Week 14: Visual Techniques

 

Contrast

Instability

Simplicity

Transparency

Accent

Asymmetry 

Contrast

Balance

Symmetry

Complexity

Exaggeration

Boldness
Intricacy

In the first image the cubic structure and placement are the obvious clues to the results of the techniques the design incorporates. The contrast between elements of nature and minimalism creates an unbalance between the structure and its environment. The structure is simple and configured asymmetrical, but the cube blends into the background, because the color yellow looks transparent against the tone of the background. The second image is symbolizing the left and right brain into two different parts that are distinguished by different characteristics.  The color palette are bold and the design incorporates  intricacy and complexity. The image is a true symbol for the right and left brain, because the right brain is more creative and practical, where the left brain is logical and numerical.

Week 13: Contrast

Identify and explain how the use of contrast is contributing to success:

This image is a good example of successful contrast within fashion design. The colors that are used creates a contrast, and the color choice for this Stella McCarthey trench coat is complete opposite from the white pants. The color sharpens the design of the jacket and creates a balance, but the yellow jacket next to white pants is seen warm and less dramatic. The success of contrast is the choice of color blocking and using a light color that doesn't blend in with the bright yellow. The image is an example of contrast in color and effects simultaneous contrast, because both colors are interacting with one another and complementary colors, which influences our perception of its color.

Identify and explain how the use of contrast is contributing to failure:

The combination of colors that the couple chose is a failure in contrast. The red and gold dress is acceptable in contrast, but the suit is the reason that this image is failing in contrast. Even though contrast is when two elements are different and in this case color, although the colors do not complement each other. The lack of focus causes the viewer to have difficulty understand where their attention should be, because the color contrast is so disperse and a failure of contrast.

Week 13: Movement/Motion

 

I have been looking to invest in a wall decal and this image caught my attention by the implied motion of the falling leaves and swaying branches. The pattern of apparent motion also known as, optical flow is what makes this wall decal successful implying motion in its design.  The implied motion makes the tree look realistic and the genuine flow of the leaves implies the motion. If you stare at the tree it looks as if a heave wind is coming by that is sweeping the leaves off the branch. Indicating that the seasonal change of the environment is happening. The long trail of leaves at the end of the decal create an illusion that the leaves are following each other and it is more linear.

                                                 

These glass sculptures are a perfect example of implied movement. They look like they are dancing or slithering.  It is so easy to imaging some psychedelic music playing in the background and glass is moving to the rhythm. The shape gives the illusion that they are made out of a flexible material. It looks like the glass are going to move around like worms. This implied movement is very unique because glass is a labor intensive material to work with and these pieces are all different and one of a kind. It really is incredible that slight curve can really change a piece of art so much. And even through this implied motion and distortion, the glass pieces are functional vases. 

Week 12: Dimension/Depth/Space/Scale

This is a painting of my favorite place in Turkey called Bebek. The picture exemplifies depth, scale, and dimension. I noticed many depth cues in the painting for example, overlapping of the trees is covering the rest of the bay and boats that are on the water, along with a few homes. The use of overlapping is a depth perception cue that is probably the most important cue, because when an object overlaps or partly blocks our view of another object, we judge the covered object as being farther away from us. Relative size is another cue that provides information about the relative depth of the two objects. All the boats, for example are so far away that their size is smaller compared a boat closer, and therefore larger in size. The texture gradient of the trees in the distance becomes denser and less detailed as the surface recedes into the background, and this information helps us to judge depth. I enjoyed the lesson of depth perception, because the terms I learned are relevant to all types of design. Scale is the size perception in context and in this painting the building are an obvious hint of scale, because we know that they are not small at a closer distance, so therefore this taken at a far way distance.

Week 11: Tone and Color

 

This poster for the movie, "Little Princess" features the elements of tone and color within the design and is one of my favorite movies about friendship. The poster is shaded and the edges that line the characters around the poster are filled with light to visually see them better. The tone in this poster visualizes dimension and allows color to be emphasized. Tone is interacting with the visual design elements of lines. The two friends are holding hands and the use of  tone is grabbing our attention to the top of the poster, because of the levels are a way to show detail within the human figure. Color is operating by using the pop-out effect because the bright color used to illustrate the girls stands out from the dark background. According to Dondis, "Color has stronger affinity to the emotions" (p.50). Therefore, means that the the color helps illustrate the emotion of the overall image. This image must be showing live, compassion, and trust. The direction, shape, and color of the characters signify all those examples. Overall, tone and color are telling a story to the viewer about the story line, and therefore important to the  complete visual communication.  

Week 10: The Basic Elements of Technology

Texture

http://www.ckie.com/project/interactive-ambiance-iphone-dock

The Black Diamond was designed by Ken Ouyang, and a 3D facet textured interactive mood lighting iPhone dock. The dock is faceted and is appears to have a diamond's texture that illuminates more color and is aesthetically pleasing to the eye. The facet texture offers elegance and a beautiful form compared to iPhone docks that are white blocks. Faceted is a popular trend that is used frequently in the design industry. The texture is the visual element and in this case it involves both visual and touching senses, in order to be recognizable.  Since the designers of the Black Diamond developed this product to combine utility, aesthetics, and enriching experience, its texture has a sensual involvement to the consumers. A diamond's texture forms this product into a functional piece of art.  

