Class Info
This Week’s has been outlined in detail to give a clear vision of the overall course.
Course Goals: Introduce the field of graphic design including its basic working methods and theory. This class will focus on communication through form, the visible shape or configuration.
Critique
Lecture
It is seeing which establishes our place in the surrounding world;
we explain that world with words, but words can never undo the fact that we are surrounded by it. The relation between what we see and what we know is never settled.
John Berger, Ways of Seeing
Design Fundamentals
how we see: visual perception
gestalt principles of design:
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negative space logo letter begin 1 min; illustrator tips: 5:00; letter and symbol: 7:05
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In music, are the separations between notes less important than the notes themselves? Malcolm Grear
A figure (form) is always seen in relation to what surrounds it (background)—letters to a page, a building to its site, or a sculpture to the space around it.
A black shape on a black field is not visible; without separation and contrast, form disappears.
The ability to create and evaluate effective figure/ground tension is an essential skill for graphic designers.
Train your eye to carve out white space as you compose with forms.
Learn to massage the positive and negative areas as you adjust the scale of images and typography. Even subtle ambiguity can invigorate the end result and shift its direction and impact.
design details: Papyrus
Review: sketches
figure/ground icon
Create an icon from a “recognizable” object
The form of an object is not more important than the form of the space surrounding it All things exist in interaction with other things.
Use a “recognizable” object
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- Icons should quickly communicate an object, idea, or action.
Screenshot
Screenshot
Video: negative space logo design
rubric for final icon
Homework
Due: 9/30; 8:30 am on Miro
goal: figure ground icon
To Do
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- revise sketches
- upload letterform for grading
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1 Revise icon sketches
Sketch until you can show 3 square figure-ground variations
that combine the first letter of your object with your object.
The object must work with the letter’s negative space.
The object and negative space must be the opposite color of the letter.
Work with large shapes – do NOT use LINE
Choose your best, enlarge and refine it.
Post to Miro
Remember: Carve an icon out of your letterform
Make sure you are not turning the letter into an illustration
Resources:
Download the font samples below to enlarge
For reference, look at icons in The noun project for object examples
Use negative space in logo design; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzvJWWLTuEM
2 Finalize: your letterform
Save your final as a jpg, correctly name it, and upload to the Google Drive
Finalize letterform checklist:
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- square format?
- does the design use shape or line?
- does it have an equal amount of black and white?
- does it demonstrate a figure-ground principle? (does the eye shift back and forth between
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Process:
1 Create a negative and a positive version. (both versions are 5 inch squares)
(the negative version is exactly the same as the positive, except that it uses the opposite color)
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- What was black will be white, what was white will be black.
- The positive and negative versions MUST be exactly alike except it reverses color
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2. In illustrator, create a 7 x13″ rectangle filled with 50% black
Place both 5 inch square versions on the grey background
Position with a 1 inch border on all sides and 1 inch between squares (see diagram below)
Save as a layered pdf, (in case you want to make changes later)
3 Save as a jpg
Name your file
“comd1200_f24_letterform_first name last name”
example: comd1200_f24_letterform_alex smith
4 Upload your correctly named jpg to the Google Drive
example:
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