Design Principles / Final Project
2.11.2022 - .12.2022 (Week 10- Week 14)
Loke Yan Ling / 0344602
Design Principles / Bachelor of Design in Creative Media
Final Project: Visual Analysis
Instructions
Briefing & Recap
Students are to utilize their understanding of design principles found in the design work. This project requires the students to assess, investigate, document and analyze a design material (billboards / television commercial / movie clip / work of design) of their choice. They should notice, size, placement, purpose, effectiveness, as well as aspects of design principles found in that work. Thereafter, they are to produce a work of design, inspired/influenced by the one they studied on, or as a reaction to it. They should also apply knowledge of design principles in their design.
Visual Analysis:
A method of understanding design that focuses on the visual elements and principles. It is a critical part of visual literacy - read and critically interpret images.
- A description and explanation of visual structure for its own sake.
- To recognize the choices of a designer, how the formal properties of a design communicate ideas, content, or meaning.
- Sharpens critical judgement skills and helps people seek out answers.
Phase 1: Observation
- Identifying visual elements of a design and describing them in your own words.
(Do not read beforehand about the design at all)
- Looking, thinking and finding good language to communicate what you notice.
Phase 2: Analysis
- Make statements about the work based on the evidence of your observations.
- The specific visual elements combine together to create a whole
- The effect that whole has on the viewer.
- How your eye is led through the work and why?
Phase 3: Interpretation
- Observations, descriptions and analysis of the work are fused with facts about the design work (and in some cases the designer) and historical context that you find in trustworthy published sources.
- What is the meaning of the design? What was the purpose for it to be created?
Final Project: Visual Analysis
Theme: Reduced Inequalities
Inequalities based on income, sex, age, disability, sexual orientation, race, class, ethnicity, religion and opportunity continue to persist across the world. Inequality threatens long term social and economic development, harms poverty reduction and destroys people’s sense of fulfilment and self-worth. This, in turn, can breed crime, disease and environmental degradation.
Examples: Women and children
with lack of access to
healthcare die each
day from preventable
diseases.
Rationale:
When I searched Pinterest for artwork on the theme of reducing inequality, this painting caught my attention as the hands of different skin colours clasped together as if to show them living and creating a better future together on earth, a future free from racism and inequality between men and women.
Phase 1: Observation
This design work is in portrait format. As for visual elements, the main colours observed are gradient of 6 colours from white to brown black, green and blue. The background is in black monochrome. At the centre, a circle is featured in blue and green. Even and uneven thickness of lines are applied throughout the composition. The artwork shows several several hands, each with a different skin tone, holding the wrist of the next hand. The hands are larger in size compared to the earth which is in the smaller size. The lines portray details on the hands and the earth.
Phase 2: Analysis
This structure of the design is symmetrically balanced. The emphasis of the design is the earth place at the central. The repetition is used on the image of the hands with the different skin tone. The brightest saturation is used to render the skin tone. A polygon shape results from the hands holding the same direction which shows the movement. The hands are coloured harmoniously which analogous colour scheme. The hands have a brighter saturation than the earth. The hands are arranged in a way that complements one another, creating unity within the overall composition. Radial balance also have shown in the artwork. The layout's proportions help to create hierarchy. The hands appears first in the largest size, followed by the earth in a slightly smaller size.
