Design Principles - Task 3 - Design

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Week 5 - Week 7
2024.03.10 - 2024.03.24

Qistina Nuralya Maria Binti Azly / 0354180

Design Principles / Bachelors of Design (Honours) in Creative Media / Taylor's University

Task 3: Design


RECAP OF TASK

After using visual analysis to identify design principles in Task 1 & 2, students will need to bring their acquired skills to create a design of their own based on their chosen artist of which they have analysed an artwork or artworks of. The goal of this task is to have the ability to apply knowledge of design principles and analysis into original design works.


Table of contents

1.  MODULE INFORMATION BOOKLET (MIB)

2.  MOODBOARD

2.1 References

2.2 Colour Palette

3.  SKETCHES

4.  DRAWING PROCESS

5.  FINAL DESIGN

6.  CLASS FEEDBACK

7.  REFLECTION

8.  FURTHER READING


1. MODULE INFORMATION BOOKLET (MIB)

This is the Module Information Booklet for this module:

File 1.1 Module Information Booklet (PDF)


2. MOODBOARD

Since my artist's work revolves around fish/aquatic life, I decided to also go for a fish theme for my design. However, I wanted to do a more cartoony style for my design; so, I went with digital rather than physical watercolour as I was more experienced with digital than the latter (หŠ•͈ ◡ •͈ห‹)

2.1 References

Fig 2.1.1 Artwork by Feliana Sutanto [my chosen artist] (Source)

I looked through my chosen artist's (Feliana Sutanto) other artworks in her Behance gallery and found this within the same collection of the artwork I chose from her. I figured I could use this as a reference since I find that prey (jellyfish) becoming threats to predators (fish) as a consequence to overfishing is an interesting idea.



Fig 2.1.2 Watercolour Koi Fish Illustration (Source)

Above is mostly a reference for me of how to achieve watercolour texture/colours onto digital medium. Specifically how there are different blue hues in the background to create the illusion of depth in the water.

Fig 2.1.3 Finding Nemo Phone Background [2012] (Source)
Jellyfish Scene [Finding Nemo, 2012] (Source),
Finding Nemo Poster [2012] (Source)

To align with my cartoony style, I studied emotions from the famous Finding Nemo duo, Marlin and Dori. Additionally though, studying them both gave me ideas for a different idea for sketches in which you'll see further in the blog ( ๊ˆ◡๊ˆ)

2.2 Colour Palette

After gathering my references, I went to creating possible colour palettes I could use for my design based on said references. I solely used the website Adobe Color to curate the colour palettes.

Fig 2.2.1 Colour Palette #1

This colour palette is vibrant with its colour choices and has the pop of pink to make it more interesting. I'd use this colour palette if the design itself ends up with a jellyfish element/theme.

Fig 2.2.2 Colour Palette #2

For this one, I was thinking of a more depressed vibe to the design where the colours are desaturated, making it more "serious" in its message.


3. SKETCHES

I started sketching digitally on Procreate to fish out any ideas my brain had.

Fig 3.1 Sketch #1

Concept of sketch: A close-up of a "soulless" fish that's claustrophobically packed with other fish in a net.

Design Principles used:

  • Balance (Asymmetrical): The fins of the other fishes at the top right and bottom left.
  • Contrast: The white fish against the dark surroundings of the net.

Fig 3.2 Sketch #2

Concept of sketch: A fish reaching out for its fish friend who unfortunately got caught in a fishing net with other fishes. Both have a sad and desperate expression on their face.

Design Principles used:

  • Balance: Rule of Thirds applied, the point of where the fins are together is at the center of the frame.
  • Contrast: The whites of the two fishes contrast with the deep blue ocean.

Fig 3.3 Sketch #3

Concept of sketch: A fish swimming through a bloom of jellyfishes. As prey outnumbers predator, I made it so where the fish and jellyfishes overlap, the bones of the fish appears, portraying its probable endangered future.

Design Principles used:

  • Balance (Symmetrical): The alignment of the jellyfish in the frame.
  • Contrast: The warm hues of the bones in comparison to the mainly cool surroundings.
  • Repetition: The tentacles of the jellyfish repeating in the top right and bottom left.

Fig 3.4 Sketch #4

Concept of sketch: Similar themes to Sketch #3, I made it so it comprised of a single fish surrounded by a bloom of jellyfish. This time though, the composition is more dynamic as the jellyfishes "swirl" around the lone fish, further isolating it.

Design Principles used:

  • Balance : The composition roughly follows the Golden Ratio
  • Contrast: The pinks of the jellyfish against the pure blue/white of the fish and visible ocean.
  • Emphasis: All the tentacles of the jellyfish brings the viewer's eyes to the fish.
  • Movement: The composition of the jellyfish makes it look like they are circling around the fish as if to intimidate it.

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After getting feedback from Mr. Zeon, he decided it was best for me to try and combine Sketch #2 and Sketch #4 to give an interesting narrative to my design; combining the story of Sketch #2 with the interesting composition of Sketch #4.


4. DRAWING PROCESS

Fig 4.1 Drawing Process 1 & 2.

