The Three Cs of ID

1. The Three Cs of ID

2. Composition Placement and Division • When you design, do not allow the spacing between elements to "just happen." Develop an active awareness of the spatial relationships that are occurring between the components of the design. Practiced consciously, this will soon become second nature to all designers. • Just as the visual impact of an element can be enhanced by varying the measurements between it and other elements, so too can the effectiveness of the division line placement be enhanced through unequal spacing. • When working with multiple division lines, use a dynamic design by striving for variety. Here spatial divisions apply to both spatial relationships and angles of intersection. • Fibonacci series and the golden section are aesthetically pleasing divisions of space. The design is made by starting out with 0 and 1 and then adding the latest two numbers to bet the next string: • 0+1=1 1+1=2 1+2=3 2+3=5 3+5=8 5+8=13 8+13=21 … Phi (phee) is 1.618 and it produces the larger of two parts of a golden section.

3. Composition Grouping • Designs that are unclear, confusing or overwhelming are rarely investigated unless the viewer knows ahead of time that the content is of personal importance. It is up to the designer to present a visual design, message, and idea in an easily understood format. Grouping and visual hierarchy are key in building this kind of aesthetic clarity. • Effective grouping streamlines the viewer's search for meaning and information.

4. Composition Harmony • Visual harmony means agreement between the elements, both aesthetically and thematically. Visual harmony is often used to enhance themes like beauty, tranquility, and accord. • Within the art disciplines you can find unifying effects of visual harmony. Keep your eyes open when looking at architecture, painting, sculpture, or cinema. • Repetition is an amplified form of agreement. Repetition not only helps establish visual harmony, it is a great attracter of attention. • Visual echo establishes an eye-pleasing sense of unity between the elements and the design.

5. Composition Emphasis • Emphasis is a lot like coals of a campfire - when the embers are collected into a pile, the concentrated heat can ignite a log in seconds. Spread thin, their energy can barely warm a pair of cold hands. • If everyone shouts, how will and any one voice be heard? • To be emphatic you must be decisive. • Impact is relative to shapes, forms, colors and the rest of the elements of design. • Visual relationships between message and elements can create emphasis. • Color is an extremely effective tool for emphasis.

6. Composition Alignment • Think of alignment within a design as its structural framework. Alignment between elements can be used to create a sense of agreement, soundness, and unity within the piece, regardless of the tone of its overall message. • Alignment calls upon the designer to make a judgment call. Subtle changes in alignment can cause emphasis or disharmony. • Hidden grid systems create a formal alignment in the design.

7. Composition Flow • Learning to see the flow in the form is a journey without end. A good designer will create flow within the design which are interrupted by call outs of attention like eddies in a stream. • Certain elements within the design tend to direct the eye's attention. • Capturing the eye in an infinity loop, oval or circle keeps the audience's attention on you object. • Visual bridges may be need in complex designs. Overlapping elements and unifying colors help get the eye's attention to flow from one part to another part of the design.

8. Components Components • The visual elements used within the design. Photographs, icons, typography, line work, surface decoration, borders and backgrounds are all components. • Components are the very basic ingredients that cannot be broken down into smaller items. These seven elements are blended to create everything in our visual world.

9. Components Shape Shape refers to the form of an object. When lines enclose a space, a shape is formed. The three basic shapes are circle, square, and triangle. A shape is the general outline of an object. There are several types of shapes, geometric, natural and abstract. Geometric shapes dominate our man made surroundings. They are seen in buildings, furniture and machines because the natural world. For example, tiled hexagons may imitate a honeycomb. An abstracted shape is a natural shape that is simplified to its essence. The shapes in a composition form an important relationship with the shape of the field or canvas on which they are placed.

10. Components Shape • Basic geometric shapes can be used as stand-alone graphic and structural shapes or symbols, icons, or patterns. • Complex geometric shapes are more complex then above but are still easily identifiable and often carry specific connotations or meanings. • Structured free forms are abstract shapes that can be entirely built from straight lines, curved lines, or a combination of both. • Random free forms are organic feeling. ripe with irregularity and free-flowing in character, they can be used to convey themes or informality, action or spontaneity. • Literal free forms contain recognizable letterforms, icons, or graphic images.

11. Components Iconic Iconic design is referential to historical designs. The icon is based on real-world objects. The designer is challenged to create a simplified referential image, shape, or form that will directly and vividly convey its meaning to the viewer. A stylistic detail design is often more evocative than the whole translation of the referential object. This is to say that several sub-details could nicely represent the whole in a stronger way. Ample time is needed to sketch out variations and considerations to find the salient design that does the task. While time consuming, this shape component is one of the strongest available.

12. Components Branding A consistent visual message and a seamless integration of brand identity and company vision, in both print and with the design of the product, are essential in today's age of electronic global commerce. Branding is very important detail that creates clients for new designs from people who are loyal to a specific company or designer and his or her aesthetic. Everything affects the brand--whether it be the product aesthetic, product packaging, advertising, corporate political or environmental position, what people’s friends say about it, and especially product integrity with the end user.

