Monday, February 6, 2012

The Elements & Principles of Design Icons



These are handouts that I created for my practicum in visual arts this fall. I had the chance to teach the elements & principles unit for grade 9 and 10 and faced the challenge of trying to make these terms easily accessible for a range of students.

I found that by going though each element and principle with examples from art history, and then applying this in a studio session, the students got the concepts. The problem was then being able to remember them all.

I tried these handouts and they worked surprisingly well. I gave out blank versions, and had the students fill out each term and definition as we covered them in class. The important part is the final step, the icon, where I asked students to come up with an icon that mattered to them, and that they felt comfortable drawing. This way, the terms were reinforced with an immediate visual reference that is more memerorable than a definition- the handouts also work well as a study sheet for the final exam.

A full Elements and Principles of Design Unit plan (complete with lesson plans) is also available on my Teachers Pay Teachers site, here.

The letter-size worksheets by themselves (without the lesson plans) are available on my Teachers Pay Teachers site, here.


- Patrick

8 comments:

  1. Are the students supposed to know and study these terms Mr. Butler? Or are they just for our reference?

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    1. These can definitely be used as a reference for educators. As for student learning, it depends on the level, but yes, ideally, the students would become familiar with these terms and how to use them in their artwork.

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  2. These are the best elements of art and principles of design posters I have seen. Really simple, clear and easy for students to identify what each principle is about. Great idea to use the same subject, so students can see what the difference is between them. Thank you for creating!

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  3. Hello Patrick,
    We are working on a group presentation for a university course. We stumbled across this diagram on Pinterest and finally seem to have found the author. :-) How do we go about getting permission from you for non commercial use? Thanks!

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    1. Thanks for reaching out! You are welcome to use my elements and principles of design sheets for non-commercial use.

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  4. Hi Patrick - I tried to find your email but couldn't locate it. I am digitizing textile design training I did in Armenia for the upcoming Smithsonian EdEx platform. I used these handouts during the in person training in 2018, but now that my course will be online, would I have permission to use these? I have this listed for source at the bottom of the slide - Source: Patrick Butler, www.splitcomplementary.blogspot.com. As a side, this will be a free course through the Smithsonian, not paid. If you would let me know that would be great! Lesli Robertson

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    1. That sounds great! Yes, you have my permission to use them for educational, non-profit purposes.

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