Tag Archives: design elements and principles

Anxiety and Nostalgia: The Art of Aida Muluneh

“We exist between the anxiety of the unknown future and the nostalgia of the familiar past. We bear the burden of our duality.” Photographer Aida Muluneh has spent most of her life without a place to call home. At a … Continue reading

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A Simple Line (2)

During this last week I’ve spent time reviewing the content we’ve covered in this blog. Today I want to repost an article from early 2015. I think you’ll find it useful. We all recognize a line. We read lines of … Continue reading

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Pattern and Decoration: The Mud Structures of Tiébélé

Burkina Faso is a small landlocked country in West Africa. It was formerly known as the Republic of Upper Volta. Near the southern border of the country is the small village of Tiébélé. In Tiébélé is a compound of hand-built, … Continue reading

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The Design Element Of Space

In today’s blog post we talk about space and how artists have depicted it over the years. You can find our complete discussion of space in Chapter 4 of Design: A Beginner’s Handbook. For this post we will anchor the … Continue reading

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Natural Moves

Over the last several weeks I’ve blogged about the design element of Motion (Chapter 15 in Design: A Beginner’s Handbook). In this week’s post you’ll find the work of several artists/designers who employ natural forces to impart movement into their … Continue reading

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The Not So Passive Observer

In a recent post about the design principle of motion I promised that I would present more examples. Today let’s look at viewer activated motion. In these works the artist invites the viewer to become a co-author of the work. … Continue reading

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Language of Motion Part 2

In last week’s blog post, The Language of Motion, I presented several artists who use the design principle of motion in their work (Chapter 15 in Design: A Beginner’s Handbook). I’d like to use this week to highlight past posts … Continue reading

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The Language of Motion

It all started with a bet. Leland Stanford, who went on to found Stanford University, bet that when a horse gallops there is a moment when all four hooves leave the ground. At the time this was nearly impossible to … Continue reading

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Abandoned, Reclaimed, Transformed: The Art of Nancy Rubins

I first came across the work of Nancy Rubins in the 1980s. My initial response was one of amazement – a 45 foot tall tornado-like form that literally contained everything, including the kitchen sink. Located next to a highway in … Continue reading

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Design Exercise: Found Alphabet

Today’s exercise will help you fine tune your powers of observation by finding what I call visual analogies. If you’re reading our book Design: A Beginner’s Handbook pay particular attention to Chapter 2 (Line) and Chapter 3 (Shape). For those … Continue reading

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