VISUAL TECHNIQUES

 JUXTAPOSITION     ABSURDITY    DISTORTION     SPONTANEITY

 The image above is a recent work from graphic designer and artist Richard Vergez.  I discovered his prints on Society6 and I really liked his aesthetic and approach to composition in his work.  He uses found images and blank space to make mixed media collages that have a very surrealist quality to them.  He uses a variety of unpredictable visual techniques in his work such as juxtaposing images together that make very irregular visuals.  The way that he layers the different elements of his prints creates a distortion of the original found images.  I like the way he chooses completely absurd images that don't really make sense but still fit together well.  This makes his work very spontaneous and a little bit disturbing, which I like.  Another interesting quality of his work is the way that the found images give the work depth but are contrasted by the way the background is so flat.  This creates a great contrast that makes the a subtle yet powerful visual statement.

 INTERSECTION    JUXTAPOSITION    BRIGHTNESS     ROUNDNESS

The image above is an exhibition contribution for Neue Magazine / Hong Kong 2010.  I like the way that it is using so many different visual techniques combined into one that make it very exaggerated and bold.  The way that the background image of the woman and the text are overlapping with different opacity makes them both still visible.  The illusion of the intersection of colors also gives them a gradient look.  I think this image is not too overpowering to look at because the soft color choices and brightness of the image make it easier on the eyes.  I really like the way that the very circular font is juxtaposed with the organic forms of the woman's body.  Another element that I think works very well here is the symmetry of the image.  The way that the composition is arranged in such an orderly way enables all the other powerful elements to work well.

CONTRAST

EFFECTIVE USE OF CONTRAST

 

This web design is a very effective use of contrast in design in many different ways which is what makes it a very strong design.   All the elements of contrast used such as in the size, color, and composition of the design are what make it a good design overall.  The contrast in the size of the text is what makes the most important points most visible when you first glance at the page.  The contrast in color from the text and the background are what make the page striking and easy to look at.  The rest of the color which is contained and juxtaposed make the composition of the page simple and effective.  The web page is very simple but all the elements of contrast used together make it just interesting enough to look at without becoming too overpowering.  The way that the composition of the page is set up to be very symmetrical and linear works very well because what grabs our attention is the variety of colors and shapes.  This is a very effective design overall because it makes it easy to process the information displayed so that we can focus on the graphic content.

POOR USE OF CONTRAST

This on the other hand is a completely horrid example of web design.  First off it is completely repulsive to look at.  The reason for this is because of all the elements of contrast that could have been potentially been used were ignored.  The designer of this web page has completely ignored the use of color as a way to benefit the design and chose two colors for the text and background that are too close on the color wheel and make for little contrast.  Not to mention the way that the other colors just make everything worse.  The size of the text also hurts the design because you don't know what to look at first.  The composition of the web page is also very boring and strange because nothing is aligned consistently.  The way that the designer chose to ignore all the principles of good contrast in design is what ultimately resulted in the overall ugliness of the design.  It hurts my eyes.

Implied Motion In Design

This is the album artwork for the 2009 record "It's Blitz" by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.  The design strictly relies on implied motion to make a statement.  Because it is merely a still photograph, it could easily be very static and boring, but the way that the photo was taken on such a high shutter speed makes it seem like it has perfectly captured a single frozen moment in time.  It is the choice of moment that makes this design powerful and interesting to the eye.  The way that the explosion of the egg was captured at the perfect moment makes it a very graphic and eye catching cover.

This is the album cover for the Pixies album Bossanova which was released in 1990.  The design of the cover is quintessential of the grunge influenced era of the 1990s and the way that the large planet is surround by rings gives it the illusion that it is spinning.  Another element that contributes to the implied motion of the design is the way that other circular atom like molecules seem to be orbiting around the planet in the middle.  The way that the background of the image seems to be out of focus compared to the foreground also helps create a greater sense of dimension.

This is the album cover for the most recent album released by the band The Strokes called Angles.  This is the perfect example of many of the different ways and variations of the illusion of depth and dimension in design. The texture gradient and linear perspective of the checkered floor is prominent.  The pillars in the middle also demonstrate the use of relative height and size as well as overlap.  This creates a movement parallax that makes it seem as if the pillars are moving vertically up and down. The effect is further made more dramatic by being contrasted with the checkered floor. The design of the cover is a very great example of the many different elements of depth and dimension working together.  The angles on the side of the picture also add another dimension.

WK 10 TONE & COLOR

The image above is an album cover by musical artist MIA. 

HOW TONE IS IS OPERATING.....
Most of the colors of the image are very saturated.
The four little bubbles are in gray scale.
This creates a feeling of dimension and layering.


HOW TONE IS INTERACTING....
The focal point image in the middle has significantly less saturation
so it gives the rest of the image a neon, arcade game like look to it.
It also gives the focal image a more vintage photo vibe.


HOW COLOR IS OPERATING...
The colors used in the image are very highly saturated, mostly primary colors.
The strong use of reds, blues and greens give the image a playful look.
The mix of gray scale and vibrant colors are put together to create contrast.

HOW COLOR IS INTERACTING...
The ways that the different saturation and tones of color are interacting in order to give a depth to the the image in certain places, such as the circular photo in the middle. The background patterns which are very highly saturated give off a more flat look that makes it look almost like a digital screen.

The Basic Elements

David Downton Fashion Magazine Illustration.

The 3 main basic elements that I feel are the most present in these illustrations are bold lines, movement and texture. The bold lines are what we notice first because the style of the drawings uses very bold contour lines. I believe the role of the bold contrast created is meant to show off the designs and the texture is meant to suggest the idea of movement.


