Without silence, there is no music.
Space visually performs the same function in design as the spaces between the notes of the music. It gives elements room to breathe, (yes oxygen is required). It helps in the draw of the eye in the composition by giving the freedom to move. To remind you, the positive is seen only in contrast with negative, the black is seen only in contrast with white. Without Space, you don’t have good design, you have good clutter. And People are less likely to complain about too much space than about little. In any case, as usual, there will always be a sort of people who prefer Noise and you need to impart it to them. In this way, there’s consistently the exemption. Space can do the following in your composition:- Set up the contrast, emphasis, and good hierarchy. Make dramatization and tension. Give visual rest between a gathering of components. It offers oxygen to the component, with the goal that it can live and be seen.
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What is Gestalt Theory?
In the 1920s, a group of psychologists in Germany developed a series of theories of visual perception known as the Gestalt Principles, or Gestalt Theory. Along with systems such as grid theory, the Golden Ratio and colour theory, the Gestalt Principles form the basis of many design rules we follow today. The term Gestalt means 'unified whole', which is a good way of describing the over-arching theme behind the Gestalt principles. These refer to the way in which humans, when looking at a group of objects, will see the whole before we see the individual parts. |
There are three types of figure-ground relationships:
- Stable
It’s clear what’s figure and what’s ground. One or the other usually dominates the composition. - Reversible
Both figure and ground attract the viewer’s attention equally. This creates tension, whereby either can overtake the other, leading to a dynamic design. - Ambiguous
Elements can appear to be both figure and ground simultaneously. They form equally interesting shapes, and the viewer is left to find their own entry point into the composition.
Materials: black and white paper, scissors, knife, glue - OR Adobe Illustrator
Task:
Create an illustration using cut paper or with the use of Illustrator. Arrange shapes/objects to make each type of figure/ground relationship: Stable, reversible, and ambiguous.
Tips:
Task:
Create an illustration using cut paper or with the use of Illustrator. Arrange shapes/objects to make each type of figure/ground relationship: Stable, reversible, and ambiguous.
Tips:
- Adjust the placement until the arrangements feel unified. In some instances, you may need to economize, removing some elements in order to create a more unified composition.
- Observe the objects (figure) and the background paper (ground). How do they relate? Try to “see” in terms of solid shapes, rather than lines, color, or texture.
Gérard Paris-Clavel
What type of figure/ground relationship is shown here?
What are your observations about this image? Task: Following the instructions given in class, create your own image in this style. |
You will be using the following tools in illustrator:
line segment pen tool clipping mask rotate tool duplicate keyboard shortcut |