Resource Links:

• Layout
• Design Grid
• Pattern

The works of these artists are not exactly examples what you will be doing in this assignment. But, the CONCEPTS from this assignment are a part of—or evident in—each of their work in some way.

• Armin Hoffman
• Massimo Vignelli
• Kenneth Hiebert

Some cultural design motifs based on grid or cell repetition of shape or pattern

• Mayan Design
• Celtic Design
• Art Deco
• Navajo Design
• Islamic Pattern

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Assignment:

Essentially, you are always telling a visually story. The simplest of those stories may be told using geometric shapes and no color. The arrangement or composition of those shapes therefore becomes essential in the success of the story. In this case we will be concentrating on the use of a grid system, or lattice, as an approach to composition/layout. It is important to realize that for this assignment your are not creating a “picture”, but instead a “design” where Pattern is a prime concern or goal. The concept of Repetition with Variation is essential to creating an interesting pattern to create a sense of internal harmony, rhythm, contrast and movement.

Objectives:

• Create a design based on (repetition with variation)—Pattern
• Apply the Grid to organization (size and location) of both objects and interval/white space
• Create movement within the design
• Create dynamic Figure and Ground Relationships
• Create a readable pattern

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Process:

We are going to approach this assignment incrementally, through a process of successive variations. At each stage of this process we are going to look at all of our results at the same time in the Gallery view of Zoom. So, from the beginning, we want everyone’s individual layout to be sized to fit this format without distortion or cropping.

Zoom Gallery View windows can be sized to two different settings; the original setting of 4:3 aspect ratio or Widscreen, 16:9. For our purposes we want everyone to confirm that their zoom windows are at the same setting of 16:9. To do this, look under the Zoom.US menu Tab at the top left of your Zoom screen. Then, Preferences>> Settings >>Video and then select Widescreen or 16:9 Ratio as shown in the image below.

First things first. The term aspect ratio refers to the ratio of a picture’s width to its height. If the aspect ratio of a picture were 1 to 1 (or 1:1), the width and height would be the same, and you’d have a square. Standard NTSC video has an aspect ratio of 4:3. That means for every four units of width, the picture will be three units high. Remember this is a RATIO, not a SIZE. Widescreen ration is 16:9.

• create a new file with a 8 x 4.5 inch artboard (16:9 ratio) in Illustrator (like the picture above)
• Illustrator Preferences
  • Increments>>General>>inches
• View rulers
  • View>>Rulers
• Set Illustrators grid to .5 inch increments
  • Illustrator Preferences>> Guides and Grid>>Gridline every (.5 inch in this case)
• Show Grid
  • View>>Show Grid
• Snap to Grid
  • View>>Snap to Grid

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First Version

• Make a new Illustrator Layer and label it “1st version”
  • Illustrator Preferences>>Guides and Grid>>Grid Spacing>>0.5 inches 
  • Using only rectangles (no lines or other shapes) create a black and white Layout of a word or abbreviation. Create letters and Punctuation Marks only.
  • Utilize the 16:9 grid (individual cells or multiples of cells) to determine size and placement of both black rectangles and the white interval spaces between them.
  • Look for Implied Lines/Lines of Continuity which visually link or connect shapes together
  • Layout Concepts (Each new concept is essentially a prompt that I am asking you to interpret in your compositions.)
    • Repetition with Variation—Pattern

• Save your file as a JPEG image
  • Be sure to check the “use Artboards” button in the bottom center of the screen
  • set the range of artboards to 1 (later in this assignment you will have more artboards of a different size) be sure only the layer you wish to export is visible each time)
  • Change color to Grayscale
• Upload this version to Assignment 1, 1st version on Canvas.

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2nd Version

• Make a new Illustrator Layer and label it “2nd version”
  • Do NOT simply add to your previous version, but instead, create a brand new composition that incorporates the ideas/concepts from the previous version plus the new concepts listed below.
  • Start with a black background under the entire art board and add white shapes on top
  • Make a phrase or short sentence
  • Layout Concepts
    • Repetition with Variation—Pattern
    • Gestalt Perception
      • The two main principles of Gestalt that are being employed here are Figure and Ground and Continuation
      • Implied line (also called implied edge) is also at work as a part of Continuation 
      • Gestalt—The whole is more important that any of the individual parts—Visual Teamwork.
      • Generally speaking a shape is perceived as a strong figure compared to surrounding shapes if it is characterized by any of the following: 
        • none or minimal cropping
        • can see the complete, or most of, the entire shape/object
        • none or minimal use of implied line
        • can recognize the shape as something, it is nameable
      • Generally speaking a shape is perceived as a strong ground compared to surrounding shapes if it is characterized by any of the following:
        • a lot of cropping
        • you cannot see the entire object/shape
        • use of implied line
        • cannot name the shape, it is unrecognizable
    • You are attempting to create a design based on pattern where there is an interesting balance between clarity/readability and ambiguity. Ultimately, we must be able to read it but we are not simply writing out the phrase in all black letters (strong figure). Instead, we are playing with the viewer’s perception by lessening the perception of figure a little bit by using some implied line and some cropping and some shared contour/edge. This will produce some areas of figure becoming ground (also known as ground becoming figure) or figure ground reversal.
    • A common issue to overcome is the ability to understand that shared contour between letters of the same color will simply result in the letters looking like they have been squished more closely together. They are still all figure. There is no figure ground reversal in this case.

