Jessica Richards: Polygonal Design

A polygon is defined as a closed path or circuit which is made by joining line segments. In a polygon, each line segment intersects exactly two other line segments. (Below is the 'Violin and Jug' of 1910 by Georges Braque)

Artist: The collage you see here is the work Charis Tsevis, an award winning visual designer from Athens, Greece. His client list includes companies such as Nike, PepsiCo, Toyota and IKEA. His work has been featured in many books, magazines and websites around the world. This series of illustrations was created for the Turkey 2010 Basketball World Championships

Modern application: Polygons are popular in the digital world. They can impart your image or text in a unique 3D, retro style. Initially, polygon graphics were used for creating 3D models and scenes in videogames because of their render speed, which was achieved due to low polygonal resolution.

Historical application: Polygon design has had a historical precedent in art since the beginning of the 20th century. It was the time of multiple expressionist movements emersion. The advent of photography influenced this art tendency as well. Since photographs could capture an exact image the need for accuracy in art seized its topicality.

Here is the work of Marcel Duchamp on the left, and Francis M. Naumann on the right. Historically, polygons were used commonly used in video games for wire frame illustrations.

Tutorial

1. Download application.mac OS X from server

2. Open/install TriangulateImage5OSX app

3. Select "Choose an Image". Image must be a JPEG.

4. Make sure that you're on the O or "original layer"
5. Use cursor to place points along the edge of the object. The more dots, the more accurate.

6. If needed, select the "ON/OFF Eraser" or (E) to remove any points placed incorrectly.
7. (M) or "Mesh" allows you to see the triangles and the original image simultaneously, where you can add points if needed.