design 1 notebook

One withDesign

Journey troughbasic design principles by Felix Soletic

One w

ith Design | Felix S

oletic

One withDesign

Student Felix SoleticInstructor Bruce Claypool

Class Design 1

Fall 2011.

Table ofContents

02

Geometric Compositions 04

Grayscale & Color Wheel Value Studies 06

Neutral Mixing Chart / RGB & CMYK Charts 08

Color Schemes 10

HSV / Munsell T-Charts

12

Color Contrast & Asymmetrical Color Balance 14

Grouping & Gestalt 16

Golden Section, Root 2 & Tatami Notes 18

Grid Design Assignment 20

Photo Compositions 22

Color Terminology / Vocabulary 24

Bibliography & Reference Material 25

Master Grid 26

GeometricCompositions

04

About

For this composition assignment, we needed to design 12 visual solutions describing different compositional concepts outlined below, using black paper that was cut into specific shapes and glued on top of a 6” by 9” white paper, vertically oriented.paper, vertically oriented.

Black shapes serve as figures, while the white paper serves as the ground. We had twelve sets of eight shapes, and all 8 had to be used in each of our designs.

We couldn’t overlap the shapes, or make the shapes bleed off the edge of the ground. Also, we couldn’t form arrows that would suggest direction.

EmphasisFigure on GroundAsymmetrical Balance

DiagonalVerticalThe Face

Figure / Ground AmbiguityOrder / PatternMovement

HorizontalSymmetrical BalanceRandom

Composition

Composition is the placement or arrangement of visual elements or ingredients in a work of art or a photograph, as distinct from the subject of a work. It can also be thought of as the organization of the elements of art according to the principles of art.

The term composition means 'putting together,' and can apply to any work of art, from music and writing to photography, that is arranged or put together using conscious thought. In the visual arts, composition is often used interchangeably with various terms such as design, form, visual ordering, or formal structure, depending on the context. In graphic design and desktop publishing, composition is commonly referred to as page layout.

GrayscaleStudies

06

About Tone

What tone means in a design context is simple. It's how light or dark a color is, rather than what the actual color or hue is. Yet implementing tone in a design is often bother-some to artists. Thi is because we get easily distracted by the strong appeal of color.

The number or range of tones that can be produced also varies. Lighter hues (such as yellows) will produce a smaller range of tones than darker ones (such as blacks).

WhyWhy is tone important? Here's what that master of color Henri Matisse had to say (in his A Painter's Notes, 1908): "When I have found the relationship of all the tones the result must be a living harmony of all the tones, a harmony not unlike that of a musical composition."

InIn other words, if a design is going to be successful, you must get your tones right, otherwise it's just going to be visual noise. The first step to doing this is to remove color from the equation, to create a range of tone using only black and its shades.

The Grayscales

The two extreme tones or values are black (very dark) and white (very light). Recognizing the tone or value of a color, rather than the hue, is important to a designer because successful designs often have tonal contrast in them.

A design with only mid-tones risks being flat and dull. Value or tonal contrast creates visual interest or excitement.

OnOn the right, we can see two grayscales - one is percep-tual, which means that the gradation seems more true to the human eye but is not correct, and the mechanical gray scale which is mathematically correct, but to the human eye seems less correct than the perceptual one.

Perceptual Grayscale Mechanical Grayscale

Color & Value

Every color can produce a variety of tones; how light or dark these are depends on the color. It’s important to real-ize that tones are relative; how dark or light they seem de-pends on what's around them. A tone that's light in one context may seem darker in another.

50%

50%

07

Grayscale Swatch Painting

Using gouache, we had to paint a 11 step grayscale, with the transition in between being as smooth as possible. After paint-ing 50 or more swatches, we picked 11 that represented the transition best, and taped them downdown between two drafting boards, one of them having a hole in the middle.

RGB, CMYK &Neutral Mixing Chart

08

Mixing Complementary Colors

The complement of a color is the color opposite it on the color wheel. Remember that the center of the color wheel is neutral. The chord of the complement mix runs through the center of the color wheel and so the color is neutral-ized. If you choose an exact complement, you can mix an achromatic gray. By mixing more or less of the comple-ment, you can lower the saturation a lot or a little.

This works because the opposite colors each absorb a portion of the spectrum. Green absorbs all but the colors around green. Magenta (red violet) absorbs all the colors except those around magenta. As a result, all of the colors are absorbed and no color is reflected. When the two colors are exactly matched, black is the result. If there is any white mixed with the paints, the color is gray.

TryTry staring at a color swatch for several seconds. When the edges of the color start vibrating look at a neutral back-ground (light gray or white), you will see an after image that is the complement of the first color.

