initial iteration. To make improvements, I wanted to push the concept beyond the physical sense of comfort. With this idea in mind, I decided to layer the two squares and highlight the overlap. This maintained the physical image of leaning, but also conveyed a sense of intimacy of a shared space between two figures. I also alternated the figure-ground colors, because I felt that the dark background better emphasized the aloneness of the two figures.
Final Reflections
When I first received the instructions for this project, I had wished for more to work with as I knew that it would be difficult to work with just black squares to explain complex concepts. However, after completing the project, the basic premise actually turned out to be a great way to build a foundation in thinking creatively. I realized that the most important part of any design process is the thinking. As long as you can come up with some unique ideas and a strong will to execute them, everything design wise can come in later. This project has definitely changed the way that I approach any project, and I hope I can further explore this method in future projects.
