DESIGN PRINCIPLES - WEEK 2

ASSIGNMENT ON CONTRAST AND GESTALT THEORY

(Fig 0.1, Simple Cover Illustration)

About:

As per the lesson conducted by Dr. Charles, we have been taught about the affect that ambiguity has on the perception of a given subject, and how it can be applied to subtly direct the thought process of the viewer. 

Research:

Spending some time on the web looking at examples of this theory, and its 5 base principles, I have found that the idea that this theory implies is quite simple on paper. However, attempts that I have made had me discover it is rather difficult in practice. Discovering this subject in terms of psychology provided insight on how humans react to different visual stimuli and how the mind tries to make sense of what it sees.

Ideas:

For this assignment which focuses partly on ambiguity, which is arguably the more difficult portion of this exercise, I tried to focus on subjects that relevant to people in a mundane, less noticeable matter. I believe that such objects allow the viewer to have a familiar but hard-to-pinpoint idea of the presented subject.

Contrast Example:

(Fig 1, Contrast, 8/4/2021)

Considering the largely symmetrical nature of the wings of a butterfly, I think it could be interesting to contrast one side of a butterfly from the other. I aimed to convey a "two sides of the same coin" meaning in this particular piece.

Gestalt Example

(Fig 2, Gestalt, 8/4/2021)

I had a very interesting experience trying to create this particular piece. It came about as

I laid on the bed and a lamp was barely visible. The lack of light made the lampshade look similar to a cage, which properly fits the theme which I tried to convey in this piece.

Reflection of the Week:

Most classes are still adopting exercises to be done physically on paper, and frankly I'm not very handy with a pair of scissors. Lighting issues have also taught me to convert these images to black and white to create uniformity in the images. On the theoretical side of things, I found it difficult to balance all 5 principles of gestalt and form a vague but still cohesive image. Trying to develop meaning solely from 2 contrasting also proves to be a challenge, as the lack of colours means it cannot be relied upon to tell a story.

The PDF file with solely the images can be found here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1O3qkdmBqPDt-zodz-lghMbdfmBV_empi/view?usp=sharing