Research - Assignment 5

We are assigned to create 4 papercuts by following the principles and elements of design.

1. Balance and symmetrical x2
2. Dominance, weight and space x2

And so I've done some researches about these princinples and papercuts/papercutting. I also found out that papercutting is also called Scherenschnitte.

"The task of artists is to organize elements into a comprehensible whole by simplifying, organzing and unifying." - Kenneth Bates

"Principles of Design

The principles of design are the rules by which an artist uses the elements of design.
The most often used principles in visual art are: balance, emphasis, movement, variety, proportion and unity. These principles may vary slightly according to the person using them.

7. Balance
Balance is the arrangement of lines, colors, values, textures, forms, and space. there are three types of balance: formal or symmetrical or informal or asymmetrical and radial balance. Formal or symmetrical balance has equal weight on both sides. Informal or asymmetrical balance has a different weight on on each side to maintain balance. Radial balance is a circular balance moving out from a central object to maintain balance.

8. Emphasis
Emphasis is way of bring a dominance and subordination into a design or painting. Major objects, shapes, or colors may dominate a picture by taking up more space or by being heavier in volume or by being darker in color than the subordinate objects, shapes and colors. There must be balance between the dominant and subordinate elements.

9. Movement
The use of lines, colors, values, textures, forms and space to carry or direct the eye of the viewer from one part of the design or picture to other is called movement. Movement is created in art by the way the artist uses the elements of design. Movement is generally created by the arrangement of shapes.

10. Variety and contrast
An artist uses elements of art to create diversity and differences in design. Contrasting colors, textures, and patterns all add interest to the art work. Highlights of color to the corners or edges of some shapes maybe used to add contrast.

11. Proportion
The size of one part of artwork to its other parts is called proportion. Artists use proportion to show emphasis, distance and use of space, and balance.


12. Unity
Unity is the result of how all element and principles work together. All parts must have some relation to each other. They must fit together to create the over all message and effect. "
- adapted from: http://www.ursyn.com/Orchestra/pages/Toby.html



More papercutting websites:
http://www.maudvantours.com/selfridges/
http://papercutting.blogspot.com/

Scherenschnitte

So skillful


3D flower


From a plain piece of white paper


"Papercutting is the art of cutting paper designs. The art has evolved uniquely all over the world to adopt to different cultural styles.

History

The oldest surviving paper cut out is a symmetrical circle from the 6th century found in Xinjiang China.^[1] By the eighth or ninth century papercutting appeared in West Asia and in Turkey in the 16th century. Within a century, papercutting was being done in most of middle Europe." - wiki

How to apply dominance, weight and space into you design?

"What is Dominance?

dominant (adj) – commanding, controlling, or prevailing over all others

dominance (n) – the fact or state of being dominant

Given the definitions above it shouldn’t be too hard to understand dominance as a design component. When you create dominance in your work you are creating elements that command attention and prevail over other elements.
Every design should have a primary area of interest or focal point that serves as a way into the design. From the primary dominant element, design flow can be achieved by creating elements with secondary and tertiary dominance.
Dominance relies on contrast, since without contrast everything would be the same. You might even think of dominance as contrast in extreme, though it doesn’t have to be.
Consider 2 squares of different sizes. The larger square will likely dominate (even if it’s only slightly larger) and the greater the difference in size between the 2 squares the more the larger will dominate the smaller.

In the image on the left the larger square dominates the smaller square, though not to the extent that the larger square in the image to the right dominates its smaller sibling.
Dominance is the varying degree of emphasis in your design elements. You can create 3 levels of dominance in your work.

1. Dominant: The element given the most visual weight, the element of primary emphasis. The dominant element will advance into the foreground in your composition.
2. Sub-Dominant: The element(s) of secondary emphasis that will become the middle ground in your composition.
3. Subordinate: The elements with tertiary emphasis, given the least visual weight. Subordinate elements will recede into the background of your composition.

It becomes difficult to create a 4th level of dominance. As human beings we can easily distinguish most and least, but things in between quickly move into a gray area where they are seen as equal in dominance.

Why is Dominance Important?

As I mentioned above dominance helps create an area of interest, a focal point or starting point in your design. The dominant element on your page should be the element you want people to see first. Perhaps it’s your logo or the title of the page or whatever else you want people to notice first.
Dominance creates a visual hierarchy in your design. A hierarchy is by default a series of different levels of dominance.
A lack of dominance between elements leads to competition between them. If there are two red circles of equal size in your design, which should I look at first? Different people will choose different circles and some will bounce back and forth between both. Had one circle clearly been dominant your viewer knows to look at it before the other circle.
Without a dominant element on the page your readers must work to find their own entry point into your design. That’s not as easy as it seems and the least amount of work may be moving on to another design on another page on another site. Remember, “Don’t make me think.” Instead make it easy to find a way into your design.
By creating a dominant element in your work you reveal what’s most important in your design and show people were to look first. From there you can create a subdominant element to guide your viewer where to look next.

How to Create Dominance in Your Design

As a general rule the elements in your design with the most visual weight will be the most dominant. However that may not always be the case.
At times the dominant element may be the element that most dominates its immediate surroundings. An object surrounded by whitespace dominates its immediate environment.

In the image above your eye probably falls first on the circle in the center. It’s hardly the largest shape in the image and doesn’t carry the most visual weight. However because it’s completely surrounded by whitespace it dominates its local environment. The shapes with more visual weight tend to blend together here and none dominates its immediate space.
In general though, more visual weight = more dominance in the element
You can add more visual weight to elements through

• Size – As you would expect larger elements carry more weight
• Color – It’s not fully understood why, but some colors are perceived as weighing more than others. Red seems to be heaviest while yellow seems to be lightest.
• Density – Packing more elements into a given space, gives more weight to that space.
• Value – A darker object will have more weight than a lighter object.
• Whitespace – Positive space weighs more than negative space or whitespace.

Keep in mind that visual weight is a combination of all of the above. Your biggest element on the page may also have the lightest color and value and still recede into the background.
Be careful with overdoing dominance. While you want to create an element that dominates your design to serve as the focal point you still want the rest of your design to be seen. Be careful not to make an element so dominant that everything else in the design gets lost. You want your design to be balanced overall.
You can create dominance in elements that don’t have the most visual weight. Objects placed in the center are often seen as a focal point as long as their is enough emphasis given to them. When many other elements all lead your eye to one particular element, that element can become the dominant focal point.
On the web every element is a box. Like it or not when you develop a page you are creating boxes and while there are ways to make things appear less rectangular visually, it’s common to have most of your elements in one box or another. As a result circles gain increased dominance since they contrast with the straight edges of rectangles.
And again consider the image above. The small circle dominates the surrounding whitespace. It may be too small to dominate on its own, but it dominates its immediate environment." -adapted from http://www.vanseodesign.com/web-design/dominance/

"In the below example, the trees act as the dominant element, the house and hills as the secondary element, and the mountains as the tertiary element.

" -adapted from http://www.digital-web.com/articles/principles_of_design/

"SYMMETRY
Symmetry means a mirror image -- one side is the mirror image of the other. Symmetry can occur in any orientation as long as the image is the same on either side of the central axis.

This type of image has great appeal -- it makes for "good" shape relationship. Many people automatically gravitate to symmetry. We are symmetrical after all -- two eyes, two ears, etc.. Look around at consumer products and graphics (printed materials) to see how many use symmetry. You will find that it is the dominant organizational concept." -adapted from http://daphne.palomar.edu/design/bsymm.html