Elements of Design- Texture

Texture is the way a surface feels or is perceived to feel. Texture can be added to attract for repel interest to an element, depending on the pleasantness of the texture. Most textures have a natural feel but still seem to repeat a motif in some way. Regularly repeating a motif will result in a texture appearing as a pattern. 

Textures are of two types- 

Tactile texture (3D): The actual three-dimension feel of a surface that can be touched. Painter can use impasto to build peaks and create texture

Visual texture (2D): The illusion of the surfaces peaks and valleys, like the tree pictured. Any texture shown in a photo is a visual texture, meaning the paper is smooth no matter how rough the image perceives it to be.

In fashion, texture plays the role of surface quality of garments (how it looks and feels) - Roughness, smoothness, dullness, glossiness, stiffness, softness.

¡  Bulky fabrics

Add visual size (make one look bigger)

Can disguise a flaw

Can overpower a small person

¡  Smooth, flat textures

Make one look smaller

¡  Shiny textures

Make one look bigger, as they reflect light

¡  Dull Textures

Make one look smaller, as they absorb light

Elements of Design- Colour

Colour is one of the most powerful elements of design. There are basically two theories that explain how colors work and interact. The light, or additive theory deals with radiated and filtered light. This theory’s principles suggest that the perceived color results from the mixing of different colors of light. Principles of color addition have important applications to color television, color computer monitors and on-stage lighting at the theaters. The pigment or subtractive theory deals with how white light is absorbed and reflected off of colored surfaces. A colored pigment, blue for instance, absorbs most of the frequencies of light that are not blue, reflecting only the blue light frequency. Because all colors other than the pigment colors are absorbed, this is also called the subtractive color theory. We will be investigating from the pigment theory perspective here.

Dimensions of Color

Hue is the name of the color (eg Red, Blue). Each hue is a different wavelength of light.

Value is the lightness or darkness of a hue (eg. Light blue, navy blue etc.). A lighter colour is also known as ‘tint’. To achieve this white has to be added. A darker colour or a ‘shade’ could be achieved by adding black to it.

Intensity is how bright or dull a colour is (eg: black and grey). Intensity is brightest at its full purity. To reduce intensity of hue with least alteration in value, a small amount of its complement is added.

Colour Wheel

One way of arranging the colours in the solar spectrum is the Colour wheel.

The primary colors are red, yellow, and blue. They are called primary because they are not mixtures of other colors. Rest all colours could be derived from mizing these three colours in different proportions.

Mixing any two primary colors results in a secondary color.

Tertiary colours- These are made by mixing a primary colour with an adjasant secondary colour. Example red-orange, red violet, yellow-green, yellow orange, blue-violet, and blue green.

Colour Schemes

Colour schemes are descriptions of color relationships. Some of them are:

Achromatic: Black, white and the grays in between. There are no possible color contrasts.

Monochromatic colour scheme is based on one hue. This is like achromatic, but with one dominant hue-a single spoke of the color wheel. Red, black and white is a common example.

Analogous are hues lying near each other on the colour wheel, red-orange, red-purple.

Complementary colours are placed directly across from each other on the colour wheel. Example: Orange & Blue, Yellow & Violet, Red & Green, etc. They are used together provide extreme contrast. More harmonious effects can be achieved by using colors that are close together on the color wheel.

Double complementary or Split complementary colour scheme is  two adjacent hues and their complements.

Triad is formed when three hues equally spaced on color wheel are taken together (eg: red, yellow and blue).


Discord is where opposite colours are together and one is a tint, so that the original tone of the hue is different.

Colour Temperature

Warm Colours & Cool Colours - Another way to organize color is by color "temperature." Colors are either "warm" or "cool." If we divide the color wheel vertically through the center, splitting yellow and violet, the red, orange side is warm and the blue green side is cool. 

Red, Orange and Yellow are considered 'warm colours'. They give a feeling of advancement. 

Blue , Green and Violet are considered 'cool colours'. They tend to recede.

Metamerism

Metamerism is the phenomenon that occurs when a color appears to change when viewed in different light sources. The colors that are most likely to have metameric problems include taupes, mauves, lilacs, tans, celadons, grey/blues, greys, etc.


Colour Standards

By standardizing the colours, different manufacturers in various locations can all reference a particular standard for colour, which is numbered. This makes sure that colours match without direct contact with one another. The most common colour standards in the fashion industry are by Scotdic, Colour Solutions, Pantone, etc.

Elements of Design- Shape & Form

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A shape is defined as an area that stands out from the space next to or around it due to a defined or implied boundary, or because of differences of value, color, or texture. A form is an object having three dimensions like length, width and depth. 

