What is design?

A definition?  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.

 Its driving whole business cultures and making sure environments from hospitals to airports are easier to navigate.

“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 From a concept or idea (left) to real thing (above)…

While design is a part of virtually all aspects of our daily life, good (or conscious) design isn’t. While design is a part of virtually all aspects of our daily life, good (or conscious) design isn’t. Just look around. You are 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, in everything. But GOOD design is not.

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

Elements & Principles of Design good design is all about this…

The Elements of Design: These 6 ingredients are used to create a design: 1.shape2.space3.line4.texture5.value6.colour

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)

colour (think yummm…..delicious)

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, colour, 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 … How are the elements put together?

What you need to do: You can do this either in the real, physical world or doing this in the cyber world. On the equivalent of a few white pieces of paper, make two sets of 14 decent size squares (minimum size 3x3inches. On the equivalent of a few white pieces of paper, make two sets of 14 decent size squares (minimum size 3x3inches. In the first set of boxes. Find a visual example of each of the (14) elements & principles of design. Title each one. In the second set, find and use other materials like construction paper, newspaper, fabric etc to create a smart, cool example of each of the (14) elements and principles of design. As you finish each one, I may show it to others as an example. DO A GOOD, BEAUTIFUL, SMART JOB (I said).

shape - form space – distance in and between line – thin, long mark made by something texture – look/feel value – degree of lightness, darkness, intensity colour proportion balance (symmetry) rhythm / pattern emphasis (focal point) variety contrast unity movement