01. Wax On, Wax Off

Reflect: throw back without absorbing it/think deeply or carefully about.

Multiply: obtain from another which contains the 1st number a specified number of times/increase or cause increase greatly in number or quantity.

Disperse: distribute or spread over a wide area.

Proximity: nearness in space, time or relationship.

Scale: each of the plates protecting the skin of fish and reptiles/the system of marks at fixed intervals.

Dominance: power and influence over others.

Before starting my sketches and picking the three words I was going to use for my grids, I found a definition for each of them. My hope was that this could help spark an idea for what I could create with the points in the grids. I think I will go with the approach of taking all nine squares as one whole image, so they all link as I feel it would be the best way to clearly portray the words.

Once I chose my three words, multiply, disperse and dominance, I wanted to visually see the words, so I collated a few images to do with the words and created quick mood boards. I used these as a basis of my designs and focused back on them if I was struggling to come up with a composition.

After researching and mood boarding, I created very quick sketches to get my ideas down on paper. For multiply and disperse, it was easier to work with all nine boxes as one image whereas for dominance, I struggled to come up with a concept to include all the boxes, so each individual box with demonstrate the word. My next step was to develop my favourite ideas further to see which ones work best and which I will chose as my final design.

I decided after making my sketches, I would digitise my ideas to help me make my final choice, as I wasn’t sure if they would work when built on figma. 

 

Multiply:

After creating my grids on Figma, I have decided to go with the first grid as I like the simplicity of it. It represents the 2,3 and 4 times tables, multiplying by 2 each square. I didn’t plan it, but I particularly like the shapes that the points ended up making. I tried swapping the black and white in the middle row, but I felt the black dots with the white background worked better. While the third column in the grid has a large number of dots, I think it works well within the composition and they are tightly grouped together so it docent take up the whole space.

 

Disperse:

Disperse is the word I struggled with the most as I felt my designs looked messy and I wanted to use all nine squares as parts to one composition. While I liked the idea of the dispersion of light, I couldn’t get the high number of dots to look organised and planned, so I decided to go for the dispersion of dandelion seeds. I placed the largest dot in a corner so it was clear it was where the dispersion was coming from. I varied the size of the dots in the outer rows and columns to show the movement away from the original point. After I completed this, I decided to see what it would look like if I added some tone to the points and I feel this makes the word ‘disperse’ clearer than the black points as it adds depth to the image as if the seeds are blowing further and further away.

 

Dominance:

For dominance, I created nine different designs as I didn’t feel I could create a clear composition using all the blocks. My main method to show dominance was the sizing of the dots, the bigger they are, the more dominance they had. I tried to keep the number of points to a minimum as my other two grids have a high volume of dots, so I wanted to see if I could still show the word with a small amount. However, in one design, I did the opposite making one point smaller, showing the dominance the ones surrounding it had. As well as size and positioning, I utilised tone in some of the designs, making the dominant point a different shade compared to the others. I changed the background of three of the squares to try and create some unity to the grid and connect all the designs.

 

 

My Final Three Grids:

 

 

02. Paint the Fence

Rhythm: a strong, regular repeated pattern of movement or sound 

Frequency: the rate at which something occurs over a particular period of time/the rate per second of a vibration constituting a wave, either in a material or electromagnetic field

Symmetry: the quality of being made up of exactly similar parts facing each other or around an axis/correct or pleasing proportion of the parts of a thing

Asymmetry: lack of quality or equivalence between parts of aspects of something; lack of symmetry

Similar to the first part of this project, after finding out the definition of each word, I created a mood board for them to help me visualise each word before I started into my sketches. My hope was it would spark some inspiration into how I could translate the words into simple lines. 

Once I had completed my mood boards, I came to the decision of what three words I would be using for my grids, rhythm, symmetry and asymmetry. I felt that I would be able to represent these words best using only lines. My next step was to sketch up some quick ideas of possible grid designs. I found myself focusing a lot on creating one whole composition made up of nine individual designs. After this, I narrowed down my options to one or two for each word and sketched them up more specifically, like the point grids, to see if my idea still worked and how it would look on a larger scale and with a cleaner finish.

