Week 15 Exercise

Photo Credit: http://www.allthingsdisneyonline.com/VinylmationKermitMouse.jpg

This image posted above demontrates the Symbolic AND Recognizable aspects of design.  To start off with the symbolic nature, the toy is in the shape of Mickey Mouse which highly symbolic in regards to Disney.  With the ears, gloves, and clothes,   it is pretty evident that it is taking on the shape of Mickey Mouse.  For the recognizable aspects, this would be the way that the toy is colored.  It can be seen that it was not colored in a way for it to be Mickey Mouse.  It can be seen as Kermit The Frog. The eyes, mouth, and shapes under his mouth are highly recognized to be those of Kermit and not Mickey Mouse.  Not to mention, that the different placement of the actual eyes and mouth of Kermit are not placed where Mickey Mouse's eyes and mouth are.

While it is clear what this item is with the supplies in place, if you were envision it empty, it would display the abstract aspects.  The particular shapes of the openings do not suggest a specific item.  It still does however, give you the notion that the product itself is for use to store or organize whatever it is you may have.  The way that the openings and the base is positioned is very similar to if a person was to just assume a place or item is for sitting down.  The item is not shaped to resemble anything, but from the way that it is put together, the method of usage is clear.

Week 14 Exercise - Representational, Abstract, & Symbolic

 Photo:http://th09.deviantart.net/fs71/PRE/f/2010/298/2/2/abstract_music_by_nabster18-d31gz7b.jpg

This is the example of abstract level of design.  From the picture, it just looks like shapes, lines, and colors, thrown together.  But from the certain shapes, you can throw the story together.  First, we have the display of circles in the middle.  From looking at these, they can be seen as either speaker cones or records which can be the source of sound and music.  The lines can show the sound waves that show the path in which they travel in.  Lastly, there are the circles in the back that are arranged and fade to the end with smaller circles.  These can suggest the pulse created from music.  The pulse that the bass and lows create that hit hard at first and fade off periodically.

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 Photo: http://blogs.villagevoice.com/statusainthood/ti_l.jpg

This would be the representational level of design.  In this picture, the artist, T.I. shows the two types of people he has been in his life.  On the left, he represents his lifestyle and personality growing up before he had matured.  The baggy jeans, tank top, tilted baseball cap, gold chain, rubber band, milk crate and stereo represent the life of growing up in the inner-city environment where this is common.  On the right side, you see him dressed in what appears to be a tailored suit.  This suit represents the business man that he had become as well.  It is the likely attire in many corporate buildings with CEO's, Executives, and other leaders of companies.  It represents a more mature and sophisticated side.

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 Photo: http://blogs.the-american-interest.com/wrm/files/2010/03/United-nations-peace-sculpture.jpg

This is the symbolic aspect, which symbolizes a cry for peace.  In this scuplture, the barrell of the gun is tied in a know.  The knot is the stop of bullets flying out of the barrell.  The bullets that would more than likely hit someone or something.  It shows one way to stop the violence by putting guns down.  The knot would work similar to a hose.  Where if you were to tie or fold a hose, the water would be stopped from spraying out.  This works in the same way where it would suggest a stop in gun violence and violence in other forms.

Week 12 Blog Exercise / Visual Techniques

 Nike Air Foamposite 

-Irregularity, Intricacy, Depth, & Complexity -

Picture Credit: http://www.kicksonfire.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/nike-foamposite-one-black-dark-army-1.jpg


Nike Toki 
-Regularity, Economoy, Flat, Simplicity- 

Photo Credit: http://www.deadstock.ca/images/emailers/december%2030th/nike-toki1.jpg

The shoes posted above are the Nike Foamposite and the Nike Toki.  The Foamposite displays a style of shoe that is very different from any other.  The lines and slihouette are irregular and intricate with an almost seamless and round shape that goes all the way around, not to mention the lines that go up and down all around the shoe.  The Toki is a lot more regular and economic in the design.  There is not really anything that is shocking about the design.  Nike took the simple and clean look without taking any risks which is.  flatness and depth is also displayed in the two shoes.  The Toki is flat all around considering the exterior of the shoe does not really go in or stick out greatly anywhere around the shoe.  The Foamposite, however, has lots depth shown from the indentions on the sides as well as the carbon fiber plates that extend in the middle to provide extra support.  Complexity and simplicity is a technique that goes deeper than just the looks of the shoe.  The Foamposite takes on complexity in the design as well as materials that they used for the shoe.  The Foamposite has foam that makes up the shape of the shoe.  The foam, although stiff when first purchased, softens and molds to your feet as your feet produce heat when worn during the day.  The Foamposite also has Zoom Air in the soles that provide extra comfort.  The Toki, on the other hand does not use such technology in the design.  It is just leather that wraps around your foot with out anything complex about it.  

Week 11 Contrast Blog Exercise

Photo Credit: http://www.aboutsneakers.com/wp-content/gallery/373/mr-cartoon-livestrong-nike-air-force-one-kicks.jpg

In this example, the shoe, which is the Nike Air Force 1, shows a great example of contrast.  This shoe was designed to be part of the Live Strong campaign which explains the use of the color yellow.  The black used works great with contrast to make certain areas of design pop-out.  The laser-cut designs are precise and show the story of the shoe.  The shoe shows art from Mister Cartoon, a Los Angeles tattoo artist.  All the designs shown with the contrasting yellow and black are all traditional of the style of Mister Cartoon and is placed all around the shoe tying everything together.  

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Photo Credit: http://www.sneakerdemon.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/Nike-Air-Force-1-High-Womens-Black-Metallic-Gold.jpg

This would be a poor use of contrast on the same model of the shoe above.  This would be a black on black design, except for the difference of fabric and texture which does contrast which each other.  There are dull and shiny parts of the shoe which shows the design that is all over the shoe.  However, you cannot tell exactly what is going on here.  The design can be seen with proper lighting, however it is still very hard to configure the design.  The texture of the different parts of the shoe as well as the design lead you to be lost in finding their inspiration or goal for the shoe.

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Week 10--Movement/Motion

Photo Credit: http://www.laptoppicker.com/archives/kohjinsha-e8-mini-laptop.jpg

In the above picture, they show a lap top that has a feature different from other traditional laptops.  Most laptops simply just open and move in one way to show the screen above the keyboard.  However, in this picture, they show that once the laptop is open, there is still one more motion the screen can do.  The screen here can also pivot and turn to face other ways.  The swiveling motion can allow the screen to be seen by people other than the primary user if turned that way. If the picture was taken with the screen down, it would not show many features.  It would be hard for the consumers to see what the keyboard looks like as well as the screen.  And most importantly, they would not be able to see the most highlighted feature of being able to turn the screen.

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 Photo Credit: http://static.phonesreview.co.uk/wp-content/phoneimages/U900_G2.jpg

This picture above is now of a cellular phone that flips open.  When it is just closed, you can see that the only available features are what looks to be a music player and the screen for the clock.  In the cellular phone however, is shown with it half way open.  From there, you can see that there are more features on the inside.  In which it would more than likely be what would be used to actually operate the phone.  On the inside, you can see that there are some buttons that are visible to suggest that there are more to this device once it is opened up.  It is important that the company took the picture with it half way opened.  With this angle, it clears up that you must flip it open if all you see is the clock, camera, and music player buttons.

Week 9 Blog Exercise – Dimension/Depth/Space

Photo Credit: http://uaesm.maktoob.com/vb/attachments/51497d1175718133-lexus-ls-600h-l.jpg

With my focus on Product Design & Development, I noticed that cars have various areas which are all done by product designers.  Both interior and exterior of the car as well as the parts to make it work go through some sort of design process to make it all work together.  The picture above would be an example of designed physical space.  The designers had to design not only the actual objects inside (steering wheel, seats, navigation system, etc.) but also the 3D space inside the car for those object to fit in as well as the enough space for the riders of this automobile to fit as well.  Not only did these items have to fit inside with the riders as well, but the designers also had to make sure there was enough space for people to use and operate such features inside the car.  This pictures shows the dept of how much space you will be expecting to have when inside.  The steering wheel and dashboard seem to be farther away to emphasize a large amount of space and luxury inside.  The perspective shown is also almost dead center in which you can see the boundaries of the space extending behind you almost as if there is a vanishing point inside the car. 

