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Design 3: Visual Organization and Information Design

Organization Systems 3

This week we will explore Dilational structure and see how it can be used to impact hierarchy and meaning.

Dilational Structure

Dilational structure is an organizational system that utilizes patterned change. Within an iteration of sensations. A field of dilational structure typically presents sensations gradually, showing change and/or growth within the iterated sensations. Dilational fields may also incrementally reveal a part of the sensation previously hidden or unavailable before patterned change was introduced.

Dilational structure is the static, abstract representation of time, action or change. While not noticeable in a single observance, all living matter is dilational in that there is a beginning (birth), a growth period and, eventually an end (death).

Changes in the iterations within the structure indicate differences that we must be aware of in order to navigate the image and understand it.

Dilational Structure Examples

Nude Descending a Staircase (No. 2)
Marcel Duchamp, 1912
Oil on canvas, 57 7/8" x 35 1/8"

Dilational structure within information graphics.

Information graphic depicting the evolution of humans.

Diagrams illustrating how to tie a neck tie and bow tie.

Information graphic illustrating Russian Navy Officer's sleeve decoration indicating rank. [left to right from top:] Admiral, Vice Admiral, Rear Admiral, Captain, Commander, Lieutenant Commander, Lieutenant, Sub Lieutenant, Warrant Officer. Colonel Dion Williams, Army and Navy Uniforms and Insignia: How to know Rank, Corps and Service in the Military and Naval Forces of the United States and Foreign Countries, New York Frederick A Stokes Co., 1918.
Insert from Cabinet, Issue 26

A classification of typical and atypical color patterns of striped skunks.
BJ Verts, The Biology of the Striped Skunk, Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1967.
Insert from Cabinet, Issue 26

Dilational structure within architecture.
Sydney Opera House, by Jorn Utzon, at Sydney, Australia, 1957 to 1973. Photo by McDaniel Woolf. ©

Class Activities

Dilational Structure Project

Using Adobe Illustrator create a 60x60 pica (10x10") grid comprised of 6x6 pica squares with no gutter.

Starting in the upper left cell and moving from left to right across each succeeding row, create a morphing cell which implies change over time and space.

Use the gestalt concepts of visual organization and structural principles, paying special attention to the concept of iterative change which exhibited in dilational structures. Use figure / ground relationships, play with scale, cropping, continuance and rhythm across the grid. See if you can establish a hierarchy of your design so that there is a clear beginning, middle and end point across your dilational structure.

Save your files for your digital portfolio, print out the art work and include in your journal.

See example

Assignment

Deconstructing Page Grids

A grid is a series of horizontal and vertical lines that evenly and symmetrically divide a page, whether it is a printed page, a "page" in a website, an architectural floor plan, a city plan, etc.

This week we will be exploring the typographic grid. A typographic grid organizes text and images across the pages of a document. A grid can consist of a single column framed by margins, or it may have multiple columns.

Look for interesting page layouts in magazines and books.

Choose five different page layouts.

Scan the pages into the computer, and adjust in PhotoShop so that the images are cropped on the page edges, and they are aligned correctly. Save your files as jpegs.

Open InDesign and create a new letter size document with 6 pages.

On the first page, place your name and the title Magazine Grids, Design 3, and the date.

Use the layers palate to create three layers in the InDesign document. Name the bottom layer "Images", the middle layer "Guides" and the top layer "Grids" .

Select the Images layer and place a copy of your page layout images into the document. There should be one image on each page.

Tip: To fit the image proportionally into the page, expand the Rectangle Frame containing your image. Now use the Selection Tool to select the placed image. Select the menu: Object > Fitting > Fit Content Proportionally.

Example Page Layout

Lock the Images Layer. Select the Guides layer and from the View menu: select Show Rulers. Now drag and place vertical and horizontal rule guides into the page layout. Find all the major columns and rows within the page grid.

Once you have identified all the aspects of the page grid with guides. Lock the Guides layer. And select the Grids layer. Now using the Line Tool, draw 90 degree vertical and horizontal lines on all of the guides for each part of the page grid. Use a 1 pt line, and use start and end points on each line. Extend each line evenly into the margin of the page so that you can easily see where all the columns and rows are.

Example Grid/Guide Layout

Save your files for your digital portfolio, print out the 6 pages in color and include in your journal.

Research

Reading

Chapter 2, pp 27 - 53 Visual Explanations, by Edward Tufte, Graphics Press, 1997

Visit the following

Ring Dome Pavilion by architect Minsuk Cho
Located in Petrosino Park, adjacent to Storefront for Art and Architecture
97 Kenmare Street New York, NY (Between Mulberry and Lafayette Street)
Subway 6 to Spring; N/R to Prince; B/D/F/V to Broadway Lafayette.
www.storefrontnews.org

Include any photographs or sketches of the Ring Dome and your observations about the design of the Ring Dome. What Gestalt principles are at work in this design? What structural systems?

Take a look now at the edifice of the Storefront for Art and Architecture. What Gestalt principles are at work in this edifice?

Bring to class

Your journal.
I will be reviewing your work in your journal as part of your mid-term evaluation.