OUGD401 CONTEXT OF PRACTICE- Aesthetics

As a group we discussed how we judged aesthetics;

GOOD

Illustrative
Simple
Clevel
Clean
Symetrical
Minimal
Sophisticated
Interesting
Crisp
Textured
Hand rendered
Harmonised
Organic
Linear

BAD

Blurry
Cluttered
Random
Illegible
Boring
Grainy
Colourful
Dull
Cheesy
Inconsistent
Silly
Confusing
Cheap
Weird
Garish

Aesthetics is a gut, immediate response. It's hard to create a set of rules because it's;

Subjective
Appreciate similar work but doesn't mean we'd create it
Everyones idea of simple can be different

Everything influences and impacts our judgement;

Clean, legible type
Minimal, clean, crisp, fresh design
Carefully selected colour scheme
Thought
Consistent design structure

Aesthetic judgement will improve the more we develop

We were asked to create three rules of aesthetics, mine were;

Clean consistent structure
Simple, minimalist use of colour
Clean crisp design used in context

Clean consistent structure-

Even though the images are different for each print, the structure remains similar throughout, keeping that repeated pattern for most prints. By repeating a geometric shape pattern to create the structure it keeps the design clean and consistent.

The consistency lies within the structure of the large content numbers. The use of a single colour and stock, simple san serif numbers makes sure the design remains clean throughout. By laying out the numbers and text into a grid system the designer has ensured the design is well structured and not congested thus improving readability and functionality.

The covers of Neue Grafik are famous for their simple, clean and consistent structure. Each cover followed the same grid system and looked near enough identical apart from the contents of the body copy, the margins within the grid ensures consistent spacing between text.

Simple, minimalist use of colour-

The use of the large turquoise rectangle just breaks up the page to make that bit less boring because without it would solely be the grey text as opposed to the white against the turquoise. I don't know if the colour represents anything or is relative to the book.

This features simple contrasting stroke that breaks up the mass amount of empty space. The neon orange against the off white texture paper works so well together especially with the greyscale image.

The designer uses colour this time round to create an image out of negative space is such a simple idea but looks a lot more detailed as opposed to just drawing out the chair.

Clean crisp design used in context-

The designer has used green triangles to create a visual representation of canada and the forests it is famous for.

The simple use of a white circle upon a black background to visually represent a moon for a movie called moon is definitely a simple concept used in context.

The use of 'C' to illustrate a condom being worn, this is a great simple visual representation that is totally unique and original.

Now that I have explored graphic design and put my aesthetic rules into action I will now apply these rules to other areas of design such as product and architecture.

Architecture- clean consistent structure