Design Principle - Exercise 5
Tow Wan Tian / 0342765
W5 / 27.04.2021
Lecture 5 - Symbol, Imagery & Typography
This week's topic was about symbol, imagery and typography; a topic that I have anticipated for a long time as I have great interest in symbols and typography.
Below is a summary of my understanding of the three subtopics shown in the lecture video:
- Symbol - the dictionary definition of symbol is a sign, shape, or object that is used to represent something else, whereas in terms of design, symbol can provide information, equivalent to one or more sentences of texts or even a whole story. There are two types of symbols: figurative representation and non-figurative representation. However, when it comes to designing, the main concern is on figurative representation instead. Under the term of figurative representation, there are graphic symbols, including pictorial symbols, abstract symbols and arbitrary symbols.
- Pictorial symbols are basically simplified pictures, and their finishing is usually not realistic but it captures the essence of the real object. Pictorial symbols are widely used in educational instructions in order to facilitate the understanding of certain information.
- Abstract symbols suggest the objects that they represent but have far less details (when compared to pictorial symbols). They are commonly found in road signs, icons and brand logos.
- Arbitrary symbols have no resemblance at all to the objects or the ideas they represent. They are almost always invented and constructed based on geometric shapes and colours. It is important to note that arbitrary symbols must be culturally learned in order to understand their meaning.
- Imagery - it is used to help users and viewers to relate to a concept or a brand. It is important that the right and suitable images are applied when designing. The images used should resonate with the themes and messages of the design.
- Typography - it refers to design and arrangement of text to convey a message or a concept. Successful use of typography will result in visual hierarchy and balance in a design.
Exercise 5
For this exercise, we need to design one arbitrary symbol and write a 20- to 50-word rationale for the design. Additionally, we need to come up with a design that has a combination of imagery and typography. For both designs, we may use any medium of our choice and the designs must be in A4 size. However, it is noteworthy that if we are to use photographs, they must be our own.
Visual Research
Symbols
The concept of arbitrary symbol itself was easy to understand as it shares a similar idea with one of the nature of language (I learned this from another module “World Languages”), and that language is arbitrary, meaning there is no inherent relation between the feature of language and its suggested meaning. Therefore, we can say that alphabets are examples of arbitrary symbols as well.
Imagery & Typography
Examples that contain both imagery and typography were rather easy to find - book covers, posters, illustrations, banners, etc.; they are all in this category. Below are some images that I have found from Pinterest.
Figure 2.2 and Figure 2.3 capture the idea of combining image and typography very well and I adore how well the images and types complement each other. Figure 2.2 plays with the phrase "Hang in there" by incorporating an illustrated hanging plant as the subject. In Figure 2.3, the main text is literally shifting its original shape to avoid being touched by the fingers and screaming "Don't touch!".
Also I found these cool typographic designs on Pinterest and I immediately fell in love with them. According to the designer team, the 10 representing Chinese words for the event are nature elements. They applied the idea of how the Chinese characters were originally formed and recombined the words, elements and related illustrations all together, to show the literal meaning of the words. For example, Figure 2.5 shows the Chinese character of "島", which means "island". Upon closer examination, the character also consists of another Chinese character which is "山", meaning "mountain". That part of the character was represented by the literal illustration of a mountain/an island. I found this way of presenting the meaning of the words in the most literal way clever. Moreover, I love the use of blue and white as the main colours for all designs as it conveys a sense of harmony and unity. I have always felt that words "literature" and "文学" (Chinese for "literature") are something that are "cosy" and "calming", I believe the light blue and white were used perfectly to convey the sense of cosiness and calmness that literature brings to us.
Idea Exploration
Symbol
Honestly I have no idea on what to design for an arbitrary symbol. I turned to the most "primitive" way of generating ideas, and that is to scribble down whatever comes to my mind.
Referring to Figure 3.1, there are some little scribbles that caught my interest. Without wasting much time, I opened Adobe Photoshop and transferred the scribbles to actual designs.
- 1.A & 1.B - both designs convey the same message but with visual differences in terms of the shape and the thickness of the lines. Both symbols are used to show the duality of human beings. It’s natural for us humans to have a brighter side that we want to display for most of the time, but there is also a darker side of us that we want to keep in our shadows. The horizontal line represents the line that differentiates our reality/the “outside” (anything above the line) and our mind/the “inside” (anything below the line). Therefore, the white geometric shapes represent the bright side that we want to show to the outer world, whereas the black geometric shapes represent the dark side that we want to keep to ourselves.
- 2.A & 2.B - both designs are essentially the same, the only difference is that 2.A is drawn with thinner lines, whereas the lines in 2.B are slightly thicker. The triangle was applied to represent the idea of a house/home/household, whereas the figures placed on both sides of the vertical line represent the residents in the household. The message is that though the residents are living under the same roof, they are not facing or talking to each other and are divided (implied by the vertical line).
