Shape Grammar

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Statement of Intent

My goal for this project was to create two compositions that vary in methods of creation. For both, we were to use a simple shape and any one of the principles discussed in class to create a visual representation of an emotion/state of being of our choice. For my project, I chose to embody movement to create the state of being of wilting. In composition two, we were to use the law of chance to randomly disperse our shapes with the goal of creating the same state of being.

Ideation

Exercise completed in class to clarify principle definitions. This exercise helped to visualize the principles and gave me good foundational ideas for my compositions.
These are a few of my first ideations, moving from messy sketched ideas to more accurately drawn sketches that I was considering.

Iteration

Moving into working with physically cut-out shapes, I played around with how I wanted to implement my state of being and principle. I was originally aiming for a sense of losing control, but during a conversation with my professor, I realized my state of being wasn’t concise in a one-word description and decided to move towards a wilting movement, which changed my composition almost completely.
These are a few of my iterations for composition 2. My method was to hold all my shapes in my hands above the page and sprinkle them randomly. As I experimented with this, wilting was not coming through almost at all and I decided to use fewer shapes. Using fewer shapes allowed that idea to come through better for the final product.

Reflection

I think this project was challenging in many ways for me. It was difficult to pinpoint a state of being and create that idea to the best of my ability. Composition two was challenging because I found myself trying to recreate composition one but in a random way. It was also difficult for me because it was difficult to only have one singular principle come through dominantly over the others that were naturally being created. I think that through the process of creating both final products, I learned a lot more about what it means to truly ideate, how it’s so beneficial to come up with several separate ideas rather than being stingy on one, and the importance of feedback from others.

Final Work

View final project at Shape Grammar