The Elements and Principles of Design Project
Throughout the first few weeks of school, we learned about the different elements and principles of design. The elements of design are color, shape, size, space, texture, line, and value. And, the principles of design are balance (informal and formal), proportion, rhythm, emphasis, contrast, and unity. All of this studying led to our first project on this information. Every student went through a bunch of magazines armed with scissors, cutting out pictures that illustrate each element or principle of design. These pictures would then be used to make a poster, book, or folder. For my project, I used pieces of printer paper, glued each image on, and wrote a little bit about how that particular picture showed that element or principle. If I could change one thing about this project, it would be this. I think that handwriting everything and gluing stuff down is somewhat unprofessional. If I could do it again, I would type everything instead of handwriting it. This project took about 8 hours to complete (4 outside of school), and I received a 90% on it. What I really liked about this project was the hands on aspect of it. However, I hate how long it took. It was a very tedious task, but worth it in the end.
Clip Art Project
Our next project was the clip art project. For this project, each student was given 3 pages of 6 different shapes. One page consisted of triangles, one squares, and the other circles. So, we had 18 shapes in total. And, for each shape, we had to design a graphic image around it. For example, if you were given a triangle, you could create a jack-o-lantern around it (two triangles for the eyes, and 5 triangles as the mouth). So, we began by making thumbnail sketches for each shape and just getting our ideas down. We then chose the best thumbnails for each shape and drew a rough draft in pencil. The last step was to draw the rough draft again on a separate sheet of paper. But, this time, you had to do it all in pen and use drafting tools (straight edges, Italian curves, templates, etc). This was an extremely long process because if you made one mistake with the pen, you had to start all over. So, you had to do the whole thing correctly in one clean sweep. I finished my final product after about a week and a half (thumbnails to rough draft to final product). I received a 76% on the project, but this was later bumped up to an 80% after I explained why I thought I should get a higher grade and my teacher agreed with me. However, I am still disappointed with this, as the grade does not reflect my effort. If I could go back and change one thing about this project, it would be the designs. The designs I came up with were somewhat bland, and I`m sure I could`ve thought of something more interesting if I put more time into it. What I liked about this project was the satisfaction I got when I finally finished. But, I did not like doing the thumbnails because I am not a very creative person.
Olympic Symbol Project
The last project we did in September was the Olympic symbol project. This was also the first project we used Adobe Illustrator for. The first step in making an Olympic symbol is to choose what event you want to do. You could choose between any summer or winter event. I chose speed skiing. So, I first made my thumbnail sketches of a person on a sled of some sort speeding down a hill. I thought that this was a good idea, so I made a rough draft of it. After everyone in the class had their rough draft completed, we all went on Adobe Illustrator to try and create the image on the computer. This was the most difficult part of the project, because this was the first time we used this program. And, it was very hard to navigate around to find what you need. There are so many tabs, sections, subsections, and it`s very cluttered. So, everyone had to explore a bit before we could even draw a line or put in a shape. Getting used to Adobe Illustrator was definitely my least favorite part of the project. However, after a day or so, I felt comfortable and began working on my final product. This feeling of knowing what to do on Illustrator was my favorite part of the project. I cannot really explain it, but it felt so good to finally figure the program out. What I created was a skier going down a hill, with two faded out skiers behind him. These two faded out skiers show the motion and speed that the skier is going. The only thing I do not like about the final product is that the background is plain white (besides the Olympic rings). And, if I could have added in a cloud or a sun ray, I think that would be nice. I got an 84% on this project, which I feel is a little too low. I expected to get a high 80. But, overall, I am content with an 84%.