Six Plates – Drawing and Imaging

ASSIGMENT

We were instructed to manipulate one silhouette, from the People Plates Assignment, by implementing at least 6 elements of design and composition in oder to create a series of six balanced design plates.

PROCESS

• Firstly we individually explored and played with the chosen silhouette in Illustrator by using various tools such as; the selection and direct selection tools, the rotate and reflect tools to create radiation and or symmetry, the rectangle tool to change the background value and make a clipping mask, the shape builder tool and live paint bucket to experiment with interrelations between shapes, as well as the blend tool to create gradation and play with direction and scale.
• Looking  to create blance and demonstrate at least 6 of the fallowing elements of design and composition, symmetry, asymmetry, optical illusion, radiation, direction, anomaly, and repetition, we created multiple iterations and designs of which we were instructed to choose the top six to hand in.

SIX DESIGN PLATES

I – Elements of Design and Composition

Radiation – Near symmetry – Repetition – Variation in scale and size – Contrast in values – Interrelations: union and overlapping – Space – Proximity

II – Elements of Design and Composition

Interrelations: touching, subtraction or interpenetration – Variation in scale and size – Asymmetry – Repetition – Proximity – Figure ground – Contrast – Sense of continuation past the picture plane

III – Elements of Design and Composition

Concentration – Sense of direction due to the concentration and dispersion of the shapes – Interrelations: touching, detached, overlapping and coinciding – Asymmetry – Repetition – Proximity – Gradation relating to the concentration of shapes – Contrast

IV – Elements of Design and Composition

Space – Perspective – Repetition – Variation in scale and size – Visual texture created by the repeated lines – Interrelation: coinciding – Asymmetry – Radiation of the contouring shape getting larger from a focal point – Optical illusion – Gradation in value – Contrast – Sense of continuation outside of the picture plane

V – Elements of Design and Composition

Anomaly – Direction – Gradation in scale – Symmetry in terms of shape based off of a horizontal axis – Repetition – Contrast in value – Figure ground – Interrelation: detached – Increase in concentration and proximity as the size of the shapes decrease – Sense 0f space and perspective

VI – Elements of Design and Composition

Direction of shapes creation movement in various areas of the picture plane – Symmetry – Gradation in size – Contrast – Figure ground – Repetition – Proximity – Interrelations: overlapping and touching – Structure – Similarity due to the gradual distortion of the shape – Concentration – Sense of space created by overlapping shapes – Common Fate

 

REFLECTION

• Overall I managed to touch on a larger variety of the elements of design and composition. I find it very interesting that even thought I would initially set out to primarily express one element, when it came to creating unity and balance in the picture plane many other elements were added into the mix.
• I definitely noted the relationship between actively composing something, with the intension of expressing a specific element, and the presence of intuition within the process.
• If I were to revisit this assignment I would look to explore even more elements with other design plates.