Formal Design resources
from Durer,Karen Davie, Gregory Gillespie - is the semiformal here really semiformal? I used to think so but at second glance it looks informal - my guideline for semi is that it is almost symmetrical but off balance in a few areas.
Above: more examples of formal design from an onground course I designed. We scanned in everyday objects at high res, between 600 to 1200 dpi, even using things like rusted metal pieces from the parking lot. We then experimented with selecting randomly with the magic wand, and dragging the selection to a 72 dpi file. The results are organic and abstract. In this assignment the composition had to be formal.
Another description:
"Scan an ordinary object, a gum wrapper, a piece of rusted metal, crumpled paper...a leaf...at high resolution, say between 600 and 1200 dpi. Save that image since you went to the trouble to scan it. Now, open a new canvas around 600 x 800 72 dpi. Have the two canvases side by side. Using the magic wand, select an area at random from the high res scan. Now, using the move tool, drag the selection to the lo-res canvas.
What you will get are organic textures and shapes, very abstract.
You can do the same with hi-res images from a Google search.
Try also copying the selection, going to an area of the lo-res canvas, selecting it, and doing a "paste into" command.
The images here (with the exception of the last one) were done that way."
Compare the work above to the work below - In these examples the work is informal - off balance, dynamic...
Compare the two, formal and informal, symmetrical and asymmetrical, and note for us the differences, and when you would prefer to use one over the other - J