Exercise #14: Three Levels of Design

Representational:

This is an image of a dollar bill zoomed into one of the corners which contains what's known as "The All-Seeing Eye." Below the pyramid/eye symbol are the words, "Novus Ordo Seclorum," which can be translated as, "A new order of the ages." This is a form of representation in an item that we use on a daily basis. All Americans have seen it, but not everyone knows what it is or what it represents. To the viewer, it can represent many different things. Either that the Government watching over the people, or that nothing is hidden from the Government, or that the symbol of an eye is a universal energy. In this case, the representational form has transformed into a symbol of an eye.

Abstraction:
This an abstract image made up of lines, shapes, and color. To the viewer, it communicates abstraction because we are not visually seeing a photograph or still life painting. We see lines, color and shapes that make out a highway with cars on it with a city in the background. This is based on our knowledge as a society, not all people may see a city and a highway. It is an abstracted form because the viewer contributes an emotional response to the painting by adding their own imagination to what they seeing. The colors can impact your emotions by making you feel like your in the city, or that your stressed out, etc.

Symbolism:
This is an image of a symbolic representation of today's society. Many people have seen an evolution photo of how man developed from apes. This is a humorous photo of how man evolved from apes to man to pigs. The viewer can see how the evolution occurred and then developed into what most people view as men. Before the man turns into a pig, it shows a fat man holding a McDonald's bag and drink. This man is a symbol of how today's society is eating too much fast food and developing an unhealthy diet and also not exercising and becoming lazy.

Photos found at:
http://www.jesus-is-savior.com/False%20Religions/Illuminati/dollar_ase.gif
http://averellgallery.com/images/2002_02_Abstraction8_page.jpg
http://joeoreilly.co.uk/blog/images/evolution.jpg

Exercise #11: Contrast

In this magazine layout, I believe the use of contrast adds to the success of the design. The contrast in color helps us see the strong juxtaposition between the two wolves. The contrast in scale of the wolves displays the importance of the article. The image and the article show contrast because they are competing in size and depth. The color used in the article complements the colors in the photo, creating harmony between the photo and story.


In this magazine cover, I believe the poor use of contrast adds to the failure of this design. The contrast in color and tone can be frustrating or too much for the viewer. The red used in the cover are all the same hue, so the contrast isn't strong enough for the viewer to differentiate what those objects are. The layout gets confusing because of all the bold colors especially from a distance pr if you squint your eyes. However the bottom does contrast with the top of the page because of the lightness and darkness. However if we were only to focus on the top, it doesn't seem to work well.






Photos found at:
http://www.xenu.net/archive/media/time910605.html
http://www.nwf.org/News-and-Magazines/National-Wildlife/Animals/Archives/2005/Africas-Lone-Wolf.aspx

Exercise #10: Motion/Movement

This is a website known as Graphic Archaeology. The user can navigate through a lot of different graphic art. The website gives you an option to either navigate through the slides on the bottom, or the titles on the sidebar. It also has another form of navigation in the top. Which is a way to move to another categorized page, to either submit your work or learn more about who runs this site, etc. As you can see the website also has arrows on the bottom left where the site allows the viewer a type of linear navigation rather than clicking on each slide. It allows you to go through the slides one by one. The only problem with these type of navigation on this page is that there is a lot of different types and not all of them seem easy to use. Also for some people it may not be easy to see because there is so much going on in the website, some of the navigation might be hard to locate.
As a user of the iPhone, I have always found the navigation very easy to use and fast. In this image it shows some type of group chat going on. There is a bottom navigation bar that allows you to go back, forward, add another person to chat, or to open another website. There is also an open space for the user to type and a send button parallel to it. On the top, it also allows you to go back onto the main page. Almost anything you open on an iPhone will give you these options. I think why many people are fans on the iPhone is because the navigation is so clear, easy to use and it allows them to move through space without getting stuck or not knowing what to do.


Images found at:
http://www.otherthings.com/grafarc/
http://productblog.37signals.com/products/2008/01/launch-campfire.html