13. Components Supporting Elements • Line work, forms and shapes all support the whole design. While the casual observer may miss these elements they are inescapable for good design. The savvy designer is ever-mindful of changing fashions of lines, shapes, and forms. • Lines give direction to a design. They are used to convey a vertical, horizontal, diagonal, or curved. • Form is the three dimensional mass of a shape. There are a few sample forms arranged in this non-representational image for your viewing. Geometric forms are a cube, a sphere, a cone, a cylinder and a pyramid. • Space is not a void as most people think of it. Designers must skillfully manipulate space. There are two basic kinds of space, actual space and pictorial space. Actual space is an area that exists in a composition. This can be measured as the two dimensional space between the borders of a painting or photograph, or the three dimensional space inside a sculpture. Pictorial space is more illusionary and is seen in two-dimensional work such as a painting on canvas. This can be analyzed as the number of planes in the field that we actually see, and give depth to compositions. • Texture is how something feels when you touch it and/or how it looks on the surface. Some words often used to describe it are dull, shiny, stiff, fuzzy, smooth, or rough. It is used to create a surface appearance in design.

14. Components Color • Colors of infinite variety can be created by altering the effects of three variables: hue saturation, and value. • Color has the ability to affect feelings and moods. It is a powerful design element, often used in conveying messages. It is described as having hue, saturation, and value. • Hue is the "colorness" of the color. The greenness of the green or the blueness of the blue. Hue is the British Racing Green or the yellow ochre that the color is labeled. • Saturation is the purity of the color. A hue that is considered its most intense color is fully saturated. Any hue mixed with black, neutral tone, or grey is considered less saturated. • Value has to do with the lightness or darkness of the color used in the design. When an object is created the color selection is a major consideration as is the lightness (tint) or darkness (shade) employed.

15. Components Evaluating Components (CAP) • Connotation • Does the visual style of this component tie win with the theme it ought to convey? • Is every sub-component within the element working toward the same thematic goal? • Is its theme projected in a way that could be seen as too specific or overly broad? • Could color, proportion, quality of finish, or shape choices within the design be adjusted to better reflect the function or design? • Attributes • Are you satisfied with the structure, color, or presentational style of the design? • Could line work be thickened, made thinner, or roughened up in order to better establish the elements of the design? • Will the color scheme of each element help the whole design? • Is the design presented in such a fashion that a variety of sizes or variations? • Placement • Should this component be given a starring or supporting role in the overall design? • Should this design call attention to itself or go virtually unnoticed? • Should its edges aligh with other elements within the design? • If so, should the be justified left or right or centered? • Should this element be visually grouped with others for conceptual or aesthetic gains?

16. Concept Concept • Abstract elements of theme, connotation, message and style. These intangible ingredients of a design or image are critical to its visual presentation and delivery of message.

17. Concept Conveyance • Being an abstract design, how is concept delivered to the viewer's eye and mind? • Concept is delivered through the prose of conveyance. Conveyance delivers mood, meaning, reference, feeling, and connection. Conveyance is also largely subjective and personal to each viewer. Conveyance is everywhere all the time. It is the designer's spin. Train your eye to recognize the way the designer get the concept and message or meaning across to you. • Conveyances can be added together to create new conceptual sums. • Strive for thematic agreement between subject, components, and composition. • For maximum effect, aim as many visual and thematic elements as possible toward a common conceptual goal. • When conveyances are in agreement, meaning is amplified. • Conveyance: speaks to the vast unconsciousness is not logical enters through the main gate connects

18. Concept Theme • Theme is the envelope in which concept is sent. This is the tone of the piece, its emotional appeal, its style of presentation. Themes can be wonderfully enigmatic: abstract but concrete, indefinable yet precise. • Define the theme for your piece and write it down in its most distilled form - a word, a sentence. Keep this thematic mission statement before you as you design. Themes can be organic growth, free-flowing, creativity, swiftness, casual elegance, atomic futurism, tangled confusion, creative practicality, solitude, chaos, humor, energy, crowdedness, welcoming, warm, shock, obscurity, nostalgia, caprice, or human element. • Variety within unity is the presentation element that are in accord with one another and that also have a degree of individuality among theme. • The degree in which you apply variation affects the energy and notice generated by a design. A greater variation usually results in a greater measure of both energy and notice.

19. Concept Creative Process • There is no neutral state of creativity. Either things are growing or decaying. Observation, study, practice, and history all play essential elements of creative growth. We need to tap into a continuous source of fresh ideas and information in order to be facile with creative designs. • Take the time to look and think about art. • Look at automobiles and everyday objects as functional sculptures. • Look at stuff people have put on their walls. • Read. • Watch movies. • Practice at which you are good. • Doodle and draw everywhere; all of the time.

20. Concept Creative Process • Key rules • Concept may be king but audience is the force that governs all. Any project must start with an evaluation and understanding of the audience. • Once the audience has been identified, to goal of the piece should be clearly defined. • Once the audience and goals are identified, the message needs to be developed that will achieve the goal. • When the conceptual message has been defined, the means needs to be developed that will get the message across. The message is what is being said while the means is how it is being said.

21. Concept Critiquing the concept (CAP) • Clarity • Are the literal, stylistic, and thematic messages of the design clearly and effectively presented? • Is there a possibility of misinterpretation of the design? • Is there more than one message being presented in the design? • Could the concept, message or theme be simplified for the sake of impact? • Audience • Who is the audience for this design? • What are the visual tastes of this group of people? • What colors do they seem to prefer? • What could this product announcement do for the audience? What do they want or desire? • Does this design stand apart from what this audience has already seen?

22. Concept • Purpose • What exactly is this design suppose to do? • Which particular aspect of the design is being promoted? • Have you discussed the design with your audience or client? • Has the purpose of this design been adequately narrowed so that it can be given as much attention and power as possible?