Communication Artifact

For my part in the our campaign project I worked on some of the collateral and self promotion. I did this by creating the business card and bumper sticker for All Occasions Artistry. We chose to go with an artistic font for the name as well as a more simplistic font for other important information. We also chose natural colors such as pink, tan, and brown to create a warm comfortable feel to the design. Both these elements bring contrast and harmony to the design. I chose the designs that I did because they each had a makeup feel and incorporated our color scheme within them. The placement of the logo on the business card is an example of the rule of thirds. The use of the same fonts, colors, and logo between the designs shows the Gestalt principle of the law of similarity.

Collaborate Design

For our design campaign we chose to do All Occasions Artistry. All Occasions Artistry is a mobile airbrush and tanning company. They also provide a permanent makeup service. Their main goal is to provide convenient services which make their customers feel good in their own skin. All Occasions Artistry had little to no promotion. Literally just a Facebook and a Yelp page and no logo. For this project we created a logo, a website, a business card, and a bumper sticker.
We made a very fluid logo which is made of a bunch of lines and shapes. Much of these lines are diagonal and add a dramatic touch to the logo. At first glace, the logo simply looks like a cool design, but when you take a closer look you can see they make up the letters A.O.A. The logo helps lead the eye, indicates direction, and encourages eye movement throughout the frame for these reasons I would say the logo is a graphic vector. 
We chose nice, warm, natural tones for our design to help integrate the theme of All Occasion Artistry. The pinks and browns create a contrast that complements each other well. The logo has symmetrical balance in order to create this psychological sense of relaxation and zen.
The logo follows Gestalts theory of non-summativity because line is key and helps make the logo a unified whole. The logo also follows Gestalts principles of the law of similarity, proximity, and continuity. I say this because, we group these similar fonts into one shape simply because they are near each other and the logo's lines lead our eye in the simplest path therefore following the rule of continuity.

Mis-en-Scene- Interstellar: The Tesseract Scene

For this assignment our group decided to do the Tesserac scene from the movie Interstellar. This is an intense scene in which the main character, Cooper, tries to relay a message to his daughter, Murph, while he is trapped within the Tesserac (a physical representation of the forth dimension). 
Christopher Nolan, being the director, was the main coordinator of this film and helped to assemble his crew. Many of which were involved in past projects such as: Inception, The Dark Knight, and Momento. Because of this, we can see some of the previous influences that went into this film.
Through this scene we can see several of the principles that we have discussed in class. We see a major form of contrast between Murph and her Father as she sits in a old farm house and he floats through a dimension in space. At one point Cooper flies above a scene of young Murph running out of her room which is directly followed by an older Murph walking slowly into her room. This too shows contrast.
The infinite bookshelves provide us with this perfect, continuous, never-ending symmetry. They also are examples of the diagonal rule and graphic vectors. The rule of thirds is prominent in every signal shot. As Cooper flies through the Tesserac he becomes a motion vector. Similarly at the end of the scene, when Murph runs to throw the papers she becomes a motion vector. Through this scene we also see the law of continuity. The hands on the watch indicate index vectors.
There are an extensive amount of lines in this scene. The infinite book shelves and the continuation lines are the most predominant, however all these lines help to lead the audiences eye, give direction, and enhance the 3 dimensional planes within the Tesserac.  
As the co-writer and director of the film, Christoper Nolan had to take his extremely abstract vision and make it a reality.  
The Making of The Tesserac

Compose your Frame

As I walked around the Holland building I took a lot of really good pictures. My trouble was finding something that applied to all three criteria. I also wanted something unique I finally settled on a picture I took from the stairs in between the mezzanine and the second floor looking down on the first floor.

This photo follows the rule of thirds because the strongest contrasting points, in this case the two people, are positioned almost perfectly along the lines and intersections. I would like to point out that I did not set up this picture in any way. I simply help my camera over the edge and snapped a few shots. I love that the red stands out so brilliantly against the rest of the colors (black, white and gray). I couldn't have planned it better.
I think the black ropes near the women provide a somewhat diagonal line. All other lines in this photo are either vertical or horizontal. This contrast amplifies the dramatic movement caused by the diagonal line.
Throughout my search through the Holland building vectors were the most difficult to find. However this picture shows two examples of vectors. The tiles on the floor are examples of a graphic vector because it encourages the eye to move upward. The people in the picture are examples of motion vectors because they lead the eye throughout the frame. They also make us sense movement while still being stuck in one position.

