Gestalt Principles

Similarity

www.andyrutledge.com/gestalt-principles-2-similarity.php

   This article was about the Gestalt Principle of similarity and different ways we perceive
similarity as well as how this can be applied to web design. The author states that shape,
size and color are fundamentals of this principal which can then be applied to links, page
content, and organization in web design. Similar shapes will seem to be linked even when
 jumbled around with others. The same goes for color and size. The articles' strength lies in
 its' usage of images which help the reader visualize the similarities. It also has strong
organization which is used by heading separate paragraphs with question to tie the paragraph
 to the picture. However, the author concludes with saying that this principle is simple but it is
 ok for a design to be complex.

Continuation

http://blog.templatemonster.com/2012/04/19/gestalt-continuity-law-templatemonster-templates/

   This article is about how continuity can be applied and how it works in our minds. It talks
 about how our mind continues pattern seen even if the pattern physical ends. Like how we
 might see four coverging lines instead of two lines that intersect if each part were colored
 different. Another way continuation works is when we see items placed in a row our minds
tend to group them together. Placing certain items a bit to the right causes our minds to see
 them as subheadings. We also follow objects that guide us to a certain spot. For example, if
 there was a picture of someone looking to the right you would look to the right.  Or if someone
 is pointing you would look where they point.

Closure
http://www.andyrutledge.com/closure.php

    This article relates closure to more than just design. It is used to create a hole picture that makes sense even if it's not there. The article uses the example of Patton's fake army. A German general put an enormous army at Calais to defend against an army that wasn't coming. He had gotten bits of information which he put together in order to make sense of them. However, instead of the enemy attacking at Calais they attacked at Normandy. This is an example of closure in a situation in design it can be used to create an entire image in our head or give simple snapshots motion.

Proximity
http://www.andyrutledge.com/gestalt-principles-3.php

   Proximity, uniform connectedness, and good continuation are essential for written communication. Without these a paragraph would be just random words on a page. Proximity helps us discern if certain things are in a group/together or not. If dots, like in the article, are placed close together then we perceive them as a group. While if they are farther apart they are separate groups. Even when the principle of similarity is put in to play if the dots are apart they are separated. An even stronger way to make connections is through uniform connectedness. For example, images or things in a box or connected by a line would immediately be seen as together. If elements are on a line or a curve then we relate them to each other. This would be the principle of good continuation being put in to effect. This principle is useful in a graph, grid or chart.

Figure/Ground
http://www.andyrutledge.com/gestalt-principles-1-figure-ground-relationship.php

   The principle of figure/ground is where we distinguish what is background and what is figure. This principle also helps us see an object or image as 2-dimentional or 3-demantional. Like a blurred image would be seen as a background or an image or graphic with added shadows and highlights would be seen as figure. Figure and ground can also become interactive with each other, a good example would be Veerle Pieters' Duoh! website where the cursor can interact with the graphics changing them from ground to figure and vise versa.

Common Fate
http://www.andyrutledge.com/common-fate.php

   The principle of common fate is where we relate things moving in the same direction and find them more relatable than things that are not moving. We can see this principle in real life like cars driving on the highway. All cars are moving in the same direction at roughly the same speed, but if a car changes lanes or another car gets on the highway it catches our eye and we can respond to it. In the world of design this could be as obvious as a slide-out menu or bar. We take notice of that movement as respond to it. It could be interpreted in a less obvious way in complete works of design and how the elements and pieces work together or "move" in the same "direction".

Semester Reflection

      Over the course of the semester we were given a total of six projects. We started with name typography where we had to pick 12 aspects of ourselves and create typography with our names. Then, we each designed a poster, flyer, and tickets for homecoming. After that we got into groups and designed t-shirts, the group I was in desired t-shirts for Junior Committee. Then, we did another typography project in which we were given the quote "Every great design begins with an even better story." and had to come up with a completely typography image that went across three pages. Next, we did a branding project where we got a random number, animal, mineral, and two letters. With those we had to create a company and brand it, giving it a logo, letterhead, envelope, business card, app, product, storefront, and billboard. Finally, we were given the task of branding ourselves, which we're still working on. All the projects that are finished are all posted on my Behance https://www.behance.net/AnnikaMessmer

      While working on these projects I came across some issues. I started off well, but once I got to matting I realized I wasn't the best at project management. When I was matting my homecoming poster stuff I got behind and didn't finish in time. Along with that my matting job didn't come out as well as I would have liked. I also came along another bump when I accidentally didn't print my billboard and full logo for my branding project. I know I have to get better at managing my projects and feel kind of disappointed in myself for not doing as well. But I have gotten a little bit better at that over the semester.

      Some elements that worked for me during these projects were thumbnail sketches, group reviews,  and . I found thumbnail sketches, which were a new thing to me, very helpful and fun to do. I got to explore a concept and see what I could come up with. I liked that they were fairly small so I could put more of them down one a page and compare and contrast them. I also think that group reviews are extremely beneficial. It is very helpful to have people to bounce ideas off of and get feedback from. It also helps to have a pair of fresh eyes to look at your work. Like when I was doing the branding project one of my main colors was a red, which I didn't really like that much, and someone suggested to change it to black and it looked so much better. However, like i said before, I had a bit of trouble matting and planning. I didn't really plan how I was going to lay out the pieces on my matt board for the branding project until they had already printed. I also didn't really plan the sizes of each piece and my envelope ended up being a little big. And those are some things I wish I did plan for.