Week 8 - Tone & Color

Photo credit: http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_RoiyLOZ6PdY/R7nW221XphI/AAAAAAAAAHY/sH6eGO682Tw/S483/air-jordan-xx3-23.jpg

In this picture, I really liked how the photographer at Jordan Brand used a wide tonal range to highlight the new features of the shoes.  There are many parts of the shoe, such as the suede and the shoe laces can almost go unnoticed as their tones are very near that of the background of the picture.  The other features such as the plastic around the toe, signature script around the front, and the grey and red accents from the embroidery designs can be seen from the higher saturation and contrast that the lighting brings.  I think the tone also creates a mood of mystery and elegance.  The mystery comes from the subtle highlights of certain parts of the shoe that almost makes you want to see it in person or at least see more of the shoe it self in different pictures. The color, or lack there of, show a different take on the basketball shoe.  Jordan Brand had used just blacks and greys with a hint of red on the shoe.  With less color, the shoe has a more grown up and mature look.  The color gives it sleekness and also "quiets" the shoe by using less loud colors.  The only color, red, did serve well as it shows great contrast that can lure the customer in.

Week 7 Blog Exercise

Photo Credit: http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3282/2734477874_f30483cc44_z.jpg

This image above would be the blueprint drawing of the Apple iPhone.  I chose this image because it demonstrates exactly what the use of lines are for.  The lines itself do not hold any symbolism, just that it draws borders on where certain parts of the phone start and end.  The lines work similar to actual writing.  They tell you what the overall shape of the phone is, as well as where the screen may actually be.  The lines also display other features of the phone such as any visual buttons and the ear piece to hear.  

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Photo Credit: http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3055/2556789382_54100b545e.jpg

 This image above is now the 3D mold of what the Apple iPhone is supposed to look like.  Shape is now being displayed.  The overall shape of this phone is rectangular which as stated displays "dull" characteristics.  But in this case, I think that the shape is more to display simplicity.  The edges are also rounded which can be a part of the round or circular shape attributes which shows "endlessness" and "protection".  The edges may have been rounded off to avoid dramatic cosmetic damage if dropped on the edges. 

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 Photo Credit: http://www.mobilewhack.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/3g_iphone.jpg

Now we have the final product of the Apple iPhone product that shows the overall texture of the phone.  Similar to the shapes displayed earlier, this shows a smooth and sleek texture.  I think they had chosen this texture as well as display to coincide with what Donis A. Dondis had said about the human nature of seeing texture in "A Primer of Visual Literacy".  Naturally "the judgment of the eye is usually checked on by the hand by actual touching"(Dondis; 55).  A smooth texture would in most cases cause a larger attraction and interest in the product especially after being able to have the phone itself in your hand . 

Week 6 Blog Exercise - Design Success and Failure in Relation to Syntactical Guidelines

 

I am currently a Product Design & Development major.  I chose this picture of this sketch because it really just broke it down with simplicity.  The series of pictures had a good use of the positive/negative aspect of the syntactical guidelines.  The positives in this case would be the figures that were actually colored in to show dept.  The man focus is clearly the chair in the top corner which is a lot larger then everything else shown.  They had also used  good attention grabbing and grouping techniques.  They had grouped the actual sketches together on the top right portion as what looks like the other products to be released in this line of furniture.  And like discussed earlier with the positive/negative aspects, the different pieces of matching furniture are colored in as well.

 

 

This image above would be the "failure" picture   I had chosen.  In this picture, they designer have everything all spread out and almost lost in the clutter.  They did grab attention with the colored sketches of what looks to be the finished design, but there are also many small hints are color throughout that sidetrack the eye.  The sketches also seem to be randomly placed.   It is hard to tell at first glance which sketch goes with which product.  There was a good attempt with the positive/negative as the colored sketches show up more, but it looks be to very unorganized and confusing.  

