lecture

Ok so I’ve been thinking about the lecture we had this past Wednesday and I have a few statements/questions.

First of, just so I know I have this right: Syntactic is the pieces to the whole. Semantic is the meaning and pragmatic is the purpose. Right?

Well it seems to me that, aside from projects we get in the first year of studio, people generally have an idea of the purpose of what they will be designing. Even if it is something made out of need, like the hammer example, you still know that you need something to put the nail through the wood. So wouldn’t that mess with the purely syntactical thought process?

Also, the examples of the people who focused purely on syntactic or semantic thought are void in my opinion. What they created might be “art” in some people’s eyes, but there is no purpose to these creations. Is it right to be thinking of what we are designing as art when there are people that will be utilizing and/or interacting with our designs?

I’ve always thought that something is designed well when it interacts seamlessly with its environment. That extends to people, the physical world, the human form... I think putting these three ways of thought, syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic, in a linear order is arbitrary. All three of these things should be weighed when designing, who’s to say what goes first.

Graphic Design

I always assumed that graphic design would be extremely easy to master. Unfortunately, when making my portfolio page I learned that I am pretty bad at it. It is important to choose a well thought-out page layout thas has meaning to it, which can be quite challenging. Below is a website that displays some really great portfolio examples!

http://justcreativedesign.com/portfolio/

picture from : http://gowderc09.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/graphic-design-pdf.jpg

Graphic design 2

Ok so I already posted a few basic principles to keep in mind when designing a display board. Here are a few awesome online lessons regarding all things graphic design. I will warn you, the first 10 or so are on fonts. Graphic Designers are extremely snooty about fonts. If all goes according to plan, you will be too! Haha.

elements of graphic design

There are eight design elements that are pulled together by these eight design principles.

• Balance - Balance helps the viewer decide how to interpret your design. If it’s designed with asymmetrical balance, the design will evoke emotions like excitement, curiosity, or anxiety. If the design is symmetrical, or totally even, it will convey peace, calm, and tranquility.
• Contrast - Without values, you can’t create contrast. Without smoothness or roughness (or the illusion of those textures), you aren’t dealing with contrast. You can use various design elements to create contrast. Without contrast there would be no day or night and without contrast you cannot create an interesting design.
• Direction - Direction is the way to lead the viewer’s eye through your design layout or composition. Direction is created by line, but it also can be created by the way you use color to lead the eye through a design. Shapes, spaces, values, and perspective all create the illusion of depth in two-dimensional design, and this depth is needed to create a direction for the eye to take that journey. In three-dimensional design those shapes, spaces, values, and perspectives are all used to lead people through a design.
• Economy - If you can remove an element within a design and that design still works, then you’ve practiced economy in design. Don’t offer more than is needed, but be sure to include all that is needed to create an intelligent and economical design.
• Emphasis - You can lead that viewer all through your garden, through your building, through your advertisement, or through your painting, but if you don’t stop that viewer with one point of interest, then you’ve lost your viewer. The emphasis in a design is the message that you want to convey.
• Proportion - You can use proportion to create surreal images (like Dali) to shock your viewers into noticing your work. Or, you can use proportion realistically to emphasize the message conveyed through typography. Proportion gives the viewer a leg to lean on. In other words, a realistic composition creates a feeling of balance, whereas unrealistic proportions create a feeling of emphasis on the object that’s out of proportion.
• Rhythm - Repetition, rhythm, bam, bam, bam. While this principle of design can create boredom, it can also be used to create depth (one element smaller than the next), excitement or peace (contrast), or emphasis on a certain subject. Like music, rhythm keeps the world singing and dancing.
• Unity - This is the principle that pulls a design together. While there’s no one rule for unity, this principle can remind you to check all the other design elements and principles so that you know you haven’t missed a tick in your plans.

creating texture

I wanted to create the texture on my clay slabs by pressing the leaves from my site onto the slabs but since collecting the fallen leaves a few weeks ago they have dried up. They are now too dry to peel open to reveal the texture of the inside. So, I fired my original texture cube and then am going to press that texture onto a new small slab and fire it in order to use this as my tool for creating texture. I found this video that has the idea of making the texture on a hollow log shape in order to continuously roll the texture on the slabs. This would address the issue of what to do with the sides of the slabs and how to make the sections of the texture work together.

creating a portfolio

Since we were given the assignment of creating a portfolio page, I decided to look around a little just to get a feel for it. I found this site and thought it was pretty interesting. Under the "problems and solutions" tab, the site discusses some different aspects to consider when designing a presentation for your work.

For me personally, I'm trying to improve on things like page layout, being selective with what I include on a page, and emphasizing what's important, so this assignment was sort of challenging.

The City of Dubai

While surfing the internet, I came across an article on the city of Dubai, which is located on the northern tip of the united arab emeritus. Over the past few years, the city has become very well known for its booming economy and very ambitious architecture. The burj khalifa, which is now the tallest structure in the world, was completed in January of 2011. The skyscraper is very ambitious in its design and turned out to be very successful.

A very interesting design for a resort called "the cloud" was being considered a couple of years ago, but has yet to have been built. This resort was planned to be 300m high in the air supported by slanting legs that resemble rain.

Here is the website if you want to check it out more: http://www.designboom.com/contemporary/dubai1.html