      This semester have I learned quite a bit. I learned about the Gestalt Principles as well as some nice graphic design tips. I learned more about printing, matting, and the software in Illustrator. And I learned more about soft skills like communication, and time/project management. The Gestalt Principles are similarity, continuation, closure, proximity, and figure and ground. These are they principles that make up a good design. I did another blog post about them if you want to check it out http://4nniik4.blogspot.com/2015/12/gestalt-principles.html. I also learned that you should never put red on black. Before this class I had never matted and didn't know much about printing. But I learned how to space pieces on a matt board and how certain thing get printed and 1 color, 2 color, 3 color, and 4 color printing. I also learned more about Illustrator. Before I didn't know much, wasn't very good at it and preferred Photoshop. This year I feel I've grown a lot in my Illustrator skills and now I prefer it over Photoshop. But I think some of the most important skills, one which I am still learning about and hope to get better at, are the soft skills. I am learning the growing importance of communication. Communicating to classmates, teachers, and communicating through design. This has been something I have struggled with because until I get to really know someone I am a shy person. But i hope I get better at communicating in the future. I also hope I get better at project management, a skill i am still leaning. So overall I hope to improve in every aspect of graphic design, but more specifically project management and communication.

Name Plate Project

   

 Hello! This was a typography project for name plates which is my name shown 12 different ways and each way shows a different aspect of me. It started out as 20 things that represent me then 3 concepts in each resulting in 60 thumbnail sketches which then moved down to 12 that I would actually do on the computer.

 I learned quite bit on my first project. I learned about thumbnail sketches and that it's a good idea to have a lot of them. I learned how to make text an object and how to manipulate it. I also learned that peer review is really important. If I had to go back and change it I would probably redo the Homestuck one, second to last left, with a different design or modify the current one. However I really like how my comic and Gravity Falls ones turned out and wouldn't change them.

When I work on my next project I will keep in mind to use the typography skills I learned in this project and the importance of peer review. Overall, I had a lot of fun with this project, coming up with all the name designs to actually executing them in Illustrator. I am pretty pleased with the end result and learned quite a bit about typography and Illustrator.

Avatar Opening

The goal of this project was to create a short video using SFX, green screen, and maya. We worked in groups and started out by coming up with the idea to kind of recreate the avatar intro, then we made a storyboard for it. After that we filmed each of our actions in front of a green screen and recorded the voice over for it. Then we edited our own parts in AffterEffects.

I edited the green screen by using color keys and a simple choker to get rid of the it and put in an image. I made myself a silhouette by making the brightness and contrast 0 on the video, which is something new I learned. I also learned about collaboration and how it can make a big project a lot easier. 

After I had all the green screen and silhouette work done I added in some dust SFXs for the air. I think it looks pretty good but I would have tried to do better on the movement of the wind, if I did it again, because it looks a little off. But overall I liked how it turned out and would keep pretty much everything else the same because it looks good.

I think this project helped me work on my green screen skills and learn how to make a silhouette. And even though I won't be in animation next year this project helped me learn about collaboration which will be helpful. Overall I liked this project and had fun doing it and if I did it again I would work on the movement of the wind but keep everything else the same.

Hot Wheels Box

For this project we worked in teams, in my case it was Allyson and I. We didn't really have a leader and worked more like a team. So before we started the project we went over traits that make a good team which were trust, respect, and open communication, I think we displayed these well. We then came up with an idea for Hot Wheels where we had different race tracks on the boxes and the would link up with each other to make one long track. We had some trouble finding the right template but we eventually found one that was close enough but it cost money so we just redid it as best we could.

While I really think our idea was amazing we didn't have much of a plan for what we wanted the tracks to look like. Which ended in us pretty much slapping on a track like road but I also think it was because we were pressed for time. We also, although a bit later in the project, thought " hey, we should probably have the name somewhere on the box. So, again being short on time, ended up sticking the logo, that Allyson had accurately recreated, somewhere on the template.

 Also in our idea making process we decided to have the choking hazard warning on the inside of the box as well as all seven of the box designs so you could "catch 'em all" but as we were stressed for time we couldn't make seven different designs. At first we were not sure if we could have the printing company print on both sides but when we got them they did so that was a plus.

I think the most challenging part of making this was the designs. We hardly planned any of the designs so it came out looking that way too. There also wasn't a lot consistency through out the designs we had made. For example, the Hot Wheels logo isn't on the finish template and where it's placed on the other two are different, the tracks also looked a bit different. Those are also a few thing I would change or go back and fix. However, I did like the way the logo turned out as well as the checkered board and the cone in the picture bellow even if I didn't get to print it.

Later in the project we decided that it would be cool to have stickers, so people could customize their tracks, but they didn't turn out very well and I didn't have enough time to finish them. Overall, I think this project could have turned out a lot better and a bit grander if we had done more planning and had a lot more time.