The Neutral Mixing Chart

RGB Color Model

Light theory starts with black - the absence of light. When all of the frequencies of visible light are radiated together the result is white light. The color interaction is diagramed using a color wheel with red, green and blue as primary colors. Primary here means starting colors. These are the three colors that the cones in the eye sense. This is an RGB color system (Red, Green and Blue).

The primary colors mix to make secondary colors: red and green make yellow, red and blue make magenta and green and blue make cyan. All three together add up to make white light. That is why the theory is called additive.

CMYK Color Model

The CMYK color model is a subtractive color model, used in color printing, and is also used to describe the printing process itself. CMYK refers to the four inks used in some color printing: cyan, magenta, yellow, and key (black).

The CMYK model works by partially or entirely masking colors on a lighter, usually white, background. The ink reduces the light that would otherwise be reflected. Such a model is called subtractive because inks "subtract" brightness from white.

InIn additive color models such as RGB, white is the "additive" combination of all primary colored lights, while black is the absence of light. In the CMYK model, it is the opposite: white is the natural color of the paper or other background, while black results from a full combination of colored inks. To save money on ink, and to produce deeper black tones, unsaturated and dark colors are produced by using black ink instead of the combination of cyan, magenta and yellow.

ColorSchemes

10Cool

Warm

Warm & Cool Relationship

The color wheel can be divided into warm and cool colors. Warm colors are vivid and energetic, and tend to advance in space. Cool colors give an impression of calm, and create a soothing impression.

White,White, black and gray are considered to be neutral. The grayscale is ex-plained on the previous page.

The color wheel or color circle is the basic tool for combining colors. The color wheel is designed so that virtu-ally any colors you pick from it will look good together.

Traditionally, there are a number of color combinations that are consid-ered especially pleasing. These are called color harmonies or chords

and they consist of two colors with a fixed relation in the color wheel.

ColorsColors that are opposite each other on the color wheel are considered to be complementary colors. The high contrast of complementaries create a vibrant look when used at full satu-ration. This color scheme must be managed well so it is not jarring.

Double SplitComplementary

Near Single SplitComplementary

Neutrals Tetradic

Triadic Complementary Patrialtriad Single Split Complementary

Achromatic Monochromatic Polychromatic Analogous

HSV &Munsell Charts

12

HSV Chart Hue

SaturationChromaIntensity

ValueBrightness

D D D

D D S

D S D

D S S

S S D

S D S

S D D

S S S

HSV Chart Hue

SaturationChromaIntensity

ValueBrightness

D D D

D D S

D S D

D S S

S S D

S D S

S D D

S S S

D - Different S - Same

D - Different S - Same

Color Contrast &Asymmetrical Color Balance

14

Color Contrast

Every visual presentation involves figure-ground relationships. This relationship between a sub-ject (or figure) and its surrounding field (ground) will evidence a level of contrast; the more an object contrasts with its surrounds, the more visible it becomes.

When we create visuals that are intended to be read, offering the viewer enough contrast be-tween the background (paper or screen) and the text is important. Text presentations ideally offer at least an 80% contrast between figure and ground. (Black text on a white background is ideal.) If there is not enough contrast between figure and ground, a viewer will squint to view the text, causing eye fatigue.

Yellow text on a white background or blue text on a black background, are difficult to read due to the low level of contrast between figure and ground.

An occurrence known as 'simultaneous contrast' (or chromostereopsis,) may happen when opposing colors are placed in close proximity to each other. Text may appear to vibrate, or cast a shadow. Eye strain and fatigue will result if a viewer focuses on a document displaying similar properties for an extended time period.

Some color combinations, such as red text on a blue background, cause optical illusions when positioned next to each other. It can also produce distortions in print.

High Low

Hue

Saturation

Value

Temperature

Extension Contrast Examples

Simultaneous Contrast Examples

Asymmetrical Color Balance

Balance results when design elements are distributed to produce an aesthetically pleasing whole. Identical elements on both sides of a picture make a symmetrical design. Asymmetrical balance means unline or unequal elements are arranged to counterbalance each other. Color intensity, value and temperature are other balancing factors.

In the first example, we can see asymmetrical balance achieved by using different values. The darker tone seems more heavier than the light one, and we balance them by making the heavier object take up less space than the lighter one.

InIn the second example, the balance is achieved by using different saturations of the same hue. The more saturated object is made so it takes up less space then the desaturated one.

In the third example, balance is achieved by keeping the amount of yellow the same in both objects, and then adding magenta on a larger object. This type of color balance is used often by designers and painters, and is completely perceptual. What seems balanced to one person may not seem balanced to the other.

