Visual Techniques.

Visual Techniques Present: Intricacy, Stasis, Balance, Complexity, Accuracy, and Flatness.

Visual Techniques Present: Symmetry, Flatness, Opacity, Boldness, and Neutrality.

After thorough review, I have comprised a list of visual techniques to better understand how a simple poster is arranged to give the viewer a deeper message within the underlying theme. The top poster, which is a film by Wes Anderson, is beautifully illustrated with intricate main characters of the film. The poster is then balanced in a way where each individual flows harmoniously, foreshadowing how the film is going to be shown. Though it's balanced, we can also notice the intricate line work that was produced when viewing the illustration. Every single line is of detail, and it looks real pleasing to the eye. The second poster leaves us with obvious symmetry and opacity. Since the glasses are positioned is such a way, our brains can imagine what it's like to have an actual face behind the mic. Straight bliss if you ask me.  

CONTRAST.

http://www.redicedesigns.com/rainbow_background.jpg

In contrast to this website, the ultimate verdict is that it's a bad design. It's designed so poorly the it's hard on the eyes with the rainbow effect. Since there's so much going on, you don't even know what to read first, giving me, and anyone else who is reading it a headache. Whoever designed this must of just threw everything together, and posted it up.

http://www.sitepoint.com

Contrast in my opinion creates focus, so in this photo, it does just that. This spread used contrast, balance, and organization to produce an unusual, striking image, making it work well with the reader. The heavy black type also adds nice contrast to the lighter body of text, making it pleasing on the eye. 

Success & Failure

http://conceptgenius.com/tag/logos/

The Apple logo is a prime example of good design. The syntactical tools used in this logo is powerful for the pure simplicity it has to offer to the viewer. It's as if the logo is almost hooking and inviting in the consumer, making them wonder, why would someone put a huge apple on their product? The image on the left represents the more older design, while the one on the right is the modern design, creating a non-stressful vibe to the audience. This makes for a warm welcoming which in turn attracts attention.

http://www.artistmike.com/Bad-Logos/BadLogo-Hotdogs.jpg

This design is purely unsuccessful. Everything about it just screams awful. The creepy looking fella eating the hot dog like that represents something entirely different to the audience, conveying a different kind of message to others then eating at a restaurant. The colors as well create intense tension, for it being vibrant and a bit chaotic, which makes the consumer not want to eat there, even for me.

Movement & Motion.

Man in Motion.
http://www.woodthatworks.com/blog

Implied simply means to be suggested, but not directly expressed. So by viewing the piece above, we can notice that the carving is doing just that. This piece is being presented in a way to hint at the viewer that motion is being involve by the way it is setup. Since the figure is arched over, we can almost imagine what it would look like if it was going to take off and actually run away from us. To put it in a more fundamental term, we can relate this piece to the Gestalt principal, which is, the law of continuation. The law of continuation helps us perceive the piece to be moving, when in reality it is not. The figures composition and colour also emphasize movement by the way each piece of wood is placed, as well as the color fading away, immediately implying motion. When I personally view the statue my eye is attracted to the sharp points, and the running man takes my eyes vertically throughout the points implying movement. When viewing this piece, my eyes are focused on the sharp points, so the running man statue takes my eyes throughout those points implying motion.

Water Motion.
http://circaregifts.com/wp-content

Here is another prime example of implied movement. The sculpture takes on what it appears to be a wave, frozen in time, suggesting to the reader that it is actually moving. Our brain assumes movement by how the artist conveys the composition, by using curves to emphasize where the wave is actually heading. Our eyes make the connection and then realize that it's stationary due to implied movement.

Tone & Color.

Graffiti Artist 'Daim' From Germany.

How Tone is Operating:

The operating tone in the above image presents itself as a 3-D graffiti piece, so the artist, 'Daim' uses tone to create a depth of field, giving the effect that the piece is actually coming out at you. The shadows and fading behind the artwork emphasizes the piece, giving it a more justified 3-Dimensional look.

