1 point
“An idea is a point of departure and no more. As soon as you elaborate it, it becomes transformed by thought.”
PABLO PICASSO (SPANISH, 1881–1973) Painter, Sculptor
point \'p
int\ n
4 a: a geometric element that has zero dimensions and a location determinable by an ordered set of coordinates
A point is the fundamental building block of all visual communication design elements and principles. It is also the simplest and purest of all geometric elements in a graphic designer’s vocabulary and used as an essential element in geometry, physics, vector graphics, and other related fields.
Definitions
A point has many definitions. It is often considered within the framework of Euclidean geometry, where it is one of the fundamental objects. Euclid (Greek, c. 300 BCE), creator of modern geometry, originally defined the point vaguely, as “that which has no part.”
It is an abstract phenomenon indicating a precise location; however, it cannot be seen or felt. It is a location or place without area. In typography, a point is a period. It is a dot character such as a full stop, decimal point, or radix point. It is also the smallest unit of measurement, being a subdivision of the larger pica—one point is equal to 0.0148 inches, 1/72 of an inch, whereby twelve (12) points equals one pica. It also describes the weight or thickness of paper stock.
Paris Diderot Université’s logotype is literally based on an “X marks the spot” graphic representation or, in this case, the intersection of two visual elements or lines creating a singular point. Additionally, the dots of the lowercase i’s in the words Paris and Diderot are shared to create a visual focal point and integration between the two words, providing a much stronger and cohesive unity to the overall message.
CATHERINE ZASK
Paris, FR
The website for Olin, a landscape architecture, urban design, and planning firm, relies solely upon varied size points, or dots, as the primary navigational tools for accessing specific information, such as profile, project types, and news on the firm. It also visually symbolizes the macrocosm and microcosm of the organization through the fluid, kinetic movements of the site’s interface, further conveying Olin as an organic, living entity.
PENTAGRAM
New York, NY, USA
1910
AEG Lamp Poster
PETER BEHRENS
Munich, DE
Peter Behrens and the AEG Brand
PETER BEHRENS (1868–1940) was a true visionary and the first Renaissance designer of the modern age, moving with ease from one discipline to another—painting, architecture, product design, furniture design, and graphic design. His creative interests were boundless. Behrens was the first to pursue a seamless integration of visual communications and architecture and was an inspiration to the founders of the modernist movement.
As a young man, he worked as a fine artist, illustrator, and bookbinder in his native Hamburg. In 1899, Behrens became the second member of the recently created Darmstadt Artists’ Colony, where he designed and built his own house as well as everything inside it—from furniture and textiles to paintings and pottery. While at Darmstadt, he realized that he was more interested in simplified geometric forms than the more organic and curvilinear forms of the current Jugendstil (New Art) or Art Nouveau. In the early 1900s, he became one of the leaders of architectural reform in Germany and one of the first architects of factories and office buildings utilizing a modernist materials palette of brick, steel, and glass.
As a teacher, his ideas and teachings on design for industry, as well as everyday objects and products, influenced a group of students that would ultimately alter the direction of twentieth-century architecture and design worldwide, including Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (German, 1886–1969), Le Corbusier (Swiss, 1887–1965), Adolf Meyer (German, 1843–1942), and Walter Gropius (German, 1883–1969), founder of the Bauhaus school in Dessau, Germany.
In 1907, Allegemein Elektricitäts-Gesellschaft (AEG), Germany’s largest electrical utility and industrial producer, hired Behrens as its new artistic consultant. It was at AEG that he created a unified brand for every aspect of the company’s visual environment—office buildings, factories, and visual communication materials.
A primary example of Behrens’s design philosophy at AEG was a promotional poster advertising AEG’S newest product in 1910—a technologically advanced lamp or lightbulb. The design of the poster is clearly based on fundamental modernist design elements and principles. Its orthogonal graphic composition is organized with an articulated grid and comprises basic geometric shapes—a continuous frame or square, a circle, and an equilateral triangle. The triangle provides a focal location for the lightbulb and a simplified, abstract dot pattern represents brilliance and illumination. The pattern and lines framing and dividing the composition of the poster, as well as the outline of the circle and triangle, are all composed of a series of dots or points, which symbolize and communicate light.
In defining his approach, he stated, “Design is not about decorating functional forms—it is about creating forms that accord with the character of the object and that show new technologies to advantage.”
His visionary approach not only influenced the entire AEG corporate culture, it became the first seminal example of corporate identity and branding that would inevitably become a primary force within the design professions in the later part of the twentieth century.
This book cover for The Verificationist uses a diminuitive-scaled, universal symbol of man as a visual metaphor that supports the book’s title and main character—a middle-aged psychotherapist in the midst of a midlife crisis. The head of the symbol—a point represented in a larger scale—is divorced and distant from its body, creating an immediate and jarring focal point to an otherwise restrained graphic cover composition.
