Visual Techniques

Regularity

Irregularity

These art works were designed by Rex Ray. The first poster of a visual technique is a regularity. It has many different size of shapes which are designed all different, and also, they are very colorful. It looks like a curtain, and each design is attractive. Even though the poster has variety designs,  the design has a unity because those shapes are all regularly lined up. The second poster has also variety of shapes, and it is very colorful. Each form seems to have some meanings, and they are irregularly lined up. Those shapes look like lamps and flowers in vases, and it gives warm impressions to viewers. Both techniques successfully connote the concept of the designs and, both posters are very eye catching designs. 



http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/rex%20ray?page=18

Contrast

http://www.ipodhistory.com/ipod-advertising/

I am interested in Graphic design, and this is an advertisement of iPod. This is a good example of an image which represents a contrast of color to tone. The Black silhouette, a white iPod and the background of green are contrast each other. Each color pops-out, and it is easy to recognize the person is dancing and listening to the iPod. The silhouette pops-out on Green background. Also, a white iPod pops-out on green, and also, the black silhouette. The white iPod is the most eye catching in this advertisement. Viewers' eyes go to the iPod first, so that they know what the advertisement this is. Contrast is successfully used in this advertisement. Also, if I carefully see her cloth, I can see busy pattern, but a designer does not make a strong contrast for cloth which is very effective.

http://www.jacketflap.com/megablog/index.asp?tagid=20283

This is a poster of the Star Trek which is an example of a lack of use of contrast. The poster uses green for the background, and the ride is saturated color of green. Those colors are very similar, and they do not pops-out each other. On the top of the left, something is written, but this is also saturated color of green and do not pops-out on this background. Also, the letter is thin so that it looks washed out; therefore, viewers have to close up to see the poster what the poster says. Only "Star Trek" which is on the top of the left, pops-out on this background, and nothing else pops-out. It can be success a contrast of color to tone, if the ride is white color. Also, if the letter of "Star Trek" is bigger, it also success a contrast in scale. The color of the letter pops-out, but the size is too small to catch viewers attentions. This is an example of a poor use of contrast. 

Motion

This poster is from the popular Pixar movie "UP", and it is an implied motion poster. In this design,  main characters and items are aligned in a slightly diagonal, and the old men is the biggest and closest. Also, throughout objects' sizes, we can notice that the balloon is the furthest object, and also we can notice that there is a  dimension in this picture which is one of elements for motion. Also, we can see the old Man's sole of shoes, and it means the man is not standing on the ground. Moreover, balloons are connected end of the string, and the dog, the boy and the man are also connected with the same string in the sky. Therefore, we can tell that they are slowly falling down towards us, and they are coming from the left to the right, and we can guess that the back ground looks like moving to the right to the left which is relative movement. The implied motion is really successful in this picture.

This is another implied motion design which is 2D printed media. The poster is from one of popular disney films which is The Little Mermaid. In this picture, the background is blue, and the up right corner is light out. We can tell that it is under the sea, and the light suggests the sun light; therefore, it shows dimension. Also, the main character, Ariel, is in the middle of the picture, and she is putting her arm up, and her pose shows that she is swimming under the sea towards the sun light. Moreover, the bubbles in the bottom left corner are one of another evidence to suggest that she is moving. In addition, around the sun light, there are some circle lines, and they implicate the circumstance of the ocean which aid the motion of the sea wave. 

http://www.movieposterdb.com/poster/0faf87e5

http://www.movieposterdb.com/poster/dfb8a4e0

Dimension/Depth/Space/Scale

This is the example of one of my professional interests which is designing physical space. The space of this image is depicted through the depth cues of liner perspective, relative size and overlap. Linear perspective shows the line of the roof which is the square shapes deliver audiences' eyes to the depth of the space. Also, the chairs and windows become smaller in deeper space. It represents that a bigger size of the objects are closer to the audience, and smaller size are further to the audience. Therefore, a desk which is in a corner of the lower right is the biggest object, so it is the closest to the audience. In addition, overlap is the most easiest aspect to understand which object is on the deeper side because in deeper space, many objects overlap the further objects. This image is a good example to indicate the depth cues.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/xtrah/4853491803/

Tone and color

How tone is operating

This poster is relating to my interest area, graphic design. In this image, front side of buildings are darker tone, and the middle is the lightest tone. The buildings which are in the middle receive the most amount of light, and front side of buildings receive less light. It suggests that the light comes from the middle. Also, medium value creates the gradation of  light and dark values, and all tones work together to communicate depth in the shading of three-dimensional buildings.

How tone is interacting

The tone of this design is interacting with other visual design elements such as dimension. Each building of the top side is lighter than side, and also front side of buildings are bigger than back side of buildings. These facts indicate depth and three-dimensional which are the most interesting relationship to tone in this image. 