How Tone is Interacting:

Tone in this piece interacts with us in a way because it feels as if the art piece is actually moving and that we can imagine what it would feel like to touch it. This simple effect tricks our eye, because tone plays a big part with this artwork. You can see the tone gradually fading in and out with each other so that it creates a distance between all the blocks, giving us a more detailed depth of field.

How Color is Operating:

Color gives us a strong relation to the way we emotionally observe something. In the graffiti piece, color is used to build depth, so that the abstract blocks of letters looks as if it is coming out at us. This effect is achieved by adjusting the saturation of the different colors. You can see the different colors of orange bending over one another so that you can see which direction the blocks are going.

How Color is Interacting:

As stated in the picture above, color interacts within the the piece to bring life and movement. By using color we can see which shape is facing where, to give us a better view of what we are observing. The 3-Dimensional effect would not be achieved if the colors weren't interacting within the blocks. This method is effective, as there are not that many hard lines, giving a better flow with the added effect.

The Basic Elements of Graphic Design.

1961 Neste Oy Corporate annual report designed by Olli Stelander.

LINE:

Graphic designers have a wide array of projects to handle since they cater to their clientele. In design, many of the basic elements come from sketching, and with sketching, lines are formed to create a visual communication. The image above is an example of a design dealing with line to get their message across, as it deals with oil drilling. This specific designer uses lines to describe the hoses for the oil drilling effect. The thick continuous lines communicate an important element on the design to justify what is going on in the piece.

An image created using an app called 'Colorstroke HD'

Color:

Color is an imperative element to design. Graphic designers use color to create an emotional and psychological affect to any of the viewers observing a certain piece. Color is also categorized as a form of symbolism. In our reading, "A Primer of Visual Literacy", Donis A. Dondis describes the color red as a symbolic form of, "Danger, love, warmth, and life." With that single color, red can be used to justify many meanings to give a certain affect. In the image above vibrant use of colors were used to give an example of what a single app on a phone can do. I believe they used such vibrant colors to hook in consumers because we are attracted to bright colors.

http://www.gmxacademy.com/higher-national-diploma-in-graphic-designing-2013-2014/

TEXTURE:

Texture is an visual element that serves a purpose where viewers can almost imagine what an image feels like by how it was created. We can view texture by touch and sight, for it shows as an optical illusion, which makes us believe that we can actually feel the object. The image above is a perfect example of texture, so when I view the image, it gives off a prickly feel since triangles are piled on top of each other forming a 3-D effect. Most of us that view images almost contain a piece of texture, because it is being presented, serving a sensitive and enriching experience.

Visual Thinking

Alden

The first puzzle involved pattern perception where we had to find as many triangles as we can whether it be small or large. According to the McKim reading, "This operation is extremely common and is fundamental to all thinking." It's fundamental because we use our searching capabilities everyday in our busy lives. When I told Alden what she had to do, there was a goal in mind. For this puzzle, she dissected the counting of triangles by color and how many made up the triangles, to solve the puzzle.

Alden

According the McKim reading, "Motion in visual-spatial operations is likely effected by kinesthetic (muscle) imagery." McKim then goes on to say that we would have to imagine the puzzle almost as a 3-D object to find the interlinked hearts. This was true because my friend and I had to imagine it as an actual object to solve the puzzle. We actually had the same goal in mind by picking at the hearts and see which were actually interlinked. This made solving the puzzle easy, because we just had to find which heart overlapped each other.

 Willie

For this puzzle, I actually dissected each triangle as opposed to Alden. I outlined each triangle and then multiplied each of them to get my answer. As I discussed earlier, in the McKim reading, Alden and I used the finding technique in figure 2.2. We took common principals, applied it to the puzzle and made sure we counted every triangle. 

Willie

This was the same concept as Alden. All I did was find the overlapped hearts and see which ones are interlinked. This was a pretty simple puzzle. For this puzzle, I related it to McKim's, "2-11/Knots." Again, imagery in three-dimensional is important for this puzzle because it helps identify which hearts are actually interlinked.