📅 WEEK 5 - 6 : 30.04.2021 - 07.05.2021
Lee Shu Wei 0345494
Design Principles Weekly Exercise 5 : Symbol, Imagery & Typography
Design Principles Weekly Exercise 5 : Symbol, Imagery & Typography
📑 LECTURE
This week, we learned about symbol, imagery and typography. For design principles, we are going to focus on figurative representations in symbol. In figurative representations, there are three types of symbols:
Pictorial symbols, which are simplified by real objects and image-related. They are non realistic but simplified, which mostly can be seen in educational textbooks. For example, human anatomy.
Abstract symbols, are symbols that look like the objects or the ideas they represent. We are able to identify them without need to study and learn about them. Here's something important, the abstract mentioned over here is different from abstract art. Examples for abstract symbols are shell, twitter, and some road sign. Here's an abstract symbol (Figure 1.1) I found in my daily life:
Figure 1.1: An example for abstract symbol
Next, arbitrary symbols looks similar to abstract symbols but are completely opposite, which means that we have to learn and have that perception only can understand the message of the symbol. Most of them are mainly based on geometric shapes and colours. For example, start button, warning symbol, or even for some brand logos like Toyota.
Moving on next, imagery. Imagery simply means the suitable and relevant images used to enhance the message and topic of a visual. It is important for brands and companies to reflect the identity of them. For example, from the advertisements of Coca-Cola, we can always see red colours being used to represent the brand, and most of the imageries show happiness.
Last but not least, typography. Typography is design and arrangement of texts to convey a message or concept. Here are some interesting typography designs I found when I was looking for magazines:
Figure 1.2: An interesting typography of "Macondo" I found in bookstore
Figure 1.3: A mandarin word "Sea" typography I found in a magazine
💡 INSTRUCTIONS
💭 EXERCISE 5
This week, I need to design an arbitrary symbol using any design software, with a 20-50 words rationale of my idea. I am going to use Adobe Illustrator for it. In addition, I need to produce a collage design for imagery and typography using any photos of my own, magazines, or objects can be found in my daily life.
To start off this exercise, instead of my ritual routine of looking inspirations from Pinterest or Instagram, I went to a bookstore.
Figure 2.1: My visit to bookstore
Figure 2.2: My visit to bookstore
Surprisingly, I found a magazine cover that shows what I am going to produce this week for imagery and typography as below (Figure 2.3):
Figure 2.3: A magazine cover that shows one of our exercises for this week
At the end, I got myself 2 magazines. Then, I start my journey of flipping the pages, dive into it to "swim" for inspirations.
Figure 3.1: Yellow Owum (2019) and Standing in water (2019) by Loie Hollowell(Inspiration 1 for arbitrary symbol exercise)
Figure 3.2: Alber Elbaz's "AZ Factory"(Inspiration 2 for arbitrary symbol exercise)
Figure 3.3: 1st draft inspired from magazines above (Figure 3.1 & 3.2)
- Inspiration 1: Life-cycle (represent life)
This idea is inspired from figure 3.1, which are American artist Loie Hollowell's artworks, Yellow Owum (2019) and Standing in water (2019), published in Tatler Malaysia April 2021 edition. Her artworks reminds me of life cycle with the repeated compositions in different colour combinations and circular shape being used. It reminds me of some punctuation symbols, which are open quotation mark ( ' ) and comma ( , ). Hence, I came out with two designs for the idea in my 1st draft (Figure 3.3)
Both the shapes are inspired from the punctuation symbols, which have the meaning of start and continue. The colours will be fading from dark to light, which represents life from young to elderly, and the circular placement actually means life is a cycle.
On the left, which is the open quotation mark ( ' ) inspired one, the hidden message is: "You will start your life, and back to the starting point" ... Don't take death as an ending, who knows what's after life? Which reminds me of chinese culture's “轮回”
On the right, which is the comma ( , ) inspired one, the message is about continuing and keep on going.
- Inspiration 2: You have everything from A-Z (represent gratitude)
When I saw Alber Elbaz's AZ Factory (Figure 3.2) on the same magazine, the interesting typography of alphabet A & Z reminds me of Amazon's brand logo, and also a star. Eventually, the idea of A-Z stuck in my mind, in another way, that I have everything I have in my life. Hence, I want to create a symbol that represents "grateful" life how we have the "peace" sign.
The ideas then flows into my mind with things like: star, ship, complete. The elements are all shown in my 1st draft (Figure 3.3) above.
Meanwhile, I start off my collage exercise, with the ideas I got from the magazines as below (Figure 4.1,4.2).
Figure 4.1: 1st attempt of "tearing magazines" to make a collage
Figure 4.2: 1st attempt of "tearing magazines" to make a collage
💬 Feedback 1:
During the tutorial session, Dr.Jinchi provided me feedbacks as below:
The inspiration 2 for symbol is more interesting in comparison to 1. However, the circle looks confining the A-Z, and the Z looks more emphasized compare to Z.For the collage work, the overall theme do not really suit the sentence of "Live to the fullest", although the calendar does reflect the message. The monochrome buildings does not enhance the message, colourful and energetic elements will be more exciting to fit the theme.
