Wednesday, September 30, 2015

Asymmetrical balance part 2

In this project, the concept of asymmetrical balance was further explored through the combination of two different designs. This portion of the project involved taking three designs from the previous lesson, two similar and one dramatically different, and adding elements that either unified or further separated the two original designs
My craftsmanship on this project was fairly poor and distracting, so I scanned my designs into adobe illustrator and recreated them using the pen tool. This first design was intended to be the combination of two designs that remained separate from eachother. The left and bottom right portions of this design contain thin, sharp lines that contrast with their backgrounds in order to create a very sporadic and aggressive look that greatly differs from the rest of the design, which is made up of simple geometric shapes. In order to emphasis the difference between the two parts, I kept the geometric shapes On the right empty, adding large areas of white to the design. I had originally thought that the large white shapes would draw the viewers eye to that specific portion of the design, but looking back I noticed that the design actually appears to be fairly balanced. 
This next design was part of the unified portion of the assignment. I used the same thin jagged lines and geometric shapes that from the previous design but I added overlap and inorganic figures to create a sense of unity. 
Personally, I found this assignment to be fairly difficult. Unifying two separate designs is much easier said than done. The most difficult aspect of this assignment for me was adding elements to the design that did not create further separation. I found that adding subtle elements to the design was much more effective when trying to unify the two. Making large adjustments to the design tended to draw attention to itself and create a greater sense of separation. 

Tuesday, September 29, 2015

Asymmetrical Balance Part 1

This assignment explored the use of asymmetrical balance and the use of a variety of design techniques
This piece utilizes the concepts of line variation, unity, and tension to create a composition with a feeling of depth and space. The image below is a variant of the first design that uses color for emphasis, drawing the viewer's eye to the center of the piece. Personally, I like the first design better than its counter part. The  illusion of depth in the first piece is much greater, making it more appealing and attractive to the eye. While the red shapes also have this effect in the second piece, I found the first piece to be my favorite. 
This next piece utilizes the concepts of figure ground, side-to-side connections, and scale to further experiment with the illusion of depth and asymmetrical balance. While the craftsmanship of this piece is lack luster, I am a big fan of this design and how the different sized squares can guide the eye around the canvas