Design:Part II

This is a continuation to my previous post, Design. Please Read this first blog entry here...

Gutenberg Diagram
navigating dense information
 The Gutenberg Diagram is a diagram that describes the general pattern followed by the eyes when looking at any media, such as artwork, webpages, newspapers, magazines, and advertisements. This principle is based metaphorically on reading gravity, like how we as americans have learned to read from top left to right and down a page of information. Designers will complement this principle by placing important graphic elements starting at the top left and along the pathway of the eye toward the end area.

http://blog.maxincube.com/marketingtwo/?p=379

Legibility
good typographic practice
 Legibility is the visual clarity of text, whichis based on the size, typeface, contrast, text block, and spacing of characters. For example, when choosing a font to use for a text that is featured in a  design, you would probably not choose a font that is difficult to read, or too small. A bad use of legibility is using the color yellow in front of a white background with a small font.

Rule of Thirds

A Technique of composition in which a medium is divided into thirds, creating aesthetic positions for the primary elements of a design.

To put the rule of thirds in effect, you basiclly divide a piece into thirds both horizontal and vertically so that there is a grid. At every intersection of the lines indicates a good focal point to make the piece interesting. The rule of thirds is so popular, that Photoshop has a grid you can place on your canvas that follows the rule of thirds. Here is an example of the rule of thirds in effect.

http://www.sgawne.com/blog/2009/02/14/rule-of-thirds/

Again, I highly recommend you purchase Universal Principles of Design by William Lidwell, Kritina Holden, and Jill Butler. This book features all of these, plus many more design principles. It can be bought at Amazon.com using this link here.

-AA

Tools for Artists

While doing my daily blog surfing, I found a couple of online tools that can be really useful to any artist. I discovered both tools on the Academy of Art Character and Creature Design Notes Blog. 
Did I mention that they are all free?

The first tool will help you with your gesture drawings. It is called the 'Human Gesture Drawing Practice Tool'. It is featured on a website called Pixelovely, and you can find the link to the tool here.
Basiclly this tool generates random images of humans in different poses, so you can practice drawing them. You can even customize the settings, such as choosing different time intervals to switch between images, choosing the gender of the models, and choosing nude models or clothed models. They even feauture an 'Animal Gesture Drawing Practice Tool', where you can choose mammals, birds, insects, rodents, and aquatic animals to draw. It it a great tool to start practicing your gesture drawing skills. Even if you a beginner like me, I still recommend to at least try and draw some of the pictures it features. There is nothing to lose, because all you can do is move forward.

The second tool is called the 'Color Scheme Designer.' You can find this tool here. This tool lets you pick and choose different colors, but it restrains you to different color schemes, such as complementary, triad, tetrad, analogic, and accented analogic. This is a great tool to play around with, and it will definitely help you when deciding on a color scheme for a design or art piece.

 

http://colorschemedesigner.com/

You should definitely check both of these tools out. What is there to lose?

-AA

Bad Romance

The other day I was surfing Youtube, and I stumbled across this remake of Lady Gaga's Bad Romance Video.
In my personal opinion, it is wonderfully done, with even the littlest details almost matching the orginal video. Take a look for yourself.

Original Lady gaga music video:



And now compare it to Sleepybum682's recreation.





The video was created and posted by Sleepybum682's youtube channel.
Not only has Sleepybum682 recreated Bad Romance, he recreated many other Lady Gaga Music video's, such as Pokerface, Pappaazzi, and Telephone. The videos Sleepybum does are made in the Sims2 video game software. I have never played Sims, so I really do not know how it works, but what I do know is that the stuff Sleepybum does is incedible. If you are a Lady Gaga fan, or a Sims fan, then I really encourage you to check out his channel.

-AA

Design

So one of the key elements in artwork, movies, commercials, advertisements, photographs, architecture, and products is Design. How something looks is very important when it comes to trying to appeal to an audience. Design can be the dividing line between a successful piece, or a boring piece. So the question is how do you make sure the Design is perfect?

Universal Principles of Design by William Lidwell, Kritina Holden, and Jill Butler is a book that is filled with design techniques that can enhance usability, influence perception, and increase appeal. It can be bought at Amazon.com using this link here. It is a great book that I recommend to anybody who is an artist, photographer, director, designer, or entrepreneur. I'm not going to give away the whole book, but I am going to talk about some of the design principles that this book features.

Storytelling
A method of creating imagery, emotions, and understanding of events through an interaction between a storyteller and an audience.
Storytelling can be any instrument of information that engages an audience to vicariously experience an similar set of events. Elements of storytelling that can be used as a framework for the design of most things include setting, characters, plot, invisibility, mood, and movement.


Fibonacci Sequence
mathematical order in nature.
Fibonacci Sequence is a sequence of numbers in which each number is the sum of the preceding two.
A great example of this principle in use is Da Vanchi's Mona Lisa. The whole placement of the woman in the painting is based off of the Fibonacci Sequence

http://www.flickr.com/photos/michaelpaukner/4260592085/

This pattern is also found in most classic art forms, such as poetry, art, music, and architecture.


Golden Ratio
A ratio within the elements of a form, such as height to width, approximating 0.618.
Examples of the things with the golden ratio include the Parthenon, a Stradivarious Violin, the Notre-Dame Cathedral, a Nautilus Shell, Eames LCW Chair, iPods, and da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man.

 http://www.intmath.com/Numbers/mathOfBeauty.php

The man in this drawing is perfectly proportioned with the Golden Ratio.

Good Continuation
aesthetic relatedness
 This means that elements arranged in a straight line or smooth curve are perceived as a group, and are interpreted as being more related than elements not on the line or curve.The smooth repetitive design line tends to dominate our attention.The relatedness in design lines contribute to the overall recognition of designed objects and are therefore more aesthetically pleasing.

Closure
holistic patterns
 Closure is a tendency to perceive a set of individual elements as a single, recognizable pattern, rather than multiple, individual elements. Logos use this principle to simplify the form to a basic one, so the logo can be recognized better. Lots of them use geometric shapes that are near each other, because they are more easy to understand. Comic books and video games also use this principle to simplify the visual story.
A great example of Closure is Frank Miller’s Sin City comic book series. Here are some examples of his comics:

 

http://www.picsearch.com/pictures/movies%20and%20directors/movies%20by%20genre/top%20crime%20movies/sin%20city.html

Figure-Ground Relationship
directing eye to what’s important

 This means that elements are perceived as either figures (objects of focus) or ground (the rest of the perceptual field). As humans, we separate things of interest into either figure or ground elements.Figure elements are in focus and ground elements are undifferentiated. To tell whether things are figures, or ground, follow these hints:
Figure has definite shape 
Figure seems closer in space
Elements at the lower region of a design are more likely figures.

Ground continues behind the figure
Ground seems farther away in space
Elements at the lower upper region of a design space are probably ground. 

Here is a classic example of Figure-Ground Relationship....

http://observatory.designobserver.com/entry.html?entry=11017

When you look at it, you can either see a Vase, which is the figure, or two profiles of faces, which is the ground.

-AA