How color is operating

In this poster, primary and secondary color which is red, green, blue and white are used, and they are definitely pop-out because the background is black and white which is contrasting color. Also, the color gives viewers emotion. Since there are several colors and they are mixing, it gives viewers exciting emotion.

How color is interacting

The color is interacting with shape which is one of the other visual elements. In the middle of the image, explosion occurs and some shapes are spreaded which are hearts, starts, circles, song notes and triangles. Each shapes has meaning, and they are interacting with colors. For example, red hearts associate with passion and warmth. When the color interact with shape, it has stronger impression.



http://www.behance.net/gallery/Poster-for-EVENTBRANDnet/83184

Graphic Design - The Basic Elements

Dimension

The element active in this image is the dimension. In the same space, there are only triangle shapes, and each one is different size. Bigger size is on the near side on the left, and smaller size is on the back side on the right; therefore, those elements make the dimention active in this image. The dimention which is known for basis of notation, perform two-dimensional visual formats. Those triangles are like blown by wind from the left to the right, and it perform the depth.

Color

This is a design by Milton Glaser in which color is strongly used. The image use colors to convey a man's hair. Beside the hair, there is a man's face shape, and it is all black, so the colorful hair is very eye-catching in this image, and the color has strong affinity to the emotion. The image uses hue red, green, pink, blue, orange and white, and each color has meanings. For example, meaning of the color red is danger, love, warmth, and life. Green color is meaning for nature, fertility and safe. Also, meaning of the color white is purity, cleanliness and neutrality. Those colors are important for this image because these symbolic meanings are what the image performs to portray. The image shows the hair is growing and lay on top of each other, and, he seems to represent each person has their own emotions and feelings, and those consciousness makes the people. 

Shape

The element active in this image is the shape. In this image, strongest feature is triangle shape which is used to convey woman's robe and a large hat. Also, square which is one of another basic shape is used, and those shapes represent a woman. Since triangle has their own psychological and physiological meaning such as action, conflict and tension, artist wanted to give viewers some sense of threatening. Moreover, Above the woman's head, we can see some actions occurring which those shapes seem to be moving in a vertical direction. 

http://www.gomediazine.com/tutorials/rule-motion/#.UJdPYGknA6F

http://www.poster-books.com/music/milton-glaser-graphic-design.shtml

http://www.coolhunting.com/culture/kesh-continues.php

Visual Thinking Research

In this pazzle, it is required to image how the objects would like to be if it is rotated, and finding mathing objects. When I started the puzzle, I was looking at “A”, and looking for similarities with other objects. I saw it from another viewpoint and compared with other objects and imaged which objects would like to be the same object with “A”. I rotated objects in different angles in my imagination, and I figured out that “I” is the same shape with “C”. I continued the same thing until every alphabet has mathing one.

Solving this pazzle, he looked for matching objects with A first. He rotated objects in his mind, and he figured out that “B” matched with “A”. He continued to rotate objects in his mind, and he did the same thing several times, and he got six pair objects.

We basically did the same thing to figure out which object is match each other.

Solving this pazzle, I started to compare a red square and “A”, a red square and “B”, a red square and “C”, a red square and “D” and a red square and “E”. I found out that a red square and “D” has the same mathing line. I continued the same thing, and I figured out that only “D” has mathing shape with red, yellow, blue and green squares, so answer is “D”.

In this pazzle, he tried to find regularity first, but he could not find any regularity, so he saw those colorful squares indivisualy to see any secret meaning. However, he could not find any key, and he gave up.

We used different styles to solve this puzzle, but both of us got wrong answer. 

Feature Hierarchy

This image was a poster which was connected to my major graphic design. This poster is starbucks' poster for winter season. This image is composed of color and shape channel which is related to future hierarchy. On this poster, main color is light blue, and the cup of color is an opponent color which is red. The red cup really pop-out which displays color feature channel. Also, on the cup, there is a ribbon to show the flavor for each. Since the ribbons is over the cup, it stands out which displays depth. First, viewers eye will detect the color feature channel of the red cup. Next, their eye will detect the shape feature channel of the ribbon, and then the title. Because everything is light blue except the cup, the red cup really stands out in this image.Color difference is the most effective to viewers, and color feature channel effectively catch viewers' eye.

http://graphics217a.wordpress.com/2011/02/24/colors-used-in-the-starbucks-poster/

Top-Down Visual processing

I'm interested in graphic design, and this is a perfect example of Top-Down Visual Processing. This is an image of Where's Waldo book which is a very popular book for children in the world. Top-Down visual processing involves some sort of goals what we are looking for and we want to achieve. This book of purpose is to find Waldo from each page. Waldo dresses in a red and white striped shirt, blue jeans, a snow hat and round glasses, so viewers look for the person who wears these. However, there are people who wear similar cloths with Waldo in this image, and also there are many objects that use red and white striped patter to get viewers attentions. Therefore, viewers start to scan all over the image to find him even small parts of the image, so their eye movements go right to left, and up to bottom . Also, they sometimes forget which area they already scanned, so they probably rescan the same area until they find Waldo. After they scanned all over the image and found Waldo, they completed the task of the image. This is a good example of Top-Down visual processing.

