The Design of Light and Dark: Text Art and Nōtan

What gives an artwork its balance and visual energy? This course introduces Nōtan, the Japanese principle of light and dark, as an accessible framework for exploring visual structure in text, letterform, and pattern.

Working primarily in black and white, students will learn how shape and space interact to create rhythm, contrast, and visual interest—principles that extend to design, photography, and other visual arts.

Through demonstrations and guided exercises, we’ll explore how proportion, placement, and contrast shape expressive quality.

Projects include refining a single letterform, designing balanced word compositions, inventing a Nōtan-informed alphabet, and using negative space as an active design element.

Students will also experiment with unfamiliar scripts such as Phoenician and Cherokee, using materials like pencil, monoline tools, ink, watercolor, and gouache paint.

The course builds visual awareness and confidence in using shape and spacing to bring vitality to many forms of visual work.

Students must purchase their own art supplies for this course and can expect to spend an additional $85–$100 on these materials.