Why do we find something attractive or sexy or eye catching? Is it the color, the structure, the form, the way it is put together, or is it the material used? The following exercise is an attempt to understand how different forms evoke different emotions and how they can be translated onto other forms such that a 'family of forms' is created.
The first stage of this exercise involved the exploration of forms on a simple square guide of 4x4 cm. Following are some of the explorations that was done.
The above exploration have a geometric nature associated to it. Simply put, at this stage my mind was getting used to drawing straight lines and I tended to perceive the square guide as my background and the black ink form as my foreground. The objectification of the form as a silhouette creates a bias on how the mind perceives images and compositions. As the goal of this exercise was to understand minor details of the compositions, more explorations was done for the same.
The second set explores the concept of merging foreground and background. The result of such a task is the organic set of structures formed inside of the square guidelines. These forms develop a certain flow in terms of my perception as it is widely inspired from memory of growing among natural and green settings. Straight lines are difficult to achieve in nature and this is visible by simple observations.
The third set of explorations explores the concept of negative spaces and how I perceived space as a whole entity of its own. Here the white spaces become the subjects of focus and captures most attention. This shift from background becoming the foreground was an interesting revelation that I had.
The second part of the exercise was the selection of three forms amongst the variety of explorations. The theme for this task was "restraint". The forms could be geometric or organic but needed to have a certain form of restraint as its characteristic feature.
The third part of this exercise looks at translating the parent form across a rectangle, triangle and circle. The first form has an interesting rising wave which took my interest. The approach to this was simply seeing the set of forms as a family. The curve maybe reduced in number but the form must convey the sensation of the parent form.
The second form embodies a bold sensation with its sharp edges and firm resolve. The translation merely shifted the negative space around to justify the change within its guiding space.
The third form has a symmetrical feeling across its axis. But at the same time the asymmetrical heights of the form creates an unique rhythm which has been translated across the different guiding boxes.
The fourth part of this exercise involves the selection of one of the families and further exploring iterations for each translation to create a more robust library of the forms.
Once the iterations were made a set of forms were shortlisted to create a visual library for the chosen family of forms.
The primary learnings of this exercise was that we see forms as a combination of several elements of nature or some experience. The final family selected was a combination of my life in urban and natural contexts. The waves represent both organic and the highs-lows associated with life. Another major revelation was the use of restraint, created a consciousness in my mind related to how small changes can effect the whole nature or property of a form or design intervention. It opened my eye towards these minor details which has helped me in several other instances.
