Tag Archives: textures

PANDORA’S BOX

In the first lesson, we already pointed out flaws in some product’s design and touched on how they may be further improved in terms of aesthetics or functionality. We each had an object of interest where we had to present to the class. My object was an accessory worn on the wrist – it is made from paracord and it is sturdy when tugged on. The design on the paracord is called Desert Storm Camouflage which was what the U.S. military wore when fighting the Iraq War.  With the addition of the skull ornament, it added another level of depth which showed resilience and aggressiveness.

This first exercise of identifying and classifying the different groups of element is one I have never really thought of. These groupings are subjective as they can apply to colour, texture, material or even voids. Interestingly, the sub ordinates would be the one to define the object as most of the time, it would be a brand or logo,  in this case, it was the skull that tied the whole accessory together.

This is a sketch I did identifying the various elements and groupings of the accessory.

The second exercise we had was to craft an object using boxes of different sizes in relation to the groups dominant, sub dominant and sub ordinate. The theme I had to follow was rule of thirds.

The first object i had to craft was loosely based on a building near Dover Road which looks like a Dinosaur. It is a Singtel telecommunications tower and I used to see it almost everyday when heading for school. Unfortunately, limited to what I had, I could only make my object look like a duck. This exercise forced me to view the rule of thirds outside of photography which was what I was most comfortable with. Everything, from the neck of the ‘duck’ to the beak had to be placed in relation to the rule of thirds. I found it intriguing how the rule of thirds can make such a seemingly dull object somewhat pleasing to look at.

The next object was a little more experimental and less symmetrical. The rule of thirds still apply in relation to where the boxes are placed. However, I used objects with exceptionally contrasting volumes.  In some sense, it looks like a simple raft when viewed from above.

For my final object, it is more similar to my previous object where it was more abstract than aesthetic. The volumes of these boxes could be more varied to show the contrast between Sub-Dominant and Sub-Ordinate.