Thursday, December 2, 2010

Logo Project

Project: Logo
Purpose: To explore the typographic possibilities of individual letters
Assignment: To design a hand rendered logo using your initials. Experiment with several different styles of type. Create at least 10 different thumbnails sketches of your logo, ranging from conservative, where legibility is important, to experimental, where the visual impact is paramount. Consider the effectiveness of each. Color is restricted to only black.
The final logo design will be hand rendered in black marker/ink. The logo needs to be at least 3 x 3 inches in diameter.
Format: 10 X 10 inches
Presentation: 13 x 13 inch black matte/Illustration board


Typography Project

Project: Ransom Note
Purpose: A fun exercise to prove that not all design solutions must come from the computer and to explore the design potential in found typography. Discover, create, and combine interesting letterforms to compose an interesting collage of type.
Assignment: Cut type specimens from newspapers, magazines, or other printed material. Create a dramatic typographic effect by composing a short, humorous ransom note stating your actions, demands, and ultimatums. It should be evident that the note has been created by a graphic designer. In other words, it has a design or aesthetic rationale and is not just a random selection of type. You may also incorporated images into the design.
Format. 10 x 10 inches
Presentation: 13 x 13 inch black matte/Illustration board


Saturday, November 6, 2010

Project- Implied and Tactile Collages

The next project will be working with collages, both implied and tactile.  

Visual collages actually use more rubbings and collections of images to create the feeling of texture rather than actually making texture. 

Tactile collages can use textured paper and other three-dimensional materials (like string, cardboard, sandpaper, etc.) to make a tactile surface.

The actual surface texture needs to either be felt, or seen with light raking across its surface to make the texture visible. Painters are most likely to take advantage of this to give their painting's surface a lively look. Paint can be built up into rough peaks in a technique called impasto. Vincent Van Gogh is famous for this. Some painters add sand to their paint to make more tactile texture.

Example of using Actual/tactile texture to create a design

Both types of texture are important to the designer, but in 2D art, the illusion of texture is used more than tactile texture. 

Visual texture is always a factor in a composition because everything has a surface and hence a texture. Texture is one of the more subtle design elements. It can make an image richer and more interesting, but is not likely to save a poor composition all by itself.

An example of using pattern and line to create texture in a design

Most textures have a naturalistic quality; they repeat a motif in a random way. A motif is any recurring thematic element or repeated figure in design. It could be an object, shape, color, direction, etc. With a texture you may be aware of the repeating motif but you are more aware of the surface.

A recognizable motif regularly repeated produces a pattern. Pattern requires repetition- in design as in life (a pattern of behavior). The more regular the repetition, the stronger the pattern.

Texture and pattern are related. When you look closely at a tree you can see the pattern of leaves that make its surface. When you back away you loose awareness of the leaves and notice the texture the leaves make on the tree. Farther away still and you can see the pattern of the trees making up the forest and finally the texture of the forest.
In this way pattern changes to texture as you loose sight of the individual motifs. This is easy to do with natural patterns, but you have to get quite far away from a checkerboard grid to see it as texture.
Another example of using line and pattern to create texture in a design

Patterns are generally more noticeable than textures. This makes them a stronger visual element for controlling attention. 

Project 1- Visual Texture

To create a collage using texture from rubbings and photographs.

An 11"x 17" piece of white paper
Coloured pencils
Found texture

Experiment with several types of texture, creating rubbings. Also look through magazines and photographs to create interest in your collage. Use your own imagination using pattern to create texture in your piece. Create your own textures by drawing and making your own patterns.

This project will be presented on a black matte board with at least an inch frame around your page.

Project 2- Tactile Texture Collage

This time you will be creating a collage, but this time using actual/tactile texture. You will also be creating pattern in your design.

Use your own imagination to create texture in your piece. Create your own textures by drawing and painting your own patterns and texture. Also gather found objects and create your tactile texture you will apply to your design.

An 11"x 11" piece of heavy white paper
Coloured pencils
Found texture

This project will be presented on a 13" x 13" Matte board (black).


Texture is the surface quality of a surface or substance - rough, smooth, soft hard glossy etc. Texture can be physical (tactile) or visual.
Categories of Texture:

Real/Tactile Texture is the actual texture of a surface or substance. Artist may create real texture in art to give it visual interest or evoke a feeling. A piece of pottery may have a rough texture so that it will look like it came from nature or a smooth texture to make it look like it is machine made.

Implied/Visual Texture is the where a two-dimensional piece of art is made to look like a certain texture but in fact is just a smooth piece of paper. Like a drawing or photograph of a tree trunk may look rough but in fact it is just a smooth piece of paper. 

Saturday, October 23, 2010

Paint a Song!

The next project is to pick a song and paint that song. Ok, this sound a bit weird you say? 

Just like color, music has tones, rhythm, pattern and evokes feelings. Play your song and close your eyes. Do you see colors, or a visual? How do you feel when you listen to the song?

I want to to focus on lines, shapes and patterns. I do not want you to create an object or image in your design, but more of a pattern, rhythm or feeling using color, lines and shapes. 

You are to pick a triadic color scheme for your painting (Be sure to look back on your notes from class). Keep in mind the color when thinking about your song. Colors evoke different feeling. What feeling are you trying to convey? 

This painting needs to be on an 18" x 24" page with a 2" border all the way around. This will give a nice frame around your painting. 

Be sure to think about emphasis, a focus in your piece. Also how are you going to use your color and design to create a focus in your piece?

Be sure to have a copy of your song to share with the class. 

If you have any questions post them and I will respond as soon as I can!

Have fun! 


also called Hue

the quality of an object or substance with respect to light reflected by the object, usually determined visually by measurement of hue, saturation and brightness of the reflected light; saturation or chroma; hue. As artist we use pigments in the form of powder or liquid paints to create color.
Categories of Color


Primary Colors- Red, Yellow and Blue. These colors cannot be mixed; they must be bought in some form.
Secondary Color-Orange, Violet and Green. These colors are created by mixing two primaries.
Intermediate Colors/tertiary- Red Orange, Yellow Green, Blue Violet, etc.; mixing a primary with a secondary creates these colors. 


Color Harmonies

Warm colors are on one side of the color wheel and they give the feeling of warmth for example red, orange and yellow are the color of fire and feel warm.


Saturday, October 9, 2010

Monochromatic Painting/ Colour Value Scales

Monochromatic is where one color is used but in different values and intensity, from the darkest of darks to the lightest of light values.
Below are the hues (colors) and the tones (dark and light) scales of each.

Below are some samples of monochromatic paintings 

Using yellow

Using blue