Week Four

Ultimately, design is a means of expressing a message, an idea. In order to design, one must acknowledge the fact that design is by no means decoration. In getting your point across visually, you strive to find the right balance between what is beautiful, aesthetic and what is functional and useful. I wanted to explore a visual interpretation of what is written, not only through type, but also by furthering the concept through visual illustration. A poster is a perfect application of all the above variables. Check out this link for some examples.

THE BIG PICTURE:

Designing is the art of planning.
Design can also be described as the organization of visual information.

DESIGN
We are all designers. To design means to plan. Almost everything we come in contact with has been designed by someone. This is most obvious in manufactured items (although good design is rare). Most of the living things we see have also been designed. Sheep dogs and American Beauty roses are not the product of natural selection. They were designed. The people that designed these, and all other, things used a surprisingly similar process.

All designing has a common set of components.

COMPOSITION
The products of design are compositions -- arrangements of the visual elements. They are as varied as the objects you see around you.

PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN
The design principles are the concepts used to organize visual information -- the design elements. They are used to create balance and harmony, direct attention and control the unity and variety in a composition.

DESIGN ELEMENTS
The elements of design are the visual tools at the disposal of a designer. They are the various ways that a blank page can be altered to create a two-dimensional image...shape, line, value, color, texture and space(the illusion of depth).

ART
Art can mean many things. Put visually:
ART- the highest level communication
Art- common meaning aesthetics
art- basic meaning skill

All artwork requires skill, but so does surgery. Art can be made with modest skills but the best art is very skillfully made.

Aesthetics are concerned with what the art looks like. It is the philosophy of beauty. Most artwork stops at this level, content to look good and perhaps to tell a simple story. Wallpaper and greeting cards do this.

The communication that is referred to in the highest level of ART is the profound message of the masters -- emotion. Art can move us to laughter or tears and that speaks of its power.

GOALS OF GOOD DESlGN
There are two things that a designer tries to accomplish in every composition: unity with variety. These concepts are in many ways the opposite of each other. The goal is to reach a balance between the two.

The root word for unity is unit -- one.
UNITY
It is important that all of the parts of a composition work together to make a united whole. If the visual elements fight against each other they can cancel each other's effectiveness or split the composition in two. Another way of saying this is: the whole is more important than the the sum of its parts. It is often necessary to adjust, even compromise, the details to better serve the total composition.

Variety is the spice of life.
VARlETY
A blank paper has perfect unity but lacks any interest. Variety is what develops interest in a composition. There are a lot of ways to achieve variety: by using different sizes, shapes, colors, textures and subject matters. The difficulty is to use enough variety to generate interest without loosing the sense of unity in the image. Be willing to experiment -- try lots of things but have enough sense to know when you have gone too far.

All designs have certain basic elements or building blocks chosen to convey the message — beyond the actual words or photos used. How we place those items on the page determines the structure of our designs and affects the overall readability and determines how well our design communicates the desired message. Design principles are used to create balance and harmony, direct attention and control the unity and variety in a composition.

Generally, all the principles of design apply to any piece you may create. How you apply those principles determines how effective your design is in conveying the desired message and how attractive it appears. There is seldom only one correct way to apply each principle.

BALANCE:
Visual balance comes from arranging elements on the page so that no one section is heavier than the other. Or, a designer may intentionally throw elements out of balance to create tension or a certain mood.

PROXIMITY / UNITY:
Proximity or closeness creates a bond between people and between elements on a page. How close together or far apart elements are placed suggests a relationship (or lack of) between otherwise disparate parts.

Alignment brings order to chaos. How you align type and graphics on a page and in relation to each other can make your layout easier or more difficult to read, foster familiarity, or bring excitement to a stale design.

REPETITION / CONSISTENCY:
Repeating design elements and consistent use of type and graphics styles within a document gives your work visual uniformity. (Less is more)

CONTRAST:
Big and small elements, black and white text, squares and circles, can all create contrast in design.

WHITE SPACE:
Designs that try to cram too much text and graphics onto the page are uncomfortable and may be impossible to read. White space gives your design breathing room.

Links: Principles of design

Lastly, but most importantly—

Your Poster project will be assigned to you this week

Due date- February 8th, at the beginning of class.

To keep things interesting for you-a class with a variety of skill levels I am offering you three poster options. This project will allow you to utilize everything we have learned up to this point. You will be given necessary images and text promoting an event. Image size should be no greater than 7” wide and 10” tall with a resolution of 200dpi. It may be either vertical or horizontal. Choose RGB for your color mode and white as your background.

Graded areas:

1. Coherence of information
2. Aesthetics - effective use of visuals makes your poster easy to read. The balance and placement of text and graphics.
3. Use of color.
4. I will be looking for the use of the selection tools, gradients, color correction, opacity, blending modes and text.
   

Option #1) A local theater company (Circle of Stones Ritual Theater Ensemble) needs a poster for their upcoming performance on one of the oldest epics in history- GILGAMESH

Because of the obscurity of this story I recommend doing a bit of web research on this subject. To familiarize yourself with the subject matter here are a few links to the story of King Gilgamesh.

• Link 1
• Link 2
• Link 3
  

Text must include the following information:

Circle of Stones Ritual Theater Ensemble Presents: GILGAMESH

November 19,20,21 and 26,27,28, 2009

Symphony Hall

Allentown

Tix: 610 432-7961

An original theatrical adaptation written by

Circle of Stones Ritual Theatre Ensemble

Music composed and directed by Scott Eggert

Directed by Steven Dennis

Choreographed by Tim Cowart

Supported in Part By:

Amaranth Foundation, Holt Family Foundation, Kairos Trust, One With the Earth Project, The Rider-Pool Foundation


Option 2)
Same as above but with a more generic musical ensemble performing at the Allentown Symphony hall. Artwork and text will be provided.

Option 3)
A band poster will be created for the band of your choice. This poster must not consist of ripped off artwork. You must provide or create all artwork on all

REMEMBER: SAVE YOUR WORK REGULARLY