Design Theory F15 - Class
Visual Logic Music Album - Project #6
A visual logic approach to a design project is similar to writing poetry or composing music. Your assignment is to create a Vinyl Record Album Package for the band and/or artist of your choice.
Project must include Album Cover front and back (with lyrics), a sleeve, and record label.
Use your Visual Logic Exercise and the following visual logic design examples to help steer you
in the right direction, but use your “inner eye” to guide you. All projects due on blog unless
otherwise directed.
Project Schedule
Project Brief Due Tuesday, November 24th
• Work in Class
- Mood/Content Board
- Word/Type List
Album Concept Roughs Due Tuesday, December 1st
• Critique
• Work in Class
Print out the three images separately on 11x17 paper using the the laserprinter, and have the three sheets posted on the crit wall no later than 9:00 am, Thursday, December 10th.
Strive to make this your strongest design of the semester.
Complete Album Design Due Thursday, December 10th
Project must include Album Cover front and back (with lyrics), a sleeve, and record label.
Use your Visual Logic Exercise and the following visual logic design examples to help steer you
in the right direction, but use your “inner eye” to guide you. All projects due on blog unless
otherwise directed.
Project Schedule
Project Brief Due Tuesday, November 24th
• Work in Class
- Mood/Content Board
- Word/Type List
Album Concept Roughs Due Tuesday, December 1st
• Critique
• Work in Class
Album Tight Design Rough Due Thursday, December 3rd
• Critique
• Work in Class
Album Design Comp Due Tuesday, December 8th
• Critique
• Work in Class
ATTENTION
This project has progressed along well, so as a class reward the due date and final presentation of the music album has been changed. We will now be using a mockup template to present your new design this time around.
This project has progressed along well, so as a class reward the due date and final presentation of the music album has been changed. We will now be using a mockup template to present your new design this time around.
You will need to download it from the following url:
Post the design, along with your project’s process, on your blog as well.
Complete Album Design Due Thursday, December 10th
• Critique
- Digital Mockup using Template posted on Blog
- Final Laser Prints hung on Crit Wall
- Final Laser Prints hung on Crit Wall
• Last Class
_____________________________________________________________
Visual Logic Design Examples
Visual Logic Exercise - Project #5
“Emotion, subjective interpretation, and hand gestures are what humans can contribute and computer’s expert systems can not. Highly technological societies will likely put a premium on subjective human values. This suggests the possibility of a renewed appreciation and new applications of our earlier, intuitive, image-oriented, and generated design approaches. Design as a cultural activity, including aesthetic and personal expression, may be the essential source of values, emotions, and play that we all need in the digital domain.”
– Katherine McCoy, Co-Director, Cranbrook Graduate Design Program
“I agree with the Bauhaus masters that form is the essential building block of design, although I do not subscribe to any absolute interpretation beyond direct sensation. From this sensation trickles emotion and language, and from language flows narrative and meaning, which then flood into identity, society, and the political, commercial, and the environmental world. But it all must start with form.”
– Martin Venezky, …it is beautiful… then gone, Appetite Engineers
Formal / Semantic Relationship Exercise
Select 16 of the 19 images posted below, and visually organize them on an 10x10 composition using a 2 inch modular grid. Use the grid to create structure and establish hierarchy. Size, crop, arrange, juxtapose and position them with some sense of VISUAL LOGIC, taking advantage of the formal relationships between the images to express a semantic message.
• Post the composition on your blog for the 9/17 class.
• Be sure to BRING your working design file to class.
• Be sure to BRING your working design file to class.
Constructivist Package Design - Project #4
Constructivism was a design movement prevalent in the 1920's in Russia. Two of its most celebrated proponents were Alexander Rodchenko and his wife Vavara Stepnova. The movement was based upon a socialist-based ideology which looked at design as a to construct a new culture and society for the benefit of the masses. Constructivism used advertising and medium to promote benefits of the new socialistic and eventual communist government positions and programs. As such, most designs created by Rodchenko were advertisements for government-owned and or sanctioned products and services.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhg7LkVIx_Q4pIIQtzOjkjeSGRP4-OI7usEMW93THcAhJw34ilD4BOVfQFcVD4ew5NbWMN3X8McNE7H91XFmI6c2mPu_jVb_ijwTT8SJCLfiGD8Gt64sSSdo1kXElBOEWJh72LaaPgTONQ/s400/d001_varvara_stepanova_theredlist.jpg)
While most design projects centered around Constructism stress the formal qualilties of the movement – bold san-serif type, the prevalent use of red and black, photography and photomontage, arrows and graphic directionals, asymmetrical and dynamic symmetrical layouts, we will be more concerned with it's emphasis on message construction, compositional hierarchy and strong visual syntax.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhg7LkVIx_Q4pIIQtzOjkjeSGRP4-OI7usEMW93THcAhJw34ilD4BOVfQFcVD4ew5NbWMN3X8McNE7H91XFmI6c2mPu_jVb_ijwTT8SJCLfiGD8Gt64sSSdo1kXElBOEWJh72LaaPgTONQ/s400/d001_varvara_stepanova_theredlist.jpg)
While most design projects centered around Constructism stress the formal qualilties of the movement – bold san-serif type, the prevalent use of red and black, photography and photomontage, arrows and graphic directionals, asymmetrical and dynamic symmetrical layouts, we will be more concerned with it's emphasis on message construction, compositional hierarchy and strong visual syntax.
