Typography

The most important thing I got from the readings would probably be the three Cs, concordant, conflicting, and contrasting.  A concordant relationship occurs when you use only one type family without lots of variation in weight style and color.  A conflicting relationship happens when combining typefaces that are similar in style size and weight.  A contrasting relationship occurs when different type faces are combined that are distinctly different from each other.  

There are some guidelines that I learned from the reading in regards to type on page or screen:

-readability for the viewer

-know when to use serif fonts and when to use sans serif fonts.

-work with leading, kerning, and tracking to improve readability

-always experiment with font size and weight to achieve hierarchy

What I thought should used for the fountain....design

This tile was placed in the kitchen category but I intended it to be in the fountain category. I think the strong flowing curvilinear lines resemble waves or water which made me think fountain. I purposely made the letter unrecognizable because I think that adds more visual interest to the piece and makes the viewer have to think about it. Like my other design, this tile is clean and simple which I think works well for the fountain's soothing feel.

In my future work I need to concentrate more on the negative space rather than just the figure. I have to realize that the negative space is just as important as the positive. I've improved on this but could still use more work.

Poet's Kitchen Design

I think this tile fits well in the poet's kitchen for a few reasons:

- you can tell what the letters are which I wanted because letters are related to poet

- the 2 letter "x"s form a shape of their own when combined which I think is effective

- the overall design is simple which I think works well for a poet

I think I can improve with my figure ground relationship still. I've been working with it for a long time but I could still use more practice with it.

6 Features That Characterize Figure Ground

1. Amount of black space vs. amount of white space

2. The complexity of the shapes in the figure

3. More negative space than positive space makes it easier to tell what is what

4. Creating visual tension and breaking the edge of the plane

5. The amount of contrast with the color

6. How recognizable the shape is

Figure and Ground

What does figure and ground mean when talking about design.  The figure is the objects or subjects in a design.  The figure is what first catches the eye of the viewer when looking at a design.  The ground is the background or negative space of a design, and is equally important as the figure.  An effective figure and ground relationship is critical for an effective design.

This relationship is very important in our first tile project.  The letterforms are the figure and the whitespace is the ground.  The letterforms make interesting forms but the ground makes interesting forms as well.  In some of my designs I scaled the letterforms to take up the whole composition.  By doing this it created a lot of whitespace in the background.  I worked to make the background equally as interesting as the foreground.  This is a skill I need to work on but one that I am improving at.