Midterm Week! Day 7

Proximity is the principle that allows us to perceive groups based on how close their components are, like that rectangle made of smaller rectangles. To further drive home the point I tried adding another strip of color on the opposite side and adding a break in the lines to create two distinct groups, but it just ended up looking silly and I settled on this. It would have been a lot more impressive if I'd have taken a sepia image and selectively added color, so let's say I did that and call it good for a day.

The picture comes from Nunce.

And with that, Midterm Week is over! This project was completed way ahead of deadline, and now I can enjoy my spring break without having to worry about homework. So that's good.

Midterm Week! Day 6

 

Balance can refer to the amount of one element in relation to another, or how the elements are arranged in an image. In this picture the amount of night greatly outweighs the day, but the day has a stronger vibrancy and a more defined shape, giving it emphasis that equals that of the night.

I kept coming back to this desert trying to find an effect that worked with it. At one point it was divided up into colored strips like yesterday's image, but I felt like it had too much of its own color for that to work. Eventually I decided to take out the sky and see if I could jam anything in there, and a few layer masks and brightness sliders later the result was awesome.

The images used are the Pinnacle Desert in Western Australia (taken by Ilya Genkin) and the night sky over Vermont (taken by Chensiyuan).

Midterm Week! Day 5

Rhythm is probably the easiest principle to represent. It's the defining aspect of a pattern, anything that repeats in a noticeable way. Like these concentric rings, for example. The colors in this image are common print primaries, Key (Black), white, cyan, yellow, magenta, blue, red, and green. The image is of a cloudy day over the Flint Hills in Kansas and comes from photographer Lisle Alderton.

Midterm Week! Day 4

Continuation is the idea that a number of elements that differ from each other in a recognizable pattern can be perceived as a curve or bend. Here you can see a number of rectangles forming a curve with their shape.

This one was a hassle all around. I don't own Photoshop and I didn't have much access to the computer lab at school today, so the whole process was rushed and I got it done much later than I'd have liked. This is the first week-long event I've done where I don't have the images made up beforehand, and I'm struggling a bit. I might re-do this one before I hand in my midterm. We'll see.

Image is from Oceana.org

Midterm Week! Day 3

The source image for this one came from the Apollo 16 mission. Emphasis is the principle of organization which states that any element can have attention drawn to it if it's notably different. In this example, the only part of the image not anaglyph'd is the top portion, which also differs from the moonscape below by being text.

I can't recall exactly what I did with the warps on each individual color of this image and I don't have a pair of red/cyan 3D glasses on me to test it, so if you look at this image in 3D and it detaches your corneas, I apologize.

Midterm Week! Day 2

Similarity is where elements are seen as the same group if they have a similar shape or texture. I tried to embody both with these separated panels. Funny thing is the panels are actually taken from the original image, and the only color manipulation used is on the background.

The picture is San Pedro de Atacama in Chile, taken from the Santiago Adventures website.

Midterm Week! Day 1

Spring break is fast approaching, and that means midterms are upon us! Most of my midterm assignments are pretty basic. I've got a paper to write for Composition and a report for Journalism, but 2D Design is going all-out.

Some of you may remember the gestalt and organization posts I've made in the past for this class. Well, our midterm project is to find seven nature photographs and modify them to reflect what we've learned. Four for the principles of gestalt (proximity, closure, similarity, and continuity) and three for the principles of organization (balance, emphasis, and rhythm). I'm making this a week-long series so that I can motivate myself to get them done at a steady pace. Here's the first. Closure, based on a panorama of Split Apple Beach taken by Amiram Zocowitzky:

Closure is a gestalt principle that states that familiar shapes can be seen as complete even when they are not. It's easy to perceive this planetoid as a circle despite the variance of form seen throughout.

I'm probably not going to go in any particular order with this project, so I can't say which one I'm doing tomorrow. Let's check back here tomorrow and we'll both find out.



An Orderly Fashion

Image 1: Fuzzy

Image 2: Eliminate

Image 3: Floorplan

We had another four-panel assignment recently, this one on the principles of organization, or the way a design is divided between subjects and whitespace. As it was taught in this class, though, there are only three principles, so the fourth panel went to a combination of all the other principles.

Balance: Balance is probably the most common way of organizing an image. It refers to the amounts of each element in relation to each other. Image1-Panel1 creates a balance between internal and external with a dividing line of elements. Image2-Panel1 introduces an unusual balance, dividing the image between a defined but less prominent series of crosses opposed to an open, empty field of whitespace. Symmetry is a form of balance, but asymmetrical balance can be achieved a number of ways, such as using one large object used to balance several smaller ones, as seen in Image3-Panel1.

Emphasis: This is the way elements are arranged on a page so as to draw the eye into a certain area. The focal points in all the emphasis panels are very clear. In Image1-Panel2, the eye is drawn to the center of the various spokes, where the higher contrast sets it apart. Image2-Panel2 brings the eyes immediately downward to the heaviest concentration of shapes. And a break in the otherwise uniform field of rectangles brings focus to the dark rectangle in Image3-Panel2.

Rhythm: Rhythm is the defining aspect of a pattern. Anything that repeats in a noticeable way can be said to have rhythm. This is seen in the grid in Image1-Panel3, or the diminishing size and distance between the X shapes in Image2-Panel3. Image3-Panel3 takes a different approach, employing a pattern not of shapes but of a predictable pattern of breaks in each shape.

Combination: I like the combination panels. They're neat.

I'm posting the three I have right now because I really, really don't want to be tempted to do another gestalt week thing. I may miss posting a few days here and there, but it just got so hard to say new things about the same ideas repeated over and over in designs made only to showcase those ideas. So there'll be no organization week. Sort through your clutter on your own time.