Research/Exercises
Point, Line, Plane
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During this exercise, we did multiple compositions focusing on one principle within a five minute time span. This exercise was very helpful, because I didn’t have time to overthink about how I was making the compositions and was able to practice focusing on multiple, different principles of design.
For this exercise, we had to find shapes within a composition that we made with circles, squares, and triangles. Then, we had to use a line and dot to make those shapes look dynamic or static. The photo to the far left shows what shapes and compositions made the unique shapes that I used for the final product of the exercise. The two photos next to it are my cardstock and digital compositions of the first part of this exercise. I made a mistake when creating my shapes, making concave shapes when we were supposed to make convex shapes. Also, I struggled a lot with my precision when cutting out the four 8×8 squares for this exercise. Learning what I needed to improve on from the critique and practicing my precision with cutting really helped me when redoing this exercise and even when making the final product.
These photos show the process and product of my redo of the previous exercise. When first doing this exercise, I thought the lines could only be straight. However, after challenging the definition of a line, I learned that the lines could be curved and even implied. I began by cutting out different shapes and types of lines, then pairing them together to see what makes my shapes either static or dynamic.
Iterations
To brainstorm for the final product, I created ten different compositions on tracing paper and three different ones on Adobe Illustrator. After going through and seeing with ones had a better composition and more unique shapes, I chose one of the iterations that I made on paper to use for my final.
Concept Statement
The title of my piece is “Conjoining.” The main principle of my piece is unity. I decided on this title and principle for my piece, because each shape needs each other to visualize the implied shapes within the composition. Also, I can see all of the shapes coming together towards the center, hence why I chose my title to be a verb about combining.
Production
To start the cardstock portion of the final product, I measured out my shapes in their original form and used those numbers to scale up the shapes double the size. I created my scaled-up composition on a piece of scrap paper and cut out all of the shapes to create stencils. After labeling which shapes were going to be black, I used the shapes to trace onto black cardstock, cut them out using a blade and a pair of scissors, and glued them onto white cardstock. I completed the digital composition beforehand and was able to use that as an additional reference when scaling up.
Final Product
These two photos are my final products, the digital on the left and cardstock version on the right. I decided to label my piece, “Conjoining,” and listed the principle as unity. I originally had the principle as variety when I was doing my iterations. In the iteration, I listed variety since all of the shapes are jumbled together in a cluster. However, I changed it after seeing how each shape in the composition needs each other to complete each other, a characteristic that I associate with unity.
Link to Portfolio Piece: Shape Grammar