Design Principles / Final Project
Lew Se Win / 0347637 / Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media
Design Principles
LECTURES
- Visual Analysis
- method of understanding design
- visual elements & principles
- description and explanation of visual structure for own sake
- recognize the choice of designers
- better understanding on how the formal properties of a design
(a) communicate ideas
(b) content
(c) meaning
- helps people read/ critically interpret images
- sharpen critical judgement skills
- seek out answers - 3 Phases
- Observation: identify visual elements, trying to describe in your word
- Analysis: think about your observation, combine together to create a whole (how, why)
- Interpretation: observations, description, analysis of the work are fused together
Observation
This illustration is in portrait format. For the upper part of the artwork, the main color observed is cold colors but the lower part of the artwork used warm colors. However, the main color observed is blue. With the blue color, I can feel the cold in that environment. Solid colors are used in this artwork. There is no texture added in this illustration. Overall, it is a colorful design. This artwork has black and smooth outlines and the shadows of this artwork are also solid. In the lower middle part of this artwork, it has a man. The position of the man tells us that he is trying to hike up the mountain and there is a track going up the hill. The color used in this artwork reminds me of cheerful childhood memories. The trees look like lollipops with different colors. The mountain looks like sundae are topped with some sprinkles and they are melting. The mountain in the middle part of the artwork looks like a giant jelly. The wavy lines as the texture of the soil look like worms on the ground. The flowers below also look like fans and the leaves look like wings. Lastly, I think that everything in this artwork seems important and the composition is interesting.
Analysis
This design is symmetrically balanced because there are equal weights on both sides of the artwork. The emphasis is on the mountain because the size of the mountain is larger than the trees and the flowers below. There is unity in this artwork because overall the objects are mountains, trees, and flowers. There are movements on the fogs and the man because they seem moving. Not just that, the swirly track leads us to focus on the mountains. There are also repetitions on most of the elements in this artwork. For example, the shape of the trees and the shapes of the flowers at the bottom were repeated. There is a hierarchy in the highest mountain. Different colors used in this artwork created the contrast and differentiate the upper and lower part of this artwork. The colors chosen also creates harmony in this artwork. The proportion of the elements are interesting in this artwork. The flowers have a larger size compared to the tress because the flowers were positioned in front. As further away, the trees are getting smaller.
Interpretation
The design above remind me of my trip to China and Japan. Hence, I scroll through my gallery and I saw the 2 pictures that I took during the vacation. With the 2 pictures, I feel like combining them into an artwork.
Figure 2.0 is a picture that I took when I was visiting the JiuChai Village in China back in 2017.
Figure 2.1 is a picture that I took when I was visiting Universal Studio Japan. This was a small part of the Harry Potter village in The Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Universal Studio Japan.
With that, I started to sketch out my ideas. Some of my inspirations are from the artwork from the visual analysis part.
I was done with the coloring cottages. I proceed to color the mountain in the background. At first, I choose blue as the main color for the background. However, I think that the color combination is weird because the cottage color is brown.
To harmonize the cottages and the background, I decided to color the mountains with light brown color.
To create this artwork, I used Procreate. To make this work a more challenging one, I only used 2 layers for this artwork. The first layer is for all the elements in this artwork and the second layer is the sky.
I miss the time when we can travel freely. Normally, travel is the way for me to release stress. However, we all have to stay at home due to this pandemic. In this artwork, I included the places that I miss a lot. The first mountain image is memorable to me because that was the first time I see snow. I remember I was excited at that time because, in Malaysia, I do not have the chance to see snow. The second image was taken in The Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Universal Studio Japan. The trip to Japan was my first-time travel with my friends and without my parents. Hence, I think that combining the mountains and the cottages in one artwork is very meaningful for me. I used colors and shapes to create unity and harmony in this artwork. Besides, the design principle of repetition was presented in this artwork with the repeated shape of trees. This artwork can be divided into 3 parts. The foreground has the cottages, grass and trees at the midground and the mountain in the background. Similar to Kim Yong-oh's work that inspired this artwork, the mountains and trees are shaped with bold outlines. The textures were colored with many cheerful and optimistic colors.
FEEDBACK
For the visual analysis part, Dr. Charles said that I can look at the artwork in a smaller view because he said that he can see a lot more things in it. Dr. Charles said that there are many things to observe in this artwork and there are many things that the artist wants the viewer to see and feel. Dr. Charles asked me a question which is "what will you feel if you are there, inside the artwork?". I have to imagine myself in the artwork and explore more.
For the design part, Dr. Charles said that the artwork has a strong sense of unity and harmony. The artwork has quite a bit of detail. Dr. Charles also said that he likes how the mountains and the candy trees are framed with the houses. They are very optimistic and he said that he likes the use of colors.
BRIEF REFLECTION
I think this project was fun but I did struggle at the starting of this project. At first, I struggled in the visual analysis part. This is because I think that the artwork that I choose is not as complicated as other artwork. However, I managed to analyze the artwork more after getting feedback from Dr. Charles. I enjoy doing the design part because I think that it is amazing to create an artwork that is inspired by what I have analyzed in the previous artwork. They might have some similar identity but the meaning of the artworks are different.
FINAL REFLECTION
What have I learnt in this module?
The things that I learned in this module are quite similar to what I have expected to learn before taking up this module. With no doubt, I think that this module contains more theoretical aspects compared to other modules. I learned many different principles in design and this helps me a lot in analyzing different artworks.
What do I enjoy the most?
I enjoyed the freedom for us to create different artwork for every exercise. We have the freedom to choose the theme of the artwork we want, although we are given a theory to follow. Besides, for the last few projects, we have the freedom to choose our own materials. It was fun completing different exercises and projects throughout these 14 weeks.
What do I not enjoy the most?
The weekly deadlines for exercises are quite stressful. However, I understand that this is important to ensure students have a better understanding of the principles that we have learned in the lecture. Besides, I am scared of the self-rating system. This is because I know that my artwork can still be improved but I was limited by my skills. I think that I do not deserve a good mark in every artwork because I am not skilled but I still want to score better. Therefore, I will always try my best to improve based on the feedback.
What have I learnt about myself through this module?
I realized that I was quite dependent on the lecturer's feedback, which I do not think that it is a good thing. Besides, I realized that I am not good at describing my own artwork. Hence, I struggled in every writing part. Not just that, I realized that I am more of a trial and error person compared to a well-planned person. This is because I normally do not have an idea to start any of the projects but I will have a lot of different ideas coming into my brain halfway through working on my artwork.
What has changed and what has not in my learning journey?
The thing that has changed is I will now analyze every artwork with the principles that I had learned in this module. The thing that has not changed is I still lack of self-confidence. I am not confident to present my artwork in class. It is better now compared to the start of my learning journey but I will still feel uncomfortable with it. However, I am now trying to learn and regulate myself. I hope that one day I can overcome this problem.
What could be improved in this module?
To be honest, nothing. I think that this module is well constructed and well planned. I think that this module is very helpful for me to start my life as a design student. Besides, the lecturers are very friendly too! With that, I have nothing to complain about in this module.
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