Design Visualization: Exploring Design Visualization Through the Art Fundamentals

Artistic principles of presentation are the most influential factors in formation of the observer's interpretation of a certain object. Artists use these principles to enhance the communication of their ideas to their audience. This book aims to teach and emphasise the importance of these principles to designers so that they too, like artists, can present their ideas more expressively and communicate more easily with their audience. This book is intended to raise the artistic knowledge and perceptions of designers, which will be realised through observation the work of masters of art and analysis of the masters' presentation methods, followed by offering ways of effectively applying these methods to the visualisation and representation of design ideas. The book also describes the application of these principles to visualisation and rendering, providing step-by-step examples. These examples include both digital and freehand drawing techniques as well as their combinations. The book offers simple steps for the visualisation, each of which is taught analytically and illustratively.

About the Author :
Shima Rabiee is both an artist and designer. She has practiced as a landscape designer (at collaborative design and planning firms) in New York City, San Francisco, Boston, and Houston. She earned her Master's degree in landscape architecture from the University of Pennsylvania. Prior to that, she earned her Bachelor of Architecture and her first Master's in Landscape Architecture from the University of Tehran. She has taught seminars and studios at the Academy of Art University, University of Tehran, and Shahid Beheshti University. Parallel to teaching, she has attended a number of national and international conferences and has published international papers. Her interest is engaging 'art' as a fundamental element in design and representation process and making a conclusive discussion through it that is functional, inspiring and necessary in design studios.

Review :
"This guide, which is gorgeous and always encourage in its advice mode, will take beginners and accomplished renderers alike back over the basics of what makes a picture compelling--line, tone, form, frame, scale, energy, contrast." --Landscape Architecture Magazine "Design Visualization is an invaluable resource for designers of built environments. Through the lens of art fundamentals, Shima Rabiee has taken great strides to bridge the knowledge gap between visual experience and spatial representation. Drawing on her professional expertise as an artist and landscape architect, Rabiee makes ingenious analogies between historical masterworks of drawing and painting and contemporary approaches to making and representing physical space. She clearly defines the common vocabulary of design with analytical diagrams and illustrations, and outlines ef-fective tips and practices for readers to improve their visual literacy and communication skills. With this book, Shima Rabiee has made a significant and critical contribution to the field of environmen-tal design." Elizabeth Boults, ASLA Landscape Architect and Educator, University of California, Davis Author of Illustrated History of Landscape Design "This is the book the creative realm has been anticipating! Design Visualization follows in the foot-steps of Mendelowitz's classic text A Guide to Drawing, and breaks new ground by illustrating an inventive methodology for merging hand drawing with digital techniques. The author uses examples of master art works as a foundation for creating contemporary digital masterpieces of environmental communication. Key to this text is the discussion of methods which will help readers integrate clas-sical artistic principles of visual composition into their own creative process." "The author is an accomplished fine artist, practitioner, architect and landscape architect who has been able to bring these diverse artistic arenas together into a new form of artful presentment. Ms. Rabiee has developed a clear step-by step system that combines hand and digital tools to inspire the reader to develop his/her own individual style of presentation and elevate it to an art form." "Design Visualization proposes cinematographic techniques to dramatize space and render form through color theory, lighting, texture, and spatial composition to enliven and enrich a designer's vision. Regardless of the reader's skill level, Design Visualization: Exploring Visualization Through Art Fundamentals will be useful for many years to come." Chip Sullivan, ASLA, Professor, University of California, Berkeley Author of Cartooning the Landscape