Research

When starting the research for this project, I wanted to find a way to communicate elements and complex ideas of design principles using essential pieces such as shapes and lines. As I moved through the process, I started to see how aligning shapes and using white space can demonstrate a significant amount of meaning through basic concepts. I was inspired by the Canada Modernist movement and the simplicity of that style of design.

 

Exercises

My first exercise was to cut out the sizes of shapes provided by the assignment parameters. I then experimented using tracing paper to trace over the shapes and see how the images would turn out.

 

I did not focus, per se, on achieving a specific design principle through this engagement. Instead, I wanted to see how concepts could come to life and then, from there, see how elements from the designs could represent different design principles.

These are some of my tracing examples.

The next iteration was the digital process. I must acknowledge that I felt significantly more comfortable with these tools. My skills with crafts are not as developed as my skill with digital art, though I embrace the opportunity to do both. I originally started with Vectornator but my comfort and experience with Adobe Illustrator prompted me to move forward with that program. In this phase, I had an idea of what design principles I wanted to pursue, which were movement and rhythm. Most of my designs are intended to showcase a specific principle, and I would change them around if I felt like it didn’t.

These are a few of the digital ideas I tried.

 

Iterations

I decided to pick this conceptualization because I felt the concept best communicated the design principles. This design represents movement and rhythm. I ultimately settled on a design yet made a few changes to the concept. For example, I was originally concerned that there was too much white space from my first design. To remedy the dead space I decided to restart the pattern but in the opposite direction to give a more complex look to the design. An unintended benefit was that the additional triangles give this piece a lot more depth than the original.

 

Production

Digital

For my digital piece, I worked with the program Adobe Illustrator using a singular triangle that I resized and rotated to match up to each spot.

Analog

For analog, I used an exacto knife to cut out white bristol. I then glued them onto a black piece of poster board. My biggest struggle here was keeping the shapes aligned.

The two design principles are movement and rhythm. The sensation I am getting from this design is energy, I get the feeling that the forms in this project are darting back and forth off to the distance, then at the end, they come back towards the viewer.

The one edit I chose to make was to eliminate one of the small triangles. I realized it looked a bit crowded and interrupted the flow of movement.

Overall, I enjoyed this project and thought the end result was quite satisfying. I think the one piece I need to work on is my craftsmanship and attention to detail, and that is something I will continue to work toward improvement.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Link to Portfolio