Composition — A song of elements and space!
By: Ankur Jangir
Tags: Design Thinking, Design Process, Design Patterns, Design, Designer

Composition — A song of elements and space!

We all made random lines in the back of our notebook to pass our time but have you ever paid attention to them that how those lines would look if you form a frame around them. In our childhood, we all used to draw shapes, but we used to do it for fun and some creative exercises not for exploring how the shapes are behaving with the space in a frame. This week I decided to go into my childhood again to do those fun exercises and make some compositions to explore how those simple elements of design create shapes in the space when placed differently.

First I’m going to discuss what is composition? In simple words, Composition means putting things together. In other words, arranging and placing different elements in the space creates a composition. Composition is like a song created by the harmony of elements and space.

Our brain is perceiving, when we first see a thing it tries to make sense of it that if we’ve seen it or not. that’s how human psychology works, It is explained very deeply in the Gestalt Principles.

What are Gestalt Principles?

Gestalt Principles are the principles/laws of human perception that how humans group similar elements, recognize patterns, simplify complex figures or images when we perceive things. ( “source” )

Gestalt Principles:

There are more than 10 overlapping gestalt principles but mostly 7 of them are generally accepted. These are the following:

1. Closure

Closure

The principle of closure suggests that we see the elements or shapes which are not completed our brain tries to make sense of it and complete them.

2. Proximity

Proximity

The Principle of proximity states the objects that are close in distance look more related and are likely to be recognized as the same group.

3. Similarity

Similarity

The principle of similarity states that the element of shapes are of the same looking in a manner or have the same visual properties appear to be similar despite their proximity to each other.

4. Common Fate

Common Fate

The principle of common fate states that different elements or shapes which are moving in the same direction are considered as the same phenomenon.

5. Figure-Ground

Figure-Ground

The principle of figure-ground states that how our minds differentiate between the foreground and background. Usually, we perceive the smaller area as the foreground and the bigger area as the background but things get complicated when both the grounds contain different elements or shapes.

6. Focal Point

Focal Point

The principle of focal point states that among the different elements or shapes, the object which captures our eyes or attention is considered as the focal point. In other words, we can say the focal point is the odd one out of all the elements or shapes in space.

7. Continuity

Continuity

The principle of continuity states that the human eyes will follow a pattern of line or curve that goes from one point to another, It is a group of elements or shapes that form a line or curve, are recognized together than the other elements.

So, these are the 7 most recognized gestalt principles. You can read more about them HERE.

We’ve talked about Gestalt’s Principles now we are gonna talk about the compositions I made which I was talking about in the beginning.

1. Steps to My Destination

When I was shuffling my A3 color papers and while doing that I accidentally came across this shape that was looking like the stairs, then I put some highlighter on it to see how am I perceiving this composition. It’s looking like the highlighters are going to their destination like blue one is going on blue, yellow is going on yellow, red is going on red, and green is going on green. This composition is following the principle of proximity, continuity, and similarity.

2. Exploring the Explorer

So, I again shuffled the papers and I perceived that the papers are forming a shape of a web browser and I added some white and blue strips to it to make that status bar and scroll wheel. This composition is exhibiting the principle of proximity and similarity.

3. What’s Your Location

This composition is made from the very simple shapes of circles and lines, different shapes of circles putting together with lines forming a shape of GeoTag or a location tag that appears in our maps like google maps. This composition is laying out the principle of proximity, similarity, and continuity.

4. Take a Sip of Wine

In this composition, we can see pentagons forming two wine glasses. This is an example of the principle of closure and proximity.

5. Touching The Sky

In this composition, we can see different-sized circles put together, when we perceive this composition we can see the circles of the different sizes forming the shape of air balloons flying in the sky. This composition is showcasing the principle of proximity.

7. Let’s Walk in A Park

After perceiving this composition I can see a park from the upside view. There is a running track and different blocks for benches. This composition is containing the principle of proximity and continuity.

6. The Heart

Do you know about the Marvel comic character Iron Man, well, he has the heart of an Arc Reactor. If you see this composition clearly you can see a man with the heart of an arc reactor. This composition is exhibiting the principles of closure and proximity.

8. Curious Frog

This composition is a very good example of how efficiently we can use negative space and white space. I just placed a half-white paper and two white papers of circles above the black paper and it turned out to be like a frog is sneaking from above. This composition is containing the principles of proximity and similarity.

8. Let’s Play Russian Roulette

This composition is made only by circles using the negative and white space. I was exploring the shapes of circles by placing them in different places, in one of those explorations this revolver cylinder shape came in front of me. It’s looking like the cylinder of the revolver is filled with one bullet only.

10. The Jumbo Elephant

When I was drawing these shapes I was not thinking about making it look like anything but when I observed it turned out to be like an elephant is seeing someone. This looks like a child drawing though but this is the fun part of drawing the compositions, we can experiment with different shapes and observe what we are perceiving from them. This composition is containing the principle of proximity.