Design basicsWhat is design?

BauhausGestalt Theory

Elements of designPrinciples of design

Creative Process

What is design?

• noun= a plan

• verb= to organize, to order, to arrange

• a purposeful arrangement of visual elements in order to create meaning or something that has a function.

What is design?

• traditionally applied to art, architecture, graphic and industrial design, advertising, fashion, etc

• today, our experience of design is incredibly ubiquitous

Design today

• culture is increasingly DIY, so our experience of design is incredibly intimate and personal

• we have become prosumers that determine our own design experiences and even contribute to broader culture

design allows us

• to communicate to the world

• to define ourselves

• to improve our lives and give it meaning

What is 2d design?

• creating flat visual patterns or illusions by arranging elements on a picture plane that only has 2 dimensions (height and width)

• compositions can remain flat or be pictorial (show illusion of 3d space)

• elements on 2d surface are the figure, space around those elements are the ground

Bauhaus

Bauhaus• school operated in Germany between 1919 and 1933

• heavily influenced modernist art, design, typography and architecture (economical use of materials, clean lines and geometry)

• also influenced the way art and design is taught

bauhaus• artists and architects like Wassily Kandinski, Paul Klee, Piet Mondrian, and Walter Gropius

• foundation courses reflect the main art and design issues of the period- expressing universal visual language using basic elements and principles, “form follows function”, “truth to materials”

• ideas exported to US during war as artists emigrated

gestalt•Since the early 20th century, gestalt psychologists have studied visual perception, or how the brain and eye work together

•The human brain is naturally able to perceive unified structure (a gestalt) even in random chaos. It finds patterns, perceives figure/ground relationships, and fills in visual “blanks”

•Basic premise: we see the whole before we see the parts

•An artist or designer can use an understanding of gestalt to control what and how the viewer sees

gestalt principles• proximity= we group as a whole objects that are spatially close

• similarity= we group as a whole objects that resemble each other

• continuity= we mentally complete forms that are cropped by other forms or edges of picture plane

• closure= we connect forms that are aligned along a distinctive visual path

closure

similarity

continuity

beyond bauhaus

• each generation must ask:

•“what are the foundational principles of today?”

bauhaus [form=meaning]

formalism, modernism

•Elements= line, shape, value, texture, color, space

•Principles= balance, emphasis, repetition, variety, rhythm, economy, proportion, unity

CONTEMPORARY[FORM+CONTENT+CONTEXT=MEANING

]CONCEPTUALISM, POSTMODERNISM•same elements and principles apply

•added elements= time, narrative, sound, light, context, text and sign, technology

•added principles= fragmentation, appropriation, hybridity, juxtaposition, layering, recontextualization, deconstruction, defamiliarization, criticality

terms to know

• picture plane

• pictorial space

• the Bauhaus

• Gestalt psychology

• closure

• continuity

• formalism

• conceptualism

• modernism

• postmodernism