• Most of the time you want to use shared contour for the goal of creating a reversal in the viewer’s perception of  figure and ground. So, the simplest example of this is to fit a white letter into or next two a black letter like a puzzle piece. 

• In this example above, the three figures (the black L, the white E and the smaller black reversed c) all “fit” into one another (like a puzzle). They share contours. It is an example also of figure and ground reversal because the white must be perceived as ground for us to be capable of perceiving the black shapes as figure. The opposite is also true, for us to perceive the white letter “E” as a figure  then we must perceive the black areas as ground. Because both the black and the white shapes change back and forth in our perception of it, we call it a dynamic relationship of figure and ground.
• Here is an example of a more advanced approach to the concept of active figure and ground applied to letterform and link to others.
  
• Below we see an extended exploration of this idea applied to more words with readability still a goal. This is a basic level example of what you are trying to do in step #2.

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3rd version

• If you had difficulty controlling a dynamic figure and ground relationship in the first two versions, you must revisit those steps before proceeding to version #3.
• Make a new Illustrator Layer and label it “3rd version”
  • Start with either a Black OR a White background but keep the same size artboard as before.
  • Do NOT simply add to your previous versions, but instead, create a new composition that incorporates the ideas/concepts from the first two versions plus the new concept listed below
  • you may now create other shapes in addition to squares and rectangles as long as they fit within the grid cells
  • Layout Concepts
    • Repetition with Variation—Pattern
    • Gestalt Perception
    • Progression/Evolution/Transition or Gradual change/Morph 
      • Shape Variation or Morph is the new concept. A morph, in this case, is kind of like the stop action frames of an animation that show a gradual, step-by-step transformation from one shape to another one.
      • Develop your understanding of the difference between simply morphing a shape (a square) to another shape (a circle) and the more complex visual situation where, in addition to a shape morphing, there is also a gradual change in the way that the black and white areas of the entire design layout are perceived. 

These patterns created by M.C. Escher show creative use of a regular grid.

In these works above, the illusion of dynamic movement or change is created mainly by conscious manipulation of these variables: 

• Repetition with Variation—Pattern
• Gestalt Perception—especially Dynamic changes in the Figure and Ground relationships
• Basic shape morphing or gradually changing a shape to a new shape
• Shared Contour/Edge
  • extreme or total shared contour produces a specific kind of pattern known as a tessellation or tessellating pattern

At this point in the assignment it is expected that you understand each of these three specific variables. If not, you first need to revisit the links that explain each of them.

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4th version

• If you had difficulty controlling a dynamic figure and ground relationship in the first versions, you must revisit those steps before proceeding to version #4.
• The Gestalt principle of Proximity or relative closeness of objects/shapes to one another also has great influence on our perception of grouping/pattern and ultimate clarity/readability.
• Make a new Illustrator Artboard and entitle it “4th Version”
  • For version 4, increase the size of your artboard to 16 x 9 inches
  • Start with either a Black OR a White background
  • Start with the best parts of your previous layout (version 3)
  • Layout Concepts
    • Size and Intervals/Space Between
    • Gestalt Perception
    • Progression/Evolution/Transition or Gradual change/Morph 
    • Text 
      • Add paragraphs, sentences or phrases
        • the text box is what must conform to the grid
• Below are some pattern examples based on the grid. Look at how modification can be made by “cutting” into the basic cell unit, rotation, and scale/size change. Some examples also show application of the Golden Section to determine the changing size of the grid cells. The Fibonacci Number Series is the easiest way to apply the proportions of the Golden Section to design grid intervals.

Below are some examples of active figure ground relationships applied to type.
(click on them to see close up views. Look for use of implied line which creates figure becoming ground, and shared contour which creates figure ground reversal. In some cases there is both. A shared contour which is an implied line.)

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5th version

• Make a 5th version, Make a new Illustrator Artboard
  • You make this artboard any size you wish but keep the .5 inch grid increments 
  • Start with either a Black or a White background
  • Layout Concepts
    • Size and Intervals/Space Between
    • Gestalt Perception
    • Progression/Evolution/Transition or Gradual change/Morph 
    • Text 
    • Image
      • Add a high contrast B/W image of a person 
    • The examples below exhibit some, but not all, of the concepts you are trying to apply in step 5. 

These are High Contrast images. There is no gray only black and white.

these images appear to have gray in them because they are printed on transparent film and the room behind them shows through the film which gives the appearance of gray in these images. For this assignment you cannot use gray values only black and white.

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