Module 02

“Don’t try to be original, just try to be good.”

– Paul Rand

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P R O J E C T 1 | S H A PE S: T H U M B N A I L S
1. The first selection immediately
grabs the viewer with a strong
focal point created with the small
white circle inside the largest
black circle. Then the circles,
with their alternating colors and
progressively getting smaller
create movement.

2. The second selection was a fun

use of lines. A picture that was
3
originally very 2 dimensional
1 now has depth with the use of
the white diagonal lines which
create a weaved look.

3. The third selection has some

symmetry - with the top being
similar to the bottom, contrast -
with the simple black on white,
2 and movement - as the squares
spiral out from the center.

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P R O J E C T 1 | S H A PE S: T H U M B N A I L S
1. The first selection has good
movement as the eye follows
the line of squares through the
image. It also has good contrast,
with the very distinct squares,
and a symmetry that isn’t
quite balanced, but not quite
asymmetrical either.

2. The second selection was a very

simple use of just lines. By adding
3 the one in the middle and tilting
1 the ones on the bottom the
image immediately has depth.

3. The third selection is a good

representation of isolation. All
of the triangles are gathered
and stacked on the left, with the
exception of a lone triangle on
the right.

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AC T I V I T Y | A D O B E I L LU S T R ATO R : BA S I C S H A PE S

DEPTH FOCAL POINT CONTRAST

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P O N D E R | M O D U L E 02

My favorite room in the world is the Why do you think 48 sketches were assigned? What is the biggest advantage of vector art?

library in the Beast’s castle in Beauty
and the Beast because I love books.
An unlimited number of books, with a
huge, naturally lit area to comfortably
read them in would be amazing!
THUMBNAIL SKETCHES
How long did it take to complete the sketches?
It took me several days, working off and on to complete
the sketches.
The sketches were assigned for several reasons. They
gave us practice with the principles of design. They
helped us learn to take a rough idea from our mind and
put it on paper. Also, they helped us see that sometimes
an idea that seems great in our mind, isn’t as great on
paper.
What did you enjoy most about this weeks activities?
I had fun discovering how much I enjoyed working on
the assignment. While it was hard sometimes to come up
with new ideas for my sketches, I found that by working
on it all week I could set it aside when I was out of ideas
and later I would just start thinking of new ways to
arrange the shapes. It was also sort of fun to realize that
I was beginning to unconsciously see everything around
me as basic shapes.
If I understand vector art correctly, the biggest
advantage is that your image is the same whether it’s
tiny or very large.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion I began the week a little afraid of this
assignment and ended up having a lot of fun with it. I
found that when I was selecting my favorites, I was much
more drawn to the simple sketches that only used one or
two elements, rather than ones that were more complex.
I enjoyed trying to take the various simple shapes and
present design elements as well as sketches that didn’t
all look the same.

“If you hit the target every time

it’s too near or too big.”
-Tom Hirshfield

Working on my sketches in bed because I wasn’t feeling well. ADOBE ILLUSTRATOR ACTIVITY
How comfortable are you with Adobe Illustrator?
How can sketching be to your advantage as a
designer/web designer? While Adobe Illustrator is new to me, working in an
Illustrator type environment is not. I have spent a lot
Being able to quickly draw out an idea before spending
of time working with layers as well as moving objects
the time designing it fully can give you an idea of if
forward and back, scaling, etc. While Illustrator is a
it will work or not. Several times with the sketches I
slightly different platform I feel pretty comfortable with
started drawing something I was very excited about,
the functionality in it.
only to discover the end result didn’t work at all like I had
envisioned it.

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