Axioms of Web Design

The website I chose to evaluate is redbubble.com. This website is an online market place and sells t-shirts, hoodies, phone cases/skins, and much more. These products include anything from fandom related items to awesome graphic t-shirts. All products are based on user submitted art. 
Redbuuble's business objectives are easily identifiable. For one they are trying to sell an abundance of products to consumers. They are also trying to promote the work of independent artists in a unique way. The header provides easy navigation with its simple tabs and search bar.
The inconsistent grid gives the webpage load structure, but because it is almost entirely graphics I think this gives a unique vibe to the website. Websites are all about scrolling, thus Redbubble
uses its artwork to keep the viewer scrolling. First time visitors will have absolutely no problem with navigating this site. It is aesthetically pleasing, intuitive and user friendly.
Switching from my computer to my tablet the website has slight variations. For one, the background of the tabs bar goes from white to black. The "Featured Designs" goes from six rows to four. When I go to my phone it is relatively similar to the tablet except the "Featured Designs" is now two rows. I actually prefer the formats of the third and fourth screens to the original design.

Design Evaluation

Everyone has heard the saying, "Don't Judge a book by it's cover." But let's just admit it right now we all have. They are the reason we pick a book off the shelf; it catches our eye, it looks interesting. I absolutely love to read, but one of my biggest pet peeves is when they release new renditions of book covers. I am not saying all renditions are bad, but at least 90% of the time they make me want to scream.
So, when deciding what to do to represent good and poor design my mind automatically went to book covers. For my design evaluation I chose to focus on The Lost Hero and it's graphic novel counterpart. Throughout this evaluation I will be comparing these two covers using principles we have learned in class.
 As I began to evaluate these two cover the first thing that popped out to me was the color. In the original the turquoise bluish-gray color contrast greatly with the gold/bronze dragon making it stand out even more. The color and background also create an intriguing aspect to the cover which make the reader want to know more. Through the use of line we also see the intricate details of the dragon as well as the roofs of the building. The contrast in size between the three characters and the dragon gives us perspective. The cover is also balanced symmetrically from the center creating a law of closure.
The graphic novel, however, is quite different. For one, there is little to no background, unless you are counting the dragon-monster-thing, I can't even tell what it is in this one. The colors are a dull bluish-gray and an orange-yellow, which don't really complement one another and really just bleh. The size of the characters has greatly increased and has become the main focal point of this cover. I honestly feel like the illustrators couldn't decide whether to draw the characters realistically or more cartoon like and ended up doing a combination of the two. Thus creating cartoons with way to many details and unnecessary shadows. This cover is balanced asymmetrically with the dragon-monster-thing on the left and the three characters on the right which gives us the law of proximity and similarity.
If I didn't know these were the same book (or if the titles were taken away) I would think they were telling two very different stories. The context is extremely different from one another. Gestalt's law of closure in the original cover helps us to believe the dragon and kids are working together as a team. The graphic novel, on the other hand, uses the laws of proximity and similarity to make us think they are either fighting the dragon, the dragon has turned against them or they are jumping into battle. 
Overall, I would say the original cover is a much better example of good design. I would have to agree with John Maeda that simplicity can go along way and is far better than a chaotic combination.

Contrast, Balance and Harmony

I found this picture online I thought it perfectly conveyed the elements of contrast, balance and harmony that we talked about in class. The lighting in this photo focuses the audience attention to the infant's feet then down to the fatherly hands. The shadows and many different shades of gray help to provide texture to the photo. We are able to focus and see the course calloused hands, as well as, the delicate wrinkles of the soft new baby feet.
This photo shows contrast in a few different ways. First in color which ranges from deep black to almost white gray. The utter blackness gives an overwhelming sense of dread, while the lightness of the child's feet seems to say: There is hope. Second, feet and hands are opposites of one another and interestingly enough this contrast creates a sense of harmony. Third, in the evident size difference between these two.
The position and orientation of the hands say so much with so little. They seem to say how precious life is. They show the love, tenderness and protection of a father. This picture also has symmetrical  balance because of the two almost identical feet and the three fingers holding up each foot. I think the Gestalt principle that best fits this photo is the law of  pragnanz. I say this because what is more simple, yet perhaps more complicated, than life itself.