Formal Contrasts
This is probably the best known exercise from Johannes Itten’s preliminary course at the Bauhaus. The “formal contrasts” are visual pairs of opposites that Itten commissioned his students to visualize freely and associatively.
| many | few |
| positive | negative |
| round | edgy |
| plain | rough |
| loud | silent |
| fast | slow |
| light | dark |
| order | chaos |
| big | small |
| shape | line |
| sharp | blunt |
| hard | soft |
| liquid | solid |
| straight | curved |
| strong | weak |
| horizontal | vertical |
| steady | interrupted |
| cold | warm |
| transparent | intransparent |
| heavy | light |
| thin | thick |
Assignment
Visualize 5 – 10 form contrasts of your choice from the list above. Concretely investigate the individual contrasts and make as many variations as possible from one approach until you decide on a minimum of 1 and a maximum of 3 variations. Make sure that your visualizations represent these contrasts in a recognizable and creative way.
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