Essentials of Visual Language PDF

## 5 Essentials of Visual Language - **Written languages have syntax.** - **Vocabulary - collection of words/symbols.** - **Visual language doesn't require syntax or grammar, no center.** - **Visuals are instructed and give off meaning. ** - **Modern visualising is all about constructing direct vis...

## 5 Essentials of Visual Language - **Written languages have syntax.** - **Vocabulary - collection of words/symbols.** - **Visual language doesn't require syntax or grammar, no center.** - **Visuals are instructed and give off meaning. ** - **Modern visualising is all about constructing direct visuals to communicate some meaning.** - **Construction means putting multiple visuals together. Visuals are not received as separate entities.** - **A dot is the most fundamental element of an ad.** - **An extended dot is a line - Euclidean geometry, zero width and infinite length.** - **Regulated free flowing.** - **Regulated lines are used when accuracy is required.** - **Architecture/measured lines.** - **Product designing.** - **Paul - a line is added that went for a walk.** - **Five flowing lines create shapes of variance.** - **A line that flows and creates distinguishably recognizable shapes.** - **Shape is always in 2D.** - **Shape becomes a form when other elements are added, eg: illusion of light/shade, volume etc.** - **A form is made activate from its properties.** - **Texture is the surface quality of any thing.** - **Wax figures create excellent visual texture.** - **It is easier to create texture with wax figures.** - **Visual art deals with texture to give the visuals more depth, clarity and realism.** ## Colour Theory - Issac Newton - **Consists of three primary colours: Red, Yellow, Blue (RYB - cannot be created).** - **Pigment is molecular form of colour.** - **Secondary colours - mixing two primary colours.** - **Should put primary colours before secondary colours.** - **Tertiary colours - mixing one primary and one secondary.** - **Complementary colours (opposite colours).** - **Complementary colours are the colours which do not get optically mixed when put together. They can stand out from each other.** - **Split complementary colours.** - **To reduce the harshness of the primary colours split complementary colours are used.** ## Harmonious Colours - **Yellow with you or ya.** - **According to classical colour theory, black and white are not colours.** - **Adding white to any colour is called tinting. White is called tint (intensity).** - **According to colour theory, a colour is called hue. We use white to decrease its intensity. It is also called tone, to get tones.** - **Black is called a shade. Adding black to any colour is called shading.** ## Space: 2D, 3D - **2D - spare your drawing length, width.** - **Virtual space - how you feel inside a haunting.** ## Colour Temperature - **It is a visual sensation.** - **Two categories: cool colours and warm colours.** - **Cool colours: Blue, Green.** - **Warm colours: Red, Yellow, Orange.** - **Pastel colours have more white and less actual colour.** - **Warm colours - happiness, friendly etc.** - **Cool colours - sad, insufficient, loneliness, depression etc.** - **Orange - sacrifice, new day.** ## Composition - **Road, sky, two houses, tree, electric post, wires, two pile of clothing.** - **Meaning: July.** - **Arranging various elements within a space.** - **Law of Unity** - **Law of Balance** - **Law of Rhythm** - **Law of Emphasis** - **Law of Proportion** ## Law of Unity - **Means adding elements which aligns to the flavour of the message.** - **No additional element which do not match with the theme should be present.** ## Law of Balance - **Mainly two types of balance.** - **Symmetric balance (Formal balance).** - **Asymmetric balance (Informal balance, occult balance).** - **A headline is a gateway to the news article or ad.** - **A registered TM consists of a brand name, logo combination, font and a product.** - **Baseline/Tagline (slogan).** - **Company statements in short phrases (TL).** - **Body copy - Descriptive text describes about the product specification.** - **Newspaper ads have 35-40 words.** - **Magazine ads have 45-60 words.** - **Subheads will be smaller than the headline and larger than the body copy.** - **Logo is a signature of a brand.** ## Formal Balance - **Has discipline and strictness.** - **Is based on bilateral symmetry.** - **Division having two equal sides (mirror image).