Week 14 Exercise

Representational
An object, image or design that acts representationally invokes and calls on previously-acquired mental information and experience. This image, of course, represents a bird, as anyone who has seen and understands what birds are can categorize the shape formed by wire as one. Although made out of metal and formed abstractly its familiar traits (such as beak, body shape, legs, feet, etc.) are apparent to the viewer. Perhaps a person more informed in ornathology could give greater detail into what kind of bird this was meant to be, giving it different elements of categorization. What differentiates it from a symbol or an abstraction is that the form itself is recognizable as a bird. It has too many distinctive details to be an abstraction, and is both too complex and uniconic to be a symbol.

Abstraction
This image, taken from the freeware game Yume Nikki (Dream Diary) is abstraction in its purest form. Hovering ominously in a background of blackness, its purpose is to frighten the player with the feeling that is menacing both for what is seen and what is not known. The shape itself is purely abstract, employing textures and elements that frighteningly suggest an organic structure. The curves, shapes and colors seem to suggest eyes, flesh, muscle and humors, but whether that of an egg, organs, fetus or amoebia is unknown and undecided. Yet while many video games employ "Body Horror" as a way to psychologically disturb players, the fact that this thing's purpose, nature , even what it is are all unknown and unknowable only add to the sense of disturbance. Abstraction is the whole point - it suggests without defining and repulses through vague horror.

Symbolism
The cross is, of course, one of the most famous symbols worldwidel. It has been used as a symbol for Christianity (based on the torture device that Jesus was apparently executed on) and subverted in various ways to indicate sects, organizations and families, as well as a myriad of other uses. It's simple design of perpendicular lines makes it easy to recognize and replicate. However, in this particular example, the symbolism functions on multiple levels. This particular cross employs a distinctive Celtic design by adding a circle, representing either a halo of the crown of thorns. The famous "Celtic Knots" also add further symbolism, possibly adding distinction of maker, region or sect. This is a picture, but it also represents a faith, a culture and perhaps even a place.

Week 13 Post

The New York Times Magazine Article
Fourth-Wave Feminism
Techniques:

• Balance
• Symmetery
• Regularity
• Simplicity
  
• Economy
• Predictability
• Stasis
• Neutrality
• Accuracy
• Flatness
• Singularity
• Sequential

.hack//G.U. Official Website
Techniques:

• Balance
• Symmetery
• Regularity
• Simplicity
• Unity
• Economy
  
• Predictability
• Activeness
• Subtlty
• Accent
• Consistency
• Accuracy
• Depth
• Sequentiality
• Sharpness
• Episodicity

The reason different techniques were used had a lot to do with the different types of visual communication, that of a printed magazine article and that of an interactive website. In the case of the former, the most important content on the page was the information within it; specifically, the article's content. While the asset of the intelligent-looking young woman pausing in contemplation added an small bit of aesthetic flavor, there was really no need to attract the eye further. The overall composition was simple and balanced; Sharpening the piece wouldn't have added much at all.

As for the website, however, the viewers expect something different, specifically in interaction. Although the composition remains balanced and even minimalistic, its primary function is to advertise a video game series in addition to conveying information. With a spinning taskbar and other visually exciting elements, the piece attracts the viewer and holds attention subtly. Having it be more Level wouldn't help at all; with just a touch of Sharpness, the website still stuck in my head as one of my favorite designs years after the games went out of print.

Week 11: Contrast Exercise (Visual Communication)

Sad to say, one of the challenges that designers face is that people really do judge books by their covers. Which could explain a lot. So for this week's assignment, I'll focus on book covers again, this time looking at their color pallets.

Good Example: Hans Christian Andersen
Right here, we have a decent contrast of colors. The yellow border creates a pleasing contrast that leans towards Leveling, being one of the Primaries that contributes to the green inside. The difference in Tone emphasizes the difference, but the low saturation prevents the contrast from becoming garish. The red bar in the upper half provides a greater contrast, as Red and Green are diametrically opposed hues. This causes the subtitle The Complete Fairytales and Stories to pop out at the viewer while its darker tone mutes the effect enough that the contrast, again, remains acceptable.








Bad Example: A Glossary of Literary Terms

This book, however, is a different story. The initial intention was (apparently) to use the contrast between Yellow and Purple hues to make the text on the cover pop out. Unfortunately, the purple's saturation made the contrast far too great. The dull, less-saturated yellow was likely intended to mute the contrast and cause the letters to pop out; instead the texts' color juxtaposition are almost entirely disappears against the purple. The contrast in tone between the lighter text is also too great, making the sharpness feel almost painful. Even the design in the background, which is almost identical in tone, hue and saturation, still feels jarring.

Contrast aside, the purple color, by any design standards, seems to be a very dangerous one to design with, since there's no way of using it tastefully. Furthermore, the scheme feels gaudy and completely inappropriate for a reference text.

Week 10 Assignment

Option 2: Navigational Examples

I'm currently exploring various fields of design - specifically, graphics design for print media. For my two examples, I've taken two different extremes of direction, from this week's Newsweek and from Issue 40 of Advanced Photoshop, respectively.

The Direct Route: Newsweek
This scan of a Newsweek article displays pretty much the simplest and most straightforward example of magazine print. The series of columns reads from right to left and downward.

Designers face the challenge that many people are put off by large walls of text staring back at them from the page; thus long articles seem intimidating or bothersome. However, columns "break down" the article into multiple chunks - the reader reaches the end of each individual line quite easily, and gains a sense of momentum. The system likewise remains true to the way that most English-speaking readers' eyes move, going from up to down and from left to right. Adding pictures, charts and breaks for notable quotes further adds diversity, regaining the reader's attention which might slip if the text were unvaried, and also draws attention specifically to the most important points the article makes.

The Complex Route: Advanced Photoshop
The readers of magazines that focus on art face an additional problem: adding flavor. Unlike with Newsweek, the readers expect a degree of variety and ingenuity with the text itself while keeping the information still legible and easy to follow. The additional problem of the instructional material here is that sometimes more detail and bigger pictures are needed; uniform picture sizes really aren't feasible.

Advanced Photoshop solved the problem by using several conventions, as you can see on the right. The flow favors left-to-right over up-to-down, a format that is slightly more confusing to readers familiar with the latter. However, keeping this system constant helps avoid extra confusion. Each step is, naturally, numbered in big typefont, preventing the difference between steps from being easily missed. Additionally, the difference in picture size and shapes are made notably less jarring by having them alternate between above the text and below it, allowing for fashionable asymmetry instead of jarring size difference. The system does not always work - this particular project caused me to fumble at least twice, so perhaps the shift to left-to-right organization is a bit more confusing for some than others.

Magazine Design (Graphics)

Shape
This magazine encloses each paragraph and subsection within rectangles. The rectangle shape, after all, means stability and structure, while its direction emphasizes horizontal and vertical. Not only do these add extra structure to the page, but the paragraphs and graphics conform to the rectangle's shape more easily than do circles and triangles. The rectangles also manage to enclose the separate sections, dividing the page into bite-sized portions more pleasing to the eyes of the younger readers.

Notice, too, the circle beneath Cyber-Stein. It is the only circle that the design employs, intended to be out of place and to draw the eye. The text within the circle is important information which the readers must know, hence the contrast.

Dot
The dot, as Dondis established, is the irreducibly minimum unit of visual communication. The dot, as in the case of these bullets, serves as the marker, or reference point, drawing the eye to each sequentially. In this case, dots act as bullets, separating a sequence of tips beneath a common heading. The boxes that surround them alone are insufficient, and would seem cluttered due to quantity, but the dot-bullets mark and separate each point adequately.








Lines
One of the most basic uses of the line, in magazines or in any other publication: in the table of contents. The line's energy is used to direct the eye from each section to the page; without them, the reader might easily become confused as to which page went with which section, irritating him or her and preventing them from easily referencing the section they want. Especially with the text rotated slightly, the line's decisiveness allows the user to ignore the otherwise unsettling position, making it simple different and not jarring.

(On a side-note, all the scans were taken from this month's Shonen Jump magazine; the reason for my selection being not only that my intended eventual career will be in graphics desing (specifically in Magazine design), but this month's issue contained my first freelance article. So, I'm slightly biased towards this particular magazine and issue, needless to say.)

Week 6 Exercise

My area of interest in taking DAI has been graphics design - specifically that which relates to printed material. Here are two of my former textbooks which have quite different designs - Great American Prose Poetry on the right, which has a very intriguing and interesting design that works for the targeted audience, and Sudden Fiction international on the left, which is garish and in descriptive.

Apart from the bright, mismatched colors of SFI, the composition itself really leaves a lot to be desired. The placement of the text 'Sudden Fiction' was on the right track, but the slanted 'International', in a different font no less, did not sharpen the effect but rather made it more ambiguous (and less legible). The grouping both at the top and bottom really prevented the words emphasized from appearing especially remarkable - 'edited by' is less noticible than the people it connotes. There really isn't much stress in the design either - all the components feel so mismatched that wherever stress was intended instead feels like an eyesore, or else downright confusing.

GAPP, on the other hand, manages for a more pleasing look. The text is grouped and balanced nicely; the placement of the title and editor just off-center attracts the eye with a smidge of sharpness but still comes off as more-or-less leveled. The lines on the left add more sharpness by reminding the prospective reader of ruled school paper. This provides a comforting, homey touch that carries with it the approachability of the familiar and lack judgment and also draws the viewer's eye back to the text. The image below adds a fine element of whimsy, reminding everyone that poetry doesn't need to make sense in order to be great: the woman with her parrot in the desert thunderstorm hardly looks very serious, yet compels the viewer to probe deeper for meaning beneath the nonsense. Which is, after all, what poetry so often aspires to do.

Week 5 Exercise

Sosuke Aizen's splash portrait (from the manga Bleach by Tite Kubo).

At first glance, Aizen appears to be a rather nondescript character. While in the realm of manga, glasses are frequently shown as being "cool" or "trendy", his thick-rimmed glasses are an almost universal symbol of a soft-spoken intellectual; weak in both mind and body. His expression, too, is bland, though friendly. However, this portrait (published in the volume where he is established as the story's true antagonist), suggests that this impression is false.

Of note is the extreme contrast, which throws the blandness of his expression into an eerie light. His eyes lack color or reflection, giving him a very piercing gaze. Note, too, that his eyes aren't "smiling" - there's something sardonic, almost ironic in his demeanor. The seemingly kindly nerd is actually evil and dangerous, and has since discarded his mask. Finally, his name (written behind him in traditional brush strokes) is drawn very aggressively, even savagely; it's a very violent signature.

On "splash" (eyecatch) pages, it's not unusual in manga for the manga-ka (writer/artist) to do a picture of a character who figures heavily into the plot or story arc. Generally speaking, said portraits are of the character behaving in a characteristic manner - a shy character might take a more submissive, defensive pose, for instance. Aizen dominates his page, gazing down at the audience, serene and pitiless.