Contrast, Figure and Ground

Currently Reading: Chapter 19 and 20 of Language of Graphic Design

I never thought empty space was so friggin complicated. To be honest, a good bit of the chapter went over my head, although I got the gist of it. I tried studying for an hour, and my brain feels like it's going to explode.  I'm actually started taking notes today. And low and behold I'm getting more information (I learn by writing things down who knew) and I diffidently learned a lot more. The con to this is that I feel that my head is about to explode with too much information (and subsequently starring at a screen for a long time, it's a problem).  So I'm going back to doing a chapter a day, but now with notes.

I'm not done with the learning about Figure and Ground. As I mentioned before I already read up on the gestalt theory, but I need to really get handle positive and negative space, and active and passive space before I move on.

This last past week has been fraught with personal and family issues, so I was tempted to just skip, but I didn't want that little dialogue saying I dropped the ball.  So I sucked it up and studied.  I will be back tomorrow for some more reading on figure and ground and on the exciting subject of Frames.

The thing about this book, with all the photos of the projects of graphic designers really just pulls that wannabe designer in me. I want to create that, but I don't have the skills yet. *shakes fist up the air* So not easy.

FYI:  I need to actual buy school supplies for schoolish things. Just saying.

Supplemental Reading 

• Design Principles: Space And The Figure-Ground Relationship
• Positive and Negative Space
• How To Activate Space In A Design

Closure Is The Name Of The Game

Correction from the last post:  The last chapter was chapter 14 of The Language of Graphic Design. The current chapter was Chapter 15.

Okay, so this chapter was much more easier to understand than the last chapter. I really didn't need any supplemental items like videos or tutorials. This chapter was about concept of closure in graphic design and that we as humans tend to visual close things in our mind, and that a closed object instinctively brings harmony to most compositions.

The chapter also talked briefly about the gestalt theory, which I actually already read the basics of that theory on this, which was a very helpful primer on the subject on how we as humans perceive images and art.

 In more personal news, I was very late in studying today. I didn't get a good night sleep and was like a zombie for most of the day. So this is the reason why I'm posting this so late. Although, I am glad to be even a bit productive today.

I am also currently looking into cloud note taking apps, because I suddenly realized that I haven't been actively taking notes, and I want to test myself at the end of the book (which I'm a quarter from  being done with).

Oh, on another random note, I'm following a self-study outline that I found on design tuts.com. So I have a lot to go still. I'm thinking it's going to take me a year to go through it all.