Design Translation · 2006

Figure Ground

Figure and ground interact in everything we design, including letterforms. This exercise pushed the principle beyond shapes into spatial planes. It trained my sensitivity to space, how to see what's between and around the forms, not just the forms themselves.

Exercise
Figure and ground
Studies
Black and white, value, color
Dated
2006/10/13
Rows of black and white circles overlapping in blocks, so that white circles cut into the black and the white gaps read as shapes of their own
Black and white

Black and White

Circles in black on white, in three studies.

A scanned print of black circles in grids on white paper, in four separate blocks of different sizes
A scanned print of black circles on white paper, where overlapping grids cut white crescents and lens shapes out of the black
A scanned print of black and white circles in overlapping grids, so that black shapes and white shapes trade places across the sheet

Value

The same circles in grey, in three studies and a finished piece.

A scanned study of grey circles in several tones, with the darkest block at the upper left of center and lighter grids fading out to the right and bottom left
A scanned study of circles in light to dark grey, with dark blocks at the upper right, the left, and the bottom right
A halftone study of grey circles, with a block of white circles at the upper left, dark blocks at the far left, upper right and bottom right
Circles in many greys overlapping in grids, with a block of white circles at the center and black circles at the lower right

Color

Circles in color, in twelve swatches and a finished piece.

A flat field of light blue
A grid of circles in sky blue shifting to grey-blue
A grid of circles in aqua teal at the upper left shifting to mint green and soft yellow-green toward the right
A grid of circles in green shifting to yellow-green
A grid of circles in lime and chartreuse, with a muted olive-green band across the middle rows and brighter lemon-lime at the bottom right
A grid of circles in saturated yellow at the upper left shifting to a duller mustard yellow toward the middle right, then paler lemon below
A grid of circles in warm mustard gold at the upper left shifting to olive-tinged yellow toward the right
A grid of circles in coral shifting to orange
A grid of circles in coral at the upper left shifting to rose pink at the right, with peach in the lower rows
A grid of circles in golden yellow-orange at the upper left shifting to apricot orange toward the right
A grid of circles in salmon and peach orange, with a lighter amber band across the lower rows
A grid of circles in dusty mauve shifting to pink
Overlapping grids of pastel circles in yellow, coral, pink, lilac, blue and green on a pale blue ground

Closing

Learning to see what's between the forms.

2006/10/13

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