Basic Shape Forms 16

Today’s design is a simple illustration of a light bulb, but I used basic shape forms to create it. This is were I’m headed with the Basic shape forms, using them to create simple illustrations of common objects.

The bulb is created using a circle, the filament is a triangle with repeated circles to represent the coil. The base is created with a square with overlaid ovals to create the basic effect of the screw threads. Very simple stuff but with the proper placement of all the components and the right colors, it’s a pretty effective image.

If you haven’t read the previous post about submitting ideas for the next project please read the details here. Thanks.

See you all tomorrow.
Sean

Audience Participation Please!

After I finish up the Basic Shape Forms project I will spend the remainder of the month of May experimenting with textures. Texture and color are important aspects of art, imagery and design. I have used the previous Typographic Shape Forms and Basic Shape Forms projects as a means to experiment with color and I will continue to experiment with color in most future projects. But, I wanted to finish out the month of May with another basic concept before moving on to more exciting things and I think texture is a good topic to explore for a few days.

Beginning In June I will begin the first installment of more exciting things. I’ve been thinking about a theme for creating some basic layouts that can incorporate both typography and shape forms and I have been recently inspired by some images of some vintage book covers, posters and album covers. So, my idea is this; I am thinking about taking a word or a short phrase and creating a design around that word or phrase by combining typography with basic shape forms.

I don’t want to tie myself to a specific style but the imagery that initially comes to my mind for inspiration on this project is the graphic design of Saul Bass. Saul Bass became wildly popular in the 1960’s for revolutionizing the title sequences of movies. He used typography, basic color and basic shape forms combined with animation to create opening title sequences that would set the tone for the film. He also designed movie posters, among many other things. You will recognize his work if you are familiar with the movie art work used for films such as, Vertigo, The Man With The Golden Arm and West Side Story. These are just to name a few. This is roughly the the style I will be inspired by to get me started.

I have started jotting down interesting words and and phrases to get me started, but I wanted to illicit the assistance of my audience. It will help me to build up a library of potential words and phrases to draw from. It will also be more of a real-world creative challenge for me to use concepts provided by different people rather than coming up with all of them on my own. Here is what I am looking for, any single word that seems interesting, any common phrases or figures of speech, any actual title of a book, album or movie, or any arbitrary combination of words that sound interesting together. Here are a few that I have come up with:

1.) black and white
2.) puddles of destruction
3.) Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter
4.) blood from a stone
5.) the eleventh hour

Please submit any ideas in the comment field below this post, or any other post. I will appreciate any ideas submitted but please keep them PG/PG-13. I will not accept profanity or other tasteless content so be nice:).

Thanks!
Sean