11 of 365 - Biophilia effect design principle by John LeMasney via lemasney.com
11 of 365 – Biophilia effect design principle by John LeMasney via lemasney.com
The biophilia effect is the idea that when we are placed in environments that contain or seem to contain nature, we are more likely to be able to heal physically and emotionally, think more creatively, and generally function better. In environments where these outcomes are intended, it is preferable to create a natural environment or one where nature appears by posters, installations, or other means.
In this illustration, I show two large plate window environments, one where there is a brick walled view, and one in which there is a bamboo grove. The bamboo grove view, fairly immersive, would theoretically create a more creative, healing environment, regardless of if they were actually there or simply appeared to be there.
In the illustration I’ve made here, I took an average image of a female face and exaggerated the eyes, and diminished the nose and mouth to make a baby-faced bias in the viewer.
9 of 365 - attractiveness bias design principle by John LeMasney via lemasney.com
9 of 365 – attractiveness bias design principle by John LeMasney via lemasney.com
Attractiveness bias is a design principle that allows designers to act upon noted preferences in humans for (typically) other humans who seem to be whole, symmetrical, appear genetically and otherwise healthy, and nutritionally sound. A commonly cited example for attractiveness bias is the televised debate between Nixon and Kennedy, where people who saw the debate said overwhelmingly that Kennedy won the debate, and those who only listened to the debate felt generally that Nixon won the debate. The difference can be explained in the differences in their appearances, where Kennedy is said to have looked younger, stronger, more healthy, more attractive, and more steady than Nixon in the debate.
In my illustration here, I decided to take an attractive image of a female and alter her feature symmetry and skin tone to make her less attractive, and thus less preferred.
8 of 365 - Area alignment design principle by John LeMasney via lemasney.com
Area alignment design principle cc-by lemasney.com
The design principle of area alignment says that when you have a series of objects to be aligned that do not have regular shapes, that it is more aesthetically pleasing to centrally align them according to their area and weight than by central alignment of the bounding boxes.
In the illustration I’ve made here, the birds to the left are centrally aligned according to the centers of the bounding boxes, and the birds to the right are centrally aligned according to their area, form, and weight. The area aligned images are more pleasing as a series of aligned objects. These are two different ways of thinking about layout of related objects in a design plane.
“Alignment based on the area of elements versus the edges of elements.  With the advent of professional design and engineering software, elements in a design can be aligned with exacting precision. However, the alignment supported by software is based on the edges of elements — including center alignment, which calculates a center based on the edges. This method works well when elements are relatively uniform and symmetrical, but less well when the elements are nonuniform and asymmetrical. In these latter cases, it is preferable to align based on the visual weight or area of the elements, a technique that must be performed using the designer’s eye and judgment. Using edge alignment when area alignment is called for is one of the …” found in Area Alignment – Universal Principles of Design, Revised and Updated: 125 Ways to Enhance Usability, Influence Perception, Increase Appeal, Make Better Design Decisions, and Teach through Design [Book] at https://goo.gl/exykFB
7 of 365 - Archetypes design principle by John LeMasney via lemasney.com
7 of 365 – Archetypes design principle by John LeMasney via lemasney.com
Archetypes allow designers to make good design decisions about the alignment of the emotional content of a design and the best use of color, line, fonts and other design elements. Archetypes can be classic ones, such as good and evil, sweet and bitter, happy and sad, but can also be much more subtle. Nike tends to make use of the battered hero archetype, using photos of athletes in heroic poses and stark visual conditions. Coca Cola makes use of the happy stereotype, always showing people in the best of moods. These brands could go against archetype, but because there is a certain kind of alignment between those types and the brand, it should not.
In my illustration here, I used a Zen, minimalist archetype to illustrate the traditional zen quote “Catch the vigorous horse of your mind”. I might have chosen to go with a pop approach, or an angry type, but the message and its treatment would have been in conflict.
6 of 365 - anthropomorphic design principle by John LeMasney via lemasney.com
6 of 365 – anthropomorphic design principle by John LeMasney via lemasney.com
Anthropomorphic design is a method by which a designer makes use of angles and curves that are inspired by the human form to evoke certain emotional responses from the user of the design. For example, the classic Coca Cola bottle makes use of anthropomorphic design and reminds the user of the curves of the female body. One might also play with the proportions and silhouette of a form to remind the user of babies or men to evoke reasonable emotional responses to those ends. Designs that have content that is aggressive, safe, loving, stable, or kind might make use of anthropomorphic forms to evoke those responses in a subconscious way.
In this illustration, I decided to start with 4 female silhouettes, using half of each to create a form that repeats and reverses the half. Then, I created a container inspired by the result of the silhouette experiment. There is no clear connection between the end results and their inspirations, but each of them has a character to them that speaks to the original forms.
