Design Principles: Final Project- Visual Analysis
DESIGN PRINCIPLES GCD60804
4.2.2023-24.2.2023(Week4-Week7)
Janice Marie Eng Chia Hui (0361521)
Design Principles/ Bachelor of Design in Creative Media
Final Project- Visual Analysis
Final Project- Visual Analysis
Brief Recap
For our visual analysis, we were asked to pick a goal from the United
Nations' Sustainable Development Goals(UNSD). After picking a goal, we were to pick a design or artwork that
revolves around that goal. We were to explain why we picked that goal and
to carry out a visual analysis on the design or artwork we picked based on
our understanding of design principles. After the visual analysis, we were
to create a work of design inspired/influenced by the one we studied on.
we were also asked to apply our design principle knowledge to
it.
Jump links :D
1. Reason for choosing the design
The UNSD that I choose is
Climate Action. I was looking for inspiration when I stumbled across
Mr.Beast Youtube video
where he planted 200,000,000 trees. That got me thinking about
reforestation. So I did some research on it, not heavy research, but just
reading website articles about it. I visited the website of the
organization that was linked in Mr.Beast video,
Arbor Day Foundation, to read up more on reforestation. After reading up more on
reforestation, I decided to pick it as my main idea. I then managed to find this
poster about stopping deforestation through a petition to pass a law
that protects the forest.
Figure 1.1.1
Poster against Deforestation
by Juliette Schminke
The UNSD goal Climate action means to take urgent action to combat
climate change and it's impacts(taken from
UNSD
website). Deforestation is an important topic that is discussed amongst
activist who fights against climate change and one way to deal with
the damage of deforestation is reforestation.
2. Visual Analysis
Figure 2.1.1
Observations
The design work is in a portrait format. As for the visual elements in
this design, the main colours are black, shades of orange and white.
Overall, the colour palette is very limited. The tree stumps are
coloured black and white and are shaped very organically. The tree trunks
are lined in orange and the lines drawn are not completely straight,
with some having circles in them. There are words on the top left and
bottom left of the poster. The words cover the images behind it. Scattered
throughout the designs are short, black lines with varying thickness.
The design is placed against a white background.
Analysis
The design is asymmetrically balanced. The orange colour of the
writings and tree trunks as well as the black colour of the tree stump
contrast with the white
background. There is
emphasis placed on the bottom
half of the poster due to the font size of the words at the bottom left
being larger than the top left. The imbalance of the poster design also
contributes to emphasis on the
bottom half of the poster. The use of only orange line art takes advantage
of negative space to portray an image of a tree. There is also usage of
gestalt theory, mainly the principle of similarity that is used to group and
differentiate the black tree stumps and the orange tree trunks.
Unity is portrayed in the
drawing mainly due to the limited colour palette and the
repetition of
similar elements(trees). There is
visual hierarchy in the
poster, the viewers eyes would first falls onto the bottom half of the
poster due to the emphasis at that point then travel upwards to where the
smaller words are.
Interpretation
The artist of this poster is
Juliette Schminke, a designer from Berlin, Germany. She design this poster for the #Together4Forest
campaign in support of the petition they had created for the formation of
a strong EU law against deforestation and nature destruction. This poster
was published in 2020. Since then the movement managed to get the EU to
pass a
law against unsustainable agricultural and nature
destruction(successful climate action yay). This is why the main idea of the
poster revolves around
the cutting down of trees, to bring awareness to the petition she was supporting. In the poster
she portrayed the absence of the tree trunk only lining it in orange,
making it look like a ghost. Meanwhile the tree stumps were coloured
black, making it seem solid. The words on the bottom left says 'Die
Gegenwart unseres Lebens sieht unter Bäumen anders aus' which is a quote
from the book 'Pilgrim at Tinker Creek' by Annie Dillard. The quote means 'The present of our life may look different under trees'. This line from the book was used by the author to muse about the
difference between humans and trees. However, in the context of the
poster, the quote can bring a different meaning. In my opinion, the
designer was trying to convey the message that our presences on this Earth
has brought harm to the trees. Overall, the poster main goal is to
raise awareness about the movement and their petition.
3. Design Process
Visual references
Idea Exploration
When I first saw the poster design, I thought the tree trunks
looked like ghost. I wanted to incorporate that element into
my design, so I tried to draw ghost trees.
I got some feedback from my friends and they said that they
could not tell that the trees were ghost. So I did some more
investigating on how to make the trees more ghost-like.
I also did not like how the tree stumps were similar to the
original poster design(Juliette Schminke poster), so I tried
to change it.
The second draft contains homeless bunnies. However, after
thinking it through, I decided to stick with the tree stumps
because it relates more to reforestation. After this I tried
different colour combinations.
After getting feedback from Sir on week 7, I tried to adjust the
design.
4.Final Outcome
I tried to come up with a different design, but no matter how
hard I tried my brain wasn't working ;-;. So I went back to my
third draft and changed the ghost tress a bit.
I used a pink colour for the sapling and grass blades so that
it would
contrast against
the dark blue background. Other than that, I tried to use the
principle of similarity with the ghost trees. The ghost trees would then be
associated with death while the sapling would be associated
with the living. The sapling is placed in the middle of the
canvas to make it the focal point and place
emphasis on it.
The tree stumps are also arranged in a triangle around the
sapling and ghosts to frame the main focus.
The ghost trees are crying over the sapling, somewhat watering
it. Reforestation is most often done to combat deforestation.
New trees are being planted due to trees being cut down. I
used ghost trees to show how sad and lonely it is for the
sapling to be brought into the world where all the grown trees
are gone. I placed only one sapling in the design to further
emphasize the loneliness of the sapling. The child in the text
refers to the sapling.
Feedback from lecturer
Week7 : A lot of elements in the design, try to properly show
the mother and child element.
Reflection
Through the final project, I managed to learn about the United
Nation Sustainable Development Goals. Before this, I did not
know about the goals at all, so it was interesting to learn
about them. Through the final project, I also learnt how to
analyse designs visually, rather then just accepting a design
as it is.
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