The Black Square Problem was an exercise in communication through visuals. Using only four black and white squares within a 3” x 3” box, we had to create a design to express six differnet words: order, increase, bold, congested, tension, and playful. For each word we sketched at least five possible designs, picked our favorites, and created them on the computer using Adobe Illustrator. The squares couldbe any size, overlap, go off the page, or be rotated, as long as they were black or white and only four of them were used.

 

For order, I create four squares in an organized formation to give a neat, tidy, and structured look.

 

For increase,  I wanted to give the effect of the squares growing larger, so I used alternating black and white boxes to show the theme of growth.

 

For bold, I used one big black square to take up most of the canvas, then I used two more squares of the same size on the edges and a tiny box in the lower right hand corner to make a very thin white border. 

 

For congested, I took four black squares with white outlines of random sizes, rotated them to random angles, and overlapped them until the page looked chaotic and conjested.

 

For tension, I wanted to make a climactic moment in the image, so I used two large black squares to make the mouth of a large fish, who is chasing after a smaller fish. (created by two smaller black squares.)

 

For playful, I tried to create a kite with the squares, to represent a fun and youthful toy. The smaller boxes are the kite string and the larger skewed box is the kite.