Color Unity

Not only did we have to learn the principles of color design, but also strategies for color unity. These, too, were subjects for our photographs we took. Here are a few of my favorite ones along with the class notes again:

LIMITED PALETTE: using only a few hues often creates unity, particularly with the addition of another unity strategy.


SOFTEN THE CONTRAST, WEAKEN THE CHROMA: reduces the use of strong chroma hues that grab too much attention and allows for better visual movement throughout the image.


TRANSITIONS IN HUE, VALUE, OR CHROMA: eliminate big visual leaps and help the viewer's visual path slow down and make sense of the image. 

Transition in Value

USE OF NEUTRALS: provides balance and transition between many colors.


HUE, VALUE, OR CHROMA DOMINANCE: provides balance (and often color symbolism or expression) in designs.

Hue & Chroma Dominance

KEY THE COLOR: adding a hue, such as yellow, to each color in the design makes the palette more harmonious and suggests temperature.

Principles of Color Design

A few days ago we were given an assignment to take multiple pictures of each color design principle; I thought I'd post just a few of my best examples. I included our class notes for better understanding. Enjoy!

HUE: the family name of a color, such as red, blue, or yellow. Hue carries the expressive, emotional, or symbolic aspect of the design.
     -Harmonious: the use of two or more colors that are next to each other on the color
      wheel, such as red and orange.
     -Contrasting: includes colors that are far apart on the color wheel, such as blue and
      yellow.

HARMONIOUS

CONTRASTING

VALUE: the lightness or darkness of a color. Value contains more than 90% of the information in a design and can suggest volume or three-dimensional form, space, or the pattern of light and dark that moves the viewer through the picture plane.
     -Harmonious: either all light or all dark values within a design.
     -Contrasting: includes both light and dark values, such as light pink and brown.

HARMONIOUS

CONTRASTING 

CHROMA: the purity or grayness of a color, such as KU red (strong chroma) vs. brick red (weak chroma) or brown (weak chroma and dark value). Strong chroma is exciting and grabs attention; too much strong chroma confuses the viewer as to what to look at.
     -Harmonious: either all really bright (strong chroma) or all grayed (weak chroma).
     -Contrasting: includes both bright and dulled colors, such as Jayhawk Red and gray.

HARMONIOUS

CONTRASTING

Reading #1

The universal message I took from these multiple different articles is how hard it is to explain what exactly is considered design. It is such an extremely broad field that encompasses so much - there's fashion design, interior design, industrial design, art design, graphic design, and the list just keeps on going and going. There was a sentence that demonstrated why there can be so much confusion on what design is. There are so many different meanings - "design is to design a design to produce a design". It went on to explain each of those meanings and they truly are all unique. Another article brought up an interesting point that nearly everything in this world has been designed. Even the natural, land-made objects have been tweaked on, and fixed, by us. One point that really struck me was that, though there were three different articles, all of them mentioned how design isn't absolutely critical. It surprised me that a book on design would confess that it isn't crucial. It definitely has such a large impact on our society; the world would be a such different place without design. Just think of how much more disorganized everything would be! I can't even imagine. Even little things such as iPhone cases draw my attention like crazy; I could spend hours on end online shopping for them. Design in general is just so eye-catching and appealing if done right.

The way this reading connects to my major of interior design is to understand the cruciality of getting everything to work together right. One of the articles mentioned how creating a design is very much a group effort. There's no way one person would be able to make all the decisions for a large project on his/her own; I know personally that would stress me out way too much. It takes many trials and errors to come up with a final winning idea and even then it still takes some back-and-forth to ensure that is truly what you want to go with. I know from experience that this is exactly what happens in the interior design field. My father, being an architect, took me into his firm over the summer to show me exactly what the interior designers take part in. Seeing all the different sketches and progress of just one project is mind-blowing. It takes a ridiculous amount of work but it definitely pays off, seeing the results. Design is so interesting to look at and these readings gave me a much more insightful look into the matter.

'Three Ways Good Design Makes You Happy'

Don Norman had a talk a while back where he discussed the three ways that good design makes you happy. He focused on the fact that it is largely part of your subconscious - your opinion's created without conscious realization based solely on how it makes you feel. This being the case, it means that looks count almost as much, if not more, than the actual functionality. He had a quote that really stuck with me - "pleasant things work better". This was really interesting to me because most people think that functionality would be the main thing one should take into account, but appearance overcomes usage more than we would like to admit. This is mainly because it makes us happy; design stimulates neurotransmitters in your brain that excite you. Dan Norman presented these three ways good design makes us happy:

1. Visceral - this is all about how the design makes you feel good and the emotions linked to certain colors, shapes, and symbols. 
2. Behavioral - this is when you feel in control of the product. It is the usability and understanding of a product, but also the feeling that it gives you.
3. Reflective - he described this one as the little voice inside your head. It's what explains why people get Hummer's or Rolex watches - it's all for the wow factor and the attention.

Seeing as he is an expert on design & emotion I know that he hit these right on the head, and being a product consumer I can testify to each and every one of these points. I know that I personally take appearance way more into account than I should. Nike shoes are a large exhibiter of this point. They are definitely the most visually-appealing and popular tennis shoes among my age group, yet they are not nearly as good for your feet as say Asics. Looks plays a huge role in a product's overall success whether we would like to admit it or not, and it will always be something needed to take into account.

Rams' 10 Principles of Good Design

So for our first assignment we were directed to read this article about what this man, Dieter Rams, concluded to be the ten key elements for a product to be considered 'good design'. They are listed below:

Good Design
1. is innovative
2. makes a product useful
3. is aesthetic
4. makes a product understandable
5. is unobtrusive
6. is honest
7. is long-lasting
8. is thorough down to the last detail
9. is environmentally-friendly
10. is as little design as possible

All of these make an immense amount of sense and I couldn't agree more with any of them, however,  it would be rather difficult for a product to meet absolutely all the criteria on this list. I consider something with good design probably to have at least half of these elements. The product I chose for my good design project, Clocky (pictured below), qualifies for many:

• It is definitely innovative - an alarm clock that rolls away? Sounds genius to me.
• It makes a product useful - the wheels enable it able to roll around to force you to chase after it.
• It's aesthetic - it has a cute little compact design, and the color definitely helps.
• It makes a product understandable - the wheels are there for obvious reasons and help show what the clock's purpose is.
• It's unobtrusive - like I stated before, it has a very compact design.
• It's honest - it truly does what it's meant to do - help the owner wake up by forcing them to chase it.
• It's long-lasting - the wheels appear to be very durable and, while I've only had it since Christmas, it still seems to be going strong.
• It is thorough down to the last detail - it gives you multiple options, such as how long after you hit snooze he starts rolling and you can even opt out of it moving.
• It is environmentally-friendly - you can use rechargeable batteries for it.
• It's as little design as possible - With only 6 buttons and a screen, this baby is all set to go.

After listing all these reasons, it is clear as to why this would be the best product for my project. While the other items I picked out - a beauty blender, wet brush, camelback water bottle, and tervis - still consisted of good design, they did not nearly excel in all the areas like Clocky did. I'm so glad I chose to pack him spur-of-the-moment seeing as he is definitely a well-designed product!