This project will be a package design. Your first task is to choose a contemporary product — food, domestic, building, etc — which will benefit from a highly syntactic design message. Then design a package to house and promote the product from a Constructivist point-of-view.
Your package design must include the following content:
• A dominant Image
• A title.
• A listing of product features.
• An implied benefit.
• A listing of contents.
• A set of Instructions on using the product.
Project Schedule
Product Research/Determination Due Thursday, October 29th Post on Blog
- Rodchenko Package Syntax Exercise
- Review in-store Research & select Product
- Project Mood Board and Brief due by end of class
Package Concept Rough Due Tuesday, November 3rd Post on Blog
- Laser proof posted on crit wall
- Critique / Work in Class
3D Package Comp Due Thursday, November 5th Post on Blog
- Laser proof comp display in Class
- Critique / Work in Class
Final Package Due Tuesday, November 10th Post on Blog
- 3D Package Projections
- Flat Layout
- Critique
Synthetic Cubist Portrait - Project #3B
Synthetic cubism is sign-based. This means that instead of expressing an object as a physical representation, the object is expressed using "symbols" that are tied to the object.
For example, if the object expressed is a musical instrument – like a violin – then a cut out of musical notation might be used as the body of the violin, or actual wood, or a simulated print of wood (a sign) might be substituted.
Analytical cubism was concerned with 3D illusion using 2D materials of paint and canvas, where synthetic cubism was concerned with 3D simulation using sign and symbols and actual materials.
Here are some early examples of synthetic cubism:
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgweXsXKACkmTzJhQa1DzkVFY7-KXhVGQZd8cU3VDkmb9g_ueSjxLlraqdW9RNLglk44xk1VRsZmr0QV2Avkklh52p3cMlnUjEFE1jKzkxtHL5RcUQSLxb6iNhBwY_kVf_N405AlaRPV-Y/s640/Guitar1913.jpg)
As you can see, collage is a strong component of synthetic cubism.
Your second cubism project is to create an second portrait of you from a synthetic cubist point of view. It is to be a physical portrait of you, but this time using sign and symbol. In this version you may add outside elements as signification and context.
Project Schedule
Concept Roughs Thursday, October 22nd Post on Blog
- Work in Class
- Critique
Final Portrait Tuesday, October 27th Post on Blog
- Due beginning of Class
- Critique
Past Student Examples
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPw-Cp_CQW_NZZ-zRVPcrfGXP0smaiZUrGwMOYBIGjwKN_AboGKxitFJn8TN5XSfV_w7fGowCeblT-b3JylftnC2f38i9rIqQRdNBNvKLi-tS-AByeIHb3EGOPR0T0bCoNY1Mpxltk7Bo/s640/4b4bCubism+Posters-2.jpg)
For example, if the object expressed is a musical instrument – like a violin – then a cut out of musical notation might be used as the body of the violin, or actual wood, or a simulated print of wood (a sign) might be substituted.
Analytical cubism was concerned with 3D illusion using 2D materials of paint and canvas, where synthetic cubism was concerned with 3D simulation using sign and symbols and actual materials.
Here are some early examples of synthetic cubism:
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgweXsXKACkmTzJhQa1DzkVFY7-KXhVGQZd8cU3VDkmb9g_ueSjxLlraqdW9RNLglk44xk1VRsZmr0QV2Avkklh52p3cMlnUjEFE1jKzkxtHL5RcUQSLxb6iNhBwY_kVf_N405AlaRPV-Y/s640/Guitar1913.jpg)
As you can see, collage is a strong component of synthetic cubism.
Your second cubism project is to create an second portrait of you from a synthetic cubist point of view. It is to be a physical portrait of you, but this time using sign and symbol. In this version you may add outside elements as signification and context.