Rationale:
This artwork is selected due the relation of inequality of gender inequality in workplace. In general traditional value, people prefer to let women go back to home as a good wife and taking care of babies. Despite the fact that many woman make an effort to achieve what men obtain. (Dolo Sun, 2015)
Phase 1: Observation
This design work is in portrait format. As for visual elements, the main colours observed are black, white, grey, pink and blue. There are also another colours like red and skin tone. The background is in grey colour. At the centre, a women is featured in half black and white at the top and half pink and blue at the bottom. There is also a circle at the middle part of the women. Men and bottom background are faded. The water paint texture is applied throughout the artwork. The composition behind of the woman collaged with colour element such as rectangular shapes in blue and pink, irregular shape in white
Phase 2: Analysis
This design is symmetrically balanced in vertical but asymmetrical balanced in horizontal. The emphasis on the central image which is the woman is rendered in 4 monochromatic color, black, white, pink and blue. . The movement is show in the direction of the men eyes, their head is tilted downwards towards one direction that creates a focal point. A slight contrast also shown in the different color used on top and at the bottom. A repetition of men, rectangular shape and patterns are found from the top to the bottom of the artwork. There is unity in the overall composition as the objects are arranged in a way that complement one another. Harmony also found that all the elements are fit together with the same painting style. There is proportion in the layout, creating hierarchy. The men are the first to be seen and make up the majority of the entire painting compared to the women.
Feedback: The first visual reference is okay too as long it related to inequality. So, pick one as your visual analysis and go through the phase 3 with it.
I have decided to pick Figure 2 as my Visual Analysis.
Phase 3: Interpretation
The artwork is illustrate by Dolo Sun in New York, USA. It was published on 11th October 2015 at Behance website and name as "Sexism in workplace". The artwork is about the workplace sexism in China . As said in the artwork rationale, it is a situation that can commonly seen everywhere in China. The author did not describe much about the artwork but it already shows the asphyxiation. However, this is not only happen at China, it also happen everywhere. You have to be able to take care of people, you have to be able to cook, you have to be able to do so many chores if you are women. In the opinion of men, being virtuous is the highest evaluation of a woman. My friend have faced this situation when interns. Her boss asked her why she had to study to such a high level, when she would still end up getting married, having children, taking maternity leave and causing problems for the company. It is a label that is firmly attached to a woman and is very difficult to remove. In my opinion, now is 21st century, it is the time for women to wake up and help each other out.
Reference: Dolo Sun. (2015, October 11). Sexism in workplace. Behance. Retrieved November 6, 2022, from https://www.behance.net/gallery/30236773/sexism-in-workplace
Visual Reference:
Figure 2.1 Watercolor and ink
Figure 2.2 Aesthetica Helzeria
Idea exploration and description:
Figure 3.1 Sketch 1
My idea is inspired by the emotion of my own when I saw Figure 2, it made me feel suffocated because it show the situation of how women treated unfairly. The people who pushed her down were not necessarily strangers, but could have been friends, fathers, or even their loved ones. I expressed my feelings of suffocation through the sketch, but I wasn't sure whether to put a male behind her, because the restriction and the feeling of suffocation wasn't just from one male but from society as a whole. The issue is about women treated unfairly not only in working place also in daily life due to inherent thinking that women should stay at home doing chores and wait husband come home. Thus, the light represents hope, because now people are taking this issue seriously and speaking out about it that woman should treated as equally as man did, like Emma Watson and Anne Hathaway. “We've sacrificed, fought, campaigned, succeeded, been knocked back, and succeeded again. In a race for justice, we've leapt over countless obstacles to win our rights." Is the quote said by Emma Watson. Reaching out to women in distress is what I wanted to express.
Feedback:
Ms. Yip also agree about only one man couldn’t express strongly of the unfair pressure bring from the society. Make the idea more symbolic by trying another idea. So, she gives two suggestions and improvements about sketch. The first suggestion is lots of male characters around the woman to emphasize the society with specific scenario such as work forced or general society. The second idea is about make use of symbolism stronger, the chain made by the male symbol and the light came from the top which show the support. One of the chain is slowing cracking with the supports that come. This idea does not need people around but more of the chain that made up of the male symbol.
Figure 3.2 Sketch 2
Figure 3.3 Progression 1
I decided to pick the 2nd suggestion as improvement. Pink color represent woman and blue represent male. Water colour is used as painting and added paper textured which inspired by the visual references. Those lines looks a bit too dark, I reduce their opacity too make it more harmony.
