FUNDAMENTALS OF DESIGN

Let me show you how I got to the end of this class with glowing reviews. The first week we started off at an insane pace for an online course. We had 4 assignments due. At first I thought this was some type of scheduling mistake? Is this teacher insane? There was the required Autobiography/Hello! submission along with a PreAssessment Test and Discussion Activity. This was followed by an exercise with so many detailed components that I procrastinated until the very last minute with my submission. I was in fear that I just was not creative enough. This is what was asked of me as a student.

By Saturday, complete the following exercise and post it to the Discussion Area.

On one of the assignment templates, use up to 7 of the provided shapes and arrange them to form a composition. Then, using the identical shapes from your first composition, create three additional compositions with differing arrangements. This will result in a total of four compositions.

Rules for each composition:

• You may utilize an individual shape more than once.
• You may rotate the shapes.
• You may not change the size of the shapes.
• Each composition should use the same set of shapes.
• Each composition should not have more than 7 total shapes.

Experiment with your arrangements to generate visual interest. Explore overlapping shapes of the black, alternating shapes of black and white, and moving shapes past the edge of the frame. Consider what is happening with the positive and negative space of each composition as you position the shapes. Place each composition within the frames provided on the template and submit as a high quality JPEG file.

Well what do you think ?

This was followed up with this Assignment:
 
Using only black and white, create two separate designs.

For the first design arrange the composition so that there is a clear background and foreground.

For the second, create a design with equal positive and negative space so that the figure-ground relationship of the design fluctuates. In other words, it should be impossible to differentiate between the foreground and the background in the design.

Be creative with the compositions of your designs.

 

 

After these warm up assigments I found my creative side and submitted these creations with gusto.

 

 

 

TACTILE TEXTURE ASSIGNMENT

 

 

SPATIAL ILLUSIONS ASSIGMENT

 

 

Final Project—Step One: Proposal and Thumbnails

Final Project Objective: Create a design of your choosing that demonstrates an effective and creative use of design and color principles towards a meaningful portfolio-quality composition. Begin by writing a proposal that is one to two paragraphs in length. Your proposal should explain the objective, motivation, and message behind your final project and the color and design concepts that will be used to accomplish these goals. It should serve as a written plan for the execution of your design and describe the choices made in your initial thumbnail drafts. (see final submission for proposal).

 

Thumbnails

Using only black, white, and shades of gray, create 4 design thumbnails for your final project. Your design thumbnails should be initial visual representations of your plans outlined in your proposal. The thumbnails should each explore a variety of design principles towards a unified and interesting composition. Consider the various design principles explored throughout the course such as emphasis, scale, gravity, contrast as well as symmetrical and asymmetrical balance.

 

Final Project—Step Two: Color Studies

Select your strongest thumbnail design to work on towards the final project submission. Create at least four different color studies of that one design. Consider the various color schemes explored this week, such as monochromatic, analogous, warm, cool, complementary, neutral and achromatic. Consider the effectiveness of the overall aesthetic of each color study as you continue to develop your final project idea.

Be sure to state which color scheme is being utilized in each color study.

 

HERE IS MY FINAL SUBMISSIONS FOR THIS CLASS.

WHAT DO YOU THINK?   

I would like to present to you an explosion of leaves in a barren naked tree forest. Within this event in nature I offer you the quiet flight of birds in the midst of this warm symmetry of seasonal snow. This I hope will convey a composition that strongly represents the perspective I have seen living in New York City while on a walk through Central Park during Fall. I think I have successfully laid out the individual forms and shapes of the various leave you will encounter. Within the contrast of my chosen colors, to maintain the balance in this piece I have provided a sense of texture with spatial illusions that include tree shadows and the flight of birds. Your eyes should find unity in the flow of the foliage as the wind tosses them in all directions providing some movement in my composition. I pulled into this design a complementary color scheme that should reflect the hues of red, yellow, or orange sharing space with gold and green leaves that you will expect in this season.


Hopefully, the choice to use an embossed effect should emphasis a feeling to touch the canvas. My primary hue of brown is intended for depth. But my overall goal was to show the warm colors that can be reflected. I faced challenges of gravity in the order of where I placed my forms, but still show you the sense of chaos a strong wind could do in a mass of space. I struggled with the various effects available to me to gain the right faded perspective for the foreground. The scales I used for the trees were also intended to make them less the focal point and have your eyes dance to the rhythm of the unique leafy forms. I think in this final composition I was successful in giving my interpretation of fall as best that one can copy nature’s masterpiece. I do think in retrospect that I could have improved even more on a better sense of movement, perhaps introduced a symmetric form like wind that would be more of a catalyst to nature’s dance. With the end of this class, I hope in my final submission for Fundamentals of Design you do see Fall and can appreciate it as I do as the best season to see in New York.

 

 

Fundamentals of Design | Instructor: Jeffrey Katrencik