WK 5 Blog Exercise: Visual vs Symbolic Language

Photo credit:  http://crazetoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/unemployment.jpg

Responses To Image

• depression
• just fired
• lost
• confused
• worried

Symbols In Image

• Suitcase
• Bottom of stairs
• Suit
• Dark/Overcast location
• Business/Financial area
• Sitting on steps
• hand on head
• looking down on floor
• no one around

In this picture, there is a man that looks to be just fired from his job.  He is still wearing his suit and his suitcase is right by him on stairs he is sitting on.  Not only is he sitting on the floor, but he is at the bottom of the stairs which can show some sort of symbolism as if he is back on the bottom of the corporate ladder.  As he sits on the stairs, he has his head down facing the floor with his hand on his head in a state of depression, confusion, and just being lost in the situation.  It also appears that the weather looks like it is either very dark or overcast, or it is at a later time of the day in which he was fired after his shift at work.   The area he is sitting in also does not have anyone around which can make it look as if he has been sitting on the steps for a long time and everyone had already left home. 

WK 4: Visual Thinking Research

On this exercise, we had chosen the puzzles of the cat and finding what month the symbols create.  When doing the cat puzzle, I first started just by pattern seeking right to left.  From there I scanned the image from right to left while numbering and seeing the obvious triangles that stood out.  After that I had used the pattern completion to see what other possibilities there may be that were not so obvious at first glanced.  When I was finished counting, I had 18 triangles counted, while my friend had 21triangles.  From there we looked over what triangles we had chosen and noticed through the pattern completion that I was short of one and he had went over by 2 triangles making the total of 19 triangles that were in the cat.  In the Finding The Month puzzle, I had initially started looking at each symbol to see if there were any patterns that may relate to a certain season. I had began to categorize the shapes but saw no similarity.  On accident, I had glanced at it from the bottom going up and saw the letters J-U-L-Y forming.  This may have been the visual memory part due to the noticing and remembering the shapes that those letters form. 

Week 3 Blog Exercise - Feature Hierarchy and Visual Search

Being an Industrial Design major (Product Design & Development), I tend to look at the design and layout of things with a lot dept.  Pictured above is a controller for the Xbox 360 game console.  I chose this because it displays the whole Visual Hierarchy in a great, simple way.  When looking at the controller at first, it is just all black except for the Y, X, B, & A buttons which pop-out due to the bright coloring of them.  These grab your attention and allow you to get familiar with where each lettered button is positioned since these buttons will be frequently used through out the use of the Xbox 360.  The button silver the middle which is lit up is also an important button for it turns on the controller and console.  By looking at the controller, you can see how important it would be for some features to be seen.  The directional pads and joysticks (in black) are towards the bottom.  The colored buttons would be next up as they are brightly colored.  And the "power" button in the middle which is silver and lit up would be the highest in the feature channel hierarchy.  The shape of the controller is also important as it is easy for the user to access all the buttons simultaneously.  Not only does it allow easy access, but the smooth lines of its design flow nicely to also create a comfort when holding the control.

Product by Microsoft
www.xbox.com

Week #2 Exercise: Top-Down Visual Processing

Top-Down Visual Processing is used on a daily basis, multiple times a day.  Walking around campus, most, if not all people, will scan the area they are walking around or towards for a familiar silhouette of a person they know or a type of person they are interested in.  Once a match has been found, whether it be a friend or a person of interest, you will start to look at the details of the person.  For example, if someone is enticed by nice eyes, this person may notice the way someones eyes are before anything else.  They may look at the eyes, then their smile, hair, etc. in whatever way it is prioritized in their mind which would later on lead to scan paths that go back and forth to the person's eyes.  In more ways than one, we always focus in on an area of fixation.  Once we have observed that area, our eyes will start to jump around, like what was shown with the eye-tracking demonstrations.


Photo credit: http://www.meganfoxonline.net/wp-content/gallery/MeganFoxWallpapers/Megan%20Fox%20%28114%29.jpg