DESIGN AESTHETIC

RESEARCH & BRAINSTORMING

What is design?

• According to Wikipedia, “A design is a plan or specification for the construction of an object or system or for the implementation of an activity or process, or the result of that plan or specification in the form of a prototype, product or process.”
• In short, design is the PLANNED construction of something.
• Design applies to a very wide range of things from cars to interiors to websites to logos to magazines to dog toys.
• Although the definition of design is very broad, those in design-based careers all start with the same building blocks.

What is aesthetic?

• Aesthetic is a branch of philosophy that deals with the interpretation of beauty.
• Aesthetics can vary greatly from person to person, we are all attracted to different styles, so beauty is difficult to define.
• Art is subjective! There is no right or wrong answer to what is “beautiful.”

What is design aesthetic?

• Design is all about solving problems.
• How to present information.
• How to convey an idea through a product.
• How to help someone navigate a website.
• How to grab the attention of a buyer.
• When a design is aesthetically pleasing it makes it appealing to the consumer as well as functional, both pieces are equally important.

What is your design aesthetic?

• Several things drive our design aesthetic.
• A few of the basics include:
• Color
• Typography
• Graphics
• Overall Style

ELEMENTS OF DESIGN

• The building blocks of design are the elements of design.
• Without elements such as line, shape, color, or typography you can’t have a design.
• The elements include:
• Color
• Form
• Line
• Shape
• Space
• Texture
• Typography
• Value

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ELEMENTS OF DESIGN

• For this, assignment you will primarily focus on color and typography as a base for your aesthetic.
• The elements include:
• Color
• Form
• Line
• Shape
• Space
• Texture
• Typography
• Value

Color

• In design color is used to decorate objects, create emphasis, and add tone to a design.
• Think about what colors are you favorite.
• Consider the color wheel and color theory.
• Think about what colors work well together and which colors clash.

Typography

• Typography is one of the most important parts of a design because it conveys information about you and/or your client.
• Typography can be serif (with extra stroke lines such as Times New Roman), sans serif (no extra stroke lines, a simpler font such as Ariel), and decorative (such as cursive or handwriting fonts).
• It’s best to only use one decorative font mixed with simpler serif and san serif fonts.
• As you visit different websites, pay attention to their font. What are your likes and dislikes?

Graphics

• As you look through brands, websites, photographs you are drawn through, pay attention to the graphics.
• A graphic could be something as simple as a line beneath text.
• It could be the box around a headline.
• An interesting shape or visual in the logo.
• Are the graphics drawing you into the design?
• Are they organic, geometric, abstract, or objective (plant outline, paint splatter, cartoon shape)?

Graphics

• This website uses an organic shape graphic to highlight the image. The graphic is echoed in the background.

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• This website uses simple image graphics to add a playful look to their website.

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• This website uses an artistic paint smear graphic to create a focal point.

Overall Style

• How do the colors, typography, and graphics come together in the websites you are drawn to?
• Is the overall style of the website clean and modern? Is it playful? Is it artistic and bright? Energetic?
• How would you describe them?

Design Research

• Keeping colors, fonts, graphics, and style in mind, you will research two websites and go in-depth into their style
• Finding inspiration online:
• Spend time finding designs you are attracted to.
• Look for a range of designs, start with websites and branch from there.
• Save images, take screen shots, and save all your images to one folder (you may want to incorporate some of these when you start laying out your vision board)
• Pay attention to graphics used, font syle, and color scheme of the websites, objects, and photographs that draw your attention.
• TIP: the more inspiration material you gather, the more you can develop your design aesthetic.
• You will fill out the research sheet to help familiarize yourself with these terms.
• Once you complete the research activity, you will start thinking about your personal design aesthetic.

Developing your design aesthetic…

• Once you complete the research activity, start on the brainstorm sheet to develop your design aesthetic.
• Consider the colors, graphics, and fonts that appealed to you on the websites you looked at.

Developing your design aesthetic…

• Try to sum up your design aesthetic in a paragraph:
• In design, I prefer neutrals with pops of color to draw your attention. While I like artsy graphics, such as paint splatter, there needs to be balance in the design with white space and not cartoon-like imagery. I am typically drawn to a more modern style, neutrals, some color pops, and just enough of an artistic touch to take the sterile edge off of modern design.
• How can you sum up that paragraph using 3-5 adjectives?
• Modern, vintage, minimal, bright
• Modern, artistic, color pop
• Boho, modern, crafty

Developing your �design aesthetic…

• Plan out the colors and fonts you would use in your own personal designs.
• This will help prepare you for creating your design vision board.

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