Slide outline for Lesson 4.6. Fourteen slides, one day. Slides 3 to 10 are the element cards; they come back as the review before the Design Vocabulary Check. [Sal: the described photos should be replaced by photos of real rooms, and the classroom slide by a photo of your room.]
Elements of Design
- Lesson 4.6
- Today: the eight things every room is made of, and how to see them
- Then: you move them
Teacher notes
Image: a plain living room photo with no labels yet.
Do now
- Look around this room. Write three words for what you see.
- Not objects. Not "desk" or "sink."
- Words like straight, round, rough, bright, crowded, empty
- Two minutes
Teacher notes
Cold call six students, one word each. Group them on the board as you write: straight goes to line, round to shape, rough to texture, bright to light, crowded to space. They just named five elements.
Line
- The direction your eye follows
- Vertical: tall, formal. Horizontal: calm, wide. Diagonal: active. Curved: soft.
- Where in this room? The cabinet doors, the table edges, the clock
Teacher notes
Image: a room where tall bookshelves, a low couch, and a curved lamp are each outlined in a different color.
Under the title, the word in Turkish (çizgi), Portuguese (linha), Spanish (línea). Same for every element slide.
Shape
- A flat outline: round, square, triangle
- Shape is the drawing
Teacher notes
Image: the same room with the round table top, the rectangular window, and the circles in a painting outlined.
Form
- The 3D thing you can walk around
- Form is the object
- Hold up a piece of paper (shape) and a mug (form)
Teacher notes
Image: a chair photographed from three angles.
This is the pair students confuse. Say "shape is the drawing, form is the thing" and hold up the paper and the mug.
Space
- The room itself, and what fills it
- Positive space: where the things are. Negative space: where they are not.
- Empty is not wasted. Empty is breathing room.
Teacher notes
Image: two versions of the same room, one packed to the walls, one with an open corner.
Color
- Warm (red, orange, yellow) or cool (blue, green, purple)
- Light or dark
- Full lesson on Wednesday with frosting. Today, just notice it.
Teacher notes
Image: two identical rooms, one painted warm, one cool.
Texture
- How a surface feels, or looks like it feels
- Rough or smooth, soft or hard, shiny or matte
- Touch what you are allowed to touch
Teacher notes
Image: close-ups of a wool blanket, a brick wall, a glass table, a velvet pillow.
Pattern
- A design that repeats
- Stripes, checks, diamonds, florals, tiles
- One pattern is a choice. Five patterns is a fight.
Teacher notes
Image: a rug with a diamond pattern next to striped curtains.
Light
- Natural: windows, doors, skylights
- Artificial: ceiling fixtures, lamps
- Light changes every other element. The same room is a different room at noon and at night.
Teacher notes
Image: the same room photographed in daylight and at night with one lamp on.
Hunt A, the described living room
- Read it twice on the handout
- Long and narrow; two tall windows; a pale warm gray wall; a dark blue nubby couch; a round shiny table; a diamond rug; a packed bookshelf; a curved lamp; an empty corner; a bare white brick wall; orange circles over the couch
- Find all eight. Write what each one does to the feel.
Teacher notes
Image: a drawing of that room, matching the description.
Teams of three. Five minutes here, five on Hunt B.
Hunt B, this room
- Stand up. Find all eight in here.
- "The ___ makes the room feel ___"
- Five minutes
Teacher notes
Image: a photo of the classroom.
Circulate with the clipboard. The question is always: and what does that do to the room?
Rearrange the room
- A bed under the window; a desk facing the wall in the dark corner; a rug in the middle; a tall bookshelf beside the door; everything pushed to one side
- Redraw it so at least three elements change
- One line per change: what changed and why it is better
- Or draw your own bedroom (no address, no names)
Teacher notes
Image: a rough top-down sketch of that bedroom.
Nine minutes. Keep the sketches; they are the first draft for the project in Lesson 4.11.
Exit card
- 3 elements you can find in your own room tonight
- 2 elements you changed in your sketch
- 1 element you are still not sure about
- Hand vote: which one element changes a room the most?
Teacher notes
Light and space usually win. Read three line-3 answers and answer each in one sentence.