This assignment involved the visual representation of 5 moods: Playfulness, Congestion, Order, Tension and Comfort using squares and Gestalt principles. This allows us to represent concepts and develop a visual design solution.
Ordering
The ordering of the 5 different compositions were carefully designed, using a plot’s structure, in which story elements are arranged.
Starting from the left-most, Playfulness sets up an opening of the plot, as though a story is about to unfold. The mood makes the user excited for the story to commence.
Subsequently, Congestion sets up a problem or complication in the plot, a catalyst that begins a major conflict.
Order seems to be climbing up, leading the story into the climax, or the turning point of the story, where complication is attempted to be resolved.
Tension follows, with all the complications that take place in order to resolve the problems. It also depicts an exciting moment, creating an exciting feeling for the user.
At the end, Comfort depicts the resolution after the climax, where a story is brought to a close.
Apart from these sequence of events, the compositions are also balanced according to their weight, so as to create a symmetric balance for the piece. Order was placed in the center as it creates the balance most significantly. Moving outwards in both directions, Congestion and Tension are placed, as they have the heaviest (black) volume value in terms of the black figure to white ground ratio. Finally, Playfulness and Comfort are placed at the ends, as they have the lowest figure to ground ratio.
Playfulness
For playfulness, I wanted a composition that has figure/squares that are depicted as spontaneous, dynamic, and active. Hence, I instinctively knew that equilibrium must be restrained, and rotations of squares are necessary.
In my illustration, I used square figures that went in a spiral, from small to large, so as to create a sense of depth. I wanted to make the squares seem like they seem to be coming out from the center of the paper (ground), as though they want to actively come out (towards the viewer) and play.
There were not much changes made to this piece since the first critique session, as it has received very positive feedback from classmates and instructors alike. I only made very minor changes so as to sort out the cropping of the 2nd-largest square. Initially, it was cropped out a little, which made it seem like an intentional mistake. Subsequently, Somya mentioned that it was still too close, which seem to create a little tension. In this final submission, I shifted every square up so the square will not seem too close to the edge and hence not create any form of tension.
Congestion
Taking Somya’s feedback to not think of Physics nor illustrating images/scenarios with squares, but instead think of what happens to eye movement, I took a step back and decided to play with figure/ground a little more. In this final composition, I scaled up the black squares to convey congestion within the composition. I also played with the white space such that it makes use of the idea of continuation to convey congestion – the white lines seem to converge.
Order
Order also received positive comments from Somya and Shiba. Playing around with similarity to create a stable equilibrium, this composition creates a vertical symmetry in the center, not only for the black figure (black squares), but also the white space (inside the squares). Initially, there were tiny little slits between the blocks on top which created a little tension which I have rectified. It now conveys a nice and interesting-looking balanced composition in order.
Tension
Having received good critiques from both the class, Somya and Shiba, I did not make changes to this piece. In general, playing with scale and orientation/rotation, I made two squares such that they draw the eyes to the large square first and make people think of a cliff, and then subsequently shifts the eye to the smaller square, and finally into the white space below. It creates a hierarchy and sets the movement of the eye, which follows the path of the smaller square, as though it was rolling off the larger square (cliff), creating tension.
Comfort
Based on more critiques from Somya and Shiba, the previous composition seemed to make the user’s eyes go back and forth between big squares and the arc. This is definitely the hardest composition to create.
Subsequently, in this final composition, I gave it a singular focal point to allow someone to easily rest their eyes on, so that they see one entity rather than lots of squares. The focal point is placed at the bottom-right of the composition. Initially, I had 3 squares, but Somya mentioned that her eyes were still moving back and forth between the empty space and the black squares.
From her recommendation, I made 4 squares to create a sense of equilibrium, and also to prevent the user’s eyes from going into the empty white space. The squares are settled and scaled appropriately with close proximity, so the brain sees them as one entity. I also made the squares smaller, and provide a sort of symmetry across the top-left to the bottom-right diagonal (instead of a symmetry across the x or y axis), so it does not seem like order.
Posted by terencelim1989 | Filed under Assignment 2