Reading Assignment Summary week of August 27

1.           

Gestalt is the entire figure or configuration

There are four characteristics of Gestalt, proximity; which refers to distance between parts, continuance; where the eye is lead to follow a path without interruption, closure; where you are to perceive the design as a whole, similarity; parts similar in size seem to be related.

Visual elements interact through position, direction, and space. Position refers to placement of an element relative to other elements, while direction refers to course of movement. Space can group, emphasize, and separate elements. Figure is an element on picture plane, while the ground is the larger area surrounding it. Depth in a composition can create contrast and help a form communicate its purpose and meaning and perspective is created through the use of lines to depict three-dimensional form on a flat two-dimensional surface. Visual weight is the sum of the forms components and is akin to mass and energy, while visual balance refers to the degree of equilibrium in a composition. A form has symmetry when it is divided all ways and each side is the same.

2.

Natural responses to a work are the direct result of the way work is put together. Form refers to the material delivery portion of a work and a set of visual functions; the means by which one gives substance to an idea. Slippage can change the way someone things about a piece of art, so its important to look at all formal elements of a work. Modernist thinking about art predicated on the assumption that art history is a progressive movement toward greater purity in each medium.

3.

Good design is the best possible visual expression a message or a product.

Conceptual, visual, relational, and practical are all elements of design

Conceptual means point, line plane, and volume. Visual refers to shape, size, color, and texture. Relational is direction, position, space, and gravity. Practical means representation, meaning, and function.

So in turn everything has form.

4.

Composition refers to the arrangement of elements and characteristics within a defined area. Harmony indicates a grouping of related components that make sense together. Simplicity refers to a form with a limited number of simple elements. Rhythm is the movement from one idea to the other.

We tend to lean towards things that are different but still similar.