Project Two: Form & Composition
Digital Illustration
2018
Individual Project
About the Project
This project is for the Communication Design Fundamentals course at Carnegie Mellon University. The project aims to convey the words ‘order’, ‘tension’, ‘congestion’, ‘playfulness’, and ‘comfort’ using only black squares, and introduces us to Gestalt principles, basic visual vocabulary, and Adobe Illustrator.
Project Process
Order
I found ‘order’ to be quite hard to convey. Many of my designs involved squares of various sizes, center aligned or aligned to a side, as I thought of order as being very strict and stiff. However, I thought the designs with blocks that were increasing or decreasing in size were not ‘orderly’ enough. Eventually, I chose the diagonal design, as I felt as though the diagonal staircase of same-sized squares was able to portray the feeling of ‘order’ without being too boring. I also thought the symmetry was very ‘orderly’ and provided a sense of continuation. In my final iteration, I did not change anything other than aligning the staircase to the center of the art board.
Tension
I really enjoy the concept of ‘tension’, so sketching these squares was quite fun. In my sketches, I explored the idea of tension being a square stuck in a tight space, and as a result, most of my drawings portrayed a small square being trapped by one or two larger squares. I ended up choosing my final design because I liked the reverse symmetry, and the way it illustrated the entrapment of the smaller square within the much larger squares. I also liked how the size of the two larger squares is left up to the viewer’s imagination. In my final design, I center aligned the two larger squares in order to strengthen the reverse symmetry. I also pushed the smaller square closer to the edge of the bottom square to give viewers the sensation that the smaller square is about to topple over the edge of the bottom square.
Congestion
When I first thought of the word ‘congestion’, I immediately thought of traffic, or of very large objects in confined spaces. However, I thought my initial designs were too literal, so I decided to explore the concept of congested areas within a white space in order to convey ‘congestion’ in a more refreshing way. I settled on an illustration of black squares gathering into a pile for my digital iterations. I chose to keep the squares the same size, and instead used rotation and proximity to bring movement to the piece. In my final iteration, I created more congestion through proximity by adjusting the white spaces between the squares in the pile.
Playfulness
I took a simpler approach to the concept of ‘playfulness’. Most of my sketches consisted of rows or columns of orderly squares, with one ‘playful’ square. I chose my final piece as I enjoyed the simplicity, and felt as though it was able to convey a lot with very few squares. In order to create more movement, I decided to rotate the squares in the line, and rotated the ‘playful’ square in the other direction to further express the concept of ‘playfulness’. In my final iteration, I moved the row of squares down in order to center it inside the art board.
Comfort
The concept of ‘comfort’ was by far the hardest to convey. Because everyone’s idea of ‘comfort’ is so different, it was difficult to think of sketches that would be universally appealing. Most of my sketches carried the idea of being surrounded, as I thought comfort could be best described as the feeling of being surrounded by friends or loved ones. Eventually, I settled on the flower-like design, as I find flowers comforting, and I liked the idea of the black squares surrounding the negative space in the center. In my final iteration, I played around with the size of the black squares, and made the center more symmetrical and evenly shaped.
Final Thoughts
I thought this project was really fun. Initially, I was intimidated by the idea of conveying words with just black squares, but as I began sketching and drafting my digital illustrations, I found that this project was a great way for me to exercise my creativity. Though this project, I learned a lot about Gestalt principles and basic visual vocabulary and how to apply those concepts to communication design.
