THE DESIGN NOTEBOOK

2-D design portfolio of Roman La’Voy Wood-

My study of the fundamental relationships and principles of 2-D design; an introduction to design, color elements and their

relationships in the visual expression of ideas and concepts.

Measurement: Point, Line & Frame. Continuous contour line field drawing-As the repetition of lines between points begin to increase, they will develop a surface which then can take on the form of a structure, presenting a visual form that is either abstract or multidimensional. This is also referred to as picture plane.

Graphite pencils, black thin and thick Sharpie. Bristol. 2015

Roman L. Wood

Compositional organization-In this project I studied and created a variety of compositional formats. These formats are spatial organizations and relationships. Every physical element has some sort of compositional format which is its structural foundation. Organizational formats that I specifically experimented with was cluster, grid, centralized, linear and radial. The spatial relationships were space within a space, interlocking spaces, adjacent spaces, and spaces linked by a common space.

X-Acto knife, Canson paper, Adobe Illustrator. 2015

Roman L. Wood

2-d Shape and composition-During this project I was challenged to create a traditional Notan composition; a purely black and white form or image that could reveal two different images or scenes. While drawing, I found myself having to make a mental center line on the bristol board where my mind could switch visual modes, creating a new outline that completely opposed the image or form it started from. By doing this, I was successfully able to bring about the effect of movement, where the eyes transition from one to another and also making it harder to view the image as a whole. I believe this is where the tension is, fighting to see both images but naturally or almost unwillingly jumping to either one or the other.

X-Acto knife, Canson paper, bristol. 2015

Roman L. Wood

2-d Shape and composition: In The Beginning/Children’s book-This is another project using Notan art. I created a paper-cut children’s book that tells the story of Creation. This book was intended primarily for infants because of their developing brains and eye site, only being able to see 8 to 12 inches away and only being able to focus on high contrast imagery that includes black, white and red. I published the book and now have it for sale in a few local Los Angeles children’s book stores and on-line. www.whatthefam.com/books.

X-Acto knife, Canson paper, Adobe Illustrator. 2015

Roman L. Wood

-The story is told through keywords in order help early readers with pronunciation and also using their imagination to fill in the gaps.

Roman L. Wood

-The text of each scene takes on the characteristics of the theme through color, format and size. It also compliments the form and movement of the Notan artwork with it’s own forms and movements.

Roman L. Wood

Shape, space and Texture:-In this section I covered shape, space and texture. I began by creating black and white, positive and negative spaces that displayed movement. Next, I experimented with compositions that demonstrated relationships with primary and abstract shapes, designing shapes that demonstrated either movement or stability. I then went on to experiment with symmetrical and asymmetrical or static and dynamic shapes and spaces. Lastly, I covered visual and tactile texture by creating a scale of visual textures and then actual physical textures with achromatic values, light to dark. With this scale, I textured one of the enlarged black and white designs.

X-Acto knife, bristol, Carson paper, magazine clippings of visual textures, variety of fabric textures, glue and double sided tape. 2015.

Roman L. Wood

Color Wheel Composition:Achromatic and Prismatic:-This color wheel composition demonstrates achromatic by mixing a variety amounts of black and white paints to create squares, when done correctly and put together this creates a range from black through gray on into white. The second piece demonstrates the basic understanding of prismatic colors by mixing paints to create secondary and tertiary colors. The primary colors of red, yellow and blue is what I started with, and then arranged them in a radial form according to their prism color order.

X-Acto knife, bristol, acrylic gouache, double sided tape. 2015.

Roman L. Wood

Analogous color: Analogous Hues:-In this section I covered analogous hues. I had worked my way through primary colors, secondary colors and tertiary colors. Each color in all three groups has tints and shades, which is either a lightening of whites or darkening using blacks. There are a large variety of hues that scale between black and white of each color. In this project, I chose three colors that are next to each other in the color wheel and created 3 squares of these colors with two tints to the left and two shades to the right. After this, I took the colors I had made and created a piece of art.

X-Acto knife, bristol, acrylic gouache, glue and double sided tape. 2015.

Roman L. Wood

Color Extension: Complementary Contrast:-In this piece I am exploring complementary colors. Each complementary color contains primary and secondary colors. When the complementary colors are contrasted in-between, we get chromatic grays, which are much more rich and vibrant than monochromatic grays we are used too. I started with 3 sets of complementary colors and mixed then carefully to make a chromatic gray that was then used as a shade to blend into the parent colors. After this, I developed a piece of art using one of the complementary color swatch sets.

X-Acto knife, bristol, acrylic gouache, glue and double sided tape. 2015.

Roman L. Wood

Cool and Warm Movement:-On this project I created a series of simple paper pop ups with moving and folding elements that also revealed some color design sequences that I learned in previous projects. The colors range from hot to cold and the theme is a cross between 2-bit video games and bold sans serif typeface. You can watch the 60 second action video here on YouTube.

X-Acto knife, bristol, Carson paper, acrylic gouache, glue and double sided tape. 2015.

Roman L. Wood