The Elements and Principles of Design with Images

White Space Activity 1: Elements & Principles in Photograph Analysis 

• About the Photo
• Title: Amateur contest for children Final eliminations, Sept. 24, 1936.
• Creator(s): Levine, Estelle, artist
• Date Created/Published: [New York : Federal Art Project], 1936.
• Medium: 1 print on board (poster) : silkscreen, color.
• Summary: Poster announcing amateur piano contest, showing two girls playing piano.Source: http://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/wpapos/item/97502865
• 
  

ELEMENT #...

1. SPACE

There is a right amount of space on this poster; even the girl's extended leg fits neatly in the space. The spaces are uneven in all four corners and its irregularity creates a playful and comfortable feel to the poster. 

2. LINE

There are straight and curvy lines throughout the images and font. The combination continues to bring a playful tone to the image. Most of the lines are slanted with a positive slope and also brings a friendly tone to it. It provides an informal tone and almost illustrates the essence of music- how it is not straight forward and a bit quirky. 

3. SHAPE

The shapes of the dresses yields to an inorganic shape, a perfect circle. The tops of the girls' heads and hands are also similar to a circle. To me, I think that the first shape that the child learns to draw is a circle, albeit, not a perfect circle. The popularity of circles in this poster, as illustrated in the font as well, supports the child-focused theme of the poster. 

4. SIZE

The grand piano, being the largest, grabs one's attention first, then, it would be the girls playing at the piano. The size of the piano illustrates that the amateur contest will be about music, specifically, with the piano. it does not even need to be described via text; it is described visually. The poster's sizing of the piano did an effective job embedding event information through visuals. 

5. PATTERN

There isn't really a pattern in this poster except for the duplicated style of another girl. With that, it adds minor familiarity to the piece. 

6. TEXTURE

The background has a texture of a chalkboard, again, bringing out the theme of children as we may associate the chalkboard as a classroom and therefore, with children. The texture may also be of watercolor and its uneven gradience may note the amateur skill of children (due to lack of practice, not implying inheritance).

7. VALUE

There is a light and dark contrast with the dark piano and light objects, background and font around it. This brings focus onto the piano. And considering that there aren't many tones for each color (1 shade of yellow, 2 shades of blue, and 2 shades of brown), there isn't much depth to the poster. Although the text may pop, there the objects come off as 2D. The 2D effect also provides a friendly and informal tone to whole image. 

PRINCIPLE #...

1. FOCAL POINT 

• Rule 1: have one - CHECKED (piano)
• Rule 2: have only one - CHECKED (only piano)

2. CONTRAST 

• Value - CHECKED (light & dark)
• Lines - CHECKED  (makes rotated perpendicular lines)
• Colors - CHECKED (blue & yellow are opp. colors on the color wheel; i.e. complementary colors)

3. BALANCE

Asymmetry is positively slanted which creates an lively and upbeat feel to it. It makes it more visually exciting and visually interesting. 

4. MOVEMENT

There are no visible signs of movement but the asymmetry and slanted image creates a lively tone to it. It's almost as if the lines of the image creates movement rather than with a blurred effect. 

5. RHYTHM 

Color tones are repeated which gives off a "rhythmic movement...like a backbeat" (Golombisky & Hagen, 2010, p.53). Ex: The same yellow shade is in the text from alternate sides, girl A's dress, girl A's shoe, and girl B's hair, all with similar spacing from each other. 

6. PERSPECTIVE 

Atmospheric perspective: The foreground images (piano, chair, the girls) have a darker richer value than the washed-up pale-blue background. This creates the depth of what is viewed closer in the bird's eye view. 

7. UNITY 

Everything does look like they go together. Even the extended leg of the girl in a yellow dress looks like it belongs there. The extensive occupies the largest space in the poster which then makes it similar to the other spaces. 

COMMENTS...

I really like this design - the overall tone of the poster gives me slight smile and a curious feeling. I am impressed that even the designers from the early 1900's got it right - so design is not some sort of new field - it's been here from the start of media! 

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White Space Activity 2: Comparing Social Media Websites

Venn Diagram of Facebook's and Twitter's Website Design: grid structure 

SCREENSHOTS 

Facebook (1)

All 5 columns has content.

Twitter (1)

The use of 3 columns from the center creates a simple and clean feel to the website.

                                                                           Facebook (1)

So many visuals make the website look cluttered. Also, which visual is important? Ads or other users' content?

Twitter (2)

Surprisingly, there were no ads! Only visuals posted from other users.

COMMENTS...

I didn't realize how Facebook's design is not that visually appealing - especially with the abundance of ads. The large visuals of ads in the news feed and on the side bars can make the material distracting and diminishes the social focus. I feel that because Facebook is very popular and that I have used it for years made me a "Facebook fan" (i.e. I go on Facebook daily) and therefore, accept its design no matter how cluttered with ads it is. Twitter, on the other hand, is less cluttered and visually appealing. The content is from followed users and all of the information about your account seems to just be there.