Introduction to Graphic Design Vol. 1

Introduction to

GRAPHIC DESIGN Vo l u m e 1

Ba ox u L i a n g

ARTD 151 Fall 2023 | Professor Briggs

Introduction to Graphic Design Volume 1

Introduction to Graphic Design Volume 1 Baoxu Liang

ARTD 151 Fall 2023 | Professor Briggs

COLOR

Contrast of Hue, after itten One of my first assignments is creating a RYB color wheel which shows the 12 hues. The outer ring consists of the 12 pure hues which are mixes of red, blue, and yellow: red-orange, orange, orange-yellow, yellow, yellow-green, green, green-blue, blue, blue-violet, and violet. Inside of the ring’s center is a triangle divided into the 3 primary colors: red, blue, and yellow. This groups the primary colors together to show their importance and also show their place in the ring. Additionally, there are 3 other triangles surrounding the triangle with the primary colors. These 3 triangles showcase each mix of two primary colors, the secondary colors. This groups the secondary colors together while also showing where they are in the ring. This color wheel not only shows the hues, but it also shows the primary and secondary colors.

Some of my main insights from this assignment were that guidelines were extremely useful for creating accurate sections. Additionally, ticking the box in Photoshop to consider all layers when using the fill tool was extremely useful for getting the unique shape of the ring and the triangles. The circle tool was vital for the creation of this piece as well as having good layer management. I do think that I have underutilized the pen tool in this assignment since the pen tool can create unconventional vector shapes as well as the typical shapes like a triangle.

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Contrast of Value, after itten Then, I was tasked with creating an image demonstrating the contrasts of values I had in my color wheel. The topmost row has all 12 hues from the color wheel organized from red to red-violet. Then the row below shows the values of the hue above it. In the 3rd row, these are the colors from the 1st row organized by their light values to darkest values. In the 4th row, it has rectangles of values going from near white to near black. In the 5th row, these are colors from row 3 that are adjusted to match the values in row 4. Altogether, this gives a visualization of the values of the hues from the color wheel, and it also shows how hues look at different values.

There were a couple of main takeaways I had from creating this figure. One was that I learned that 300 pixels in Photoshop is equivalent to an inch due to the assignment requiring the rectangles to be a certain size. During the assignment, I figured that creating an individual layer for each rectangle was tedious, so I used guidelines and the fill bucket. I wished I kept with the rectangle tool because they can snap at one another and there aren’t weird gaps to fix. The adjustment layers were vital for creating the 2nd row and for double checking if the 5th row matched the 4th row’s values. I also say that the eyedropper sampling was vital for finding out the values of the hues and keeping track of them.

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Contrast of Saturation, after itten The class and I had to create an image that demonstrated how the saturation of one or more primary colors look after being tinted, shaded, gradually grayed, and gradually mixed with their complementary color. In the upper left section, it shows how blue looks after being tinted gradually in steps. Blue would come to look less saturated and less cool when tinted. In the upper right section, it displays how blue looks being tinted and shaded in steps. It shows that blue gets desaturated less quickly compared to when it is being tinted. It also looks more somber and harsher. In the lower left section, I used red instead of blue to switch it up a little. The red line diagonally in the center is being mixed into the gray. It looks like by “graying” a color, it tends to keep its hue feel compared to the shaded or tinted blues, but it is less intense as it mixes more with the gray. In the lower right section, I switched it up again with the yellow gradually mixed with purple. This section shows the brownish yellow mixes that arise when yellow is mixed with purple. In conclusion, it is a practice in seeing how changing a hue’s purity in different ways changes their expression differently.

One main thing I got out of it was that I got used to changing the opacity to create real blends of colors instead of eyeballing it. I also got into using the guideline layout tool to create consistent margins and guidelines.

COLOR

Contrast of Temperature, after itten I was assigned to create a figure that demonstrated the contrasts of temperatures.

Firstly, I had to choose the hues with the most difference in temperatures from my color wheel. In my color wheel, I found that my red-orange and blue had the greatest difference in temperature. Then I was supposed to eliminate the value differences to isolate any other factors which affect this contrast, which lead me to changing the blue quite a lot from the original hue. In the top two rows on the upper left side, it shows the big contrast between the warm red-orange and the cool blue with their small strips against a bigger rectangle. The rows below them shows the cool blue and warm red gradually becoming the warm, yet cool violet.

