OUGD404 - Design Principles

Today's lecture gave us a small preview of what will be included in OUGD404. Some of the key meanings which i have noted down to look at when creating my Yorkshire Sculpture Park logo are included below.

Gestalt Psycology - Meaning shape or form and defining an area of psychology that aims to understand our ability to perceive and organize the world

Continuation - Our instinct is to follow what we perceive to be a line or a path.

Law of Pragnanz - People will perceive and interpret ambiguous or complex images as the simplest forms possible.

Closure - Closure ca be thought of as the glue holding elements together. Its about the human tendency to seek and find patterns to understand. The key to closure is to provide enough information for the mind to fill in the rest.

Symmetry and Order - it gives us the feeling of solidity and order which we seek. It is the nature to impose order on chaos.

I have taken the most inspiration out of the idea of closure. We prefer things which are simple so our mind will automatically transfer it to its simplest form, this is why we have a tendency to see faces in things such as toast or plug sockets. I really love this idea of including just enough in a logo for the viewer to work out the hidden meaning behind it. A prime example of this is the FedEx logo.

 The logo uses the negative space between the E and the X to create an arrow which symbolizes fast delivery. When i see a double meaning inside an image or logo, it really makes me quite excited as its almost the same feeling as when you do a crossword or solve a puzzle. It is also more likely for the viewer to spread the word to other people by asking 'have you seen this hidden meaning too?' ,this is clever as a graphic designer as it creates free publicity. When creating my Yorkshire Sculpture Park logo i definitely intend to look at using negative space and giving my logo more depth by creating multiple meanings.

The lecture also explained about dieter rams and the relationship between apple products. Many people think that apple have just ripped off many of dieter rams products however, i have taken some different advice from this and looked at it from a different perspective. I have taken the lesson that you should always think outside the box and look at all forms of the world as inspiration in any creative field that you do. If you are a graphic designer, don't just look at other graphic designers work for inspiration, look at a building or a leaf as you never know what idea it might spark up.