Grouping &Gestalt

16

Size Location

Shape Color

Position Pattern

About Gestalt

Gestalt is a psychology term which means "unified whole". It refers to theories of visual perception developed by German psychologists in the 1920s. These theories attempt to describe how people tend to organize visual elements into groups or uni-fied wholes when certain principles are applied.

There is a limit to the amount of information that the mind can keep track of. When the amount of visual information be-comes too great the mind tries to simplify by grouping. Groups are formed in logical ways based what information look like and where the various items are located. Similarity is concerned with what items look like.

Similarity is a powerful grouping concept and as such can con-tribute significantly towards achieving unity. The more alike the items are, the more likely they are to form groups. By the same token, if items are dissimilar, they will resist grouping and tend to show more variety. It is important to understand that all of the gestalt concepts can be used to group and to ungroup.

Value or color is another powerful similarity type. The two are grouped together because value is part of color but can act inde-pendently (black and white images).

Notice that the dominant grouping concept is color, not shape. Color makes items easy to identify and hence makes a good grouping tool. Value can work as easily as color, and in fact sometimes is a stronger design element.

Shape, and shape like elements such as direction and texture, can also form groups. When all other things are equal it performs quite well in this function. The squares and circles used here are simple geometric shapes. It is possible to make shapes that are more distinct and therefore more noticeable. Complex shapes may stand out more but there is attractiveness to simpler shapes that makes them more powerful visual elements in most cases. They appeal to our sense of orderThey appeal to our sense of order.

Notice in the example on the right that the squares and circles are presented in two different sizes. Do you first notice them grouping because of their shape or their size? The difference be-tween the sizes is probably greater here than the difference in the shapes. Had they been only slightly larger the shape differ-ence might have been noticed first. The potential, however, for size variation is greater than the differences possible in shape so size is usually a more dominant similarity type.

Grid &Proportions

18

1 2 3

The Golden Rectangle

A golden rectangle is one whose side lengths are in the golden ratio, approximately 1:1.618. A distinctive feature of this shape is that when a square section is removed, the remainder is another golden rectangle; that is, with the same proportions as the first. Square removal can be re-peated infinitely, in which case corresponding corners of the squares form an infinite sequence of points on the goldengolden spiral, the unique logarithmic spiral with these spe-cific set of properties.

It’s found throughout nature, art and architecture. Sea-shells, the Mona Lisa and the Parthenon all show the golden ratio. Our faces and bodies are also proportional to the golden ratio. It’s so omnipresent that it’s even found in sounds and intervals of time. If there ever was a math-ematical way to explain and express natural beauty, the golden ratio is it.

The golden ratio gives us a divine sense of aesthetic that we can apply to design. By applying the golden ratio prop-erly, we can make our designs visually compelling.

1) Construct a unit square.

2) Draw a line from the midpoint of one side to an opposite corner.

3) Use that line as the radius to draw an arc that defines the long dimension of the rectangle.

The Dynamic RectangleDivide a Squareand thenuse that line as the radius to draw an arc.

Construction of root rectangles. The lengths of the horizontal sides of the original square and the four root rectangles derived from it, are respectively √2, √3, √4, √5, etc.

A rectangle which is dynamic has dynamic symmetry, which in this case, means that aspect ratio (height divided by width) is a distinguished value in dynamic symmetry.

TheseThese dynamic rectangles begin with a square, which is extended (using a series of arcs and cross points) to form the desired figure, which can be the golden rectangle (1:1.618), the 2:3 rectangle, the double square (1:2), or a root rectangle.

Tatami Notes

Tatami notes have the proportions of exactly two squares. They are the type of mats used in traditional Japanese rooms. Often, an arrangement in which four mats meet at a point is considered unlucky, perhaps because the word “four” sounds like the word “death” in Japanese. So, a “lucky” layout has no “+” (plus) shapes formed by the lines where mats meet. Example on the left.

Grid DesignAssignment

20

About

This assignment was an intro to the basic grid structure princi-ples in design. Using golden rec-tangles, we constructed a grid which we had to use later on in crafting our own design.

The first step was exploring value; using different shades from the grayscale to design a composition that obeyed the grid that we previously set.

TheThe second step was to use a 100% saturated color from our color wheel, while keeping the black and white intact (second row). If we took a photo of our value and hue design and placed the photo right next to the black andand white version, they should look exactly the same.

The third step was to use the color version of our design and desaturating the colors perceptu-ally (by eye).

The fourth and final step was to use our own creativity to make the design as interesting as pos-sible, no restrictions applied.

