DESIGN PRINCIPLES - EXERCISE 3 : HARMONY & UNITY

31.08.21 (Week 4 - Week 5)
Christie Angelica Bakhary (0350655)
Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media / Design Principles

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LECTURES

↳ Harmony

    Is a common trait and the sense how all of the elements in design fit together, for 
    example same theme, mood, or aesthetic style. This can make design looks
    monotonous no variety.

Fig. 1.1 : Harmony example in interior design (Source : Pinterest)

Fig. 1.2 : Harmony example in illustration shown by Mr. Charles

↳ Unity
    Is a repetition of particular elements in design (colors, shapes, materials, etc.) to                create balance, give a sense of oneness and to create a theme. The stronger the 
    grouping, the stronger the unity is.

Fig. 1.3 : Unity example in illustration (Source : Pinterest)

↳ Scale & Proportion
    Both of these have been used throughout the centuries to depict or distract from the 
    ideal.
   • Scale

     Scale is the size of one object in relation to other objects in a design. 

   • Proportion

     While proportion refers to the parts of an object in relationship to other parts of the

     same object. Both of them have been used throughout the centuries to depict or 
     distract  from the ideal.

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PRACTICAL

On exercise 3, we were tasked to create 1 design each from unity, harmony, symbol, or either words and image. For this task I chose words and image as well as harmony.

Words and Image Exercise
Visual Research
For this exercise, I have an idea to crate a song lyric inspired poster in a minimalistic style. I chose to do one of my favorite song from Lany which titled 'If this is the last time'. This song doesn't only has a nice and calming melody but also a deep lyric which tells about a 

Fig. 2.1 : How Paul Klein wrote the song (Source : Songfacts web)

Fig. 2.1 : First references (Billie Eilish poster by Liz Olyslager on Behance)  

Pictures I used for the poster :

Fig. 2.2 : Lany pictures (Source : Pinterest)

Fig. 2.3 : Mother holding her child photography by Ekaterina Shakharova (Source : Unsplash)

Fig. 2.4 : Father and his son (Source : Gateawayfoundation web) 

Progression 
Started by cutting out the pictures I wanted to use using the quick selection tool and masked it.

Fig. 2.X : 

Idea Exploration
This first design has a pretty much the same composition as my reference (Fig. 2.1), but in my design I placed the song title together with the singer on the top side to make it clearer of what is this all about/what is the theme of this poster. I kind of like this one though because of it's word placement but I don't think that the picture blend together.

Fig. 2.x : First draft

So I make the second poster with a very different style than the first one and this is inspired by my own idea. The lyrics placement are still the same as the previous one but for the singer name I masked it into the circle in the middle so it looks more united with the picture

Fig. 2.x : Second draft

For the third draft I only try applying another color for the background because I feel the previous one doesn't seem to match that well.

Fig. 2.x : Third draft

Final Submission
I chose the third one for my final outcome because I feel like this has more interesting looks and aesthetically pleasing than the first design 

Harmony Exercise
Visual Research
In harmony exercise, I wanted to create a simple illustration poster inspired by sign languages. Before proceeding for sketching, I do research on every sign language meaning and this following picture shows what I've found :

Fig. 2.x : Basic sign languages (Source : Cultureready web)

Progression
Before I begin to sketch, I took a photo of my own hands making the sign language of 'love' word. I decided to choose 'love' because I wa

Fig. 2.x : Hands photo forming the sign language of 'love' word

Then, I sketched out digitally the rough ideas I'm going to use for the poster. I decided to put additional letter on each hand to make the poster clearer so that it can reach out to various people as well as give knowledge on what each hand portray.

Fig. 2.x : Rough sketch

For the color scheme as the theme was love & harmony, I choose a bright and vibrant analogous color palette.

Fig. 2.x : Color palette used

At first there was no line that attached on the words but then I added it to make it more connected to each other and have that harmonious looking.

Fig. 2.x : Timelapse progression video on Procreate

Idea Exploration

Fig. 2.x : First draft

Fig. 2.x : Second draft

I really like this one because it has a very nice peachy gradient color on the background, but it seems to contrasting with the text and the hands which doesn't reach the requirement of this task.

Fig. 2.x : Third draft

Final Submission
I chose the first draft for the submission because it suite the theme better and has a more harmonious color than the third draft. 

Fig. 2.x : Final result with a canvas texture

I realized that using the canvas texture on top of it makes the color looks very dull and dark, so I removed it and go with the previous looks.

Fig. 2.x : Final Result

Other than the harmonious color used, I also wanted to show the harmony we can find in love and sign languages. How beautiful this combination of sign language and love are. How love isn't just always through spoken words/language but also through signs and expression. People with a hearing problem can't hear the word love but they can still feel it, they can still communicate love through their own beautiful language.

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FEEDBACK

REFLECTION
In this exercise I got to learned and experienced new things, especially when I do the research on sign language. It is just so nice seeing how all the words can be communicate with hands and expression. From this exercise I learned some words in sign language already (which some of it actually kind of hard to memorize but it was fun!) and learning to make poster on photoshop (which is actually what I wanted to do since I was in high school, but I didn't really learn and do it:"(). Although my poster for the word and image exercise is too simple and doesn't seem good at all, I still kind of proud and happy while making it. I also found that things that are thought in Photography lecture were actually very helpful and does help me a lot while doing the poster design here (shoutout to Mr. Martin and Mr. Fauzi for making such a good tutorial :D)