Invisi-Pill

 I started by making my template using the tutorial on Linda.com, making a die cut and bleed area. Then I added the basic colors I wanted to use and made the logo in a different document. After that, I it in the template and went online to get the nutritional facts and bar code. To get them in to Illusistrator, I imported them as vectors. Then I typed the warning and description along with the color bars and the top flap thing.

 For the label I also used a similar tutorial from Linda.com. I used a gradient from dark to light on the background and title to make it seem like it's fading away. I also put in the same nutrition facts, bar code, warning, title, and logo.

 Once I finished the template and label, I made the 3D mockups with the tutorial from Linda.com. I did it by making an outline of the bottle with the pen tool, then going to effect, 3D, 3D revolve to make the bottle. To make the box, I created a rectangle and then went to effect, 3D, 3D Extrude and Bevel. To get the panel art on the box I made each of the panles of the template into symbols and then went to map art to insert them onto the 3D box. I had the most trouble getting the label on the bottle, because no matter what I did, it wouldn't show up on the bottle.

 To fix the label problem I decided to just go with my logo and hope it showed up and it did. I turned out a little weird but I just went with it because I was sooooo feed up with the bottle.

E-Magine

   I had a lot of fun at E-Magine with my friend Anna in the white dress. I really liked a lot of the entries but I thought that some of them should have gotten first place instead. I also liked the concessions afterwards. My favorite one out of the video entries was Void and Dreaming of a Christmas Vacation. For the Graphic Design entries my favorite was Girl in the Woods and the motorcycle, which I think should have gotten first place. One of my favorites from Animation is the dragon and the watch. So over all it was a nice experience and it let me see what kind of projects are entered so I can plan for next year.

Tangled Up In Saul Bass

Base

To start making this poster I started off with a saturated yellow back ground and the title in Hitchcock font which I got from the internet. I then made the base of the sun with a polygon. To make the sun rays I used the pen tool.

Experimentation

Then I experimented a little bit with some gradients and I could not decide which one I wanted to do and I got a lot of feed back about it. After all that I realized that Saul Bass never used a gradient and I wanted in to be closer to his work so I got rid of all the gradients.












Sun Hair
After getting rid of the gradients I made the hair lines in the sun. I used the line tool to make them and did a bit of experimenting with where I put them and how many I put. But then I decided that having less lines and then I cleaned it up a bit.

More Sun

After deciding to not use a gradient I was got some advise from my neighbor and chose to go with different colored layers to represent sunshine. So to make the first layer I just copied the base of the sun and made it bigger. Then I chose a color and filled it with that color.

Even More Sun
After I made my first layer I made the other two by copying the layer I had previously made and making it bigger. Then I filled them with the same color but lighter.

Title When I made the title there was an arrow on the G so I customized it so it wouldn't.

Credits
To finish up my poster I added credits at the bottom in the same font as the title and same color as the background. The credit is the the directors of Tangled.

Custom Graphics Name

      To create this I typed my name in News Gothic MT then selected both and outlined them to make them shapes. Then I merged the i and the m as well as the M and A, after I edited the A using the direct select tool. Also using the direct select tool I edited the dot on the i and filled it with green.

Maya Tools

  After I created the polything I lighted it by going to rendering and adding 4 lights, 3 directional and 1 point light. I put 1 directional light in front which was my key light, 2 in the back which were my back lights, and 1 in the middle of the polything which was my fill light/point light. My key light is very bright and uses cast shadows. My fill light is less bright and doesn't cast shadows like my back lights which are the brightest.

  To make the hammer I used polygons then distorted them. For the hammer head I used the cut faces tool to make the claw and the extrude tool to make the head of the hammer. To make the handle I just went to control vertexes and moved the vertexes. Then I made the nail with 2 cylinders and pointed the bottom of one using vertexes.

  When making the ice cream I used a bump map called cloud. Then I edited it to make it look more like ice cream by changing various settings in cloud attributes. After I finished making everything I made a looped animation by setting a start key frame, turning it 360 degrees then setting another key frame. To make it a movie I rendered it out in Maya, changing the render settings a bit before hand, then rendered it out again in After Effects.

    To animate the balls I made I started by filling out a table with which key frames each ball started, ended, touched the ground, and when into the air by watching the videos we had made earlier. Once I had all the frames recorded I started animating in Maya. I went to each frame I had recorded an set a keyframe there while also moving whichever ball I was animating to about where it is in the video of the ball. To make sure the balls weren't bouncing in a really weird way I went to the graph editor which is in Window - Animation Editors and made all of the bottom points linear instead of curved.



   When making the cups I used NURBS, curve and revolve tool. NURBS create curves and surfaces in a shape. To create a cup I used the CV curve tool in the bottom left perspective and made half of an outline of a cup. Then I used the revolve tool to make it a surface.

In order to make the salt shaker I made a circle from the curves tab and went to control vertex to move the four corner points in. Then I duplicated it several times and moved them up and shrunk the top one a bit. I went to the surfaces tab and hit loft which made the body of my salt shaker. 

The Kerning Game

Kerning is the spacing between two letters which you can change to make words, sentences, and paragraphs look better.