** - **The line that cuts it into two is called Axis of Symmetry.** ## Asymmetric Balance - **Weighing and counterweighing is the base of informal balance.** - **Casual, of ease and easy to the eyes.** - **A good design makes people take action.** - **Illustration is everything which is not a photograph.** ## Law of Rhythm - **It's about eye movement.** - **Printed copy.** - **The top left corner is the least noticed and the starting point along.** - **The bottom right corner is the most focused aspect and is called 'adden found. ' ** - **Website.** ## Law of Emphasis/Law of Focus - **States that in design, one decides when the people should put focus.** - **Emphasis is done so that the viewer should not miss that part.** ## Ways to Emphasize: - **Size.** - **Emphasis can be done using small or big illustrations amidst big or small backdrop respectively.** - **The meaning of the message will be clear and meaningful.** - **Using colours.** - **Emphasis is achieved using complementary colours or split complementary colours.** - **Emphasis using colour tone.** - **This requires contrast.** - **Contrast is the difference between the extremes. When the difference is high it is a high contrast.** - **Contrast can be with tones and shades.** - **White space.** - **Using white spaces to give emphasis to something else.** - **Rotation.** - **Anything which gets rotated from the rest gets emphasis.** ## Gestalt Theory (Gestalt Psychology) - **Physical phenomenon: Motion of light.** - **This is based on persistence of vision.** - **When an object goes out of sight in 1/24th of a second, we would have an image of the object in our mind. The 1/24th of a second, is called persistence of vision.** - **This is the fundamental of animation.** ## Laws of Organization - **Law of Proximity (Closeness).** - **When objects are placed together closely, we tend to see them as a single unit.** - **Law of Common Fate.** - **When a group of objects move together in a single direction, we tend to see them as a single unit.** - **Law of Similarity.** - **Elements that share qualities will be perceived as a part of the same form.** ## Some examples for the above laws (not drawn yet) - **Law of Closure (Law of Continuation).** - **A shape makes meaning when it is closed. So, when a shape is incomplete, our mind will automatically generate it as a closed figure. It also guides continuity.** ## Figure and Ground Gestalt - **Relation between positive space and negative space to make a meaning.** - **Positive space is figure.** - **Negative space is ground (background)** - **To make a meaning, either one cannot work independently.** ## Typography - **Study of graphical font. Structural study of study of forms of letters. Alphabetical aesthetics.** - **Lettering is a handwritten script which looks like actual fonts. This readable by everyone.** - **Is an art of writing in a peculiar style which resembles a font. ** - **Typography is originated from calligraphy.** - **It should attract people to read the content.** - **Calligraphy has uniformity. Calligraphy was practiced till printing came to existence.** ## Type - **They are letters A-Z.** - **Study of type it typography.** - **The design of the letters for mass printing.** - **Studying letter faces.** - **Helps to choose the correct one for your design.** ## Two Familiar Types - **Gothic style:** - **Uniformity of thickness in letters.** - **Gothic style mostly has san serif.** - **Roman style:** - **Has both thick and thin parts.** - **San serif type faces.** - **Write your name in Gothic & Roman style.** ## Anatomy of a Typeface - **Cap Height:** The height of capital letters. - **X Height:** The height of the lowercase letters. - **Baseline:** The line on which the letters sit. - **Ascender:** The part of a letter that extends above the x height. - **Descender:** The part of a letter that extends below the baseline. - **Bar:** Short horizontal feature in letters like A, É, etc. - **Counter:** The enclosed area within curves of round letters. - **Aperture:** The opening within a letter like 'O', 'D', 'C'. - **Stem:** The vertical stroke of a letter. - **Loop:** The curved part of a letter like 'j', 's', 'g'. ## Letters Categorized - **Bar:** A, E, F, H, I, J, L, T, Z, Ft. - **Ascenders:** b, d, f, h k, l, t. - **Counters:** a, b, d, e, g, o, p, q, A, B, D, O, P, Q, R. - **Descenders:** g, j, p, q, y. - **Open Counters:** g, h, j, k, m, n, g, u, v, w, y. ## Write All Types - **DEVIKA**