2.1 Form + Composition thumbnail
Using black squares to express different feelings
This week, we learned 7 Gestalt principles: Proximity, Similarity, Closure, Equilibrium, Continuity, Figure/Ground, and Isomorphic Correspondence.
To practice what we have learned, we are going to sketching at least 5 compositions that illustrate the following words:
order | tension | congestion | playfulness | comfort
For this exercise, I spent 5 minutes on each keyword and sketched as many thumbnails as possible.
Order
When I think of the word order, I also think of other words: stable, symmetric, rule, increasing/decreasing size/number/direction, gravity, structure…
Tension
The word tension reminds me of contrast, versus, sharp, big.
Congestion
Congestion is the hardest one. I try to not only represent congestion by the number of squares, but I am not sure if the audience will get it from my other attempts.
Playfulness
Playfulness reminds me of unstable, unsymmetric, change, curve, and repeat.
Comfort
Comfort is my favorite one. I tried to express a sense of comfort by showing stableness, freedom, or collaboration. Also, I tried the figure/ground principle in this exercise.
2020/09/10
Feedback from peer review& next step
Feedback: Play around with spacing; really like the one has 4 whites triangles
The next step: Select the one people like and the decreasing size one.
Feedback: Use more the narrow whitespace; Like the Sharp concept
The next step: I selected the comparison between large and small and the sharp arrow. I think they are special compared with classmates.
Feedback: For congestion, play with the scaling. Trying to move the squares together in the middle of the canvas; the one that contains many squares looks good
The next step: I really like the genius idea to move the squares squeezing in the middle of the canvas. I decided to choose the squares filled the canvas and the one that has different rotation degrees and sizes.
Feedback: People like the naughty concept; They also like the one that give a sense of motion
The next step: I chose one applies the naughty concept and another applies the motion concept for the digital composition.
Feedback: The different attempts are good; the storytelling one is impressive
The next step: I personally really like the ‘safe escape’ +freedom story, so I selected this one; Also, I selected the one under the ‘fit’ concept to differentiate from order.
2020/09/17
Digital draft ver01:
Order
Comment: playing around with spacing: how will it looks like if the spacing is different?
Tension
Comment: for the 2nd one, trying to adjusting the space between the sharp corner and the bottom line
Congestion
Comment: For the 1st one, try to zoom in/out to find the best composition; for the 2nd one, adjusting the spacing to be the same to make it doesn’t look like a mistake.
Playfulness
Comment: For the 1st one, adjusting the rotation to give the sense of motion; For the 2nd one, adjusting the spacing.
Comfort
Comment: For the 1st draft, adjusting the spacing; For the 2nd draft, it is verbal>visual now. The asymmetry and sharp corners don’t look like comfort.
2020/09/28
Final design & iteration
Order
This composition is ready in the last round, I received positive feedback about the use of whitespace and the concept of structure. I revised the spacing to make the composition vertical and horizontal symmetric.
Tension
In the first draft, I translate the word ‘tension’ to the concept of sharp. People suggested me to move the sharp arrow up and down and use narrow whitespace to give more sense of tension. I tried it but found that the whitespace as two triangles is standing out too much to give a simple feeling of sharp. I tried to make it asymmetric to make it uncomfortable: I rotated the square and moving it around, I tried the narrow white space on the edge of the artboard, I tried to change the angle of the sharp corner by using whitespace. Then I realized that if I only use one square, the sharp whitespace will always appear in pairs. Finally, I made a simple asymmetric white sharp shape in my composition.
Congestion
Congestion is another ready composition from the first draft of digital work. Based on the feedback to move the squares in the middle of the canvas, I tried to change the size of the squares. Then I arranged the smaller ones in the middle and the larger ones on the border to reduce the sense of error.
Playfulness
My first two drafts about playfulness are comparable. One is from the concept of a naughty boy doing something different from the majority, another is from the concept of motion. I changed the size and the rotation degree of the moving square in motion composition. Also, I adjusted the spacing. Finally, I chose the naughty one because of my preference for simplicity.
Comfort
As for the comfort, I adjust the spacing among each block to give more sense of fit. Looking at the rectangle in the middle, I had a feeling that the four chunks are moving and if it is a rectangle in the middle, the four blocks cannot meet each other finally. so I tried to leave square whitespace in the middle.