Coco Fashion Illustrations.

Coco is  a french designer and artist who does work for a variety of well-known fashions publications.  The illustration above is a perfect example of the three basic  elements in Dondis which are: lines, shapes, and dimension.  The role of the graphic lines and shapes are what help create the feeling of dimension in the illustration.


Garance Dore Illustrations.

The fashion illustrations of Garance Dore use the three basic elements of Lines, texture and color. The contour lines create a silhouette, while the other mixed media elements of color create the idea of texture.

This series of film posters designed by La Boca (http://site.laboca.co.uk/Black-Swan) are redesigns of a the 2010 film Black Swan.  I think that these posters are a very representative of the feature hierarchy and uses various visual feature channels of color, shape, depth cues and size.  The stark contrast of the each of the posters with the use of only three colors red, white and black, give off a very blunt dark tone that is actually very representative of the themes in the film.  The bottom two have a strong sense of movement which is a reference to what the film is about which is ballet dancing and quick movement.  What I like about the top two is the depth created by the double meanings of the images that have hidden ones that you only notice after you pick out the initial feature hierarchy of the dark tones first like the black and then you can later notice the smaller detail in the white and the use of negative space.

Visual Perception 1 / Top-Down Visual Processing

This multicolored contour sketch done by artist and illustrator  Charmaine Olivia demonstrates a few of the many components and principles of top down visual processing.  The main silhouette is the focal point of the image and the first thing we notice and so we make the biased decision to notice it first because it uses the boldest color contrast. The artist does this so that we can first remain fixated on the main subject.  From there, our scan path moves to down to the smaller detail of other body silhouettes drawn on the body on the large scale figure.  Our eyelids are forced to make rapid saccades because of all of the tiny lines overlapping each other all throughout the image and the mixing of fatter and skinnier lines and hidden elements that you slowly start to notice.  This kind of approach to design and illustration is present in many of the artist's works. (sketches from <http://www.charmaineolivia.com/portfolio/artwork/>)

Design Success and Failure / Syntactical Guidelines

This is one of the posters for the AIGA/NY 30th Anniversary (American Institute of Graphic Arts/New York Chapter.) It is very minimalist and bold but also holds important information and follows many syntactical guidelines. The focal point being the Empire state building, gives us information about what the poster is about but it also makes the design feel very balanced by arranging the three elements in a triangular shape. All of the elements in the design feel very balanced and harmonious and there is also a form on positive and negative patterns because of the contrasting colors. 


The poster below is also for the AIGA/NY 30th Anniversary but it has a very different design concept that focuses on stress and perception. Although there is a lot of tension I feel that it is still successful because it is making an impact and is still legible, but gives it a chaotic look because of the grouping of the type/information.  The vibrant color palette used makes for a very high impact design but at the same time the simplicity of the font and background give it a nice balance at the same time.

Visual vs Symbolic Language

If we were to merely describe the visual representations of this image we would say that we have a square composition of a woman behind a patterned background.  Her being in the foreground, in a dark green uniform and looking into the distance, makes her the focal point of the image. Behind her we have patterns of stars and stripes that represent the US flag.

If one was to describe the anticipated emotions of viewing the image they would be:
inspiring
evoking pride
honor
dignity
 virture
having pride of one's country
nationalism
etc.

Symbols:
woman = denotes the women who have serviced our country
flag = trying to evoke nationalism

The way in which the composition of the woman is placed front and center of the image helps contribute to the way that the image is trying to give the viewer a sense of pride in their country.  The way the flag is majestically waving in the background only adds to the fact and highlights the idea of paying homage to all those, more specifically women, who have serviced our country.

Schiaparelli and Prada

This catalog was done by designer Abbott Miller of the design firm Pentagram for The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s 2012 exhibition of the Fashion house Prada. The exhibition at The Costume Institute of The Metropolitan Museum of Art  is entitled: Schiaparelli and Prada: Impossible Conversations.

The role of the catalog is to introduce the subjects to the viewers of the exhibit and what we are seeing are representational photographs of the designs. The high contrast and vibrant colors are eye catching to the viewer and display the clothing designs in an organized geometric manner.  It introduces the viewer to the shock value of the modern design aesthetic of the brand.

The abstract value of the catalog when it is stripped down to merely the binding and photographs, we see visuals of women in clothing and accessories.  As a viewer, you respond by either feeling pleasant emotions from the finding the beauty in the design or you can feel the latter. 

Symbolically the catalog is painting a picture of the evolution of the fashion house transitioning through different time periods.  They photographs visualize the important elements of what aesthetic and cultural values were important at each particular place in time.  

Meaning 2: Interactions Between the 3 Levels of Meaning

The Illuminati

The representational level of the photo merely shows a five dollar bill that has been folded, but there are a few different messages that are symbols of secret ideas and meanings.  If you have never heard of the alleged secret society called the illuminati then you could not recognize the clues in this photo that symbolize what they believe.

The abstraction of the five dollar bill that has been divided into three different folds has converted the words The United States of America into the word Satan to express the group’s devotion to Satanic followings.  The number five signifies the number of founding members of the original Bavarian Illuminati in 1776.

What is symbolic about the money being in the photo is the fact that the idea behind the illuminati is that they pledged their alliance to Satan in exchange for wealth and fame.  Many people believe that a lot of today’s most distinguished celebrities are members of the group.  Triangles have also been suspected to be symbols of their group.