TREES TREES TREES! (Universal Principles of Design)

BRIEF: 'The Universal Principles of Design' is a book containing and describing a set of guidelines, laws, and examples of good practice and ideas drawn from a diverse range of design desciplines. This project will introduce you to some new concepts and working methods through a team-based exploration of word, image and object in response to a set of subjects; within a family. The project will introduce and explain how specific principles work and can be used to enhance commuication and the development of clear ideas or in a more ambiguous play with meaning - proximity, law of pragnatz, hierchary, five hat racks, readability, picture superiority effect, iteration, hierachy of needs and figure-ground relationship.

PROJECT IDEA: Our subject was TREES. We spent a lot of time researching many different trees and the features each one had. We began to focus on the idea of tree rings and how they almost represent a biography of a tree as each ring represents one year of tree growth and it shows how much water a tree got or didnt get as well as what trauma it suffered, i.e. forest fires. We displayed this information using card board cut outs to demonstrate how tree rings are displayed and formed. We cut strips and created circular shapes starting from the small (heartwood) to tthe large (outerbark). This was our 3D object. For our word we explored tree typography and decided to find type within tree rubbings as well as use a tree rubbing technique to create type. The words used were tree idioms such as "barking up the wrong tree" and "can't see the wood for the trees". For our image we decided to explore the relationships people, insects and animals have with a tree. We used a particular set of mapping with a key on asitate paper to allow the audience to flip up the pages and interact.