What is positive space? Well, positive space is the subject, the object in the picture. Negative space is the background. Going off of this idea, I started to brainstorm different ideas.

I first thought of simple shapes, where a definite, well known shape is the positive space with a solid background as the negative space. Then from that idea, I started to think of well known shapes (stick figure human). From there I expanded my thinking to different kinds of positive space and different types of negative space, and that is where my prototypes come in.

 

 

 

(Flashback to middle school with all of the trifold projects)

 

My first prototype is simple. It is foam stickers on construction paper. It is obviously a person, and it is easy to see the positive space in this piece. I had the positive space be colorful and the background be a solid dark color, so the positive space could pop out and be easily visible. Both of the materials were flat. The foam had a little bit of thickness to it, but not much. But the foam still stuck out due to its material. A flat colorful subject on a flat dark solid color background.

My second prototype adds an element to the negative space and makes the positive space more simplistic. The negative space is a plastic patterned material while the positive space is a solid color of cut fabric. I cut it into the shape of an owl on a branch. Now, the negative space has an element that the positive space does not, yet the positive space (the owl figure) is still easily seen. A flat solid color subject on a flat patterned background.

My third prototype adds some dimensions to the idea of positive space. I have the background be colorful textured Play-Doh while the positive space is a human stick figure (mostly literally). Now it is very obvious what the subject of the design is, even though the background is very eye-catchingly interesting. The head of the person is a styrofoam sphere with a toothpick body and sparkly pipe cleaner legs. Going off the idea of adding dimensions, I created my fourth prototype. A dimensioned multi-material subject on a mixed colored textured background.

For my fourth prototype, both the positive space and negative space are made up of very similar objects. This one is not as obvious as the others to see, but there is a figure of a stick figure here. The background is made by puff balls while the body of the person is made from wooden spheres and sparkly puff balls. The head of the person is made from a sparkly bouncy ball. This one is less successful than the others because it is harder to see the subject. The figure is much more obscure than in the other designs. But, it was very interesting to see how it would turn out using only spherical objects. I tried to have the entire body made out of the small wooden spheres, but I ran out of materials, so I used the sparkly puff balls for his arms. This design is much more complex with color, texture, shape and thickness than the other designs. A colorful textured soft background with a similar shaped, color coordinated subject.

For my final prototype, I tried to have the background have dimensions while the subject be flat and simple. I tried to make it more simple, and the opposite from the idea of the third prototype. The background is made up of colorful foam building blocks while the positive space is a cut out of construction paper to look like a cat. I like the way this one turned out with all of the solid colors. It looks very pleasing to me. And I like cats. I like how the cat is a simple figure of just a single color and I like how it contrasts with the background. A flat solid color subject on a multi-colored thick background.

 

Overall I think that most of my prototypes were successful, except for the fourth one where there was too much going on. It was fun coming up with ideas to use different materials together. Through these prototypes, I was able to experiment with different ways to express positive space and how to have it stand out. I think that an effective way is to have a consistent background while having an active, or solid subject. Even though the fifth prototype had different color backgrounds, it was still solid without many changes, unlike the fourth prototype where it had tons of different colors everywhere with no pattern. It is easy to ignore a small pattern, like in the second prototype, when there is something more solid on top of it. Also, I think that the design looks cleaner when the subject is a solid color, like the second and the fifth prototypes. But overall, I got to handle different ways of creating positive space, and demonstrating those products.