I created my final ideas on figma to see if the designs still correlated well on the digital screen compared to pen and paper.

Rhythm:

The focus of this grid is the rhythm that is included when people use morse code as it is a vital element to be able to understand the letters and numbers. I placed one word in each square and created the phrase ‘Design is so simple. That’s why it’s so complicated’. While the message behind it isn’t obvious straight away, I feel my idea is a different way of approaching the task. I like the simplicity of the lines but the last word/square is very busy compared to the rest due to the length of the dots and dashes needed in morse code. 

 

Symmetry:

The first thing that came to my mind when I thought about what I should do for symmetry was a snowflake, so I decided to try and work out how I could create a snowflake within my grid. I feel my design does represent a snowflake and is symmetrical both vertically and horizontally. My only issue was that trying to keep the lines within the squares and the resulting angles, I struggled to get all the lines to link up with each other. This would be my least favourite design out of my three grids and I feel its quite disjointed compared to the others.

 

Asymmetry: 

My concept behind this was to create a composition that was balanced but not symmetrical. So I created a design half way down the grid and then rotated it 180 degrees so that each square appeared on the opposite side below, the top left was now the bottom right. I like this design because it can be interpreted any way the viewer sees it. Sometimes I see a ‘Z’ and other times a ‘2’. I didn’t completely plan this, but I do like the outcome. The simplicity once again is the part I particularly like. To improve it however I would have maybe introduced a few vertical lines to work with the horizontal ones already there.

 

My Final Three Grids:

 

 

 

 

03. Paint the House 

For this section of the project, we have to create a final set of 3×3 grids which include only five planes. I feel like tone will play an important role within this part as it will help differentiate the planes from one another. To give my grids some structure, I decided to allocate a source of inspiration to each one. Some of my initial ideas included train\subway maps, architecture and inside electronics. I feel keeping within the 5 planes will be challenging but also will prevent the grids becoming very messy looking. I researched images once again and created mood boards as my starting point before sketching.

Circuit boards, architecture, data shown on grids, subway maps, three dimensional

I decided on using architecture, subway maps and three dimensional as the basis for the designs in my grid. Using my mood boards, I created quick sketches of possible ideas.

After these sketches, I picked my top designs and, like the other parts of this project, drew them up bigger to work out proportions and sizing to see if the composition still worked. My next step was to create my final three grids on figma.

 Subway Grids:

These planes are based off cropped areas of Manhattan subway map grids. This includes line crossings and overlaps, lines running parallel and parks. I’m not too sure about the final outcome of this grid as I feel it looks to simple. I had hoped the addition of tones would improve the layout. I struggled to work out the best way to place the tone and I think the bottom middle box is my best use of the tone. I feel that the rest are quite abrupt and harsh whereas it’s more subtle and smooth. I felt like I had a good concept with this piece, but I’m not certain if my execution of recreating the design in figma is good enough. This is the grid I found the most challenging compared to the other two. 

 

Architecture:

For this grid, I took inspiration from buildings and other areas of architecture to create five plane imagery. Some include windows, door, skylines and floor planes. I am pleased with how they turned out once digitised, particularly how I was able to add depth to the ones that represented a skyline. I like the simplicity of the top left, which represents a floor plan, and I kept only two tones as I felt if I added a different one for each plane, it could appear disjointed. I feel after completing this grid, I have a better grasp on how to control the tone and where to out it.

 

Three Dimensional:

This is my favourite planes grid out of the three. I feel like I came up with a number of strong compositions which looked three dimensional. I used tone a lot to show the areas of light and dark which was a key factor in showing the depth within each square. Similar to other areas of this project, I like how sometimes simplicity is key and how simple shapes and planes can be used to build an image out of nothing. 

 

My Final Three Grids: