Graphic Design: The New Basics - Scale

• A logo must be legible & recognisable at both a tiny scale and large scale.
• Some designs must be produced at multiple scales e.g. films on both cinema screens and handheld devices.
• Scale refers to the literal dimensions of a physical object or the literal correlation between a representation and the real thing it depicts objectively e.g. maps or scale models.
• Subjectively, scale refers to one's impression of an object's size - how it relates to the scale of our own bodies. When there is no relation to the human body, an image lacks scale.
• Contrast in scale is key to an interesting design - it creates tension as well as a sense of depth and movement - small = recede, large = move forward.
• Designers need sensitivity to scale in both web and print.
• Scale of an object is relative to the objects surrounding it.
• Changing the scale of familiar objects can create spacial illusions.
• Vector graphics are scalable - size can be changed without loss of quality.
• The quality of bitmap images will decrease when their size is changed.
• In 2D animation, changing the size of an object can create the illusion of zooming.

Design Task 1

For this task I chose words that were antonyms of each other and manipulated the scale and placement of the words to represent this.

Here I tried to make the word dry into an umbrella and the word wet into raindrops.

Design Task 2

Here I photographed small objects at angles to distort the viewers thoughts of scale.