These rows really show how their temperatures change when being mixed. The upper left section shows the different contrasts between the warm and cool colors from the rows. The lower, left section shows the range of mixes from warm red and orange. The lower right section demonstrates the subtle mixing of the cool green into blue green. All these exercises serve to get a better feel of temperatures in colors and how they change from mixing.

This figure had me combining many of my previously learned strategies and using all of them. The guideline layout tool, the opacity tool, the adjustment layers, and fill tool strategies.

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Contrast of Complements, after itten In this assignment, I had to create a figure demonstrating the different mixes from complementary colors. In the upper left and upper right’s top 3 rows, it shows yellow, orange-yellow, orange, red-orange, red, and violet each blending into their respective complementary color. Then their 50∕50 blends are taken and put onto the 4th row of their respective section. It shows how complementary color blends will end up brown and grayish. In the lower left section, it demonstrates the different complimentary mixes of red and green. In the lower right section, it shows the range of colors from orange to red-orange with blue to blue-green layered over it.

Like the previous assignment, this assignment also felt like a combination of previous techniques. The opacity method of truly mixing colors was the in the spotlight throughout this practice. It was used throughout all sections. This is also when I used actual shapes instead of just using the fill tool. I was slow at first, but I got used to quickly creating squares. Layer management was vital when switching to this method. It also took me some time to figure out how to do the bottom right section. What worked was that I started from step one of blending orange into yellow-orange. Then I would tackle how I would get the other blends over it.

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Contrast of Simultaneity, after itten In this figure, it was an exercise in training the mind to understand simultaneous contrast, the relativity of colors due to presence of other colors. Which emerges from how our eyes want the complements of other colors when they see a color.

The small squares consisting of different hues have their own gray square equal to their value inside. When staring at one of the squares, its complementary color will appear in the gray squares. In the long orange rectangle, it also has 3 gray squares with its value. The gray square to the left has been overlayed with a little blue-green and the gray square to the right was overlayed with a little orange. This would change the intensity of colors that are generated from simultaneous contrast in those gray squares.

The black and white adjustment layer played its key role in this when I needed to make gray squares of the same values of the hues. With prior experience in Photoshop, it was a lot simpler to make this time.

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Contrast of Simultaneity (Black & White), after itten This is the black and white version of the “Contrast of Simultaneity” figure. This figure was created by putting a black and white adjustment layer while only leaving the blue-green and orange overlaying squares on top. It is here to show that the gray squares are genuinely the same value as the hue surrounding it since the effect of simultaneous contrast may make the gray squares look different. It also reveals the blue-green and orange overlaying squares that affect the effects of simultaneous contrast.

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Contrast of Proportion, after albers Proportion is the relative sizes and placement of colors which affects our perception of colors. I was tasked with recreating one of Alber’s pieces where he makes two colors look like one color. To the left is the recreation of his piece. In this piece there are two big sections of pink and blue split in half. In the middle are two squares on their respective sections which makes it look the same color. The small bit on the left has a key which shows the viewer that the squares near the middle of the big sections are different colors. The placement of the small squares almost centered to the big sections allows the effect of seeing them as the same color to occur, but the small key allows the viewer to discern that the squares are two different colors.

This piece was simple to make as I have gotten used to using Photoshop at this point. It was a bit hard trying to get the same color as Albers without eye dropping the color, but I did put the image in and adjust a square until it looked like the same color.

COLOR

Contrast of Proportion (No Key & only Squares), after albers The left image shows the effect of two different colored squares looking like the same color. It would be hard to tell that the small squares are two different colors without the key from before.

This rightmost image removes everything but these small squares from the original image. It shows the viewer that the small squares are actually different colors.

Sketch of Alber's Plate iv-1

Recreation of Alber's Plate iv-1

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analysis of Alber’s Plate IV-1 Josef Alber’s plate IV-1 is a demonstration of simultaneous contrast, which is how the perception of colors are influenced by their surrounding colors. The green rectangles inside each of the bigger two rectangles are the same color but appear to be different colors because of its surrounding colors.

Firstly, the upper, big rectangle’s hue is violet and inside it is a green rectangle.

The lower, big rectangle is blue and has a green rectangle inside. The hues used in this piece are blue, green, and violet.

Afterwards, their relative light and dark values will be analyzed. The violet rectangle appears darker than the blue rectangle, and the blue rectangle looks lighter than the green rectangle inside of it. Additionally, the violet rectangle appears darker than the green rectangle inside of it, and the upper, green rectangle appears lighter than the lower, green rectangle. Furthermore, the upper, green rectangle appears darker than the blue rectangle. Similarly, the lower, green rectangle appears darker than the violet rectangle. Generally, the lighter colors in this piece appear to be the upper, green rectangle and blue rectangle, and the darker colors in this piece appear to be the violet rectangle and the lower, green rectangle.

