Design Principles - Project 2: Sense of Place

11/10/2022–04/11/2022 / Week 7–Week 10

Hasnol Rafiq Bin Hasnol Raduan/ 0356767

Design Principles / Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media / Taylor's Design School
Project 2: Sense of Place

INSTRUCTIONS

Utilize the design principles you have learned to produce a design that portrays a specific place.

VISUAL RESEARCH

Figure 1.1 & Figure 1.2 - Visual References ( https://pin.it/5xYUCu2 | https://pin.it/2waUsFc )

Figures 1.1 and 1.2 display pictures of individuals in cities that have an instant film-like quality. What prompted me to choose these photographs as visual influences were their arrangement and lighting in both pictures. I want to experiment with blending and shading in my design. I intend to employ this art form for my finished piece since it shows how to express ideas with eye-catching lighting effects.

Figure 1.3 & Figure 1.4 - Visual References ( https://pin.it/rldpjHW | https://pin.it/46T6aCq )

Figure 1.3 depicts a highway with moving vehicles, with space for the sky. This caught my attention because of how well the composition conveys and uses negative space. I particularly like how the composition, although being simplistic, conveys a sense of place. If I'm doing my designs for a sense of place, I considered using similar compositions. The more elaborate artwork depicting the streets of Japan in Fig. 1.4 caught my attention because of the urban scene and how the artist managed to incorporate many urban characteristics while maintaining harmony and tranquility.

Figure 1.5  - Visual References 

A photo of my friends and I in front of the Unions Supreme Court may be found in Figure 1.5. The fact that it was midnight, the light shining on the court, and the low perspective from which the photo was shot, which gave the impression that the structure was enormous, intrigued me about this. The feelings evoked by this image are connected to a wonderful moment when my friends and I were hanging out and decided to explore Abu Dhabi's streets after dark and stumbled upon the supreme court.

IDEA EXPLORATION

Fig 2.1 - Idea Sketch #1

This sketch is a simplistic representation of the spots where I used to skate at home. I placed only skateboards with no one on them to represent the emptiness of each location as everyone has departed for university.

Figure 2.3  - Idea Sketch #2

This drawing is inspired by my Dubai home, notably the driveway. I wanted to put a stickman falling down on my house to depict me falling through time, in an attempt to portray nostalgia and childhood.

Fig - 2.4 Idea Sketch # 3

This drawing is also inspired by my home in Dubai, hence the sand flowing through the window. I wanted to express the essence of what I imagine Dubai to be in the sketch, and the most obvious way to do so is to have a lot of sand in one location. The sand flowing into the home is supposed to depict many of the sand-covered abandoned buildings I visited in Dubai.

PROGRESS SENSE OF PLACE

I chose idea drawing #2 because I felt the most connected to it because it is a sketch of my house, where I have spent my entire life. To establish a link and a feeling of place, I chose the topic of nostalgia and childhood. This way, I won't have to depict my house as accurately and will have more creative freedom to create how I would've imagined my home as a child.

Figure 3.1 - Design Progress #1

Figure 3.2 - Design Progress #2

Figure 3.3 - Design Progress #3

I began by sketching the driveway of my home because that is where I spent the most of my playing time after deciding that the location I wanted to depict was a dreamlike reimagined version of my childhood home. The design is heavily inspired by figure 1.3 in my visual references. I chose to pursue this concept because I wanted to utilize nostalgia to address themes of nostalgia and connect it to a feeling of place by connecting it to my home. The artwork is designed in a childlike and cartoonish style to depict the link to childhood, while the stick man falling represents me slipping back into reminiscing about the past.

FINAL SENSE OF PLACE

Figure 4.1 - Final Sense of Place

I sought to use balance throughout my house design for my final created artwork in order to integrate color and aesthetic effect without overpowering the entire design. I added a lot more surreal features in the sky and shifted the emphasis away from my house and toward the sky to depict every moment I was up daydreaming as a child. Furthermore, I changed the lighting in the design to give it a more ethereal vibe rather than a child drawing sense. I am pleased with the quality of the artwork, particularly the coloring, because it provides the image that I believe nostalgia would like if we could see it.

LECTURER'S FEEDBACK

Week 9: No feedback was given.

Week 10: Dr. Jinchi remarked on my development so far as satisfactory, despite the fact that it was a bit mediocre owing to the fact that it had a lot of substance and message to convey with its basic childlike style. I was still unsatisfied with what I produced, so I chose to add more details to contribute to the sense of nostalgia rather than utilizing kid drawing like features to portray that. Dr. Jinchi advised that I add more to my driveway design if I felt it needed it, such as texture to the roadways and additional features on the trees and landscape.

REFLECTION 

In terms of demonstrating my connection to a specific location, this assignment was more difficult than the other task we were assigned for design principles. I had to select between several major experiences in my life before deciding on a location with which I felt strongly connected. Instead, I tried to think outside the box by creating a design of a location but removing any attention on the location itself and focusing on how it makes one feel. Going through the brainstorming and trial and error process taught me how to convey connection via my design.