My blog topics generally come from subject lines in my outbox or recent conversations that seem to reoccur…so here is one topic that is very general and interesting. It evolved from a discussion related to a building silhouette.
Let’ s focus on the nitty-gritty of “how it looks”. There is a hierarchy to how we perceive what is in front of us. It’s based on cognitive ways we process visual information ( and yes I was a fine arts major before my architectural career.)
So here’s the summary:
1. Shape or form
2. Contrast
3. Color
4. Texture
Shape or form clearly is king- it’s about size, curves, angles…it whey we go on diets. It’s usually the first adjective in our descriptions.
Contrast as #2 may be a surprise, but it fully makes sense when we squint and separate light from dark to help isolate and separate the elements that need to be distinguished.
Color is of course, the most highly subjective and difficult to describe. How many of us have heard people arguing about the color of an article of clothing? Color is also most of the 4 topics affected by culture, lighting, and context.
Texture is in a sense a collection of the 3 other topics in a different scale: the texture is a shape and line-based modulation in 3-d of a surface, the rougher the texture -the more it provides contrasting surface values. And naturally the color is affected by the smoothness, roughness, or ribbing etc of the material….
Naturally, each factor influences the others, as does the beholders opinion.
Let’s see how we can make your project more attractive…please call Steve at 914 674 2950.