JOHN GALL
New York, NY, USA
Visual Characteristics
In visual communications, a point takes the form of a visible mark or dot. It can stand alone, identified solely by its own presence, or become an integrated element of a larger collective whole. A point can be realized in many ways and take on many graphic forms. A series of points can create a line. A mass of points can create shape, form, texture, tone, and pattern. Although it is a visible mark, it has no mass. It is a design element that has a location in space but has no extension. It is defined by its position in space with a pair of x- and y-coordinates.
Every shape or mass with a recognizable center is also a point, no matter what its size. A point simultaneously radiates inward and outward. An infinite set of points is also a line. Any two points can be connected by a straight line. A plane or shape with a center is a closed form and can also be described as a point. Even when its size is increased, it still retains its essential identity as a point.
Point—or dot—is shown in a variety of different forms, scales, and configurations throughout this monograph brochure on the work of Japanese avant-garde artist Yayoi Kusama. Dot matrix letterforms, die-cut circles, varying-scale dot patterns, dot-patterned images, and linear dotted frames juxtaposed with black and white, as well as saturated, intense color fields, all add to the visual celebration of this artist’s work.
SANG LEE JIN, Student
TRACY BOYCHUK, Instructor
SCHOOL OF VISUAL ARTS
New York, NY, USA
Conventional offset printing is also solely based on a point, since it is the single common denominator for creating color, tone, value, gradients, and halftones. A spatial point describes a specific object within a given space that consists of volume, area, length, or any other higher dimensional form. It is an object with zero dimensions.
While it can be defined in many ways and take on a variety of visual realities, when used in a meaningful scale and in an appropriate context, a point can communicate a multitude of visual meanings.
This assignment requires sophomore students to consider fundamental design elements—in this case, point—found in their environment and in everyday objects. With photography they explore their surroundings and document examples of point found in surprising and intriguing situations. The final images are cropped to a 3 X 3-inch (7.6 X 7.6 cm) square and then composed in a 3 X 3-inch (7.6 X 7.6 cm) nine-square layout, further communicating the student’s analysis of relationships in form, color, texture, scale, and contrast between the various images. This assignment increases their understanding of fundamental design elements, their awareness of the natural and built environment, them becoming more at ease with using a camera, and composing photographic images with software such as Camera Raw, Adobe Photoshop, and Adobe Bridge.
NEIL AGUINALDO, Student
ANNABELLE GOULD, Instructor
UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON
Seattle, WA, USA
A free-form mass of minuscule, graphic points is the primary visual element of this identity program for the Museum of the African Diaspora (MoAD), a first-voice museum that explores and celebrates the history, culture, and contributions of the people of the African Diaspora around the world. These graphic points, in this context, communicate the brand and mission of the institution and can be found in the building’s architecture, exhibition design, graphic identity, collateral materials, and environmental graphics. Here, the museum’s acronym and logotype comprise thousands of points, further reinforcing that the MoAD is about the individual's own unique experiences.
SUSSMAN/PREJZA & COMPANY
Los Angeles, CA, USA
This simple, iconic eclipse logotype represents summer as well as the elements of risk and mystery found in the diverse work of the performing artists appearing at this independent theater and arts festival in Toronto, Ontario. An organizational grid of different suns based on a common graphic point and juxtaposed on an intense, neon-yellow background further reinforces this message, and creates an eye-catching and memorable visual for the festival.
MONNET DESIGN
Toronto, ONT, CA
This information-based poster, titled The Shape of Globalization: World Auto Industry, designed for the U.S. Department of Energy, documents the designer’s analysis of the global auto manufacturing industry and its impact on sales and use throughout the world. The poster is composed of a series of points—dots and circles of varying scale, used as primary identification elements for specific auto types, manufacturers, brands, and subsidiaries. Adjacent and overlapping circles communicate statistical data relating to the collaborative partnerships between two or more automakers. Color is used as a codification for the six primary countries that produce automobiles and trucks worldwide.
CHRISTINA VAN VLECK
Lexington, MA, USA
This visual identity system for Huasen Architecture Company’s exhibition, titled Seeds of the Cities, relies solely on perforated letterforms derived from a series of LED indicator displays found throughout the traveling exhibition. These dot-based characters and symbols are either printed or literally punched through various paper stocks for the project logotype, posters, exhibition catalog, invitations, and shopping bags. In some situations, these dot-based characters are composed as a visual continuum, similar to a typical LED zipper display, where the information is literally traveling from one surface to another.
SENSE TEAM
Shenzhen, CN
The branding program for L'Observatoire, a lighting design studio, relies on the interplay of light and shadow as its primary graphic theme coupled with the fine line stroke and pure geometry of a Sans Serif Geometric typeface, Larseit (Nico Inosanto, 2013). The logotype's use of two different scale points, one for an apostrophe and the other for the O of the firm's name, reinforces its singular clarity and focus.
TRIBORO
New York, NY, USA