Project Schedule
Concept Roughs Thursday, October 22nd Post on Blog
- Work in Class
- Critique
Final Portrait Tuesday, October 27th Post on Blog
- Due beginning of Class
- Critique
Past Student Examples
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPw-Cp_CQW_NZZ-zRVPcrfGXP0smaiZUrGwMOYBIGjwKN_AboGKxitFJn8TN5XSfV_w7fGowCeblT-b3JylftnC2f38i9rIqQRdNBNvKLi-tS-AByeIHb3EGOPR0T0bCoNY1Mpxltk7Bo/s640/4b4bCubism+Posters-2.jpg)
Analytical Cubist Portrait - Project #3A
Cubism was an art movement which was spawned by painters Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque in Paris around 1910. It was a response to several influences including Paul Cezanne's plein-air landscapes and still lifes painted geometrically and from multiple points of view, as well as new scientific points of view of space and time, such as Albert Einstein's Theory of Relativity.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1LbGdlRlmWL_znlZnTFnXZgl0-XKwvg1rvd0kSNXu_KQmVG2zXeAnllAesQB-PtPZzwbW4uDl_zA3WpcndnIgR2Z9fgOHBdTkBwVZF9tO-XWGDTcUM2bZTxZ76EqY84XX9pwy_ZWBJ0w/s320/Duchamp+Nude.jpg)
It eventually developed into two distinct styles and approaches – Analytical or "physically-based" cubism, and Synthetic or "sign-based" cubism.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFvt7-XqpWh7Nmh5iDo_cjDU87d5934U_GbHQ5bt9nSxSQuh5MUJstP_2C8emAFWwOSuCJomY9gYTsg8u2R5qXAlaG7Ic-ofCgCKT83heDXnuO9-J9YoDJx-CJ3YzmK8k7pnSblmHfxQU/s320/Hockney+Mom.jpg)
Many art historians put emphasis on the geometric qualities of analytical cubism. This is certainly an important formal outcome, but the conceptual significance of the art movement was "looking at physical reality from multiple points of view (front, side, back, top, bottom, etc), then expressing these points of view (which occurred over a period of time) back into a singular perceptual point of view. This idea of multiple points of view, as well as the "deconstructive/reconstructive" process of creating an analytical image, dramatically influenced the world of art and design.
Your first cubism project is to create an Analytical cubist (physical) portrait of you as a designer. Remember, it is to be a physical deconstruction/reconstruction of you (your body), but from the point of you as a designer. You may utilize clothing as part of your portrait, but no tools and/or context.
An important formal element for you to consider is the use of transparency.
Project Schedule
Concept Roughs Thursday, October 15th Post on Blog
- Work in Class
- Critique
Final Portrait Tuesday, October 20th Post on Blog
Past Student Examples
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1LbGdlRlmWL_znlZnTFnXZgl0-XKwvg1rvd0kSNXu_KQmVG2zXeAnllAesQB-PtPZzwbW4uDl_zA3WpcndnIgR2Z9fgOHBdTkBwVZF9tO-XWGDTcUM2bZTxZ76EqY84XX9pwy_ZWBJ0w/s320/Duchamp+Nude.jpg)
It eventually developed into two distinct styles and approaches – Analytical or "physically-based" cubism, and Synthetic or "sign-based" cubism.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFvt7-XqpWh7Nmh5iDo_cjDU87d5934U_GbHQ5bt9nSxSQuh5MUJstP_2C8emAFWwOSuCJomY9gYTsg8u2R5qXAlaG7Ic-ofCgCKT83heDXnuO9-J9YoDJx-CJ3YzmK8k7pnSblmHfxQU/s320/Hockney+Mom.jpg)
Many art historians put emphasis on the geometric qualities of analytical cubism. This is certainly an important formal outcome, but the conceptual significance of the art movement was "looking at physical reality from multiple points of view (front, side, back, top, bottom, etc), then expressing these points of view (which occurred over a period of time) back into a singular perceptual point of view. This idea of multiple points of view, as well as the "deconstructive/reconstructive" process of creating an analytical image, dramatically influenced the world of art and design.
Your first cubism project is to create an Analytical cubist (physical) portrait of you as a designer. Remember, it is to be a physical deconstruction/reconstruction of you (your body), but from the point of you as a designer. You may utilize clothing as part of your portrait, but no tools and/or context.
An important formal element for you to consider is the use of transparency.
Project Schedule
Concept Roughs Thursday, October 15th Post on Blog
- Work in Class
- Critique
Final Portrait Tuesday, October 20th Post on Blog
- Due beginning of Class
- Critique
Past Student Examples
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)