Ex17: Movement/Motion

This advertisement is very blatant about its emphasis on speed. It is one of the principles they hold most important in their business, so it is clear why they would center an advertisement on it. Speed and movement is conveyed not only on the human-like figure, but on the word “speed” itself. The word is italicized in between non-italicized words, which gives it forward movement. There are also lines seemingly blowing off the backs of the letters. The main figure which exhibits speed and movement the most is made of up small, thin rectangles stacked in a disorderly formation of a running person holding a UPS box. These rectangles suggest movement because they are long and thin and of varying sizes. It looks as if the figure is moving so fast that it came out as a blur in the photograph. If it was not clear enough from the one figure, he is also seen “running” past real-to-life walking figures.

This advertisement exhibits movement through a poured liquid. Although it is still in the photograph, the movement is conveyed from the offset of the cups and the splashing of the liquid. The cups are not sitting anything, so it is to be assumed that they are falling through the air, although this is not the main area of movement in the picture. The liquid has been poured into the falling cup, which is spills out of to the second falling cup. Both these cups are tilted at angles, allowing for the specific directional flow of the liquid. The most clear form of movement is the stopped action of the contained splash out of the second cup, where several sections of baileys are moving in different directions.

Ex14: Tone & Color

This advertisement for Smart Water is centered around tone and a color pop.

a.) The photograph exhibits a full tonal range from a completely white highlight to the darkest shadow. The use of a black & white photo for this advertisements denotes the product's sophistication and simplicity.
b.) Tone works with the element of dimension in this advertisement. The main focus of the photograph is at eye level, and she is laying on a slightly reflective surface. The edge of this surface is visibly converging in on the horizon, where bushes out of the depth of field of this photograph lie. This is done to give the central figure a sense of space.
c.) The main element of this advertisement is the use of color. Although blue is the only color present in this advertisement, it is very effective in calling attention to the product. The blue is completely saturated, which dramatically contrasts with the black and white photograph that is the rest of this photo.
d.) Color works with the shape element in this advertisement. The largest area of color in the ad is a bright blue teardrop shape with the word “smart” dropped out of it.

Exercise 11—Basic Elements

For this project I analyzed a Michael Austin Wine label designed by Hatch Design Firm in San Francisco.

The above highlighted area is where dots have been used in this design piece. They appear to be periods from a rough typewriter. They are unevenly spaced out, but clearly in a direct path. They serve as a spaceholder where a date will be stamped and a name will be signed. The designer could have simply used lines, but the dots were used instead to denote a different era and a handmade, quality look.

The above highlighted area is where lines have been used in this design piece. The lines forming the house and the airplane have a ragged look to them, in order to suggest that they are drawings. The lines making up the clouds are smooth and appear to the viewer as if they are cut-outs. The line-work in this design is able to mimic different forms of medium on a single piece of paper.

The above highlighted area is where movement is exhibited in this design piece. It is in the form of different colored lines of varying thickness. It is in the form of a swirl, and represents the flight path of the airplane. Without these lines, it would look like the plane could just be floating in the air, upside-down, above this house. It would look quite awkward, and even though the viewer would assume that the plane was moving, they would not be able to tell if it were falling from the sky or if it were in a safe and controlled flight pattern as it appears to now.




*I know the due date on the assignment page says this was due Friday, but the first blurb I see when I go to iLearn reads: ANY EXERCISES ASSIGNED (Monday-Assigned = Due Friday Midnight, Wednesday-Assigned = Due by Next Class), so honestly I hadn't even looked at it until it was too late :(

Design Success and Failure in Relation to Syntactical Guidelines

The above is an example of Good Design that successfully employs appropriate syntactical guidelines. The guidelines employed here are balance, symmetry, and harmony. This is appropriate for the design goal because it is easy to use web interface.

The above is an example of bad design. The interface is unbalanced in a bad way, and is in no way harmonious. As for its purpose as a website interface, it is cluttered an confusing, and utterly disregards all existing syntactical guidelines.

Ex 9: Visual Thinking Research

The objective of this puzzle was to find as many triangles in the cat as possible. There were 20 total triangles, and we each found 19. To find each triangle, we each started at different ends of the cat. I did it by counting all of the triangles in each “group” (the head, body, then tail), then adding all of the sums up. My mother did it simply by starting at the tail and counting each one. I had originally counted 22, but in using the Gestalt visual operation of pattern-seeking, I counted two groups that were not actually triangles. We both employed the Gestalt strategy of finding to located each triangle. The way the solution to the puzzle displayed the strategy of categorization. A person is unable to use this strategy in a timely fashion for this particular puzzle.

Neither me nor my partner were able to find the cross in this puzzle. We each tried for about five minutes and it was passed around, but no one was able to do it. To try to solve the puzzle, we tried rotation in hopes that a different angle would allow us to see past the intense pattern, but it did not work. We used the strategy of pattern-seeking, but we could not detach the portion of the top square that was necessary to see the shape.

Exercise 6—Top Down Visual Processing

This political cartoon is an example of Top-down processing. The viewer must use high level, preconceived cognitions in order to discern the meaning behind the cartoon. The viewer first sees the four different figures wearing suits, two of whom are behind a desk, so it is assumed that they are business picture. They then note that two of the suits are on an elephant and a donkey, meaning they represent the republican and democratic parties. One of the suits behind the desk belongs to a George Bush caricature, and the other represents the insurance industry, which is made evident by the label on his lapel. The viewer then reads the speech bubbles and relinks them to their respective figures, giving them clues to what the political cartoon is about. The entire process employs goal-directed eye movements between the words and cartoon figured, and the viewer must constantly relink between the actions and cognitions of the figures and text.


*This political cartoon was taken from a political blog: http://nikchng.wordpress.com/

Exercise 5

Representation

The photograph of the brownies is the representational portion of this recipe design. It is clearly a representational element because it is an actual photograph of the finished product.

Abstraction
The ground of the design, which resembles a folder or a tabbed index card is the abstraction. It is the abstraction because though it is not an actual tabbed index card, it denotes the old fashioned way of keeping track of recipes. Another abstraction in this design is the pointing finger arrowheads. They are the form of a person’s pointed finger, but in this case they are a directional tool used to let the user know where to add the ingredients.

Symbols
The symbols present in this recipe design are the degrees symbol (°) and the inches symbol (″). The inches symbol, known as a double prime, is a nationally used shorthand symbol. The degree sign is an internationally used symbol which literally means degrees. They are symbols because they are arbitrary markings agreed upon by the common public to mean what they mean.



*Please note that the pose was originally posted on time, but due to readability issues, was reposted at a later date: