TOXEL.COM

So, as I mentioned before, the secondary purpose of this blog is to explore the intersections of art and technology as well as innovations in new media. Well, I'm really excited because I've found a blog that embodies all of these things. TOXEL.com finds the most amazing, cool, creative, innovative things out there from napkin holders to water-propelled flying jet packs and piles them all into one blog. Every time I visit the site, I feel like I'm being sucked into a vortex of the insane and unusual. Talk about intersections, this blog is it!

One really cool thing I was absolutely enthralled by is this thing called light graffiti -

"Light graffiti, also known as light painting is a photographic technique in which exposures are made usually at night or in a darkened room by moving a hand-held light source or by moving the camera."

I found this conceptually intriguing not only because it exploits the scientific process of photography by manipulating the objectivity of the medium from its very source (light), but also because the intangible, fleeting and instantaneous nature of the art directly contrasts with the traditional permanence and physicality of graffiti. On the flipside, capturing the art in a digital medium allows it to transcend the temporal limitations of the physical world, essentially giving it an immortality that traditional graffiti could never achieve. Mindblowing, huh?

Final Project for Visual Design Fundamentals

The Watering Flower

I combined everything I learned about color, line, value, shape and abstraction to create this image in Illustrator. I established space and depth with the range of values in the background, and created a sense of falling with the vertical composition and long vertical lines. I created unity through color and style as well as variety with shape and contrast.

Here are a few more notes:

Characteristics of Value:
- Extreme contrast of values in a design gives a sense of clarity and depth. Similar values may give a sense of subtlety and shallowness.
- When values are very light, the term high key is used. Lighter values suggest a brighter, happier mood. Conversely, values that are dark are called low key. They usually feel somber and serious.
-Value is also used to describe volume two-dimensionally by imitating the way light reveals a form or an object. The lightest values are in the direct line of light, whereas the darker values are in shadow.

Rules:
- when designing with value, must design with shape
- must have visual hierarchy of value for value
- each value must be visually balanced throughout the composition for unity
-* selecting global colors changes all colors of the same value at once

Visual Design Fundamentals (Second Half)

Alright, so I've continued with the book which includes Illustrator and Photoshop tutorials. Each chapter is an assignment, but they said to do a hundred drawings of like, a hole-puncher or something and that would have taken waaay too much time, so I compiled everything I learned about line, shape, negative space as well as repetition, unity and variation in composition into this one design I did in Illustrator (above) I used only black and white, shape and line to give the impression that either black or white could be the background. It's called "Time and Space" because I used the curves to represent the planets, sun and moon as well as squares to represent staircases which are both symbols of time and space. I designed it so that there is no real right side up, but the way I posted it is the way I made it. Please pardon the poor resolution. It would not allow me to post one with better quality but I will add it to my website.
Below are some notes I have taken. I am almost finished with the rest of the book in which I will have to design logos through abstraction, learn color schemes and values, etc. I will complete another design based on the rest of the reading.


Anatomy of a Letterform
- Ascender: The vertical part of a lowercase letterform that rises above the x-height (b, d, f, h, k, l, t).
- Baseline: The imaginary horizontal line on which all the bases of all letterforms seem to rest.
- Bowl: The curved part of the letterform that encloses the counter.
- Cap height: The height of a capital letterform measured from the baseline to the cap line.
- Cap line: The imaginary horizontal line to which all capital letters arise.
- Counter: The enclosed or partially enclosed area of a letterform.
- Cross bar: The horizontal line that connects the two vertical strokes.
- Descender: The vertical part of a lowercase letterform that falls beneath the baseline (p, g, q).
- Leg: A horizontal or diagonal stroke that is attached at one end but free on the other.
- Serif: The small decorative strokes at the ends of the main strokes.
- X-height: The height of a lowercase letter that contains no ascenders or descenders.

Commands:

Illustrator:
- show rulers: Ctrl+R
- rectangle tool: M
- hold shift to constrain to square
- hold alt to draw from the center out
- ellipse tool: L
- same as rectangle tool
- Pathfinder (under windows)
Shape Modes
- Unite: combines the areas of the shapes into one shape.
- Minus Front: subtracts the shape in the front from the shape behind it.
- Intersect: leaves behind only the areas of the shape that share the same space.
- Exclude: is the opposite of the Intersect operation. It deletes the area that shapes share.
Pathfinder Tools
- Divide: separates all overlapped areas into their own shapes. If two shapes are overlapped, the result is three shapes.
- Trim: the shape on top subtracts its area from the image behind while leaving the shape intact. This results in two shapes, the image in front (untouched) and the image behind (with the overlapping area cropped out). Both shapes are complete paths.
Merge: joins the two shapes into one shape with one complete path.
Crop: leaves behind only the overlapped areas of the shapes and results in one complete path.
Outline: when used on two overlapping shapes, the result is three paths. The overlapped areas are rendered as a complete path, with the two outlying paths left open but intact.
Minus Back: Instead of subtracting the shape in front from the one behind does just the opposite. It subtracts the area of the overlapping shape in the back from the one in the front, resulting in a complete path.

- Past in Front/Back: under Edit, use to paste in exact location
- Hand tool: space bar
- select all: Ctrl + A (select>all)
- Swap Fill and Stroke Colors: Shift + X

Clipping Mask
- allows you to use shapes as a mask to reveal only the area of the image that overlaps
- draw shape over image
- select all
- object> clipping mask>make (Ctrl + 7)
- to release: object>clipping masks>release)

Bezier Curves
- curve in line w/ handle
- defined by 3 points:
-anchors: two end points
-handle = tangent point/node
- direct selection tool (A): edits handles
- to edit only one side, press alt first: permanent
- press shift to change by increments

-duplicate: alt+ drag

Grouping: select objects and press Ctrl + G (object> group )
- use selection tool to move/ edit all, direct selection for individual objects
Rotate button: select object, rotate button will show outline orf rotated object

Cap: end of an opened line segment
-butt (squared off)
-round : : (adds round cap one half the weight of the line) stroke options> round cap icon
-projecting: (extends one half the weight of the line) stroke options> projecting cap icon
Join:where a straight line (corner point) changes direction
- miter join: pointed corner (1-500)
*miter limit controls the point at which a pointed (Miter) join converts to a squared-off join (Bevel). The default is set to 4, which means that the corner will not convert from a Miter to a Bevel join until the length of the point is 4 times greater than the stroke weight.
- round join
- bevel join: strokes with squared (beveled corners)

Aligning Strokes: where stroke is placed on path
- to center
- to inside
- to outside

Convert Text to Paths:
- select text box, type> create outlines (Ctrl + Shift + O)
- ungroup letters: select letters, object> ungroup (Ctrl + Shift +G)

* can move the point of origin through transform tool, click and drag