ARTIZEN: Critiquing the critics

WHAT are the areas to see when you want to judge a piece of art or a piece of design?
Here are some critical points to consider before one ventures into art critiquing and they are very interesting and fun to know: First there is (A)Elements of Art and then (B) Principles of Design.
So, what are these elements of art? They are 1. Line, 2. Perspective, 3. Shape, 4. Colour and 5. Texture. Once you know these, your art critiquing process gets easier. I have seen many art critics committing the same mistake: they write about when the painter started his career, when and where his first exhibition was held and what paintings are on display at the current exhibition. But they simply miss out on the very subject of art, the description and depth of an artist’s paintings. Whenever you have these points at hand, start working on them, and it will be an amazing piece of work. Both the biography of the artist and his work of art are important.
Principles of Design includes: 1.Rhythm and Movement, 2. Balance, 3. Proportion, 4. Variety and Emphasis and 5. Unity or Proximity.
The first one is formative, the second one is descriptive. Some say that art critiquing process needs description, analysis, interpretation, judgment and creditline. But it’s entirely up to the critic to consider which points to emphasise once his subject is identified.

FONTASIA

Hi everyone,

I WANT to share with you something an aspiring designer needs to know. I had a casual chat with a magazine head who wanted to improve the design of his pages. It seemed to me that the head was not very proficient with the idea of designing, nor the designers who were making their pages had good colour sense. Sometimes it’s offending to see abrupt use of direct colours. It's better for magazines and supplements not use direct pinks and magentas and cyans. And some have been using age-old logos that look like government seals and stamps. In this post, you will find some solutions:

COLOURS: It's important not use DIRECT colours; a mix of TWO or THREE on the DARKER TONE is advisable. If you already have a colour palette made or a colour style prepared, just pick up your choicest colour. Spend some time to prepare a colour chart.

STORY LENGTH & DISPLAY: Two equal sized stories placed side by side everyday is most likely to spoil the display. It’s like a children’s design. Everyday, a page cannot look the same. In this case, working with varieties helps. One story (the lead) has to be at least bigger than another in preferably a 6 against 2 column display one day, and 5 against 3 another day.

PHOTOGRAPHS: Photographers are toiling on the field while a designer sits in an air-conditioned room spoiling their efforts by abruptly cutting pics and to rub a pinch of salt to their wound, by giving a byline. Cropping of photographs needs some technique. For readers too, an unmanaged cropping is offending. All designers should also have some sense of photography. Discuss with your photographers what kind of pictures will alleviate your page. The editor will not bar a designer from talking to the photographers. Good designers have always liaised with photographers and production department.

DESIGNING IN A HURRY: Again, keeping a colour palette ready and available at hand will definitely save the time. Maintaining a library of stock photographs also helps.

HORIZONTAL VS VERTICAL: Making best use of the page space, one can play with horizontal and vertical display even in intros, blurbs and headlines. Playing vertical against horizontal automatically improves a page.

LAST BUT NOT THE LEAST: Don’t take it seriously. Designing is fun. If you don’t enjoy designing, maybe it’s not your job.

Joy and celebration

HAPPY DIWALI
THIS Diwali, wish you prosperity and good health. Let us make a pledge on this occasion: Let our actions be driven by conscience and not tendencies. Let us learn how to respect environment and the greens, for they are the resources we need to make our living. Let us embrace one another in true friendship and bring cheers in everyone's heart.

Still Growing

GUWAHATI has become a big city. Sometimes I feel it may have already surpassed the size of Pune. Though, populationwise, Pune is a much bigger city. I have to go to Nagaon through Guwahati, there is no other option and I had never liked Guwahati some ten years back. And I used to lament the bad condition of its roads. Now, it’s a different scenario altogether: Wide, polished roads passing through Maligaon and Lokhra and big shopping complexes: a city rapidly changing and all spruced up particularly after the India-Indonesia-Thailand tour, the National Games and the Asian Athletics—all events happening one after another. For Guwahatians, it may sound a bit weird, I missed the floating restaurant experience as the water had receded in Brahmaputra this time around. And if I had an inkling that it would take two hours without any traffic jam to reach the passport office in Beltola from Maligaon, I would have hired a helicopter service, if I could. But I enjoyed the ride as the city bus service is really good. We should now have a sky train or metro to connect it from one end to another.