What is Notan?

One of the problems I’ve had during the move is that I haven’t had time to keep up with my daily blog reading list. I know I could have just marked my backlist as read and started again, but I’m glad I didn’t or I might have missed this post from Karen Isaacson about Notan. What is Notan? It’s a Japanese concept exploring the contrast between dark and light in relation to design. Maybe you’ve heard of it, but I certainly hadn’t and Karen’s post intrigued me. I went on a Google search to see what else I could find out. I found this lesson plan from Lotte Petricone very informative and was particularly intrigued by the idea of using the shapes asymmetrically.This article by Sharon Himes interested me with the parallels it drew to all art and design concepts.

But enough about the theory! As you must have guessed by now – I had to try it out!

This was my first attempt. I cut shapes out of a square of white paper then stuck them symmetrically round the square in exact reverse of their original cut out position.

This was my second attempt. This time I arranged the cut out shapes to reverse their original cut out position. I think I’m going to have a go at an asymmetrical arrangement next. Keep watching this space!