Design Principles | Task 2: Visual Analysis & Ideation
- Date: 02/03/2026 - 13/03/2026 (Week 5 - Week 6)
- Deadline: 13/03/2026 (Week 6)
- Aishath Eshal Shihab, 0381863
- Bachelor of Design (Honours) in Creative Media - Taylor's University
- Task 2: Visual Analysis & Ideation
Task 2 Recap
This task requires the us to investigate, document, and analyse the design work we selected in Task 1. We must study the design principles in that design work and propose ideas of our own inspired by the design. Conduct a visual analysis of the design. Articulate the observation and critical, analytical thoughts in about 300-400 words. Sketch 3 ideas inspired by the selected design. Describe each idea and support it with a rationale in about 30-50 words.
Design Work
https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/400924
Observation
The design work is in portrait format. In the centre there is a building that looks like a castle, on the bottom of the canvas there is a triangular shape that could be a mound or a hill. This can be concluded because in the lower right end of the painting there are humanoid or robotic figures that seem to be climbing uphill. While the whole painting has a beige, gloomy colour palette, there is one singular instance of a vibrant baby blue colour right behind the castle.
Analysis
This design uses contrast in colour to direct the viewers attention to the centre painting, using the bright blue against all the beige, brown that is otherwise used on the canvas. This same feature creates emphasis to give importance to the castle. Furthermore, the artist has filled the majority of the canvas with big, bold brush strokes all of the same colour, that go well with the other colours used in the painting, creating harmony.
Interpretation
The artist of this painting, Victor Hugo, was a celebrated novelist, who liked to keep his artwork private. This specific painting was created during the almost 20 year exile from France on Guernsey, in the Channel Islands, following Napoleon III's 1851 coup-d'etat, which Hugo vocally opposed to (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, n.d.). For this reason it is highly likely that the painting depicts the way the artist felt towards France in this period, gloomy and depressing. The painting pictures specifically the Vosges Mountains in France.
Sketches
The Hukuru Miskiy (Translation: Friday prayer mosque), a historical site in the Maldives, in the middle of the canvas, surrounded by waves, to represent the beautiful, blue oceans the country is known for.
The same castle, Castle of Vosges, but, in a different angle, surrounded by hills full of trees and lit up by a ray of sun. An opposing take on the original artwork, making it cheerful instead of gloomy.
The Hukuru Miskiy again, improved using the lecturer’s feedback, used a different building in the site to make it more recognisable, added palm trees to the bottom and a sky to the background to make the artwork more interesting.
https://share.google/sna3Uxe07d7StJB8o
Feedback
Week 5
Did not take feedback.
Week 6
This week, I had only finished the first 2 sketches so I only consulted those 2. I was told to proceed with my first idea but make the monument more recognizable and fill up the background.
References
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. (n.d.). Souvenir of a castle in vosges. https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/400924
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