- Figure 3.3 - 3.A is the first design for the symbol, it's essentially the initials of my name "t.w.t" written in a hand lettering style. The purpose of this symbol was to be used as a watermark/signature for my artwork (it's just an imagination, not sure whether I would really use it or not). After looking at the design for quite some time, the middle part of the symbol began to look like stylised hair bangs, and coincidentally I have front bangs and it serves a good purpose of representing myself as well. 3.B and 3.C are variations of 3.A; in 3.B two dots were added in the centre of the symbols to represent eyes, whereas 3.C built on 3.B by adding a smiley face.
Imagery & Typography
I didn't want to just hand in the same design because that would be too lazy and "unethical" for me, so I only used it as a reference for the overall style of the remake. I wanted to make it a bit more personal and I thought to myself: why not change the subject to my zodiac sign, Aries? So I headed over to Pinterest to look for images of sheep or goats.
I came across this image of a bighorn sheep (Figure 3.5) and I think it suitable, so I went on to edit it in Photoshop.
The fish were replaced by the masked sheep to represent Aries. The texts were changed to "ARIES", "COURAGEOUS" and "COMPETITIVE". I regard myself as a "borderline Aries" as I've never agreed to most of the personality traits of Aries stated in almost all sources. However, I managed to find two that describe me the most: "courageous" and "competitive".
Feedback from Lecturer / Highlights
Symbols
- 2.B (Figure 3.2) - Dr. Jinchi commented that the symbol already looks complete and can be submitted as the final design. The message is strong enough.
Imagery & Typography
- Figure 3.6 - Dr. Jinchi suggested to decrease the size of the circle so that the sheep will look less constrained. She also suggested changing the colour of the circle to light blue to match the frame around it, as well as using a different font for the text "ARIES".
Final Feedback on E-blog and Exercise 5
Dr. Jinchi: Not only did you do ample visual research but you also explained why you had selected them - keep up the good practice, Wan Tian. The various idea exploration that you had done for the symbol has led to a final design that is well thought out and well finished. As for type and image, although it is a recycled idea, you had managed to add new touches to it, making it relevant for this exercise. More importantly, you have applied some principles you had learnt, e.g. balance and proportion, in the final design.
Final Design Outcome
Symbol
Figure 4. Final Design for Symbol
The triangle was applied to represent the idea of a house/home/household, whereas the figures placed on both sides of the vertical line represent the residents in the household. The message is that despite living under the same roof, the residents are not facing or talking to each other and are divided (implied by the vertical line).
Imagery & Typography
After receiving feedback from Dr. Jinchi, I made a few adjustments and came up with several variations of the design.
- First, I decreased the size of the circle in the centre so that the sheep would stand out more and look less constrained. Next, I recoloured it to light blue to match the diamond-shaped frame. The frame was resized as well so that it doesn't overlap with the texts. Speaking of the text, the font for "ARIES" was changed to a different yet similar looking font. Then, adjustments on the hue, saturation and lightness of the sheep and textured background was made.
- Just when I thought I could finalise the design, I decided to make a few more modifications on the design. I rotated the positions of the textured background and the frame. The texts were realigned as well to purposely overlap with the square frame, so that the texts could be affected by the blending mode which resulted in an interesting visual effect.
- I didn't like how the corners of the textured background were cut off by the edges of the canvas, thus once again I decreased the size of the background to allow it fit in the composition.
- However, I still wasn't sure whether I wanted to keep the corners or not, thus I turned to my mother and asked for some opinions. She preferred the design where the corners of the textured background were out of frame because it would look less constrained. I agreed with her and I finally landed on my final design.
Reflection
We have finally reached the end of the weekly exercises. First of all, I would like to give myself a nice pat on the back for completing Exercise 5 right after the week's tutorial session. It's also the first time that I could submit the exercise much earlier than planned and I don't have to worry about rushing the exercise over the weekend. So does that mean I have more time to rest? Not really, because it means that there will be more time to work on other assignments. Nevertheless, it still feels great to get things done in time and have one less thing to be concerned.
As I was exploring ideas for symbols, there is this thought that came to me: when it comes to designing symbols, what actually comes first? the meaning or the symbol? If it is the meaning that comes first, I understand it as there is an existing idea or message that needs a visual representation, thus a symbol is created for the purpose of presenting its assigned meaning or idea. On the other hand, if it is the symbol that comes first, it means that the visual is created completely randomly without much purpose, it is only till later that we, the designers assign a meaning to it and then the visual becomes a meaningful symbol. I think both thought/design processes are valid and there is no one absolute way on how one goes through their thought process.
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