http://www.findwaldo.com/fankit/graphics/#1

Design Success and Failure / Syntactical Guidelines

This is an example of a success record jacket. One of reasons is balance. The artist stands vertically, and the name of the artist and the album is written horizontally. Those vertical and horizontal lines makes the image well-balanced. Also, the lady stands on the right side, and the writing is written on the left side, and it also makes the image well-balanced. Well-balanced image is an eye-catching design for users; therefore, more users look at the record jacket than unbalanced images. Another reason is attraction and grouping. On the left side, there are information of the artist and the title of album. They are the same font and size, and they are close to each other, so they are grouping. However, only the artist name is showed in a different color, and it is an eye-grabbing point. This is an attraction. Therefore, users are able to recognize whose record jacket it is, and they can find her CD easily. 

This is an example of a failed record jacket. One reason is that the image is unbalanced. The title of the album, Party Queen, and the artist name, Ayumi Hamasaki, are not the same angle. Also, the lady stands vertically, and there are more lines of the dest, chair and footer which are variety of angles. Those lines do not give a sense of the balance and unity, and the record jacket is not atrractive. As the result, this record jacket does not catch users eyes. One more another reason is that this image does not have any stress. The both of the title and artist name are colorful and standout, and also the picture itself has many information which is standout. As the result, they are glaring weakness, and it looks just unorganized image. Also, since there are many information on this image, there are no appealing point which is a stress. In the result, users cannot find the most important information of the record jacket and fail to find the album. 

Visual vs Symbolic Language

In this picture, an old man is standing in center of a picture, and he is holding a big American flag on the right hand. He is wearing a red glasses and dark green army uniform and cap, and he is putting small eight medals on the left side of his uniform. There are many people in behind of him, and photographically the soldier is isolated from rest using depth of field.

Responses or feelings

Sadness

Isolate

Bring back sad memories

Symbols

Uniform

Medal

American flag

Compositional structure

Since there are many people and standing on line, it seems a ceremony. Also, the picture was probably taken on war memorial day because he is wearing an army uniform and holding a big American flag. Moreover, his expression is sad, and it seems the ceremony reminds him sad memories. This is an emotional picture.

Interactions Between the 3 Levels of Meaning

Representational

This is advertisement of coka cola, and big stars of portrays are drawn over a bottle of Coke. Those representational pictures are showing targets of age and gender of this advertisement. Those big stars are all women, and they are young. Also, they are holding a Coca Cola. Since those big stars are drinking the Coca Cola, it gives viewers an image that drinking the Coca Cola is cool and fashionable. The representational level relates to the symbol level because it refers the same meaning. 

Abstract

Those curved lines are abstract design, and it makes the poster colorful, and the colorfulness makes the Coca Cola of image lovely. It gives viewers that the Coca Cola is not only men's drink but also women's drink. Also, the lines go left to right, and it implies all generations have been drunk the Coca Cola up to now. These lines'  colors connect to the gender which relates to the representational levels.

Symbol

The symbol is this catch copy, and it is an important message of this advertisement. This catch copy says that "live on the Coke side of life", but it is unclear because we do not know what the Coke side is. However, the representational image tells the meaning of this which is social communications. It gives viewers an image that if there are the Coke, people are able to enjoy their time. The symbol definitely relates to the representational level.

Representational, Abstract, Symbolic

This is a representational photo of Tokyo Disneyland. There are a number of pointed roofs, and this is the iconic design of the castle. The white walls and blue roofs do not change from generation to generation, and this is the color of the castle of Tokyo Disneyland, and these colors of the castle can be linked with Tokyo Disneyland. Also, viewers get a sense of luxury by this detailed design, and also this size of the castle gives impact on viewers. The castle is the motif of Cinderella's castle, and every girl longs to live this castle in their childhood at least once. This castle is the design of the house gives a dream to viewers.

This computer-generated is a drawing of an abstract bird. Even though the picture is an abstract design,viewers can interpret this image as a peacock flying in the sky. Many colorful lines portray the peacock of beautiful big feathers nicely. The curved lines make viewers imagine the peacock gracefully flying in the sky on the wind, and the softness of feather is represented as well. Also, the luxury of peacock is beautifully expressed by using many colorful smooth lines. Moreover, in the background of yellow color represents early morning.

This Symbol symbolizes restroom. This symbol is used all over the world, and it is understandable without knowing any language because of the simpleness. Left side is a woman and right side is a man. I think when viewers look this for their first time, they do not understand the meaning of the symbol, but once they knew the meaning, they never forget. There are a lot of this symbols at stores, so if children go to shopping with their parents, they naturally understand the meaning of this which represents restroom.