Meanwhile, Dr. Jinchi sent me an encouraging feedbacks about the past two exercises. - Exercise 3 [Repetition and Movement]: Repetition is finally expressed successfully in the last try! This goes to show that exploration is important but I do understand that it takes time. As for Movement, the waterflow is well represented in the overall design and composition; and the neat handling of the watercolour is noted.
- Exercise 4 [Harmony and Unity]: For Harmony, the horizontal composition, night sky, soft clouds and a sleeping figure hidden among the clouds all contribute to a harmonious outlook. As for Unity, it seems like an extended story from Harmony :) The grouping of organic shapes and the overall brings a sense of unity. I agree with your final selection for Unity. You are right about meeting deadlines but I can also see you have been putting a lot of time and effort into your work, Shu Wei. Yes, don't be too sorry to yourself.
After that, I proceeded to work on the exercises with the feedbacks given.
Figure 5.1: 2nd attempt for collage exercise
Figure 5.2: 2nd attempt for collage exercise
Figure 5.3: 2nd draft for symbol
💬 Feedback 2:
- Collage: Overall, the adventurous elements is way more suitable than previous one. The polaroid, especially the view from moon to earth is not suitable for the theme. The astronaut is interesting, can cut out and apply beside to the sentence, as it is similar to the elements of two people surrounding it.
- Symbol: Idea 1 in Figure 5.3 is good. I suggest an "open circle" to surround the symbol.
Figure 5.4: Visual sample of the feedback given by Dr. Jinchi
🏁 FINAL DESIGN OUTCOME
Figure 6.1: Imagery and Typography
📑 LECTURE
This week, we learned about symbol, imagery and typography. For design principles, we are going to focus on figurative representations in symbol. In figurative representations, there are three types of symbols:
Pictorial symbols, which are simplified by real objects and image-related. They are non realistic but simplified, which mostly can be seen in educational textbooks. For example, human anatomy.
Abstract symbols, are symbols that look like the objects or the ideas they represent. We are able to identify them without need to study and learn about them. Here's something important, the abstract mentioned over here is different from abstract art. Examples for abstract symbols are shell, twitter, and some road sign. Here's an abstract symbol (Figure 1.1) I found in my daily life:
Figure 1.1: An example for abstract symbol
Next, arbitrary symbols looks similar to abstract symbols but are completely opposite, which means that we have to learn and have that perception only can understand the message of the symbol. Most of them are mainly based on geometric shapes and colours. For example, start button, warning symbol, or even for some brand logos like Toyota.
Moving on next, imagery. Imagery simply means the suitable and relevant images used to enhance the message and topic of a visual. It is important for brands and companies to reflect the identity of them. For example, from the advertisements of Coca-Cola, we can always see red colours being used to represent the brand, and most of the imageries show happiness.
Last but not least, typography. Typography is design and arrangement of texts to convey a message or concept. Here are some interesting typography designs I found when I was looking for magazines:
Figure 1.2: An interesting typography of "Macondo" I found in bookstore
Figure 1.3: A mandarin word "Sea" typography I found in a magazine
💡 INSTRUCTIONS
This week, I need to design an arbitrary symbol using any design software, with a 20-50 words rationale of my idea. I am going to use Adobe Illustrator for it. In addition, I need to produce a collage design for imagery and typography using any photos of my own, magazines, or objects can be found in my daily life.
To start off this exercise, instead of my ritual routine of looking inspirations from Pinterest or Instagram, I went to a bookstore.
Figure 2.1: My visit to bookstore
Figure 2.2: My visit to bookstore
Surprisingly, I found a magazine cover that shows what I am going to produce this week for imagery and typography as below (Figure 2.3):
Figure 2.3: A magazine cover that shows one of our exercises for this week
At the end, I got myself 2 magazines. Then, I start my journey of flipping the pages, dive into it to "swim" for inspirations.
Figure 3.1: Yellow Owum (2019) and Standing in water (2019) by Loie Hollowell
(Inspiration 1 for arbitrary symbol exercise)
(Inspiration 2 for arbitrary symbol exercise)
Figure 3.3: 1st draft inspired from magazines above (Figure 3.1 & 3.2)
- Inspiration 1: Life-cycle (represent life)
This idea is inspired from figure 3.1, which are American artist Loie Hollowell's artworks, Yellow Owum (2019) and Standing in water (2019), published in Tatler Malaysia April 2021 edition. Her artworks reminds me of life cycle with the repeated compositions in different colour combinations and circular shape being used. It reminds me of some punctuation symbols, which are open quotation mark ( ' ) and comma ( , ). Hence, I came out with two designs for the idea in my 1st draft (Figure 3.3)
Both the shapes are inspired from the punctuation symbols, which have the meaning of start and continue. The colours will be fading from dark to light, which represents life from young to elderly, and the circular placement actually means life is a cycle.
