Denotative Imagemaking 1

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From the course by California Institute of the Arts

Fundamentals of Graphic Design

5550 ratings

California Institute of the Arts

Fundamentals of Graphic Design

5550 ratings

Course 1 of 5 in the Specialization Graphic Design

Graphic Design is all around us! Words and pictures—the building blocks of graphic design—are the elements that carry the majority of the content in both the digital world and the printed world. As graphic design becomes more visible and prevalent in our lives, graphic design as a practice becomes more important in our culture. Through visual examples, this course will teach you the fundamental principles of graphic design: imagemaking, typography, composition, working with color and shape... foundational skills that are common in all areas of graphic design practice. I don't just want you to watch a video of someone talking about design, I want you to MAKE design! If you want to be a designer you have to be a maker and a communicator, so this course will offer you lots of opportunities to get your hands dirty with exercises and with more practical projects. At the end of this course you will have learned how to explore and investigate visual representation through a range of image-making techniques; understand basic principles of working with shape, color and pattern; been exposed to the language and skills of typography; and understand and have applied the principles of composition and visual contrast. If you complete the course, along with its optional (but highly recommended) briefs, you will have a core set of graphic design skills that you can apply to your own projects, or to more deeply investigate a specialized area of graphic design. To succeed in this course you will need access to a computer. You can complete this course without one but it will be tougher. Access to, and a beginner's level knowledge of Adobe Creative Suite programs, such as Illustrator, Photoshop and InDesign will help you, especially if you want to complete the optional briefs.

From the lesson

Week 1: Fundamentals of Imagemaking

This week we are going to look at how images function in terms of conveying denotative and connotative messages, I'll show you a range of analog and digital imagemaking techniques and discuss how they work. In the first peer review assignment you'll create your own series of images, experimenting with formal techniques. Later, you'll have the opportunity to rework those images to enhance their ability to communicate an idea through connotation in an optional assignment: give it a try, it'll help you develop your communication skills as well as your formal skills!

Introduction to Imagemaking2:32

Denotative Imagemaking 14:50

Denotative Imagemaking 22:43

Meet the Instructors

Michael Worthington
Faculty, Program in Graphic Design
School of Art

What is denotative imagemaking?

Well, it sounds quite complicated, but

in fact, denotative imagemaking is the simplest kind of imagemaking.

Let's say you're making an image of an object.

Denotative imagemaking is when you make an image of that object, and

it is exactly what the object is.

Your image is an exact representation of that object.

There's no other meaning attached to it.

It literally is what it is.

So for this project we're gonna look at some every day objects.

And we're gonna use those as the basis for some image making techniques and

skill development.

So, let's start out by looking at a few good ideas for

what those objects might be.

So, here's a very denotative image of a pencil.

It'd be quite hard for a viewer to look at this and really get any other message from

this image other than the fact that it's a pencil.

A lot of denotation is really trying to get the essence of an image.

Trying to strip it down to its core communicative value,

and that's a useful skill to have as a designer.

So here for instance is a pair of glasses.

Again, it'd be hard to read that as anything else.

Other good objects for this project might be something like a cup.

Or perhaps even a pair of scissors.

Something where it's an object that has a range of possibilities, but

also has a level of simplicity to the object.

So you could use something like a bunch of keys.

Perhaps a cork screw.

Or a shoe.

I'd pick something that is an everyday object,

something that's just laying around the house that you can use.

Something that has a level of simplicity to it in terms of how it can be

represented visually, but also has the possibility for

a little bit of complexity as well.

So it could be a pair of headphones or the object that I'm going to use for

this example, which is an apple.

When you make an image of an object, a denotative image that is, the first

thing that you have to really think about is, what is the essence of that object?

How do we recognize this image, for instance, as an apple?

Well, it's partly the shape.

It's partly the color, the texture, it might be the proportions of it,

and it might be that it has certain elements

that help us recognize that it's an apple and not something else.

It's important to understand that a single object can exist in many different states

and still communicate itself.

So, for instance, here's half an apple.

It has very different signifiers,

very different things that tell us it's an apple than the first image.

But we still understand it.

Now the pips and that stalk and the shape of the apple, communicate

much more than just the skin of the apple and shape of the apple in the first image.

And we can break that image down to an even smaller segment and

it'd still be recognizable as an apple.

We can even use the pieces to make up a new whole and

still understand that it's an apple, and we could also change our viewpoint.

If you think of yourself as a camera you can move all around the object and

see it from different angles.

So the apple in real life can exist in many forms or states, but

apple as a representation, as an image, well,

that also exists in a lot of different states, but we have to make that.

We have to communicate that to an audience, and

we're making marks here as designers and illustrators, so

we have to understand, well, what's the essence of that object?

How am I gonna make a mark on a piece of paper that's gonna communicate that

to an audience.

So here's our half an apple again.

And we still recognize it as an apple, but

now it's got a visual style to it because the image has been made by a designer

instead of photographed in a realistic way.

And here we can see just a part of the apple, the core of the apple,

standing in for the whole.

But we still understand that it's an apple, and

the designer is controlling the communication here.

And you can see what happens when it goes wrong.

Is this an apple or a cherry?

It's hard to tell, because the designer hasn't really

got the quintessential aspect of the apple and communicated them to the audience.

Instead there are some elements that can read as a cherry in there.

So we get confused, and what's making this image confusing might just be as simple

as the relationship in scale between the stalk and the body of the fruit.

And part of the designers job is to control those messages,

control those visual queues that might mean other things, and

make them mean the thing that you want them too.

And later on we're gonna look at how you can deliberately mix those messages and

use them to your advantage.

But for now let's stick to denotation.

And let's try and

unravel all the different ways that an image of a single object can be made.

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