What is design?

Look around Design is everywhere. Its what drew you to the last sneakers you bought and it's what made texting possible.

Its made buses able to carry bikes and it made Hannah Montana RIDICULOUSLY famous.

From a concept or idea (left) to real thing (above)… “Design could be viewed as an activity that translates an idea into a blueprint for something useful, whether it's a car, a building, a graphic, a service or a process.” Design Council

Not all design considers beauty, strength and cost together. Just look around. You are probably in a cinder block school. What were the driving ideas behind the design of this school? Budget? Beauty? A nice relaxing natural place to learn in? See what I mean…… Mmm, friendly.

So DESIGN is everywhere But GOOD design is not. What is wrong with this idea?

In terms of learning about design In terms of learning about design. We are going to start with the basics first.

The Elements of Design: These 6 ingredients are used to create a design: 1.shape 2.space 3.line 4.texture 5.value 6.color See an example of each on the next slides

Shape (think ‘form’)

space (think ‘distance in & between things’)

line (think ‘thinish mark made by something ’)

texture (think ‘the look/feel of the surface ’)

value (think degree of lightness or darkness)

color (rather obvious)

The Principles of Design The principles are how you decide to put all the elements together. You can make a zillion choices when doing this.

The Principles of Design: 1. proportion 2. balance (symmetry) 3. rhythm / pattern 4. emphasis (focal point) 5. variety 6. contrast 7. unity 8. movement

Examples: This image uses the elements of shape, space, color, value & texture. The principles used here are: repetition, variety of proportion, contrast (light vs. dark) , movement and rhythm.

The trick is to be able to explain how they (the principles are used). Ie: Here we have a pattern inifying the background, bright variety of colour across the foreground, a large central face is emphasized and there is a sense of repeated pattern by the three front figures (essentially the same pose).

You try talking about the principles… Find your own picture to describe how the elements are put together