Ooh, weird week, complete with its own group of setbacks:
- Each layout has been taking longer than expected (1-2 hours each).
- I am still low-energy from my sickness a week and a half ago.
- I've been really busy with other work & have found it hard to keep up with this project.
Anyway, Week 2 has shown some good progress, with three layouts completed.
Click these links to view them:
As you can see, I'm taking these exercises in an experimental way, with tests and recorded results. These will be very helpful when making my final layout.
It feels quite good to have those three done, and you can expect four more in the next post.
Let's break down the time that I spend working on each of these:
As I said, I spend anywhere from 1 to 2 hours on each layout. Respectively, 40 to 80 minutes of that time is spent either reading my book on design, Making a Good Layout by Lori Siebert and Lisa Ballard, or working off of it. For example, if a layout only takes me an hour, I'll spend about ten minutes gleaming information off of it and then another thirty conducting experiments in my layout based on what the book suggests. The rest of the time is generally spent conducting my own experiments and messing around with visuals.
Right now, Making a Good Layout is the only source of information that I have for this project. It provides all of the information that I need for the Elements and Principles of Design, but once I get to the point of designing my final layout, I may consult other texts on how to put it all together.
I think I've learned a good deal about the Elements that I've designed for so far, especially for Shape. I've noticed, though, that the layout for Shape took the longest to make, so if I really want to learn about each of these Elements and Principles, I'll have to modify my schedule a bit. For as long as I have to make four layouts every cycle, I'll make three from days 1-4 and the last one on day 5. Then, I'll write and finish my blog on day 6.
Alright, I think that's all for now. Until next week!
Resources used:
Siebert, Lori, and Lisa Ballard. "The Elements of Design: Line, Shape, Texture." Making a
Good Layout. Cincinnati, OH: North Light, 1992. N. pag. 12-17 Print.
Hey Ethan, it's Noah again, I'm glad to see that you are feeling better (perhaps it was your will to design that cured you, that or your immune system). Anyway, I think that it is fortunate that you have chosen such a helpful reference, as it is quite important, especially for a project as technically dependent as yours, and it will help you and your project be great. However, i noticed that you said that you are having problems with the amount of time each concept practice is taking. I think i might be able to help, as I too have face the demons you must now battle. For your project specifically, because you are honing your skills in preparation for a final task, should focus on just that. Do not be so concerned with how the final practice design turns out, worry about mastering the concept, because a fantastic practice design (which all of them were by the way) won’t be much help if you either forget how to create it, or decide that it is not necessary to your project (for whatever reason). What I am basically saying is, don’t focus so much on the final product of your practice, concentrate on what skills you can gain or improve by creating it. I hope this was helpful to you Ethan, as your comments were to me (thank you for your suggestions of lines for my ode by the way; I was really stuck on that).
ReplyDeleteThing is, while the layouts are taking longer than I want, I don't think that that's because I'm spending too much time on making them look nice, it's mainly because I want to spend so much time learning about each aspect of design. In some cases, I feel like 2 hours is the appropriate amount of time to learn from a design, but it still is taking too long for my schedule. Anyway, thanks for the comment!
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