Shape

 

http://www.yankodesign.com/2011/09/16/diy-soap/

The Re-Q by designers, Jung Hwan Song and Kim Jong Won, uses the basic element of shape. The eco-friendly soap maker is shaped by three different circles that ranges from small to big. The circle has association to endlessness and protection and the Re-Q uses recycled waste water to make new soap bars, which is a prosper method of sustainability. The shape allows easy-user interaction and the identifies the three-step process. 

Direction

http://www.designswan.com/archives/fujitsu-flexbook-innovative-folding-tablet-netbook-concept.html

The Flexbook, by Hao-Chun Huang from Fujitsu, is a flexible notebook that has various directional features. The Flexbook uses the basic element of direction expressed from a square, the horizontal and vertical. The horizontal and vertical is referenced from the flexibility of the notebook into directions that are easy to maneuver and innovative. This design is well-balanced, and since it can be configured in different ways the role of the product can be switched from a notebook to tablet allowing the consumer more technological options. The Flexbook can be also formed into a diagonal direction that refers to stability. 

Week 9: Visual Thinking

The puzzles I chose to play with were," The Cat" and "Counting and Triangles 2" with my father that is a confident game player and always looking for a competition. These puzzles was a great way to practice the visual operations involving "pattern perception". We timed out each puzzle to 30 seconds each and both my father and I discovered different techniques and strategies.

Above is the first puzzle and I used the techniques of carefully counting the triangle even outside its broders and looking for patterns within the cat's body.

 

 The next puzzle was a bit more difficult and we both were far from the right answer. We both counted the first sixteen trianlges and I counted two more big triangles after since the visual operation was determining the desired patterned. 

My father used a simple and easy techniques by just counting the triangles that are within the borders and of the same color, because he didn't read the instructions or realize that counting the triangles outside the same color was permitted. 

After my father learned how the method of pattern perception works he was closer to the right answer and path than I was for this puzzle. We counted the first obvious 16 and found 8 larger ones within the square. As he visually noticed patterns immediately his perception was active.

Week 8: Feature Hierarchy

http://www.designflavr.com/images/gallery/563128659.jpg

This image relates to the topic discussed last week in class about feature hierarchies, because there are visual properties that has planned out the movement of our eyes. The use of color is minimal expect for the colorful arm that pops-out immediately to the viewer. The various colors on her fingertips and the rest of her hand is bright orange, so it stand out first. The pop-out effect is the main reason I chose this image, since the right of her is rapidly and efficiently recognized compared to the rest of the image. Next the eye moves toward her mouth since her fingertips are touching it and there is a bit of color. Once you look see the mouth my eye noticed the shape of her eyes, which have depth and levels of brightness. This directs the viewer's attention to her head and her beautifully patterned hair. The feature hierarchies of this image are color and shape, which were discussed in class last week.

Week 7: Top-Down Visual Processing

                                              http://www.vanseodesign.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/perception.png

This is a great example of top down visual processing because the viewer uses goal-direct eye movement and distinguishes the letters within the image. Since the red is a contrast to the white lettering we are able to determine the statement within the image. What we visually see in this image is, "Everything is a matter of perception", which is in red lettering. Since this is the obvious goal-biased image, after we find the sentence the rest of the letters fade into the background. The movement of my eyes when I first saw this image was directed toward the red characters, because it stood out to me first. The image was designed for the observer to search within the image, and using top down visual processing allows us to scan the image and ultimately we achieve the goal to identify the sentences within the image.

Week 5 :Design Success and Failure in Relation to Syntactical Guidelines

One of my favorite documentaries about Industrial Design is called, Objectified, and the first poster I found online gave a clear message to the views about the subject and topic of the movie. This is a successful example of a design in relation to the goal for the work, due to the use of the syntactical guidelines of leveling, balance, and positive and negative emphasis of the objects. The title is clearly stating the message of the documentary, which is about the objects in our everyday world. This is shown by the small images within the font of these designed objects. To anyone that is interested in Industrial Design would know that this movie is about the objects in our lives, how they effect us, and who is producing and designing the objects.

The second movie poster I enjoy is from the movie, Burn After Reading. this movie is an indie film that has a complicated story within the script and unfortunately the poster does not help the viewer understand much about it subject and main purpose. The poster is putting too much stress on the text about the actors that distracts from the image below that is vague and difficult to interpret. The poster is putting more attention to the actors playing in the movie than the actually topic about it, so there is not an effective message to the viewers. This poster fails to use the syntactical guidelines that could have created an effective poster, for example if they minimized the text and enlarged the image adding a few more details could have lead to a potentially successful poster.