    1.  A rough sketch that tried to combine aspects of both Sketch #2 and #4 together.

    2.  A clean-up of the sketch (lineart).

Fig 4.2 Drawing Process 3 & 4.

    3.  Background colouring; the water is murky green and blue but gets lighter towards the fish the background.

    4.  Colouring the fishes and the ones in the net; coloured the other fishes in the net in toned down colours to give more focus to the two fishes.

Fig 4.3 Drawing Process 5 & 6.

    5.  Coloured the lineart and and added extra details like highlights to the fishes' eyes.

    6.  Added text: "How am I expected to survive?" as a reference to my chosen artist's artwork.


5. FINAL DESIGN

Title: Reel Dilemma

Fig 5.1 Final Design Outcome.

Rationale

    My chosen artist's work was a digital and in a watercolour children's book style. Hence, I decided to follow suit with that style. However, I made some changes in how I drew the fish to give them more emotion by making them seem more human-like. Additionally, I went for a more dynamic composition with my design to really attract people with its message. This artwork is meant to directly question the morality of overfishing, which is a main concern of the UNDSG goal "Life Below Water". By humanising the fishes, people are more likely to sympathise with the message and help in the cause. Regarding the design principles I applied, the lightness of the two fishes contrast with the dark and desaturated surroundings. Furthermore, the composition of the fishes reaching out create sense of movement and urgency. The lines of the fishing net also help emphasise the main focal point of the design that being the fish. Lastly, a portion of the design follows the Golden Ratio rule creating a balanced look. Overall, my artwork aims to not only visually engage viewers but also provoke thought and action toward addressing the issue of overfishing.

[194 words]


6. CLASS FEEDBACK

Week 6

Class: Feedback session.

General Feedback: If you are working on a totally different medium than your chosen artist, you will have to defend your design choice in the rationale.

Specific Feedback: All four were interesting sketches. Sir suggested I try combining Sketch #2 and Sketch #4 to create and interesting narrative for the fish in my design.


Week 7

Class: Feedback session and we were given the deadline of the task and final compilation which was Sunday (24/03/2024)

General Feedback: Remember to explain properly in the rationale about your design decisions and chosen UNSDG goal.

Specific Feedback: All was good and nice, but Sir suggested I add the typographic element into the design 


7. REFLECTION

7.1 Experiences

Out of all the Tasks, this was most definitely my favourite one as it had a lot more "doing" than "looking" (a.k.a I liked creating the design more than researching in my opinion :P). Not to say that researching is a pain, but I just thrive more on already provided information to create my designs (แต•—แด——) It was fun to finally have my own input on my chosen UNSDG goal since I love marine life so creating an artwork in support of the protection of it. <3

7.2 Observations

In class, I noticed a smoother flow in our progress, mainly because we were well-prepared for the task, thanks to our prior analysis and completion of previous assignments. While some classmates may have still lagged behind a bit, overall, things felt more organized.. It was really nice to see everyone's original works and how they went about their designs with their own research of their artist.  (〃´๐“ŽŸ`〃) I even saw one of my friends making a collage for her design of which I never even thought of making a collage as an option so that was interesting~

7.3 Findings

I've realized that I easily feel dizzy and notice my eyes getting tired easily when I spend too much time working on any digital assignments; especially this type of assignment where I have to create an artwork for the final outcome. Putting my personal health to the side though, I did find that the research I did in the previous tasks, whether I liked doing them or not, helped a ton during this task.


8. FURTHER READING

For these two weeks, I managed to find the time to reread a book that I borrowed from the Taylor's Library last semester. Since there was a small part of my design that included typography, I wanted to revisit that particular topic to make sure I applied it properly into my design. I used high-quality screenshots from an online PDF of the book but please do trust me when I say that I, in fact, did read the physical copy (>﹏<)

Thinking with Type

Fig. 8.1 "Thinking with Type: 2nd Edition" by Ellen Lupton.

Personally, I think this book is a good blend or straightforwardness and detail. It covers a wide range of typographic topics like the anatomy of typefaces, mistakes in text, using grids as frames for text etc. Overall, I think students who are really interested in typography should have a look into this book because even I, a person who usually gravitate towards books that have mostly illustration/graphics, found this book to be a really interesting read!

Fig. 8.2 "Thinking with Type: 2nd Edition" by Ellen Lupton; page 111.

In general text, line spacing is often uniform and rarely has their ascenders and descenders clash. However, a typographer can utilise the use of line spacing in less linear designs whereby they break the normal line spacing rules in favour of well-maintained chaos.

For example, in Fig. 8.2, you can see in the design at the top of the page that the use of different typefaces with extremely tight line spacing and differing sizes creates a dramatic density that bodes well with the whole vibe of the page/entire book.

Fun fact: Though it may look digitally made, the designs were actually made long before the innovation of digital typography. The book (where the designs came from) itself entirely depended on phototypesetting* as well as dry transfer lettering.

* Phototypesetting refers to the typesetting technique that creates columns of type on a scroll of photographic paper by using photography.

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