Learning how design principles can be seen in simple shapes.
For this project, I aimed to represent the word “wilting.” During this module, we learned about design principles and elements and were challenged to use them to create emotion with just a few shapes. For my composition, I prioritized movement because wilting is a verb – an action that requires movement. I chose to use triangles to communicate this feeling because they felt more weighted and drawn towards the ground than squares or circles, which is essential to creating a feeling of wilting. The first composition conveys wilting by showing the shapes in a central form and are seemingly falling because of the use of movement and scale. This project was very challenging because simple shapes don’t inherently communicate much if we don’t think much about them. But when you begin to look at them, especially in a group, they communicate and relate to each other. Although challenging, understanding how simple shapes interact with one another is fundamental to understanding how more complex forms will interact with one another in any kind of design space, whether digital or physical. This project was a diptych meaning two parts compared/related to each other in a way. In the first part, we strategically placed the triangles and in the second part, we randomly dropped them onto the page to evoke that emotion and attempt to find it in a random display of shapes. This second composition creates the feeling of wilting through the use of scale, as the triangles get smaller a sense of shrinking and decomposing comes through.
View the full process here.
Composition one – intentionally placing shapes to portray chosen emotion.
Composition two – randomly placing shapes until they convey my chosen emotion.