WEEK 4: Visual Syntax Language

The underlying compositional structure of this photo is the line of people that are standing in front of a business. The line is long with both men and women that seems to be almost infinite the way the angle of the photo was taken. The people in the picture represent all those that are unemployed and looking for work since they have documents and briefcases with them that symbolize valid information of their experience, which is what company's need in order to make a hiring decision.

This photo is a visual representation of unemployment and how much is has increased by the number of people that are in the line. If you look at pictures that date from the Great Depression in the 1930's most people are waiting in long lines looking worried and stressed about their situations. It is also similar to the current photography I have discovered for the term unemployment in 20011. Even though these people have documentations about their work experience and are prepared by their expressions it seems routine for them applying to various jobs. For example, the girl in the front of the picture is making a phone call and looks apprehensive about applying since she probably has been turned down many times before.  She is in need of support from a friend or family member in order to be optimistic about the job opening and not give up.  If I had to describe this image to someone who was visual impaired I would make the connection between the Great Depression images that represent the sense of worry and hopelessness that is also depicted in this image. Another replacement of this image could be of newspaper articles in the background that states there is an increased number of unemployment in the United States.

Meaning 2: Interactions Between Three Levels

http://www.awmcorps.com/megawing/goods/new/new_raintimes.html

Representational

- Identify what role it plays in the whole:

 This product provides function to consumers and is an innovative
industrial design that has a clever concept, which is useful.

- Describe what kind of impact it has for the user/viewer:
 The impact it has on the user is that no matter if it's rain or sun the
 bag has a functional purpose under any circumstance. Customers that
purchase this bag will use it as a tool to help them. Through is
function as a bag and also it is designed to protect you in case it is a
rainy day.

- How it relates to the other two levels:
 It is an abstract function that can be used as a bag and works as a
tool against the rain. Since this product also develops a visible
structural that has multiple functions that are abstract, because the
usefulness is easily noticeable from the selection of  newspaper
material to construct the bag. This bag is a symbolic feature because in 

our society if it starts to rain and we have a newspaper or magazine
handy we use it to cover our head, instead of using an umbrella. So a
newspaper is denoting the usefulness and attached meaning of an
umbrella.

Abstract

- Identify what role it plays in the whole:
 The design of this eraser is perfect for getting the perfect shape and for the simple use to erase. The shape of the eraser is abstract and uses simplification of angular shapes.

- Describe what kind of impact it has for the user/viewer: 

Anyone that prefers an irregular shape to fit their hands comfortably will be greatly impacted by this eraser. The multi-sided edged shape
allows users to erase most subtle parts and it also forms to your hand so it is more comfortable after continuous use.

- How it relates to the other two levels: 

It's angular form and a conceptual design. The rock eraser is symbolic of  representational of a pebble or rock found in nature that is aesthetic pleasing for the consumer that can connect to nature. The eraser denotes nature and simplicity.      http://store.yankodesign.com/pebble-eraser

hthttp://www.awmcorps.com/megawing/goods/new/knife_magnet.html

Symbolic
- Identify what role it plays in the whole:
 The knife magnet denotes a dragger that is stuck in the wall. It is
designed to look like a dangerous knife that denotes seriousness and
threatening.

- Describe what kind of impact it has for the user/viewer:
 The impact it has on the user is its visual effect that looks exactly
like a knife in the wall, because it uses Japanese style cross lines
that gives this visual illusion. The design is authentic and denotes a
creative touch of design that is useful yet dangerous. 

- How it relates to the other two levels:
 On the representational level this product is a representation of
Japanese style knifes that are used commonly and has a specific style.
This product relates to abstraction because its visual effect to look
like it stabbed the wall, but function as a magnet. The design of the
knife has a clear visual plan  and clear shows a true dragger   effect,
but still a functional product with an abstract form.

WEEK 2: Meaning 1 Representation, Symbol, and Abstract

Representation: Reality is the basic visual experience and true represenation. This photograph of the Westminster Bridge and Big Ben represents London at dusk during real time. Through the direct experience of visualizing we are able to truly see reality. According to Dondis, "photograph is the most technically dependable means of representing visual reality", and therefore the photo allows viewers to get a sense of the environment and representation of London at dusk.

 Symbol: These two symbols are universally known though out the world that denote the sex of beings. The one on the far left is the symbol for a male organism and the one on the right is female. Both of these symbols are derived from astrological symbols denoting the of the plants Mars (Male) and Venus (Female). The mars symbol signifies a shield and spear from the Roman war god, which is associated as power and strength. The Venus symbol denotes from the Greek goddess Aphrodite's mirror and femininity that surrounded her.

Abstract: The picture above is a concept based abstraction of the moon and stars. It is a abstract photo because it is  over-simplified and a general depiction. Although, most people could identify the picture without any hesitation since it is a generalized form of the moon and stars. Even though we know that the moon and stars do not look this way in the sky we see everyday the meaning and idea is clear to the viewers.