Motion Perception

Vos Brenner design for exhibition Become Immersed Look Deeper

This poster designed by Vos Brenner is an example of apparent motion. The C shape in the center of the poster is gradually scaled bigger, giving it the appearance of motion. It looks as if the word BILD is giving off a signal and it is getting closer to the viewer. The reason why it looks like it's getting closer has to do with what we learned about depth. The bigger something is, the closer it looks. This design appears to be moving because there is a sequence of this C shape, it appears to be growing or moving in one direction. The text is using the same tactic. The text looks like it is coming closer to the viewer because it is gradually getting bigger in scale. 

Dimension/Depth/Space/Scale

This image from "Numbers in Graphic Design" a book put together by Roger Fawcett-Tang to show different innovative ways of information design is a good example of how depth is used in graphic design. This design shows different figures all at different distances.  

The first use of Depth Perception elements is the use of overlap. In the first figure, the number 8 is overlapping the statue making it appear to be closer and bigger, giving it more of an importance than the statue. The same goes for the second figure in which the number 10 is overlapping the man. 

The second element used is relative size. The figure that appears to be in back of the rest is the number 0 which is scaled a lot smaller than the other two figures. Because of its size, we assume that it is farther away.

The third element is relative height. This relates to relative size because once again the 0 appears farther away since it is positioned higher up in the design. The 8, being the lowest, appears closer.

Tone and Color

Fictional Book Cover from The Royal Tenenbaums

How Tone Is Operating -

This fake book cover from a book written by one of the characters in the movie The Royal Tenenbaums uses a dark tone to point out the focus of the design. The background and people facing the children are darkened to show that they are not very important in this design. There is light showing on the three children representing the "family of geniuses" that are the focus of this book.

How Tone Is Interacting - 

The tone helps interact with scale in this example because the darkened details of the reporters standing in the background appear to be smaller in scale than the children sitting in the front. The light shining on them and their positioning make them appear to be a lot bigger. Both of these elements highlight the fact that the children are the point of this book. 

How Color Is Operating - 

The color in this design give it a grainy, old fashioned look. The movie that this book is from goes for a classic feel and the color in this design is a bit faded as if it were an older book. The typeface is a bright pink color that stands out from the dark picture.

How Color Is Interacting - 

Color interacts with texture in this design. The edges of the book are pale white making it appear to be a ripped old book. The color also makes the picture appear grainy because it is faded. 

Visual Hierarchies

The Ace Hotel New York City, Dana Tanamachi

This design by Dana Tanamachi uses typography to create visual hierarchy. The preattentive features in this design are the typefaces that say "Free" and "Dream". They are larger and much bolder than the rest of the text. This typeface stands out because it is bold and boxy with a drop shadow, making it look more emphasized. The text that says "Free" is at a different angle than the rest of the text, working as the main attention grabber. The bold font tells us that those words are important to this design because it stands out from the other text. If this design was on a bigger scale with more words illustrated, our brains would could create visual queries and tell us to look out for this boxy text in order to locate all the important words within the text. Similar to the example in the text about the oranges, our brains would seek out the bold text and ignore other details. 

This screen shot from the anime, Pokemon is a good example of top down visual processing. This screen is played before a commercial break showing the outline of  a different Pokemon. The viewer has to look at the details of the outline and guess which Pokemon it is. The viewer pays attention to the details and puts together what Pokemon associates with the shape that is shown. They link the information that is shown with the visual of that certain Pokemon. The knowledge that the viewer has of the different Pokemon characters help them figure out what the picture is of.

Syntactical Guidelines

This poster for the show breaking bad shows a good example for use of the syntactical guidelines. The first thing I noticed was the way the color created patterns that defined different pictures. The interactions between the colors make the shape of a chemistry glassware as well as the outline of the characters from the show. The image is balanced because of the white text at the bottom and the white chemical pattern at the top.

This album artwork for the band Thursday is an example of how syntactical guidelines can sometimes not work together. This design all together creates too much stress using too many negative and positive images. 

The picture depicts silhouettes of soldiers in front of a fading American flag. The soldiers  are blackened silhouettes walking across a barren horizon, holding guns, backpacks and wearing helmets. It appears that they have been on a long journey and some heads are hung low either because of exhaustion or grief. The men leading the way are shown with their heads held high with a strong foot forward. The sun is setting giving off different tones of orange. The background for this scene is the flag, which appears to be waving in the wind. The flag has red and white stripes and a blue rectange in the left corner with white stars. 

liberty

bravery

strength

sadness

curiosity

guns = war

stars and stripes = America

heads looking down = sadness

backpacks = traveling

This picture shows bravery because these soldiers are representing those who have gone into battle for this country. When we think of those people, we imagine them as being brave. They also show strength and the way the front soldiers appear to be walking shows that they have strength to lead the way for other soldiers. 

Week 3 Blog

Representational - 
This picture represents the dangers of smoking cigarettes. Represented in this picture are the black lungs on top of the skeleton.  The lungs show what really happens to your lungs when smoking. The lungs don't look very appealing and could scare people into not smoking. It relates to the other symbols in this picture because they add to the abstraction of the skeleton which shouldn't have lungs in the first place.

Abstract - 
In this picture, there are two abstractions. The first is the skeleton because it appears to be alive.  By showing a skeleton smoking, it lessens its appeal. Also, the skeleton has lungs which skeletons don't have. The cigarette is also slightly abstracted because it is bigger than a normal cigarette is, probably to draw attention to it.

Symbol - 
The symbol in this picture is the skeleton itself. It represents death. This picture is trying to say that smoking just leads to death. The reason why it symbolizes death is because skeletons aren't alive and are the remains of a once living body.

Representational, Abstract, Symbol

Rocking Bird, designed by Francois-Xavier, is a great example of representation.  This sculpture was made to resemble a bird, but have the function of a rocking chair. The arms of this chair are made to represent the wings of a bird, the seat is the bird's tail, and the rocking legs are the bird's feet. The design of this chair appeals to the eye, and also could function as a comfortable because of its shape. The designer worked with the natural shape of a bird to make a functional chair. 

This painting is a perfect example for abstraction. I came across it while browsing the web and at first glance, it could appear to be a person. This picture is abstracted because it is a person but they have pink hair with white skin. The abstraction of a person looks like it is connected to the ground with roots coming out. The picture represents the idea that people and the earth are connected. The sky is also an abstraction because it is obvious that it is a sky with stars but doesn't look like reality's sky.  

This symbol is known worldwide as a representation for the christian faith. The symbol is simple but is easily recognizable because it has been used to centuries. The two intersecting lines represents the cross that Christianity's Jesus died on for his followers. This symbol has been changed many times but the same shape is always the same because it is what most people picture when they think of Christianity.