Meaning

Representation:

This Audubon bird sketch is a prime example of representative design. It is a visual message that is tied to this particular type of bird in order to help bird watchers and ornithologists identify this specific type of bird when the time comes. It conveys a great amount of realistic detail because when it comes to differentiating between specific species, loss of detail could mean the difference between the visual message being "this specific type of bird" to "birds in general" which ultimately has a much more general range spanning from wrens to eagles. This representational image has as little interaction with the abstraction level as possible to preserve realism, but in a sense, it does interact a bit with the symbolic because it has so many connotations being associated with nature lovers, educated people, and the concepts of things like conservation and wildlife preservation.

Symbolism:

This pair of crossing signals are symbols for both crossing and not crossing an intersection. Over time, these symbols have become attached to more meanings than their original intended usage. They become associated with safety, the urban environment, and even the time and part of the world that these particular crossing signals are used. For example, a crossing signal might be fairly universal, but one wearing a hat would represent Tokyo while a animated one might represent Taiwan. This symbol, in an effort to be as clear as possible to all people regardless of cultural awareness to understand interacts heavily with the abstraction level simplifying human form until it tells the viewer that the sign is generally for all human beings.

Abstraction:

Big Bird is a great example of abstraction. The character is meant to invoke birds in general and simplifies the concept to a large animal with a beak, talons, and feathers. A creature of too much complexity would likely not be as relatable as the creators of the show would want it to be. As a result of this, the design of Big Bird has also interacted with the level of symbolism becoming associated in our collective consciousness with things like childhood and innocence.

Navigation

When it comes to game design, navigation is a very important feature to consider when designing the interface that the players will have to use to traverse the in-game world. A badly designed interface can have the player fumbling for some basic function at a critical moment and can be both frustrating and flow breaking. In this example we have the interface from Blizzard's Starcraft II which features a very simple interface popular with most real time strategies. As most people are right handed and will thus favor the right side as the dominant one, all of the directional and ordering controls have been placed at the right. Unit statistics are posed in the middle, and finally the overworld map at the very left which also indicates the location of the selected units in real time. All controls are easily visible at first glance, but do not impose too much on the game display up top, allowing for a fully immersive gaming experience.

Another area in which navigation is important is in the world of comic books where proper visual design is needed to ensure that the panels are both visually appealing as well as easy to understand. A big downfall of many comics is that they either use a strictly linear box progression which quickly becomes boring or position their panels so randomly about the page that the reader needs to pause for a moment to determine the intended sequence of the panels. This particular example is of a comic I have never actually read, but it is an example of fairly good panel design. The panels are not all simple rectangles which gives the comic a good feeling of motion while being very clear as to their sequence. The panels read from right to left, and then from top to bottom in accordance to what their western audience would expect (Eastern comics like manga would likely read from left to right) and thus makes the comic both engaging and immersive for the reader.

Contrast

Contrast is an important element especially in clothing. In most cases, fashion will dictate that the clothes ought to make the wearer stand out in some way from other people meaning that most good fashion design will try to be as eye catching as it can. Take for example, the 59Fifty: this is a very popular kind of baseball hat with sports fans as well as in the hip hop/skater subcultures. The hat is large, flat billed, and fitted to the wearer's size making it a very recognizable bit of apparel. It is most popular, however, because there are an infinite number of variations to this simple template allowing for the artistic expression of each wearer. This unfortunately is where my first example fails. This hat lacks any sort of contrast with a black logo for the Oakland A's embroidered over the black cloth of the hat. The complete lack of contrast in color makes the logo hard to see and the eye of the beholder simply glance over it in a second. Overall, a very forgettable design.

This next hat however, is a fine example of great contrast in color. It is the same type of hat, sporting the same exact logo as before, but now it features the vibrant yellow and green colors of the team. While normally each individual color might seem fairly unimpressive, in context with the others, each color seems that much more vibrant. Attention is even brought to the small connecting stud at the top of the hat because it is a single point of yellow surrounded by the forest green.Best of all, now the logo itself is white instantly telling the viewer what team the hat is supporting. Whereas before a person walking by would probably remember the black on black hat for only a few seconds before dismissing it entirely, now we get a hat that will leave some sort of impression on anyone who sees it.

Exercise #12: Dimension/Scale/Depth

The principles of depth and scale are useful in many aspects of design. One example of this is in the world of advertising. This particular example is a subway advertisement campaign for the recent movie 2012. As you can see, the campaign uses clever visual cues to give the viewer the impression that there are two enormous walls of water crashing in on either side. This is accomplished by connecting the water on the wall itself with the appearance of water on the floor giving it a slant that converges on the floor from the perspective of the viewer. This slant is further followed by the direction of the waves and altogether forms a very innovative design giving something that is visually stunning and will leave a big impression.

