On this exercise I had to use a light bulb image, the word "light bulb" and a block of color in order to create different types of composition, hierarchy, layering, depth, contrasts and draw the viewers attention through different approaches.
It was an interesting task, since I love to play around with just 3 elements and see how can I expend and challenge my abilities and skills.
I started with using brushes in order to create the color, but then I realised "color block" as mentioned on the brief might be more solid as showed on the example with the Kittens. But I can save this idea for later.
So I started working with the color orange. I thought the color yellow would be obvious for "lightbulb" so I picked another "warm" color which is related to the warmth of the light. Also it is symbolised with spirituality - if we are looking at it in a sense of "seeing the light" it can go pretty well together, and it can give a pretty good contrast to the image and text as well.
https://www.universeofsymbolism.com/color-meaning.html
I was looking for some information about composition and I found this very detailed article that explains it pretty well.
https://www.canva.com/learn/visual-design-composition/
According to the article there are 10 rules for successful composition designs (all quotes are taken from the article):
1. Focus - finding a focus point according to my aim of communication.
"When choosing your focal point, keep in mind that the main goal of any design is communication. Whether you’re communicating an idea, some information, or simply a feeling or emotion, your design is telling a specific story, so be sure to choose a focal point that helps this story get told in the strongest, most effective way."
I asked myself in each design - "where is my focus point?"
2. Direct the Eye With Leading Lines - in this case I didn't have lines as the brief asked to use only the lightbulb picture, the text and the block of color. So I tried to use my element in order to create "leading lines"
"Just like you point at something when you want people to look at it, by positioning certain lines and shapes in certain ways you can control the viewpoint of your design, aka where viewers’ eyes go when they see your design."
"Of course, not every design you create will have such obvious lines for you to adjust to direct viewpoint, but this doesn’t mean you’re up the creek with no paddle. Find shapes and lines within your images and graphic elements and use them to direct the eye in certain ways."
3. Scale and Hierarchy - I tried to create hierarchy and scale in every design, asking myself which of the objects supposed to be in the "front" or higher in the hierarchy and which are medium or small. Then, scaling - which element I want to draw attention from or to?
"Hierarchy is the arrangement and design of elements in order to visually signal importance. So, you might make a more important element bigger and bolder than a less important element which might be smaller and fainter."
"Scale is often used to help communicate hierarchy by drawing attention toward and away from certain elements, thus signifying their importance to the communication."
4. Balance - if it is symmetric balance to asymmetric balance, I had to consider where is the weight in every design.
"First, we have symmetrical balance. Symmetrical balance does what it says on the tin – it balances your design using symmetry. By reflecting certain design elements from left to right or top to bottom, you can create a strong sense of balance."
"Another kind of balance, and an arguably more common type is asymmetrical balance. Asymmetrical balance is also a fairly self explanatory term, in that it concerns creating balance without symmetry."
5. Use Elements That Complement Each Other - I was thinking in this case about the font and the color. what font will go hand in hand with the light bulb. For me, especially this specific kind of light bulb is kind of "old school" and it relates in my mind to an old vintage writing machine, so I chose an old school writing machine like font. and I chose the color orange, as I said before because of its spiritual and warm sense of "seeing the light". Then I only had to think about how to flatter each design with the sizing of each element, direction, and capital or small lettering.
6. Boost (or Reduce) Your Contrast - in this case, I only chose the color which in my eyes will give a good contrast for the image and brief, but I didn't know if it was appropriate for what I've been asked to do to play around with different color contrasts.
7. Repeat Elements of Your Design - I love repeating elements, it gives some movement and add to the story that is being told. I played around with repeating text or blocks of color.
“Repetition makes for successful compositions.”
8. Don’t Forget the White Space - White space is like the silence underneath the sound, its like the space between the objects, its like the space between our thoughts. and in terms of "seeing the light" - in a spiritual way - all gurus will tell us enlightenment is within the space between the thoughts, underneath the sound and inside the room which has doors and windows and other element. The white space plays a good role in my eyes and this is why I payed extra attention to the white space layer.
"The easiest way to offend white space is to refer to it as ‘empty space’. Emptiness implies that it should be full of something, that it’s not doing its job, but this is not quite the case."
9. Align Your Elements - Alignment is one of my favourite things. I love having things aligned because if not - it disturbs my eyes.
10. Divide Your Design Into Thirds - I definitely put in mind and divided my design into thirds. I know already from photography it is great to put the main element in the meeting points of the thirds. But also breaking the rules is important too, so I played around with following it and sometimes breaking it too.
Other elements I played with too was -
Triangle - I Placed few things in a triangle like shape, not necessarily a perfect triangle all the time.
The rule of odds - I liked using 3 of the same objects in some of the designs.
I also used in one of the designs particularly a mind trick which the whole word "light bulb" wasn't there, but from seeing a part of it and the picture our mind can complete it and know the whole word is "light bulb".
FINAL DESIGNS
I created 21 designs, then narrowed it down to 20 -
REFLECTION
This exercise was great for lay out learning. I feel like it pushed me to think outside the box as I used to love aligning everything to center. I really liked doing this exercise and explore the many different way I could place the bulb, text and block of color.