Visual Design Final Review Intro to design principles Design principles are the rules and guidelines governing the use of the elements They tell us how to use color line shape texture pattern light and space to create an organized system or composition The principles are based on what we know of human nature and how we as human beings perceive our aesthetic surroundings All elements are present in design they are interrelated and independent of one another Principles are used to created a concept a plan a scheme that functions A landscape is an array of trees shrubs plants stones and or flowers a landscape design is a planned arrangements of those elements A designer needs to know what the principles is what type of principle it is its level of power its degree of complexity and to what elements it can apply its potential use Usually the principles that can apply to most elements are more powerful than those that only apply to a few 3 types of principles o Linear directional leads eye from one place to another Research on eye movement states that people from western cultures tend to look at the upper left hand area of a visual first Eye movement tends to move to the right and then to the bottom o Highlighting occurs only at a given point focusing attention o Synthesizing leads eye around the composition relating and integrating Complexity relates to the degree of stimulation from the number and physical quality of units the degree of dissimilarity and level of organization in the arrangement of units o An inverted U relationship is proposed to be pleasing between level of complexity and perception of pleasing o Medium level of complexity leads to higher level of pleasure Gestalt principles o Similarity is the perception of like units as a group rather than individual units o Proximity is the grouping of units close together in fewer units o Closure is the perception of complete bounded shapes from implied lines o Continuation is the perception of a continuous line through a small break or o These gestalt principles serve to decrease the complexity by decreasing the number of interruption units perceived Intro to visual design Design is a verb and a noun Design as a verb o Design is essentially the opposite of chance o Designers plan the arrangement of elements to form a visual pattern o This may be functional or aesthetic Design as a noun o A product o The result of design as a verb Design as a product o 2 categories sensory and behavioral o Behavior design deals with patterns or ways of doing things or actions in time planned actions manmade product o Sensory experienced through the senses sight sound taste smell and touch The purpose of sensory design is the sensory experience Multi sensory design many products experience several senses at once Combination behavioral sensory Creative problem solving the design process involves seeking visual solutions to problems Not all devices are equally valid and visually successful o Thinking what is to be achieved o Looking nature history and culture visual info from media sources o Doing trial and error intuition visual experimentation Ideas start to take form Revision and doing and redoing o Critique evaluating the plan Judge the characteristics and performance of the product Does it meet the goal Design basics o Content and form o Form and content Function intended use of the product o What is it Does it work o If one isn t clear about function a sensible judgment cant be made Structure it s the essential form framework of the object which defines the object in space o Does the material used suit the function of the product Unity and harmony Unity finished o Unity is the sense of completed wholeness coherence integrated totality of being o It is the major goal of design o It is the most complex principle and final synthesizing goal of visual design o Unity seeks simplicity and logical organization it avoids conflicts and competition by organizing a hierarchy of attention Unity vs Harmony o The distinction is close o Everything in harmony relates but is not necessarily complete o Unity gives a sense of completion o Harmony is possible without unity but unity is not possible without harmony Visual unity o The whole must be predominant over the parts o Each item has meaning and contributes to the total effect o Unity is subtle difficult to analyze does not attract attention but creates a completed o The ultimate synthesizing principle integrating every aspect functional structural and effect decorative o Involves every aspect of every element o Unity shows the design process has been followed well Culminating principle Chaos and control o Unity Architectural designs have an elegant system of repeated elements that give unity to the overall structure There are elements of unity in Paul Revere s work the buildings windows and soldiers feet but this really doesn t add to the meaning of the work Unity variety by contrast Goya has used unity to make the soldiers and their rifles almost identical giving them a machine like inhuman quality Harmony pulls the pieces of a visual design image together In harmony the theme must include agreement among functional structural and decorative design levels Harmony is culturally subjective What makes some combinations classic o How widely accepted the idea is o How well the elements and principles combine in interpretation o How well the three levels of function structure and decorative agree Function and harmony Structure and harmony o Functional what is the real purpose of this object Does it function well o Essential form of the object o Structural harmony emerges when parts agree with each other and the whole What is the purpose of applied design o Is the design harmonious with the purpose of the object Psychological effects o Harmony manipulates the elements and principles to set the mood tone or theme Harmony Sense that everything belongs together An agreement in feeling a consistency in mood a pleasing combination of differing things used in compatible ways Harmony is a synthesizing principle relating and integrating parts to the whole Every element lends itself to harmony Rhythm The feeling of organized movement This is how repetition is designed The movement or natural eye flow happens because of the regular reoccurrence of related elements It is the use of an anomaly in linear nature This is a linear directional principle The more lively the unit the more it commands attention and enlarges Only