Design Principles- Task 2: Visual Analysis
17/2/25 - 3/3/25 // Week 3 - Week 5
Chuah Shu En // 0368157
Design Principles // Bachelors of Design (Honours) in Creative Media
Task 2: Visual Analysis
Table of Contents
1. Instructions
2. Brief Recap
3. Task
4. Feedback
Instructions
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Task 2 Brief Recap
Visual Analysis:
A method of understanding design which focuses on visual elements and principles, describing and explaining them. Through visual analysis we can also better recognize what the designer wants to communicate through their design choices. It is also a critical part of visual literacy, a skill that helps people think and critically interpret what they consume visually.
Phase 1- Observation:
Closely looking and identifying visual elements in a design without researching about the design beforehand.
Phase 2- Analysis:
Thinking about the observations made and making statements about the work based on those observations. For example, specific visual elements that have been identified and how they follow design principles and it's effects on the viewer.
Phase 3- Interpretation:
The observations, description and analysis of the work are fused with facts about the design and sometimes designer. For example, the meaning and purpose of the design.
Task
- Write a 300-350 word visual analysis of the selected artwork;
Fig 1.1, Selected artwork (17/2/25)
Sarkaz's Furnaceside Fables
Artist: HISKNNIA
Year: 2024
Medium: Digital
Size: 2867px X 5100px
Phase 1- Observation:
This artwork is in landscape format. In the center, there is a girl with long curly pink hair, horns and a tail wearing a dress with belts and accessories that visually represent heart-shaped lockets with a keyhole. She has her left hand on her chest whereas her right hand is grasping some sort of light. On the sides are pieces of shattered glass/mirror which reflect different scenes such as a man standing behind an explosion, a woman with horns looking melancholic and a graveyard. There is a bright void and dark vignette behind everything while the brand text sits at the top and bottom corners. As for the visual elements, the colours of the main focus are shades of pink, white and black.
Phase 2- Analysis:
This design places emphasis on the girl by placing her at the center of the canvas and by using brighter, more saturated colours and lighting techniques such that the viewer focuses on her first instead of the darker areas of the artwork (contrast). The shattered mirror/glass also uses movement to point us to her direction, further pushing the viewer to look at her. In one of the scenes on the shattered mirror/glass there is a repetition of tombstones that can be seen in the top right of the artwork. Using the right word and image combination, we are able to recognize which franchise this artwork is tied to (Arknights).
Phase 3- Interpretation:
This is a promotional artwork designed by HISKNNIA for the 2025 release of a new roguelike game mode in Arknights called 'Intergrated Strategies #5: Sarkaz's Furnaceside Fables' which features the character 'Nymph', namely the pink haired girl in focus. In the game's story, the people with horns have faced countless struggles throughout history and the fragments of the shattered glass/mirror show us past events that happened. The girl at the center with her hand reaching forward is from a modern time where those struggles still exist but the race as a whole is moving forward with the hope of a better future- (reaching towards the light). I think it's a symbolization of learning from the past and pushing forward.
(355 words)
- Next, using your design principles knowledge, sketch 3 ideas on how the design can be improved. Describe each idea and support it with a rationale in about 30-50 words.
Sketch #1:
Fig 1.2, Sketch #1 (23/2/25)
This idea has the artwork in portrait mode but with similar design principles as the original such as movement and emphasis. Using a longer canvas could make it look like the distance between the light and darkness stretches longer.
Fig 1.3, Sketch #2 (23/2/25)
The second idea is has the shattered glass emerging from the bottom instead of all around and the main character looking up. This creates a sense of direction for the viewer as the main elements are facing the same direction.
Feedback
Week 3:
Add artwork credits.
Week 4:
-
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