Constructive Critiques

One thing that I've really enjoyed about our class this semester is the constructive critiques for our assigned projects. At first I was really nervous to get in front of the class and have them analyze my work but Peter has done a great job of fostering a "safe" environment where everyone's comments help bring out the greatest strengths and unrealized potentials in everyone's pieces. As Stewart suggests, it's best to start by complimenting the strengths in people's work and then move onto suggestions for improvements. This has been the format our class has always followed. It's also interesting that one critique is always different from another. At first we got the opportunity to describe our work before and typically now, we don't. For me, it's always fun to see whether the audience gets the same closure from my pieces that I intended or, if based on their own personal experiences, they see something totally different in my work than I had planned.

Design Process: Convergent vs. Divergent Thinking

With this being one of my first ever "design" classes, it would have been nice to go over the design process at the beginning of the semester to help others like myself have a loose framework for how we should go about designing our various projects. Even if it's just the basic four steps: What do we need, what existing designs are similar to the design we need, what is the different between the existing designs and new designs, and how can we transform, combine, or expand these existing designs.

The idea of convergent versus divergent thinking is really eye-opening for me because there are some times that we are given an assignment and I know exactly what I want to do (convergent). Other times, I have no idea where I should start and have to sit down for a brain-storming session before I can figure it out (divergent). Maybe Peter wanted us to come up with our process for designing pieces but just a suggestion for future classes, it might help others spend less time scratching their heads wondering what the heck they should work on for their assignments.

Fragmentation

Visual fragmentation is another technique that I really enjoy seeing in pieces. Several of us used this technique for our photomontage project, capturing photos of physical movement in time and displaying them together in one frame. There were a couple people who really struck out to me that did this visual fragmentation well, including Madison's diving photo and Jared's tennis shot. I think this technique is unique because it puts the audience in the mind-frame of the person going through motions in the art work. For instance, looking at this photo, I can imagine doing the long-jump in elementary school at track and field day. What's also going through my mind is "why is this boy naked?" but I guess that just adds character to the piece haha.

Spatial Dynamics in Animated Movies

On page 100, Stewart's text describes how Disney's Mulan movie was largely successful due to its animators created the illusion of space with great inventiveness. Mulan was released in 1998 (my early childhood years) and even back then, it is amazing how realistic a cartoon movie can feel just because of the use of overlapping foreground and background, showing different "camera" angles to zoom in or out, and thus producing very realistic and emotional scenes. The use of spatial dynamics, as well as the advancements in technology, is fantastic and today we see even more realistic animated movies than ever before. Thumbs up to artists at Pixar and Dreamworks! I'm sure I'm not the only one who cries during more animated movies than actual acted ones... right? They're just so... real.

The Effect of Rhythm

Putting text in a design can really have an effect on the piece overall. Since I would like to work in Communications some day, I especially like using text in my work. I love looking at magazine covers and other professional publications to get new ideas for how to layout words, as well as what size text and what style of fonts to use. Stewart's text points out that rhythm in your text can be used to create a very interesting display in your composition. I especially enjoy this piece from the book that repeats the word "ping" over and over again, but in different colors and different opacity. This type of rhythm would be very effective in some propaganda work, like the posters we designed a few weeks ago.

Asymmetrical Balance

I don't know why but I'm just not a fan of asymmetrical balance. I mean, I've seen art work designed with it and it can be very dynamic and pretty cool looking. However, I don't think I could ever let myself design something that's not symmetrical. I'm a fan of balance, in fact radial or linear symmetry is easily my favorite style just because it's so pleasing to the eye. I'm probably a little OCD and maybe that's why I don't like having things very offset or unbalanced. Anyone else out there like that?

Closure in Art

Reading through Stewart's text, I came across the section regarding closure. It is defined as "the mind's inclination to connect fragmentary information to product a completed form" which essentially means your work is discovered and interpreted by each viewer themselves. I find this concept really interesting because normally when we are putting together a design, we have our own thought about what ideas or feelings we want to project through the piece to the audience. However, Stewart points that when a viewer is able to complete an image in his or her mind, "it is often more memorable than an image that leaves no room for participation." Leaving some piece of vagueness or mystery to your work and hence letting someone make their own conclusion about it can be better than trying to force people to a conclusion yourself. Something to keep in mind for the future.