Project 2 Documentation
1/31/2019
The project aims to resemble the “feeling” of words given with only squares in a 6 inch template. Trying to convey meaning through placing least possible squares, I focused on the simplicity and wanted to show the effectiveness of simple things.
Initial Sketches
Before I sketch the ideas with a marker, I started with a pen to explore what I can create. After trying many different prototypes for each words, I finalized my idea with 5 ideas for each words then started new sketches with a marker.
Digital Iterations
As I transferred my sketches to digital, I chose two of sketches that best represent the image of the words I tried to deliver. From here, I chose “Rigid +Fluid” and “Rhythmic + Erratic” to work with, because personally the “clumsy + graceful” pair was the hardest pair that I could think of to work with. Unlike the other two pairs, I did not have confidence to design it effectively. Since our focus is communication design, I thought it won’t be an effective communication design if I’m not certain.
Feedback
One of the feedback that really helped me understand the project was that on the top right corner of “rigid + fluid”, originally it did not have the base at the bottom of the page. But the tension the audience might get from a square almost touching the base did not go along well with the word “fluid”, so I added a based to keep it more softer. With the feedback received, I finalized my compositions for the final piece with some tweaks.
Final Work
The reason why I chose color yellow to work with Rigid and Fluid is because black and yellow gives me a very balanced feel, but also very contrasting in color. To give the rigid piece more rigid “feel”, and balance for fluid piece , I added the colors in order. For reversible figure/background, it may look too simple, but as I mentioned in intro, my main focus for the project was simplicity. At first I thought it may deliver enough message, however, as I was staring at it, I felt like it was pulling me inside the black tilted square in the middle. That is the reason why I left the 4 corners white, without any other squares to help focus in the middle.
Reflect
The biggest thing I got from the final critique was that everyone has their own different ways to express a same word. There were some that looked similar, but those had different feel, use of color, and size of squares. I learned that subtle differences can change the overall feeling of the work. From looking at other student’s work, I decided to focus more on details to more effectively deliver a message that I try to, rather than keeping it too simple that the viewers may not get drawn into.
