Design Principles - Exercises

Chan Wan Qing / 0350928 / BA of Design (HONS) in Creative Media
Design Principle
Exercises 

EXERCISES [20%]

For the first exercise of this module, we are required to create 2 designs based on 2 chosen design principles.

Design Principles:

At first, I chose 2 design principles from the given list, which are emphasis and contrast.

From my understanding, emphasis means a particular part of a design that is able to catch people’s attention to focus on that part; whereas contrast means the elements in a design that show differences between one another.

My Design Progress…

After the exercise brief, I planned to create designs that describe myself because I already had a few ideas in my mind. I feel like I have many thoughts in my head these days, so I decided to start designing with this direction. I tried to used what I like to show myself (emotionally, feelings) by the principles I had chosen. 

-      Emphasis

For the principle of emphasis, I used the concept of universe (space). I was also inspired by a puzzle hanging in my living room, showing the Milky Way and planets. I think universe is able to show how great the creation of God is and from the other perspective, it also shows how ‘small’ human is.

In this design, I was thinking to emphasize on a sphere (planet), which symbolize myself, shining bright in the universe, which means what I want to become in the future.

This is my first sketch. I was trying to improve this step by step. From the first sketch, I realized the sphere does not look three-dimensional, and the whole design was too dark until I couldn’t focus on the sphere as it didn’t catch my attention.

Therefore, for the 2nd attempt, I tried to make the sphere looks more three-dimensional by referring to the crystal ball for the lightning of a sphere. I also tried to create a background with colours more contrast with the sphere so that it is emphasized more.

After feedback from lecturer, I was told that the design is okay but the principle is more on the principle of focal point. If I am to stick on the principle of emphasis, I have to improve it. Therefore, in the 3rd attempt, I added different sphere with low saturation and different sizes to show more emphasis on the largest sphere.  

Final Design 1:

‘LET ME SHINE’

Universe is a dark space with shining stars, planets. These shining matters had made the universe a very beautiful place like what we see in those pictures. In this design, I made myself one of the shining planets in the universe because I wanted to show myself, I wanted to make a difference with my ideas and shine bright in real life. I emphasize myself with the largest planet, comparing to the smaller ones, with no colours (other people), meaning that I do not know what they think nor how they feel. The colours in the largest planet symbolize what I am thinking, my ideas, different colours like red (exciting), black (mysterious), purple (weird), blue (depressed) and more smudge together to allow me to have some imaginations and ideas.

-      Contrast

For the principle of contrast, I create the design based on flowers. For this design, I was inspired by an album cover which the title song called ‘Flower’. I was thinking to use mask (inspired by 'The Phantom of The Opera') together with flowers to express myself. Then I thought of every flower has its own meaning, so I wonder maybe flowers with mask can represent my feelings, emotions and so on and how I cope with my emotions in this design. 

In this design, I wanted to show contrast between shapes, densities, but mainly in the elements of colours. With different colours, I hope this design is able to show what I want to tell.

For the first sketch, I started with the flower background but I edited the flowers background so that it does not look like real flower as I wanted it to show vaguer as it symbolizes my mind, where I also can’t picture my thoughts clearly. I felt like it is a little bit chaos in the colours, sizes. I think it could not show the principle of contrast but the principle of harmony so I was a little bit confused whether I am doing it the way I wanted. The colours of the mask and the flowers are not contrast enough to show its principle and the meaning of the design. 

In the 2nd sketch, I made the mask coloured in grey scale, black and white or darker colours as I want to experiment different combination to see which results implement the principle of contrast the best. I wasn’t sure about this design so I asked my lecturer for his feedback. My lecturer suggested me to show densities of the flowers and also add shadow onto the mask to make it looks clearer and more contrast.

In the 3rd attempt, I made some changes in terms of the sizes of the flowers background and add more spaces between them as previously, they looked too packed until there is no space. To make the background looks denser, I tried to make the spaces between flowers darker. For the mask, I decided to change the colour as well, focusing on white which contrast to the black spaces of the flower. I also coloured the mask in blue, which contrast to the flower. I added shadow of the mask to make it look less dense than the flower, showing contrast between them. 

Final Design 2:

‘FLOWER THOUGHTS BEHIND ME’

Every flower holds its own meanings until we often use flower to ‘communicate’ or express our feelings between one another. This design has a meaning how of I hide my different thoughts or views in different things in my mind, like the flowers behind the mask. In this design, flowers represent my thoughts, my feelings just like every flower language which indicate different meanings, whether they are good or bad. The mask is inspired by the musical, ‘The Phantom of The Opera, everyone wanted to hide their ugliness without showing out. It can show the contrast of the blue mask as blue means calmness and relaxation, like how I always show myself to people compared to the colourful background with many colours with different emotions that combined with different flowers that symbolize my mind. 

Reflection:

From this exercise, I could understand more about the principles of design and their differences especially the principles I had chosen, which are emphasis and contrast. I realized that for the principle of emphasis, to emphasize an element, I need to make it looks different compared to the other elements. For contrast, I have to make the elements look really different to show the principle. This exercise allows me to have a clearer understanding on designing according to one principle. Although the designs may also apply different principles, this exercise enable me to focus on one principle in designing.

Reference

1. https://mblogthumb-phinf.pstatic.net/MjAyMDA2MDhfOTkg/MDAxNTkxNTc5MjA4NzY1.dZnbfPGvA64cjisgV1TYZs_5qfmBdWfwUuUDIse8IUUg.1H75XKknc911mYiQnmGdiBnSTw1sRbsjzR3eTnKvzGkg.JPEG.daelee8829/tumblr_6effa120dd983426467f938f72aee22d_4bb9dace_640.jpg?type=w800

2. https://www.broadwaycollection.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Phantom-of-the-Opera-Musical-Broadway-Show-Group-Sales-Tickets-500-092721.jpg