Exercise #11: Tone and Color

Tone:

In the world of illustration, tone is always very important in helping to visually define a piece. This is especially important in this example where the illustrator has gone for a stylized noir style meaning that practically everything in the picture is defined by tone; the rain contrasting against the black backdrop to the whites put over one side of the character used to show which direction the light is coming from. In this particular case, tone is interacting with, and through it, better defining the shapes of the piece. As mentioned before, adding the dimension of tone makes it so that the character has a certain depth. Without tone, the light would appear to be uniform meaning that the shapes of the piece themselves would become more one dimensional.

Color:

In this particular example, color is barely used at all. Except for the red lettering at the bottom and the red bandanna on The Spirit, the entire piece is completely monochromatic. However, this approach of only ever highlighting one color in a monochromatic piece has often been used to great effect especially in the noir field allowing the viewer to be visually drawn to one point that the artist feels necessary to draw attention to. The color, while itself a pretty basic red, when posed against the black and white backdrop is perceived by the viewer as especially vibrant. In this particular piece, color would probably interact most with the element of direction. As stated before, the red highlights what the artist want's us to pay special attention to. The bandanna itself is posed diagonally in several different directions in direct opposition to the concept of stability producing a sort of uncontrolled effect on the piece.

Exercise #9: Streetwear Design

The Dot:

This first design displays the logo of its streetwear company in a pixelated fashion; a throwback to the days of 8-bit graphics in video games where the colored dots would be put together to vaguely represent the world the player acted within. The great amount of dots here juxtaposed makes the image, producing the illusion of them all being one coherent picture with the red logo imposed on top of it.

The Line:

This next piece is an Upper Playground Shirt featuring the famous whale character drawn by artist David Choe. The character itself is a great example of how a line is used, simplifying the whale to the point that it only just gets the point across to the viewer allowed Choe to paint these whales to enormous scales on the urban canvas which gave them such fame. There is nothing extraneous about the designs and to the viewer it is somewhat refreshing in an age of noisy, clashing, abstract designs.

Dimension:

In this last piece, the iconic Superman logo has been made into a sort of graffiti symbol with the logo stenciled repeatedly in the background and the main logo dripping with spray paint. This design has also been given an essential element of graffiti art which is dimension. Like with graffiti lettering, the logo has parallel lines moving towards a vanishing point giving it a sense of not only reality but size and impact. The viewer feels as if he is seeing the logo as a concrete object giving it more power than a 2D representation.

Exercise #6

Visual Information:

Anyone who knows me knows I love hip-hop music. And one of my favorite parts of a hip hop album or any musical album is definitely the cover art. A good cover can really help the listener to understand what the artist is trying to get across to them visually as well as audibly and can make the difference between a good album and a classic one. Now to be honest, rap albums are rarely very very good because they always seem to have the problem of having the artist's face featured prominently on the cover perhaps scowling angrily or something. This communicates some attitude and emotion but it's never explained and it just comes off as boring.

This is an example of what I'd consider a very good album cover. Shown here is the cover of Ice T's "Home Invasion" album. Now to be honest, I don't listen to too much Ice T and I've never really heard this particular record. However, I came across this in a second hand record store the other day and I was magnetized by what I saw. The art style was older in nature with none of the clarity and sharpness that comes with our modern day production values, but it told a story. In the picture a teenager sits listening intently to a tape, the music conjuring up images that swirl around him enveloping him entirely in the stories that are being told. Right away, this is really great symbolism telling the viewer that this record promises to be an engrossing odyssey taking us to the world of Ice T and back. What really makes this interesting however is the teenager himself who is definitely not the first person you'd think of when you think of Ice T's listeners. He is a young suburban white kid, an acknowledgement on the part of the artist that the main purchasers of any rap album are indeed suburbanite whites. However, instead of kind of ignoring them or shunting them off as not real fans, the artist shows this teen wearing Afrocentric clothing, wood medallions of Africa on his neck, and scattered around his feet, the writings of Malcolm X and other important black figures as well as the tapes of such political rap groups as Public Enemy. Ice T is making the statement here that those who listen to his albums are hearing the voices of the less privileged and through listening to them, the younger generation is learning about their struggles and getting involved. This is further cemented by smoky thought bubbles emanating from a picture of Ice T's face into the teen's ears almost as if the music allowed him to talk to this teen directly. This simple image tells the viewer so much about the record and the mind of the person who made it and even tells a sort of narrative to the workings of music as a whole, making it a truly classic album cover.