Sunshine Coast Design provides a critical look at the urban and landscape design strategies applicable to the community of the Sunshine Coast in Australia. Specifically, it empathizes the significance of gradual integration of various design decisions to match the aesthetic value of the area and highlight the natural benefits of the place. As such, the book focuses on developing design decisions that match the natural aesthetic of the sun, coastal leisure activities, and other special features of the region. The main suggested areas of potential development are the urban decisions that consist of place-related adjustment of public spaces, architecture and landscape schemas, and the general appearance of the streets. Thus, the book suggests ways to adjust urban design decisions to a specific region’s already established values to highlight its unique features.
The main design decision used throughout the book is the focus on visual aesthetics. It is mainly distinguished by maintaining the connection between the presented verbal information and imagery associations. Hence, most of the pages contain colorful pictures that display the natural beauty and value of the Sunshine Coast. Pages with the images do not display any excessive or distracting information to keep the viewer’s focus on the portrayed landscapes.
Additionally, the choice to fill the book with diverse visual information contributes to the level of audience engagement with the content. According to the studies, the reader usually perceives and consumes around 80% of graphic information, whereas, for the text information, this number solidly decreases to only 25% (Ozretić Došen & Brkljačić, 2018, p. 2). Hence, active visual engagement encourages more active and comprehensive interactions with the content, which impacts the efficiency of shared information.
Another aspect of constructing coherent visual imagery within this book is the use of a consistent color palette. Colors are mainly applied to the background of pages and the text itself. General shades that are used throughout the chapters all complement each other within a soft pastel color scheme: there are beige, sage green, subtle brown, tender blue, and mild orange. These tones do create not only a coherent color palette but also evoke direct associations with the aesthetics of nature and green life.
Nature often inspires certain design and architecture projects due to the direct associations with green environmentalism that it evokes (Widera, 2021). This way, because of the general awareness of the issue of sustainability and the public’s sympathy for it, the use of natural colors appeals to diverse audiences. Moreover, within the context of the organic implementation of new design decisions to the authentic environment presented in Sunshine Coast Design, associations with green environmentalism complement the idea of preserving the natural value of the region.
One of the most prominent links to nature is the bright yellow color used as a main color element throughout the book. It is the only tone that goes beyond the pastel color palette, and the way it is extremely vibrant attracts more attention. Here, the design idea is to play with the evident visual association and the actual verbalized information. Usually, the combination of different comprehensive media creates the sense of versatility within the content (Mishra et al., 2019). As the place is called Sunshine Coast and the main association with bright yellow shade is the sun, this visual decision interlinks with the book’s main concept, which is to focus on the authenticity of the area. The book achieves a sense of coherence and reliability through design elements, as all of the presented verbal information is supported by the visuals.
The main design theory aspect used throughout the work is the principle of repetition. Repetition is a powerful tool that directly affects comprehension rates of a product (Choo & MacGinley, 2018). Certain colors prominent in the verbalized information get repeated within the visual imagery. Moreover, as discussed previously, a consistent, complementary color palette evokes a sense of coherence. These repetitions create a sense of familiarity with the content and with the presented place – the Sunshine Coast. Hence, the repetition within the design stimulates the audience to feel more familiar with the place, to grasp the elements of its authenticity, and, therefore, gain a better understanding of why the original values of the place have to be preserved.
The use of coherent visual and verbal presentation of information consistency gets re-evaluated throughout the book’s various parts through the interconnection of the elements. It brings a sense of the relevance of the presented data, increases the general rates of appeal, and affects the reader’s engagement in the presented issue. Therefore, in Sunshine Coast Design, the idea of preserving the aesthetic and value authenticity of the region is effectively communicated to the audience through the use of visual links.
Additionally, each section of the book includes short and specific advice on reaching the discussed goal. In terms of the design of these elements, they are organically implemented to the book’s content through the efficient use of complementary colors and balanced presentation with precise visual imagery. Hence, the elements of design are used efficiently to contribute to the main point of the work: the application of thoughtful and relevant design that matches and contributes to its environment. These ideas link to the general directions of design futures. With a tighter and more responsible focus on green environmentalism, the issue of organic design becomes more and more relevant. Thus, design futures will inevitably focus on the ways to improve the organic implementation to preserve the authenticity of given places and concepts.
References
Choo, B. S., & MacGinley, T. J. (2018). Reinforced concrete: design theory and examples. CRC Press.
Mishra, S., Verma, M., & Gligorijevic, J. (2019). Guiding creative design in online advertising. In Proceedings of the 13th ACM Conference on Recommender Systems, 418-422.
Ozretić Došen, Đ., & Brkljačić, L. (2018). Key design elements of daily newspapers: Impact on the reader’s perception and visual impression. KOME: An International Journal of Pure Communication Inquiry, 6(2), 62-80.
Sunshine Coast Council. (2020). Sunshine Coast Design. Sunshine Coast Council.
Widera, B. (2021). Colors inspired by nature analyzed in two residential buildings designed by Victor Horta. Arts, 10(3), p. 60.