Central to understanding what you need to know to create the best design

EVT101a
Week 2
Developing the design palette
Principles of design
Theming
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Introduction
• Purpose
– What exactly are you designing?
– Who is it for?
• Client or owner
• Audience
• Research
– Central to understanding what you need to know to create the
best design
• Design palette
– Visual representation of research and creative decisions
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Design basics
• Design encompasses two basic aspects:
– Principles of design:
• Line
• Form
• Colour
• Texture
• Pattern
– Elements of art:
• Space
• Dominance
• Scale
• Rhythm
• Harmony
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Line
• Line is used to define shape, contours, and outlines, also to suggest
mass and volume. It may be a continuous mark made on a surface
with a pointed tool or implied by the edges of shapes and forms.
• Types of line can include actual, implied, vertical, horizontal,
diagonal and contour lines.
– Straight – give emotional quality to a design
– Curved – suggest movement, softer edges
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Characteristics of a line
• Width
• thick, thin, tapering, uneven
• Length
• long, short, continuous, broken
• Direction
• horizontal, vertical, diagonal, curving, perpendicular,
oblique, parallel, radial, zigzag
• Focus
• sharp, blurry, fuzzy, choppy
• Feeling
• sharp, jagged, graceful, smooth
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Types of a line
• Outlines- Lines made by the edge of an object or its silhouette.
• Contour Lines- Lines that describe the shape of an object and the
interior detail.
• Gesture Lines- Line that are energetic and catches the movement
and gestures of an active figure.
• Sketch Lines- Lines that captures the appearance of an object or
impression of a place.
• Calligraphic Lines- Greek word meaning “beautiful writing.” Precise,
elegant handwriting or lettering done by hand. Also artwork that has
flowing lines like an elegant handwriting.
• Implied Line- Lines that are not actually drawn but created by a
group of objects seen from a distance. The direction an object is
pointing to, or the direction a person is looking at.
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Colour
• Colour comes from light; if it weren’t for light we would have no
colour.
• Light rays move in a straight path from a light source.
• Within this light rays are all the rays of colours in the spectrum or
rainbow. Shining a light into a prism will create a rainbow of colours
because it separates the colour of the spectrum.
• When the light rays hits an object our eyes responds to the light that
is bounced back and we see that colour.
– For example a red ball reflects all the red light rays.
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Colour wheel
• A tool used to organise colour. It is made up of:
– Primary Colours-Red, Yellow, Blue.
– Secondary Colour-Orange, Violet, Green, these colours are
created by mixing two primaries.
– Intermediate Colours- Red Orange, Yellow Green, Blue Violet,
etc.; mixing a primary with a secondary creates these colours.
– Complementary Colours-are colours that are opposite each
other on the colour wheel. When placed next to each other they
look bright and when mixed together they neutralize each other.
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Colour wheel graphics
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Colour harmonies
• Certain combinations create different effects:
– Analogous colours –
• Next to each other on the wheel
– Triadic Harmony
• Three equally spaced colours are used
– E.g. yellow, red and blue
– Monochrome
• Same colour but different intensity values
– Warm vs cold
• On different sides of the colour wheel
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Psychological implications of colour
• Emotional responses to colour.
– Powerful and fairly universal.
– Culturally biased.
• Cultural traditions endow colours with powerful meanings that can
differ greatly across region and culture. Broadly speaking:
– Western cultures: black is the colour of mourning. White is for
weddings
– Asian cultures: white is the colour of death and brides wear red
at weddings.
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Colour forecasting
• Colour trends across fashion, movies and cultural properties exist.
• New seasons colours.
• Colour forecasting firms then issue projections defining palettes of
colours that can be expected to rise, fall, or maintain popularity in
coming seasons.
• Design industries develop seasonal product in line with the colour
forecast
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DESIGN ELEMENTS
Form
Texture
Unity
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Texture
• The surface quality of an object.
– A rock may be rough and jagged.
– A piece of silk may be soft and smooth
– A desk may feel hard and smooth.
• Textures:
– Bristly, rough, hard, smooth, hard, soft, warm, cold and wet or
dry
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Categories of Texture
• Real texture is the actual texture of an object.
– Create real texture to give the object visual interest or evoke a
feeling.
• Rendering or cladding
• Implied texture is the where an object is made to look like it has a
certain texture
– A drawing of a tree may look rough but in fact it is just a smooth
piece of paper.
– Projection of a tree onto a plastered wall