011: Week 12 Blog Exercise – Visual Techniques

image taken from anliah from deviantART.

• Asymmetry
• Regularity
• Economy
• Boldness
• Activeness
• Consistency
• Flatness
• Singularity

image taken from missesglasses from deviantART.

• Asymmetry
• Irregularity
• Complexity
• Unity
• Intricacy
• Spontaneity
• Flatness
• Variation
• Juxtaposition
• Randomness

Here are two resources provided by two different people that can be used (for non-profit) graphics be it for wallpaper, banners, layouts, etc. Its these unique kinds of designs that is what inspired me to want to be part of the visual communication world as for fun and practice I take some of these provided resources into use for recreation and even look up to these to make "resources" of my own.

The first design, is a curved rainbow placed on the left side so as to open space for text or other images on the right. The second is a collage of various scans/photos placed together to make a compiled design that can used on its own as a header or part of another graphic design. The first is more singular as it is of one component, the rainbow in comparison to the second with its visual technique of juxtaposition. There is the random placement of phrases which color and shape juxtaposes but blends in well due to the nature of the words and accompanying images (cute frogs and bugs).

Another way these two designs contrast is through regularity and irregularity. The rainbow-like curve is a uniform of the colors that go in the same direction and from bottom to the top, start rather small and get larger as it goes higher. The second design is comprised of various elemental units from the different cut outs and there isn't a pattern.

There is also Economy - Intricacy that differentiates the first (being economy) and second (being intricacy). The first design uses the elements of line, shape, and color. It is rather frugal with these elements and to be used in the same manner. There is also a bit of a contrast with the gray background, but otherwise, the rainbow curve is very easy to look at and digest. The second design is more intricate as it is much heavier than the rainbow curve, carrying various shapes, lines, color, and layers. Some of the shapes overlap another (the frog over the love letter). It is very detailed and offers an a visual of power and wealth.

010: Week 11 Blog Exercise – Contrast

Despite the stark contrast of the child-like cartoon depiction of a young man to the far right of this Yaris ad, this is an effective use of contrast. There is a contrast is tone, color, and shape yet harmony has also been successfully achieved. With the car, there is a clear amount of light source that gives it different tones and shades and thus, depth. A quite amount of tone was given to the young man as well so as to blend in a little better with the car but not quite contrast completely with his simple shape.

The left of the ad would have usually dominated the entire image but with the vastly contrasting shape and tone of the young man in a cartoon fashion, the weight is distributed evenly. There is more visual reinforcement with the "mp3 player balloons" that the young man is holding in addition to the color of his attire which isn't that all vibrant. The young man himself acts as a compositional counterforce to the regular shape of the car to his irregular, unpredictable, albeit simple shape.

Here is an example of a poor use of contrast. The intended use of this image, which was to use scale to contrast the green blocks (opened cases of X-Box games) to give off a feeling of massiveness or "tall" as with the King Kong and the green blocked shaped Empire State Building. No doubt this was an attempt to display how the producers/advertiser wants the audience to feel, with the XBox giving off a large scale, immersive feeling into their movies.

However, the gray bar on the bottom for me is seen as "the ground" thus I cannot imagine King Kong being any higher up than two feet. This is further supported with the XBOX 360 console itself "standing" on the gray bar as well. The design has succeeded in terms of contrast in the sense of color, where the bright green pops out and draws the viewer's eye to it but it doesn't achieve much harmony because of the stark differences in tone.

It has done a decent job in some design elements individually, such as scale with the texture of the green blocks more apparent from the bottom and color from dark to bright. But overall, contrast has not been successfully achieved as all I'm seeing is what feels more like King Kong in the background with green legos.

009: Week 10 Blog Exercise – Movement/Motion Blog

Image taken from http://www.impawards.com/2008/slumdog_millionaire.html

Here is the cover for the movie: "Slumdog Millionaire". It is an example of implied motion in the sense of induced motion. The female character in the center appears static as the city lights are blurred horizontally to the left. This is to give off the implication that she is running quickly with the lights oozing past her as she is departing that direction. This would be a low level system of motion perception because the blurred lights would be the first thing a view would catch as it is bright and complex. Their eyes will follow the direction it is going and then proceed to recognize the two still figures as a man and woman.

There is also apparent movement within this image. With knowledge of the world, it is easy to interpret the woman running because of the positions of her arms. In addition to the concerned facial expression on her face, the way she clenches her fist and has the right arm in an angle with her left in front, this is what is commonly recognized as someone who is in a rush that is running.

Image taken from http://www.musicalcolors.com/what.html

Here is another example of implied movement here in this musical score. Following the notes from left to right as we have a preference for the lower left, there is a diagonal/triangle-like dynamic. A diagonal is almost always used to communicate movement and change. This is what is known as diagonal stress in which uses the universal nature of implied movement. With a combination of the lines, color, and direction, there is a felt axis given the top-bottom preferences. The different colors of each note has the eye travel up and down as one consciously tries to recognize each individual color.

In addition, through knowledge of the world, reading it this way is a given because thats how musical scores are read. Thus, the eyes are being lead through composition as with all 2D graphics. It is seen as going "higher" as well with the notes climbing on top of each other with the last one being in a higher position than the first.