"A superb design handbook for the student and the established artist. It accompanies the artist from the beginnings of an idea through to its completion and offers inspiration, exercises and insight. A practical and useful guide covering all elements of design and composition. A transatlantic collaboration between Jane Dunnewold, Claire Benn and Leslie Morgan, this books aims to help those who are seeking a surer artistic voice by providing practical exercises and guidance on different ways forward. Both an inspirational and how to book, it is a guide to accompany artists on their journey. Each exercise is clear, written in plain English and well illustrated with photographs and examples. The authors write it in a user-friendly way that encourages beginners to get started and helps more experienced artists on their way"--Publisher description
Within every picture is a hidden language that conveys a message, whether it is intended or not. This language is based on the ways people perceive and process visual information. By understanding visual language as the interface between a graphic and a viewer, designers and illustrators can learn to inform with accuracy and power. In a time of unprecedented competition for audience attention and with an increasing demand for complex graphics, Visual Language for Designers explains how to achieve quick and effective communications. New in paperback, this book presents ways to design for the strengths of our innate mental capacities and to compensate for our cognitive limitations. Visual Language for Designers includes: —How to organize graphics for quick perception —How to direct the eyes to essential information —How to use visual shorthand for efficient communication —How to make abstract ideas concrete —How to best express visual complexity —How to charge a graphic with energy and emotion
Featuring the insights of 15 current and former Art Students League instructors, this stunning volume reassesses the art of drawing not as a technique, but as the essential grammar of all visual thinking. In an illuminating introductory essay, James Lancel McElhinney punctures the myth that learning to draw is something for experts only, and presents methods for making, appreciating, and teaching drawing. The 15 contributors then offer a broad range of stylistic approaches and methodologies, accompanied by examples of their own and their students' artwork. A final section of basic exercises, along with information on materials, techniques, and resources, completes this inspirational study.
Both a primer on visual language and a visual dictionary of the fundamental aspects of graphic design, this text deals with every imaginable visual concept, making it an indispensable reference for beginners and seasoned visual thinkers alike.
A Visual Language is a practical introduction to the language of the visual arts, with a strong, innovative methodology. This expanded second edition begins with the basics of shape, composition and drawing, and gradually moves on to explore more complex arrangements, including abstract and representational analysis and composition. Building on the principles of visual language established in their last book, the authors now explore three-dimensional forms of increasing complexity. The final chapter of the book is devoted to a selection of sketchbook studies on ten international artists from various different visual disciplines, from architects and animators to painters and performance artists. This section demonstrates practically the methods presented earlier in the book, and helps visual artists to develop skills and confidence in their artistic work. Featuring a large number of new images, this book is essential reading for any artist in any field, regardless of their level, and is the only introduction to the visual arts that a beginner should require.
Abstract Painting: The Elements of Visual Language examines and articulates a vocabulary of visual elements from which you build images, abstract or otherwise. As you examine line, shape, pattern, texture, depth, and color in detail, you become more aware of the elements that make up a painting, and better able to observe your own work without judgment and self-criticism. Generously illustrated with over 200 color images, this book will open your eyes to a whole new way of seeing your paintings as they develop, allowing you to be more personally expressive and authentic in your artistic expression.
"The first part of this ... text is a comprehensive examination of fundamental design phenomena and a general introduction to the elements of composition. The second part gives ... in-depth explanations of compositional structures and strategies ... discusses some 25 works of art as compositional 'case studies' to show how and why each artist used various compositional structures and modes of presentation. Over 400 visuals--drawings, paintings, photos, and other illustrations--support the text. More than 40 of them, reproduced in full color, further clarify the materials covered"--Back cover.
When looking at a photograph, too often a conversation starts–and, unfortunately, ends–with a statement such as, “I like it.” The logical next question, “Why?”, often goes unasked and unanswered. As photographers, we frequently have difficulty speaking about images because, frankly, we don’t know how to think about them. And if we don’t know how to think about a photograph and its “visual language”– how an image is constructed, how it works, and why it works–then, when we’re behind the camera, are we really making images that best communicate our vision, our original intent? Vision–crucial as it is–is not the ultimate goal of photography; expression is the goal. And to best express ourselves, it is necessary to learn and use the grammar and vocabulary of the visual language. Photographically Speaking is about learning photography’s visual language to better speak to why and how a photograph succeeds, and in turn to consciously use that visual language in the creation of our own photographs, making us stronger photographers who are able to fully express and communicate our vision. By breaking up the visual language into two main components–“elements” make up its vocabulary, and “decisions” are its grammar–David duChemin transforms what has traditionally been esoteric and difficult subject matter into an accessible and practical discussion that photographers can immediately use to improve their craft. Elements are the “words” of the image, what we place within the frame–lines, curves, light, color, contrast. Decisions are the choices we make in assembling those elements to best express and communicate our vision–the use of framing, perspective, point of view, balance, focus, exposure. All content within the frame has meaning, and duChemin establishes that photographers must consciously and deliberately choose the elements that go within their frame and make the decisions about how that frame is constructed and presented. In the second half of the book, duChemin applies this methodology to his own craft, as he explores the visual language in 20 of his own images, discussing how the intentional choices of elements and decisions that went into their creation contribute to their success.
Written by two highly experienced teachers in the field of document design, Designing Visual Language, 2/e offers useful strategies and tools for document design of all types. A chief goal of the text is to enable students to extend the rhetorical approach they employ in writing and editing courses to the creation of various forms of visual communication. The text focuses on the kinds of situations and practical documents that occur in the workplace and blends this focus with a rhetorical approach that ties design to the audience, purpose, and context of messages.
