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California State University, Dominguez Hills
University of Wisconsin, Parkside
Created: October 9, 2005
Latest Update: October 9, 2005
jeannecurran@habermas.org
takata@uwp.edu

Using Form and Color to Offset Ideas

I picked up a test at MOCA this afternoon largely because of its color. By using large blocks of color set against a black background with white text, the book drew me to it. The dialogue of which it speaks is not the one in which I/m interested. It speaks of the dialogue between advertisers and the creative people who work with them to sell their product. I am more interested in the dialogue between potential customers and the creative people who work to sell them products. But the design priniciples are much the same.

See what I mean about how the design scheme attracts:

Front Cover of Shaun Cole's Dialogue: Relationships in Graphic Design

Back Cover of Shaun Cole's Dialogue: Relationships in Graphic Design

Note how shapes and color can draw the eye. You can use this technique in planning large paintings, on cardboard if you like, or on canvas if you prefer a more formal look. You can use it to decorate cards or boxes or book marks, whatever.

Try painting on paper bags (as from the grocery store) and then paste shapes and forms over your painted suface. Try using words. Try copying passages that particularly impressed you from an article or a text. Try stapling the paper bag over a piece of wood on the top and the bottom. Oddly shaped wood, if you like the informal. A dowel, if you like the formal.

This is an exhibit designed to draw friends, classmates, neighbors, the community into our discussions on major social issues, so please relate your work to our discourse! But leave out the big words the community and friends may not know. Say it in plain English. And in your art work, don't spell it out completely. Intrigue them, make them curious, so they will enter into our discourse. Consider that you're working with me and Susan to sell the product of knowledge on major social issues.

Have fun. Love and peace, jeanne and Susan

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