On the left, which is the open quotation mark ( ' ) inspired one, the hidden message is: "You will start your life, and back to the starting point" ... Don't take death as an ending, who knows what's after life? Which reminds me of chinese culture's “轮回”
On the right, which is the comma ( , ) inspired one, the message is about continuing and keep on going.
- Inspiration 2: You have everything from A-Z (represent gratitude)
When I saw Alber Elbaz's AZ Factory (Figure 3.2) on the same magazine, the interesting typography of alphabet A & Z reminds me of Amazon's brand logo, and also a star. Eventually, the idea of A-Z stuck in my mind, in another way, that I have everything I have in my life. Hence, I want to create a symbol that represents "grateful" life how we have the "peace" sign.
The ideas then flows into my mind with things like: star, ship, complete. The elements are all shown in my 1st draft (Figure 3.3) above.
Meanwhile, I start off my collage exercise, with the ideas I got from the magazines as below (Figure 4.1,4.2).
Figure 4.1: 1st attempt of "tearing magazines" to make a collage
💬 Feedback 1:
During the tutorial session, Dr.Jinchi provided me feedbacks as below:
The inspiration 2 for symbol is more interesting in comparison to 1. However, the circle looks confining the A-Z, and the Z looks more emphasized compare to Z.
For the collage work, the overall theme do not really suit the sentence of "Live to the fullest", although the calendar does reflect the message. The monochrome buildings does not enhance the message, colourful and energetic elements will be more exciting to fit the theme.
Meanwhile, Dr. Jinchi sent me an encouraging feedbacks about the past two exercises.
- Exercise 3 [Repetition and Movement]: Repetition is finally expressed successfully in the last try! This goes to show that exploration is important but I do understand that it takes time. As for Movement, the waterflow is well represented in the overall design and composition; and the neat handling of the watercolour is noted.
- Exercise 4 [Harmony and Unity]: For Harmony, the horizontal composition, night sky, soft clouds and a sleeping figure hidden among the clouds all contribute to a harmonious outlook. As for Unity, it seems like an extended story from Harmony :) The grouping of organic shapes and the overall brings a sense of unity. I agree with your final selection for Unity. You are right about meeting deadlines but I can also see you have been putting a lot of time and effort into your work, Shu Wei. Yes, don't be too sorry to yourself.
After that, I proceeded to work on the exercises with the feedbacks given.
💬 Feedback 2:
- Collage: Overall, the adventurous elements is way more suitable than previous one. The polaroid, especially the view from moon to earth is not suitable for the theme. The astronaut is interesting, can cut out and apply beside to the sentence, as it is similar to the elements of two people surrounding it.
- Symbol: Idea 1 in Figure 5.3 is good. I suggest an "open circle" to surround the symbol.
Figure 5.4: Visual sample of the feedback given by Dr. Jinchi
🏁 FINAL DESIGN OUTCOME
Figure 6.1: Imagery and Typography
Figure 6.2: Symbol
Rationale of symbol:
It is a symbol that represents grateful for me. To be grateful everything I have and reminds myself that I have everything I need from A to Z. The design that looks like a star, also represents lucky, which resonate with the grateful idea. You are blessed and lucky enough, just go with the flow like the wavy end of "Z".
💗 REFLECTION OF THE WEEK
This week, I like the exercises, especially the collage work. I saw this activity before online, which it asked me to flip on magazines, and just tear whatever pages with my sense. Although I did not really do so for this exercise, as I need to focus on the theme, but I stil enjoyed it. The experience of looking for magazines in bookstore brings back the enjoyment of reading. Flipping magazines to search for inspiration, at the same time being sensitive to the layout, arrangement, typography and imagery in it reminds me of a semester in my diploma life which I need to produce a magazine. Here's the magazine I produced from scratch with my teammates (haha, yeah I carry my hard copy portfolios with me, and I kept the 5 exercises of design principles in my file too):
Figure 7.1: Previous assignment for magazine production
Figure 7.2: Magazine production with diploma group mates
Figure 7.3: One of the contents I produced in the magazine
Reason of sharing them? It is a reflection! Starting my college and university life is Communciation, specifically Advertising since 2018, I can see how Design Principles helped me even with just 6 weeks. For the past few years in producing assignments I shared in this blog, I started with my sense and feelings. With this module, I am able to learn the theories and reasons of applying them, which I included some of the principles into my previous assignments without really know why. Now, I have answers. Not to say with the knowledge, getting flying colours mean I learned "EVERYTHING", and really "GOOD" in designing. This is the fun part of design, where you can't really "determine"...dear readers, hope you got what I am trying to say. But definitely, I am confident to say that at least I've progressed and improved a little bit more than before 😚 ! So excited for the upcoming project about "Me Myself", more self-reflection for it will be happening.
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