Figure 3.4 Progression 2
Feedback:
The male symbol chain can be thicker and try on darker blue. Yellow colour scheme of light, it will be more contrast to separate the background and the girl. The chain cuffs looks a bit like part of the sleeve so maybe they can be the same colour as the male chain symbol. The detail of the cuff can be added. More tears also can be illustrate as well. Furthermore, can try on other ways that shows her speech is limited.
In the process of improving, I was not happy with my design. The design bring out the emotional too raw. The head and eyes should be looking upwards instead of looking up and diagonally above. So I worked on the structure of the head and re-drew it. While working on the head, I had a new inspiration about the design. Instead showing the struggle or suffering from the inequality, embrace hope, to be baptized by light and break free from inequality , this is the most expressive way of reducing inequality from my own point of view. The inspiration is came form when I was painting the colour of the head, it gave me the impression that I was being bathed in light and I can imagine how the warmness bring from the lights to my skin. There are two things in common in these two ideas, namely that light represents hope and that the yoke of the male symbol represents the inequality that comes from the male gender. In terms of colour I abandoned the watercolor method and worked out my own way of coloring, deepening the colours and lines where the shadows should be.
Figure 3.5 Head Post Reference
Figure 3.6 Head post redraw
Figure 3.7 Body Post Inspiration
| Figure 3.8 Sketch of another idea |
Figure 3.9 direction of the chain 1
Figure 3.10 direction of the chain 2
Once the woman were coloured, I started to work out how to apply the light of hope, as the advice given by Ms. Yip was to use warm light. And I also noticed that my lighting was playing very raw in the last idea. So I used orange to stir up the light and make lines between the light and the dark side look faint and opacity is reduces. For the chains, my original idea was that the chains were slowly disintegrating as they were baptized by light, so I painted lines to show the chains direction. But I found another way of representing it, that the chains were slowly loosening when exposed to the light as shown in Figure 3.10.
Figure 3.11 Color Selection 1
Figure 3.12 Color Selection 2
I have thickened and deepened the masculine symbol, but when I put it on the design it still looks very light. Figure 3.12 shows the final choice of colour for the chain. The method of copying and pasting the male symbol does not suit the current idea, as the chain is oriented in a more curved way and the male symbol will have different sides. Thus, the chains are draw detailly one by one.
Figure 3.13 progression record
Figure 3.14 Progression 3
Figure 3.15 Progression 4
Feedback: This idea is express more effective in this design, the depiction is more focus without too much distraction. Maybe you can add on some tears drop which emphasize on her suffering.
Final Project:
Embrace Hope
Figure 4 Embrace Hope
In the face of injustice, we learn to fight back or seek help from the outside world. This is something I learned clearly in my primary school moral education, but who can actually speak up for injustice in their own lives. Maybe some of us can, but most women can't speak up even though women make up the largest population in the world. The most deadly thing about injustice is that it is invisible and implanted in people's minds. If we had the power to change the situation, we would reach out to help when we see injustice, regardless of gender. But we have to understand that this situation of injustice is not created in the short term, so today we have to do what we can to help those women who are unable to speak up for themselves, to fight for gender equality and to make the day come when all of us break free from inequality of gender. For me, education is one of the ways in which we can change the situation. Education doesn't just come from school, but also from the actions of elders.
Reflection:
At first I found visual analysis difficult because I hadn't started to take that step yet. As I was working on it, I found that the previous lecture notes were a great help. It is a class that allows us to practice what we have learnt. The theme of this final project was very realistic and it made me reflect on whether I had done injustice to others in the past because I understood how it felt to experience injustice and not be able to speak up for myself. At one point I was too afraid to face the consequences of being brave enough to speak up, but later I realized that the only way to slowly change an injustice is to speak up. Just like the school group work, free riders are the cause of injustice. Free riders will be punished for their behaviour and will take a lesson from it. In the process of creating this design, I struggled with not being able to express my thoughts well. I had a sense of what I wanted to say in my head, but my pen couldn't express it. Fortunately, in the process of reworking the human body, better ideas came to my mind and I am happy with the way I have constructed the human body this time and am happy to have reached this point.
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