• Home
  • Edith Chan Design
  • Contact Me
  • Hire Me
  • Posts RSS
  • Comments RSS
Blue Orange Green Pink Purple

About Me

My name is Edith Chan. I am a designer and illustrator based in Seattle, USA. I love dreaming, writing and drawing. Pencils and paint brushes are my magical wands giving my imaginations form. I was born and brought up in Macao, the first and the last European colony in China. Living in Macau gave me the opportunity to explore western and eastern arts. I have spent most of my life in this little city, until 2007 I moved to the United States and started this blog to document my adventure in America. You don’t have to be a Blogger or Google member to leave comments. Please take a moment to let me know you were here. Thank you and have a beautiful day!

Fundamental Visual Elements – Form and Space

A graphic designer is analogized to a good cook. Because graphic design is a process of transferring intangible concepts into visual communication by using various design elements, such as lines, shapes, textures, words, colors, etc. Those elements just like ingredients of a delicious meal. And a good graphic designer should know how to manipulate various design elements to make a powerful visual communication, just like a good cook knows how each ingredient tastes and how various ingredients work well together.

Hence, my first graphic design class was to learn various visual elements. Below is my first assignment, Black Square Problem, which was about utilizing form and space for visual communication. It required to use black squares of the same dimension, then create a graphic image that best expresses the meaning of each of the following words: order, increase, bold, congested, tension, and playful.

BlackSquareProblem0422_thumb%5B5%5D.XowDoV21Bwgw.jpg

The following is the thought process behind each of the graphic image I created:

1. Order - After some preliminary sketches, I came up with the final piece, which shows a crossroad looked at from above. The black squares can be seen as cars, interaction of four roads, or a zebra crossing. It’s a matter of open interpretation. The order of the black squares (cars) ensures smooth and safe flow at the crossroad.

2. Increase – I have used the principles of overlapping, direction, illusory space and contrast in size to create a 3 dimensional visual effect. When you start seeing the image from the bottom right corner, it’s an increase in height like a skyscraper seen from below. When you go from the left top corner to the bottom right corner, then it’s an increase in size and show motion.

3. Bold – The black square stands out from the white square because of the high contrast of the white and black colors.

4. Congested – I was inspired by the game Tetris when I designed this imagine. The tube is made by the gap of two big black squares, which were cropped to fit into the frame. Congested is shown in a way that the small squares failed to fit in properly.

5. Tension – The image shows that a little square leans against the corner of the frame, bearing a giant black square oppressively. It depicts the tension we get when we are overloaded with excessive burden.

6. Playful – Seven black squares (negative space) are spread into a flowery shape. To enhance its playfulness, part of the form jumps outside of the frame, and the overlapping of the 2 black squares on top switches to white (positive space) with a transparent effect (you can see through the frame underneath the squares). The tangent of the negative-positive space is an eye-catching point, which will draw your eyes to them immediately, then the white line will send your eyes through the detail of the flower, and eventually back to the tangent.

Read More 2 comments | Posted by Edith Chan edit post
Newer Posts Older Posts Home

Edith Chan

  • Hire Me

      Currently I am available for freelance work. I am located in Seattle,WA but not necessarily limited to the area, I work with clients from all over the world.

      Should you need identity, animation, graphic and web design work, please feel free to contact me. You may find more about my portfolio on www.EdithChanDesign.com

  • Add Me Elsewhere

    • Add Me On Twitter
    • Add Me On LinkedIn
    • Add Me On Facebook

    Labels

    • Doggy Doggie (4)
    • English as a Second Language (2)
    • Fuel Your Creativity (4)
    • Goodies (1)
    • Inspirational Articles (3)
    • It's All About Food (4)
    • Let A Good Song Into Your Heart (6)
    • Live Out Loud (9)
    • Love (2)
    • Movies (1)
    • Random Thoughts (1)
    • Small Gift Big Smile (2)
    • The Business of Design (1)
    • Thoughts (19)
    • Travel Around The World (5)

    Blog Archive

    • ►  2010 (10)
      • ►  August (3)
      • ►  June (2)
      • ►  May (1)
      • ►  April (1)
      • ►  March (2)
      • ►  January (1)
    • ▼  2009 (17)
      • ►  December (2)
      • ►  October (1)
      • ►  September (3)
      • ►  August (3)
      • ►  July (2)
      • ►  May (3)
      • ▼  April (1)
        • Fundamental Visual Elements – Form and Space
      • ►  March (1)
      • ►  February (1)
    • ►  2008 (17)
      • ►  November (2)
      • ►  October (3)
      • ►  September (1)
      • ►  July (2)
      • ►  May (2)
      • ►  March (1)
      • ►  February (2)
      • ►  January (4)
    • ►  2007 (19)
      • ►  December (3)
      • ►  November (6)
      • ►  October (7)
      • ►  January (3)

    Followers

  • Search






    • Home
    • Posts RSS
    • Comments RSS
    • Edit

    © Copyright Edith Chan's Journal. All rights reserved.
    Designed by FTL Wordpress Themes | Bloggerized by FalconHive.com
    brought to you by Smashing Magazine

    Back to Top