Shape and Form

SHAPE & FORM
Lecture content
• Terminology & Types
• Human perceptions
Shape
oShape is a 2-dimensional object (it is flat)
oIt has height and width but no depth.
oIt is created either by an enclosing line or by color
or value changes defining the outer edge.
oThere are two general categories of shapes.
oGeometric Shapes & Organic Shapes
Types of shapes
• Geometric Shapes
are very regular or precise
are more often found in man-made things
 squares, rectangles, triangles, circles, oval, pentagons and so
on.
Types of shapes
Free-form or Organic Shapes
are irregular or uneven
are more often found in nature
 the shape of clouds, puddles, trees, leaves, rocks…
PRIMARY SHAPES
primary shapes: the circle, the triangle, and the square
circle
The circle is a
centralized,
introverted
figure that is
normally stable
and self-
centering in its
environment.
Triangle
• The triangle signifies stability. When resting on one of its
sides, the triangle is an extremely stable figure.
• When tipped to stand on one of its vertices, however, it can
either be balanced in a precarious state of equilibrium or
be unstable and tend to fall over onto one of its sides.
Square
• It is a static and neutral figure having no preferred

direction.
• All other rectangles can be considered variations of the
square—deviations from the norm by the addition of
height or width.
• Like the triangle, the square is stable when resting on
one of its sides, and dynamic when standing on one its
corners.
Form
oA form is 3-Dimensional.
oIt has height, width AND depth.
o3-D art, such as sculptures,
architecture and crafts, is
composed of forms.
oIn 2-D art, artists can only
create the illusion of form.
Form
• PROPERTIES OF FORM
• Visual properties : representations of

conceptual elements on a material medium.
• Relational properties: properties which
govern the pattern and composition of
elements:
Visual Properties of form
•Shape: is the principal aspect by which we
identify and categorize forms.
•Size: The physical dimensions of length,
width, and depth of a form. While these
dimensions determine the proportions of a
form, its scale is determined by its size
relative to other forms in its context.
•Color: is the attribute that most clearly
distinguishes a form from its environment. It
also affects the visual weight of a form.
•Texture: The visual and especially tactile
quality given to a surface by the size, shape,
arrangement, and proportions of the parts.
Relational properties
• Position: The location of a form relative
to its environment or the visual field
within which it is seen.
• Orientation: The direction of a form
relative to the ground plane, the
compass points, other forms, or to the
person viewing the form.
• Visual Inertia: The degree of
concentration and stability of a form. The
visual inertia of a form depends on its
geometry as well as its orientation
relative to the ground plane, the pull of
gravity, and our line of sight.
Primary solids
Primary shapes
extended or rotated
to generate
volumetric forms or
solids that are
distinct, regular, and
easily recognizable.
Primary solids
SPHERE
A solid generated by the revolution of a
semicircle about its diameter, whose
surface is at all points equidistant from
the center
CYLINDER
A solid generated by the revolution of a
rectangle about one of its sides.
Primary solids
CONE
A solid generated by the revolution of
a right-angle triangle about one of
its sides.
PYRAMID
A polyhedron having a polygonal
base and triangular faces meeting at
a common point or vertex.
Primary solids
CUBE
A prismatic solid
bounded by six
equal square sides,
the angle between
any two adjacent
faces being a right
angle.
Regular and Irregular Form
• Regular forms refer
to those whose parts
are related to one
another in a
consistent and
orderly manner
• Forms can retain
their regularity even
when transformed
Regular and Irregular Form
Irregular forms are those whose

parts are dissimilar in nature and
related to one another in an
inconsistent manner.
Since we deal with both solid
masses and spatial voids in
architecture, regular forms can be
contained within irregular forms. In
a similar manner, irregular forms
can be enclosed by regular forms.
19
projects of architect Frank Gehry, using

the concept design of the irregular forms .
Perception (A Designer’s perspective)
• Perception Vs. sensation
• Sensation:
• refers to the immediate, relatively unprocessed result of
stimulation of sensory receptors in the eyes, ears, nose, tongue,
or skin.
• Perception:
• a process by which organisms interpret and organize sensation
to produce a meaningful experience of the world.
• Better describes one’s ultimate experience of the world and
typically involves further processing of sensory input.
Perception
• In practice, sensation and perception are virtually impossible to separate,
because they are part of one continuous process.
How do we perceive?
• Organizing raw sensory stimuli into meaningful experiences
involves cognition, a set of mental activities that includes thinking,
knowing, and remembering.
• Knowledge + experience
• Figure and ground

• Gestalt laws of grouping
Figure and Ground
• What we visually attend to at any time is called figure, and it is always against
some kind of background.
• Not only does perception involve organization and grouping, it also involves
distinguishing an object from its surroundings.
Few important observation about figure and ground

• Figure and ground cannot be seen simultaneously, but can be seen
successively.
• Even though the figure and ground are in the same physical plane, the figure
often appears nearer to the observer.
• Figure is seen as having contour; ground is not.
Gestalt laws of grouping
• Proximity
• Similarity
• Continuity
• Closure
• Common Fate
• Simplicity
Proximity
• The closer objects are to one another, the more likely we are to
mentally group them together
Similarity
• The law of similarity leads us to link together parts of the visual
field that are similar in color, lightness, texture, shape, or any other
quality.
rows of objects or columns of

objects?
Continuity
• The law of continuity leads us to see a line as continuing in a
particular direction, rather than making an abrupt turn.
Closure
• According to the law of closure, we prefer complete forms to
incomplete forms.
Common Fate
• The law of common fate leads us to group together objects that
move in the same direction.
Because of this principle, we

often see flocks of birds or
schools of fish as one unit.
Simplicity
• This general notion, encompasses all other Gestalt laws.
• This law states that people intuitively prefer the simplest, most stable of
possible organizations.
• Three overlapping disks?
• One whole disk and two partial disks with slices cut out of
their right sides?
• A top view of three-dimensional, cylindrical objects?
THE ROLE OF CONTEXT
• The context in which an object appears influences our perception of it.
• Visual experience is useful because it creates memories of past stimuli that
can later serve as a context for perceiving new stimuli.
THE ROLE OF CONTEXT
Rat?
Man?
THE ROLE OF CONTEXT
• Although context is useful most of the time, on some rare occasions context
can lead you to misperceive a stimulus.
Which green circle is bigger?

Design Exercise one:
Creation of pattern by Primary shapes
interpret the list of words below by just

using one shape.
could change the size and scale of the
shape but had to use either a circle,
square and triangle
Harmony,
Chaos,
Loud,
Order,
Heavy and
Dynamic
Thank you!!

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SHAPE & FORM

• It is a static and neutral figure having no preferred

• Visual properties : representations of

Irregular forms are those whose

projects of architect Frank Gehry, using

• Figure and ground

Few important observation about figure and ground

rows of objects or columns of

Because of this principle, we

Which green circle is bigger?

interpret the list of words below by just

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