Visual Design is a fundamental skill for Industrial Designers. It is important for the design a graphical user interface, to communicate their ideas to a customer and create visual appealing products. The recent developments of computers and software enabled the designer to express his or her creative ideas faster and more precise, given sufficient knowledge about the software tools and techniques. The students shall develop a visual sensitivity that enables them to perceive and create visual designs. This includes awareness of colors, typography and composition. At the same time they should learn the technical foundations that enable them to use visual design tools effectively and efficiently. The activities include the creation of several visual designs, such as a product information flyer, a report and a magazine article. In a final bigger design the students will demonstrate their visual design skills. More details will be available at the start of the assignment. A sequence of obligatory discussion sessions will accompany the assignment.
Material
- The lecture notes of this assignment: Visual Design Course Reader
- Video of session 1
- Video of session 2
- Video of session 3
- Video of session 4
Useful Books
- Praktische Typografie by Ralf Turtschi – view at Amazon.de
- The complete guide to colour by Tom Fraser – view at Amazon.de
- The complete manual of typography by James Felici – view at Amazon.de
- Making and breaking the grid by Timothy Samara – view at Amazon.de
- Grafisch ontwerpen by David Dabner – view at Librero
- Design en Lay-out by David Dabner – view at Librero
Relevant links
- Placeholder Text Generator (lore ipsum)
- Color Management Guide. Click on “The color of toast”
- International Color Consortium (ICC)
- Art Directors Toolkit – A unit and conversion tool
- Reference Manager – Tool to manage your references. Available from the TU/e
- Endnote – A cross platform reference manger. Best tool for the Mac.
- Zotero – A Firefox based free reference manager
- Good Tutorials – Tutorials on how to create many moderns visual effects.
- Identify Font – Identify fonts by answering a series of questions.
- Optical Illusions – A summary of optical illusions that can be tried out.
- 50 Totally Free Lessons in Graphic Design Theory
I can recommend http://tutsplus.com/ as a tutorial repository. They’ve got excellent tutorials on a wide range of subject. If you need some inspiration/instruction on Vectors, PSD, After Effects, Audio or Web development: check it out!