A shape or outline seen from a distance is called a silhouette.It can reveal or hide a natural body contour. Full, wide shapes make you look bigger. Trim, compact silhouettes make you look smaller. Straight, tubular shapes make you look taller. Form fitting clothes reveal any unattractive contours, should only been worn by figures that are near-perfect.

Elements of Design- Line

 

If a point continues to get thicker without also getting longer at some point it ceases to be a point and becomes a line. Where a point has no dimension, a line has one dimension. It has a length, but nothing else. Where dots are about attracting attention, lines are about movement and direction. That line can be straight (although some would argue that a line can never be truly straight) or curved. Lines are used to delineate objects as in a line drawing, or used to create graphs, or used to outline areas as in a framed effect. Imaginary lines are created when two areas of different colors, textures, or values meet to create a line between those effects. Vertical lines can stop eye movement. They also equate to power and strength. Horizontal lines symbolize rest and relaxation. Diagonal lines are dynamic and action-oriented.

  

The fundamental characteristic of a line is to connect or unite. A line leads somewhere, your eye moves along it seeking one or both of its endpoints. This movement and direction makes lines inherently dynamic. A line is not attracting you to a point in space. It’s directing you toward and away from points in space.The flip side of connecting is separating. Lines not only connect elements, they can also separate elements. They can connect an element to space or separate it from space. Lines separate and join both spaces and objects. Lines can also cross barriers, protect, and support.As lines become thicker they begin to be perceived as planes or surfaces and they gain mass. To maintain their identity as lines they must increase in length as they increase in width. Changing the width of a line relative to its length has a much greater effect on the quality of a line as changing the size of a dot has on the quality of a dot. The thinner the line the more the emphasis is on the quality of direction. The thicker the line the more emphasis is moved to the quality of mass and away from the quality of direction.

Which line segment is longer?

In this, although you may perceive (like most people the world over) that the bottom line is longest, you can quickly confirm that all the lines are of the same lengths. Even armed with the knowledge that they are the same length, the bottom line still appears longer than the other two. You can achieve the exact same effect just by wearing a V-neck shirt or dress (and, theoretically,bell-bottom pants or mermaid skirts). So why does a longer torso matter?

Designers also commonly use illusions to “trick the eye” into perceiving a more flattering silhouette, such as highlighting the waist with a belt to draw attention to the narrowest part of the body. Another trick is to wear V-neck tops, which gives the illusion of a longer torso.

Which of these two women looks thinner to you?

If you think you know the answer, feel free to leave a comment.

Thus, fashion experts could be basing their judgments on basic perceptual elements like color and height. If perceptual elements influence fashion judgments, we can pinpoint why a look appears unflattering, too busy, incohesive, etc. Ultimately, judging fashion may be less an art than a science.

Elements of Design: Point

The point is the simplest element of design. It is a coordinate without any dimension or area. It may serve as a focal pointof a visual, highlighting or drawing attention to important information.

If there are two or more points, they start interacting with each other. They imply a structure. For example, if there are 2 points, immediately the eye will make a connection and "see" a line. If there are three points, one can’t help but interpret them as a triangle; the brain provides these connections. This compulsion to connect parts is described as grouping, or gestalt.

Points at different locations in space and shape and everything is changing will cause people of different visual experience. Depending on their placement/arrangement, they can produce sense of expansion, instablity, direction, vertical stretch, rhythm, etc.

The point has some of the characteristics. In designing apparel, appropriate use of point may feature a rich change. The point maybe in creative location, varied number(s), arrangement, form, colour and texture of a feature, to produce unexpected artistic effect (examples in the images above). Buttons in clothing, fabric dot patterns, decorations, accessories can be perceived as a point, however small or large they may be.

Elements of Design

Elements of design are like the building blocks of design. They are the effects we actually use in a design. There are mainly 6 elements of design. They are point, line, colour, shape, movement and texture.

                                      Point- A point or a dot is a coordinate in space. It does not have any dimension or area. It is the most basic building block for everything.

Line- A line could be represented as a series of adjacent points. It has one dimension (by definition), but to see it, one needs two dimensions. It could be used to represent a lot of things (direction, movement, etc.) Check out the following image; which line segment is longer?

In this Müller-Lyer illusion although you may perceive (like most people the world over) that line (a) is longer than line (b), you can quickly confirm that they are the same lengths. Even armed with the knowledge that they are the same length, line (a) still appears longer than line (b). 

Colour- Colour is nothing but how we see the reflection of light waves. It is probably the most most effective element of design. 

Shape/Silhouette - A shape is a two dimensional form, without any depth. A silhouette is a shape or outline seen from a distance. 

The image above is a static, the beans are NOT moving. This brings us to the next element of design - movement 

                                        Texture could be two dimensional (visual) or three dimensional (tactile).