Here is the fourth assignment from Intro to Graphic Design. For this assignment, we had to demonstrate our understanding of gestalt principles of closure, figure goodness and figure ground through the distortion of letterforms. The challenge here was that we had to push our distortions to the limit and yet these letterforms must still be readable.
For closure, I distorted the word “panda” by omitting certain strokes. My rational here was that I had to keep the ascenders and descenders of the p and d since they were the defining characteristics of these letterforms. For the n, I had to keep the top portion of the shoulder since that was the n’s defining characteristics. Lastly, the a was the toughest. Honestly, I think I showed too much of the a and could have distorted it more. As a matter of fact, people saw panda right away which shows that I could have pushed it a bit more. Oh well maybe next time.
For figure goodness, I had to take my initials and literally distort the letterforms to the point that it no longer looks like the letter but yet, it has to be readable. I have to say, this one was the toughest simply because if it is readable, then I wasn’t distorting the letters enough. However, if it couldn’t be read, then I went to far with my distortion. So for my piece, I took my initials which is jl and distorted the l so that it looked like a lung. Then I created a mirror image of that l and it then represented the j. I thought I had a pretty good idea but sadly no one got it except for Glen our mentor. So I redid it a bit by flattening the bottom and reducing the curve within the stems of the letterform.
For figure ground, we had to take two letters and combine them through a figure ground relationship. Honestly, I thought this one was going to be the hardest one to do but as it turns out, it was pretty easy. So for my piece, I kept it simple. I combined the uppercase H with the lowercase i. I have to say, of the three pieces I had to make for this assignment, this one is my favorite since it demonstrates the figure ground relationship so well (is it an H or is it an i in a black square).
