FINAL PROJECT: VISUAL ANALYSIS
Design Principle
Week 10 - Week 14: 4/ 11/ 22 - 3 / 12/ 22
Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media
Joan Chiam Zi Woei 0350211
On this project, we are required to utilize design principles found in the design work. We are to assess, investigate, document and analyze a design in this project.
Process of Project 3: Visual Analysis
Brief Recap
In this project, we need to use the design principles that we've learnt and apply the knowledge to analyze a design.
Visual Analysis
The design that I have chosen to analyze is a project work from The Ethnic Mosaics of Beauty by Natalia Ivanova.
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| Fig 1.0 Work By Natalia Ivonova |
https://www.lensculture.com/projects/164128-the-ethnic-mosaics-of-beauty#slide-1
Explanation
The reason why I chose to analyze this design is that Natalia Ivonova's work inspired me. I wanted to study the theme related to race inequalities because I've been getting to know a lot of new people from different countries and races ever since I entered university, I've heard about their stories and experience which are different yet similar to mine. It was upsetting to see how people are treated differently and discriminated against just because of their heritage therefore this is one of the main reasons why I chose this design.
Observation
The design features digitally manipulated photos of pieces of jigsaw pieces on a woman's face. On each of the jigsaw pieces, women of different skin colours are perfectly aligned with the original photo. There is no background for this design because it only focuses on the face which is the most important part of the design. The skin colours shown on the design ranged from dark to white and the hair colours with different hair types showed inclusive diversity. The artist's name and occupation can be seen at the right bottom corner of the design.
Analysis
From what I can see from the design, the main design principles used are contrast and harmony. The contrast used is people with different skin and hair colours in different jigsaw puzzle pieces. Despite the skin and hair colour difference, it gave an illusion of being one whole face which creates harmony. But even though the image looked united, the puzzle lines divide each facial feature which makes the contrast more obvious. Each puzzle shows a different facial feature and different skin colours but the artist somehow managed to make it all look perfectly united and give a satisfying effect which helps to attract the viewer's attention when they look at the design. The angling of the puzzle pieces also creates asymmetrical balance, the puzzle pieces went from the left corner of the design down to slightly off from the right corner which showed movement for the design. There is another extra piece connected to the diagonally aligned jigsaw pieces which is the eyepiece to show emphasis. In the design, the face with jigsaw pieces is the main focus therefore it is a close-up shot. The close-up photo does not show much background which made it look like there is no space in the background and shows tight breathing space for the background photo.
Interpretation
Natalia Ivanova is an artist that creates an art-collages collection made of photo elements. The artwork is designed to draw attention to the importance of preserving the ethnic diversity of humanity, to the beauty of this diversity, and to the equivalence of each ethnic element in the mosaic of the overall beauty of humankind. The Ethnic Origins of Beauty is a non-profit, artistic, documentary and research project about the ethnic diversity of mankind, presented through the beauty of women of all ethnic groups of the world. The artist started this project to show the real scale of ethnocultural diversity in a full, systematic and creative way and also to illustrate each and every distinctive ethnicity, however small it is, and whatever its official status.
Visual References
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| Fig 2.1 Art by Louise Fulling |
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| Fig 2.2 Lukas Frischknecht on Behance |
Idea exploration and description
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| Fig 3.1 Sketch Idea #1 |
I took inspiration from the yin and yang reference photo I uploaded on visual references above and thought about using the same black and white method to create contrast. In my sketch, I wanted to show that even with differences it is not a reason to stop them from being close and opening up their arms to each other.
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| Fig 3.2 Sketch #2 |
I wanted to create a similar design to the design that I used for visual analysis but instead, each of the jigsaw pieces that are on top of the human figure shows a different skin colour and different variety of hair type/colour.
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| Fig 3.3 Sketch #3 |
For my third design, I wanted to show how preventing racial inequality the world can be more peaceful and a better place for everyone. My idea is to have hands surrounding the globe. The hands consist of different skin colour which represent different races of people protecting the world together.
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| Fig 4.1 Progress for sketch #2 |
I worked on the second design for a bit just to show how my idea work. While adding in more detail I realized that the jigsaw puzzle pieces are too much which was a mistake since there was not enough racial diversity I could fill in for the jigsaw puzzle. So I decreased the number of jigsaw puzzle so that I can fill in the jigsaw pieces without putting in too much things which will make my design look complicated.
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| Fig 4.2 Progress for sketch #3 |
I also worked on the 3rd design because I somewhat like it a lot that's why I filled in the colour and did some adjustment for the hand placement. And this is what I ended up with.
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| Fig 4.3 Progress on Design #2 |
I ended up choosing the second design as I thought it would be more interesting and meaningful in terms of showing diversity in races.
Final Design
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| Fig 5 Final completed design for the final project |
In the final design, I added in the eyes and nose to complete the whole thing as well as did some minor changes towards the skin tone shown on the design to show more diversity. In this design, I also applied the rule of third so that everything looks balance and neat.
Lecturer's feedback
Week 11:
Some statements in phase 1 observation is supposed to be in analysis while some are supposed to be in interpretation. Observation should describe based on what is shown on the poster only instead of trying to look into too much as that should be applied on phase 2 analysis instead and should not include design principles as design principles are supposed to be put in phase 2 analysis. Minor changes need to be adjusted in some of the wording in the phase 2 analysis.
Week 12:
The idea exploration looks good but for the first sketch it seems that there's not much to do with the race inequality theme that I am going for. For the second sketch, it looks interesting but the jigsaw puzzle seems to be too much, it will be easier to decrease the quantity of it.
Week 13:
The idea for design #2 is coming together and it look much more better after decreasing the number of jigsaw puzzles since it might make it look extreme. For the third sketch, it looks good but a bit too generic therefore it would be better to just go for design #2.
Week 14:
Everything looks good but it would be nice to add in facial features such as eyes.
Weekly Reflection
Week 11:
In this week we are required to complete phase 1 and 2 of the visual analysis for the final project. I chose a design work from a project "The Ethnic Mosaics of Beauty" by Natalia Ivanova. I wanted to analyze the design is because it is related to race inequalities since I felt like it was sad to see how people are treated differently and discriminated against just because of their heritage therefore I thought it would be a good opportunity to learn more about race inequalities.
Week 12:
This week I finished up my phase 3 interpretation of the design work as well as started some sketches for my design work based on the visual analysis done. I did some research and came out with two sketches. The first sketch was to portray a message that means peace among different races but it was not obvious so on my second sketch, I used the inspiration taken from the design I used for visual analysis and combine it with my own ideas.
Week 13:
I did another one sketch as well as do some progress for my second sketch this week according to the feedback received on the previous week and decide on which sketch to go with as my final design after getting feedbacks from the lecturer. I decided to go with the second design since it is the most interesting design out of all three that I've came out with.
Week 14:
This week is the week of submission, thus I started to finalize my design. I showed my work to the lecturer as well as my classmates so that I can get further feedbacks therefore I can improve and change any minor details that I've overlooked. I was able to receive positive feedbacks on my design therefore I was less anxious about my final design that I came out with.
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