Sophronia: Dynamic and Static, Permanent and Temporary
This project is inspired by Italo Calvino's novel Invisible Cities, a book describing 55 fictional cities, each with their own charm, their own identifiers.
My studies and final project in particular are my own abstract depiction of the city of Sophronia, the fourth Thin City in Calvino's novel, in Adobe Illustrator. The city is described very carefully as having two halves: one that is static, made of marble and cement, and is broadly described as the monotonous locations found in every city (a bank, a school, a factory); the other is more dynamic, filled with rollercoasters, risk, and suspense.
What makes Sophronia more interesting than its contrasting halves is the fact that the halves are also differing in their stability. The half that is monotonous and sturdy is actually temporary in nature, torn down every year and eventually rebuilt when life needs to be completed again. The half that is colorful and dynamic is permanent, left to define the city on its own when the sturdiness is gone.
My first two studies work at the ideas of a stability that is actually fleeting. The studies play with both 2D and 3D versions of the idea, using size, position, and opacity to depict a sturdiness that fades away.
I utilized an isometric grid to form my first study, and focused on different shadings on each of the three sides of the 'sliding, destructive,' cube.
For my next study, I wanted to continue the notion of using smaller and smaller shapes as the forms neared the edges to depict 'fading out'; I believed that this was a strong element from my first study, and wanted to continue the theme throughout my future pieces.
My second study, a 2D study, challenged me to use different forms (such as opacity, repetition) to get the fading, fleeting feeling apparent.
After these two studies, I focused more on the dynamic half of Sophronia; I made the choice to not use form so much to describe the liveliness of the city, but rather the color. I chose bright shades of orange and purple, wanting warm colors to tint the simple forms -- and the use of radial gradient added depth and perspective that I liked from my very first study.
My third study used the idea of 'weight' to get the point of permanence across. The orange sphere seems to be sinking into the fading white lines, almost as if it wants to pin them down. I also added the rings to symbolize a more dynamic movement: the ball itself did not convey this idea by itself.
I wanted to play with different forms moving forward: while the orange sphere in the above study worked well to interact with the different elements in the piece, it did not feel balanced -- in other words, I did not think I was getting across the idea of two different halves making up the world, but rather one half dominated the other.
As I continued with my studies, I continued with the 3D theme, using custom brushes and continuing to play with shadows, as shading and shadows seemed to be some of the stronger moments in studies thus far.
This fourth study went back slightly to the idea of a cube representing the idea of the sturdy, monotonous half of Sophronia. I used the rings once again in this study, wanting to pull a more dynamic structure into this one.
The above study again felt interesting and beautiful, but still did not capture the duality as much as I felt there needed to be. I thought about how I could merge the two concepts together, how I could show an interaction between the colorful elements and the duller elements, which can be seen more clearly in my next study.
My final study: I used Illustrator's 3D rotating tool to create not only a cylinder, but also the 'ribbon' shape that extends above it. I arranged the layers carefully so that the sphere could look like it was sitting inside the shapes.
This final study finally felt like there was a more balanced interaction between the static and the dynamic parts of the city, achieved through careful layering and further use of gradients to exhibit 3D imaging.
However, it still wasn't exactly what I was looking for -- the sphere almost felt trapped in the fading ribbons of the cylinder, and I didn't want that feeling to come across in my final study.
I reverted back to my first black-and-white study, realizing that its forms were some of the strongest elements out of all of my works.
My final piece that took clear elements from some of my studies, and honed them in to create one cohesive identity of Sophronia.
My final piece took elements from earlier studies: the form and structure of my first study, the sphere from the third and last studies, the rings from the third and fourth studies, and took the overarching idea of gradient and shadow to the next level.
I also chose to mute some of the shadows a bit more, especially those outlining the 3D cube forms. This version made the sphere feel less trapped in the middle, with the smaller forms looking both like they are building up but also breaking down -- just like the city of Sophronia does. I added smaller spheres to create new moments of interaction between the city's elements: some of which are mid-air in movement, some that could be completely still.
I also paid closer attention to detail in placing the shadows and gradients so that there seemed to be an actual source of light in the upper left/middle section of the piece.
Overall I am very proud of how these pieces turned out, how I was able to the elements from all my studies that worked and cohesively form them together to hopefully do Italo Calvino and Sophronia justice.