As for their relative saturation, the violet rectangle appears more saturated than

the blue rectangle. The lower, green rectangle looks more saturated than the upper, green rectangle. The upper, green rectangle appears less saturated than the violet and blue rectangle. Similarly, the lower, green rectangle also looks less saturated than the violet and blue rectangle. The blue and violet rectangles are more saturated colors in this piece, and the two green rectangles are the more desaturated colors in this piece.

After that, the relative temperatures of this plate will be analyzed. The violet rectangle appears warmer than the blue rectangle, and the upper, green rectangle looks cooler than the lower, green rectangle. Furthermore, the lower, green rectangle is perceived as warmer than the blue rectangle, and the upper, green rectangle looks cooler than the violet rectangle. Additionally, the upper, green rectangle appears warmer than the blue rectangle and the lower, green rectangle appears colder than the violet rectangle. In general, the violet rectangle is the warmest in this piece and the blue rectangle is the coolest. The two green rectangles are somewhere in between and look more lukewarm.

Afterwards, complements or the lack thereof in this plate will be discussed. In this plate, there are no complementary colors since green, blue, and violet are not complementary colors to each other. While there are no complements, green, blue, and violet are colors that are next to each other on the color wheel. While there are no complementary colors on this plate, there are analogous colors.

Though there are no triadic colors on this plate.

After that, simultaneity will be analyzed in this piece. The main example of simultaneity would be how the violet and blue rectangles surrounding green rect-

angles of the same color change the human eye’s perception of them. Since the purple rectangle is a darker value than the upper, green rectangle it makes the upper, green rectangle appear lighter. Likewise, the lower, green rectangle below is surrounded by the blue rectangle which has a light value. That makes the lower, green rectangle appear darker due to this contrast. The upper, green rectangle green hue being lightened by this effect makes it appear less saturated. Similarly, the lower, green rectangle’s green hue being darkened makes it look more saturated. Not only that, but the warm violet rectangle surrounding its green rectangle emphasizes the green rectangle’s coolness. Likewise, the cool blue rectangle surrounding its green rectangles makes the green rectangle a little bit warmer. As a result, the upper, green rectangle looks cooler than the lower, green rectangle.

Following simultaneity, extent will pick apart and examined. There are two big rectangles with smaller rectangles inside. The smaller rectangles are centered inside their respective bigger rectangles and on the top of the bigger rectangles. The larger rectangles of this piece end up affecting the perception of their respective smaller rectangle’s value, saturation, and temperature. These big rectangles are of the same size, but never touch each other. This keeps the effect focused on how two different colors affect the same color. They are aligned to the center with one placed on the top section of the paper and another on the bottom section of the paper. This makes it so that the viewer’s eyes will give equal priority to how different colors affect the same color. The smaller rectangles are the same size, but it might appear as the lower rectangle is smaller than the upper rectangle because of simultaneous contrast making the upper, green rectangle appear to have a glow. In short, this layout allows the viewer to easily see how surrounding colors affect the same green rectangles without other factors in play.

In conclusion, Alber’s exercise was intended as a demonstration of simultaneous contrast. The effect which is that the same color can look different depending on the color it is surrounded by. In this plate, Alber used two green rectangles of the same color each surrounded by the darker, warmer violet rectangle or the lighter, cooler blue rectangle. As a result, the green rectangles end up looking significantly different from each other because of their surrounding colors. The green rectangle surrounded by the violet appeared lighter, less saturated, cooler, and emitted a glow. Likewise, the blue rectangle surrounded by the blue appeared darker, slightly more saturated, and slightly warmer. These colors are analogous colors, but they don’t seem to make a great impact on the effects on the perception of colors. It is more of having a dark, warm color or a light, cool color that surrounds each of a desaturated color that creates the effect. Additionally, this layout of the bigger rectangles surrounding the smaller rectangles allows enough surrounding color for the eyes to more easily perceive the two colors as different colors.

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Revinvention of Alber’s Plate IV-1 As the last assignment of the color chapter, I had to revinvent Alber's plate with my own colors. In my reinvention, there are two dark blue rectangles that are affected by their surrounding colors. One is surrounded by a dark red-violet rectangle and the lower one is surrounded by a light green rectangle. This reinvention acheives the same effect that Alber's original plate. The blue rectangles inside look different because of their surrounding colors.