100% Saturated VersionDesaturated Version

100% Saturated Version 2Our Own Version

PhotoCompositions

22

About

This was our m

idterm assignm

ent, with four grades given in total. W

e had to take 12 photos total, w

ith each photo showing one of the 12 com

positional concepts outlined in our first project. W

e had the freedom of determ

ining what story w

ill our photos tell about a certain culture or a thing, but they all had to w

ork together compositionally w

hen put next to each other.

Compositions

1) Diagonal

2) Figure on Ground A

mbiguity

3) Horizontal

4) Asymmetrical B

alance

5) Emphasis

6) Symmetrical B

alance7) Vertical

8) Your O

wn

9) Random

10) Order / P

attern11) Figure on G

rouind12) M

ovement

12

34

5

67

89

1011

12

ColorTerminology

24

Hue

The identity of each color, i.e. red, green, blue, yellow, purple. In pure light, this quality corresponds to the frequency of the lightwaves.

Value / Brightness

The lightness and darkness of color, i.e. greyscale.

Saturation / Chroma / Purity

The degree of purity of a hue, ie. pure pigment is typically the purest form of the color.

ColorQualities

Primary

Pure hues. They cannot be mixed from any other colors.

Additive: red, green, blue.Subtractive: cyan, magenta, yellow.

Secondary

Hues mixed from two primary colors.

Additive: substractive primaries.Subtractive: additive primaries.

Tertiary

Hues mixed from a secondary and an adjactent primary color.

Color Wheel Hierarchies

Chromatic

All colors and their corresponding component.

Polychromatic

More then one color, i.e. the color wheel.

Achromatic

No, hue, no saturation. Only values are represented, i.e. the grayscale.

Monochromatic

One hue, ranging in all saturations and values.

Triadic

Three different hues equally spaced around the color wheel.

Analogous / Contiguous

Variations of adjacent hues, small hue shifts.

Tint / Shade / Tone

Colors with added white (pastels), black (dark neutrals) or greys.

Warm Colors

Eccentric colors on the red side of the color wheel.

Cool Colors

Eccentric colors on the cyan side of the color wheel.

Neutrals

Broken colors, i.e. mixtures of various complements creating varied possibili-ties of value, saturation, and hue.

Complementary

Two hues directly opposite on the color wheel.

Split Complementary

One hue and the two hues adjacent to its complement. Example: Yellow-green, blue-violet, and red-violet.

Color Schemes

Hue

Relative comparison of visibly different light frequencies interpreted in the brain as colors.

Value

Relative comparison of dark and light colors; i.e. brightness.

Saturation

Relative comparison of pure and neu-tral colors.

Temperature

Colors shift from cool to warm spec-trum.

Complementary

Two hues opposite to each other on the color wheel.

Simultaneous

Perceptual vibration; perceptual oppo-sites; perceptually intensified lumi-nance or purity due to juxtaposition of a color to thers.

Extension

Hue quantity ratio variations produce different effects with same color schemes.

Types of Contrast

Bibliography& Reference Material

25

Composition (Page 4)

Wikipedia, Composition (Visual Arts)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Composition_(visual_arts)

Grayscale Studies (Page 6)

Painting Color Class, Tones or Valueshttp://painting.about.com/od/colourtheory/ss/ColorClassTones.htm

CMYK (Page 8)

Wikipedia, CMYK Color Modelhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CMYK_color_model

Neutral Mixing Chart / RGB (Page 8)

Design Notes, Colorhttp://daphne.palomar.edu/design/color.html

Color Schemes (Page 10)

Tiger Color, Tints, Shades, and Toneshttp://www.tigercolor.com/color-lab/color-theory/color-theory-intro.htm

Color Contrast (Page 14)

Worqx, Color Contrasthttp://www.worqx.com/color/color_contrast.htm

Grouping & Gestalt (Page 16)

Design Notes, Similarity & Proximityhttp://daphne.palomar.edu/design/simnprox.html

Dynamic Rectangle (Page 18)

Wikipedia, Dynamic Rectanglehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamic_rectangle

Tatami (Page 18)

Wikipedia, Tatami Noteshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tatami

Canadian Mathematical Society, Tatami in the Marginhttp://alejandroerickson.com/joomla/tatami-blog/97-notes-from-the-margin

Golden Rectangle (Page 18)

UXMovement, Applying The Golden Ratio to Web Layouts & Objectshttp://uxmovement.com/content/applying-the-golden-ratio-to-web-layouts-and-objects/

Wikipedia, Golden Rectanglehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_rectangle

MasterGrid

26

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