Graphic Design Rules
A semantic network describing concepts, relations and processes in the field of graphic design. Start the module »
 | How does graphic design work? How can we expand the machine's understanding of composition, typography, color? The GDR module offers a structured way to store design-related knowledge. You can expand it with your own expertise or query it with the API to import the knowledge in your own projects. |
Semantic network
A semantic network is a form of knowledge representation in which concepts are hierarchically connected to each other with semantic relations. The GDR module uses the following relation types (in analogy to WordNet):
- is-a: shorthand for is-a-type-of. This relation is called a hyponym-hypernym relation. It connects a specific concept to a larger class of similar concepts, e.g. Helvetica is-a sans-serif.
- is-part-of: this relation is called a meronym-holonym relation. It defines the parts of a whole, components, members, substances, e.g. typography is-part-of layout.
- is-opposite-of: this relation is called an antonymy. It defines opposites, e.g. legibility is-opposite-of illegiblity.
- is-property-of: shorthand for is-sensory-property-of. We use this type of relation to describe a so-called perceptonymy. The concept on the left tells something about how the word of the right looks, feels, sounds, smells, or is processed emotionally. Examples: dark is-property-of night, sharp is-property-of knife, cliché is-property-of Comic Sans MS.
- is-related-to: an associative relation. Two concepts linked in this way are psychologically related, e.g. David Carson is-related-to grunge.
- is-same-as: this relation is called a synonymy, both related concepts are equals, e.g. font is-same-as typeface.
Perceptonyms
All of the relations we use are common in semantic networks except for the perceptonymy. We coined the term perceptonym (Gravital research project, 2007) as a way to link language to visual output.
At one end in the graphic design workflow are conceptual constraints like bright and trendy colors, at the other end are technological possibilities like a HSB color model. We can easily define bright in terms of saturation and brightness, and trendy in terms of specific hues (like pink). Hence, bright and trendy are perceptonyms that link language to software possibilities. They can be used to teach a machine something about aesthetics.
A perceptonym is a word that can be seen, felt, heard, smelled, or experienced emotionally. Perceptonyms occur in pairs of opposites like bright-dark and large-small. We can use them to translate language to visual output.
Categories
Related concepts are divided in different categories. If you want to work on a category that is not yet in the list, drop us a note and we'll add it to the module. To learn more about how the categories are organized, read about the Graphic Design rule categories.
Interactive graph
The GDR module will display an interactive graph of the relations of the concept you are viewing. It will show all the nodes directly connected to the current concept, and all is-part-of and is-property-of relations connected to those nodes.
Note: the graph uses the canvas tag and works in Safari, Firefox 2 and Opera 9. It will also work in Internet Explorer if you have VML. It has the fastest response in Safari 3 or Firefox 2.
Querying to API
You can query the semantic network for categories of rules and/or rules involving a given concept:
http://nodebox.net/code/index.php/gdr?xml
This will return all the rules in the network. You can create specific queries with the following parameters:
- category: returns only rules from the given category
- concept: returns only rules involving the given concept
- relation: returns only rules that include the given relation
For example, to get all the properties in the network:
http://nodebox.net/code/index.php/gdr?xml&relation=is-property-of
The request will return a piece of XML with all matching rules. The API is available to outside developers for non-commercial purposes.
