Elements and Principles of Design

ART 210 3D Design
Suffolk County Community College

Professor: Matthew Gehring 
gehrinm@sunysuffolk.edu
Office: Rm. 108 Southampton Bldg.

Office Hours:
M/W 9:30AM-12:30PM
T/R 9:30AM-11AM and 1:05-2:35PM
Please contact Art Department Secretary, Maria Cherubino for an appointment: 631-451-4093 or cherubm@sunysuffolk.edu

Objectives: 

This course aims to give you a diverse vocabulary in 3D studio and design practices.  This assignment is designed to help develop the foundation of that vocabulary by isolating each element, principle, and component.  This is the alphabet upon which we build our language.  

Additionally, collage (as a two dimensional, "constructed" image) can be considered the discovery that gave rise to modern sculpture.  Picasso's collages gave rise to his paper constructions.  This is the first ever use of a constructed form (as opposed to carved, cast, or modeled) for sculpture in the history of art.  Construction came to be the dominant method for making sculpture throughout the twentieth century and it still is.  Could we also consider collage as flat sculpture or flat architecture?  Perhaps...  Let this affect how you think about and build this project.

Requirements: 

Collage (as a two dimensional, "constructed" image) can be considered the discovery that gave rise to modern sculpture.  Picasso's collages gave rise to his paper constructions.  This is the first ever use of a constructed form (as opposed to carved, cast, or modeled) for sculpture in the history of art.  Construction came to be the dominant method for making sculpture throughout the twentieth century and it still is.  Could we also consider collage as flat sculpture or flat architecture?  Perhaps...  Let this affect how you think about and build this project.

Requirements: 

1.  Assigned Reading:  Collage by Clement Greenberg.  It will be accompanied will be a take home quiz.  You will find this article complex and full of references to things you are not familiar with.  You should anticipate reading it more than once and looking up all of the references to artists and writers that you do not know, so that you can better understand the assertions that are made.


2.  Review the terms below.  Read the definitions and look them up online if you are unsure of anything.  Then,  review the embedded slideshow.  All of the works included draw their strengths from the design elements and principles listed below.  See how many you can discern as profoundly present in each image.  None exist alone.  Make a list in your sketchbook, citing the most relevant design principles and elements for each image.  Give the artist's name followed by the design principles employed.  For example:


     Frank Lloyd Wright: balance, unity, line, form (mass is not on the list but seems 
     critically important to the design concept)

3.  Then, in your sketchbook, build a full page collage (at least) that clearly illustrates each term as it's emphasis.  That's one page per design term.  Although, they never exist alone, do your best to isolate them.  Clip images from books, magazines, brochures, product packaging, etc.  Find ways to carefully select, cut, and assemble your collage so that the structure of the collage itself works to the service of each specific design element and principle.  Do not download and print images for this.  This project is intended to get you to gather things from the physical world (plus, inkjet and laser prints do not hold up well to being saturated with glue).  Each page must also contain the handwritten term and its definition as an isolated caption.  They should be "all together" in one section of your sketchbook, not scattered through other assignments or drawings.  Grades will be assessed on the clarity of your visual translation of the terms, effort, creativity, originality, and inventiveness; the more of it you demonstrate, the higher your grade will be.

Due date will be addressed in class.

Elements and Principles of Design

Line:  The path of a point in two or three dimensional space

Shape:  The perceivable (usually visual) area of a form.  Can be simple or complex, geometric or organic, human-made or naturally occurring.

Value:  Relative* lightness or darkness

Color:  The spectrum of light available to the naked human eye, as identified with names such as red, blue, yellow, etc...

Space:  Area as measured in height, width, and depth, can be positive or negative (void)

Texture:  Actual or simulated tactile quality

Scale:  Overall size of an object

Proportion:  Relative size within a work

Unity:  Sense of "wholeness" achieved through repetition, rhythm, pattern

Balance: Distribution of visual weight to achieve harmony.  Can be symmetrical or asymmetrical

Direction:  Gestures, lines, forms, etc. that create visual movement, i.e., that move the eye

Emphasis:  Dominant portion of a work or form 

Rhythm: Visual repeated intervals (pattern)

Form:  The shape and structure of an object in three dimensions