Feature Hierarchies

"Pop-Out" Effect

http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mce3g4je511qf6477o1_500.jpg

Feature Hierarchy in Visual Queries

All three of these images are CD covers of some of my favorite bands. In all of these are examples of feature hierarchy and visual queries.

http://www.freecodesource.com/album-covers/B004IDV2KC--hoobastank-is-this-the-day-album-cover.html

The Hoobastank “Is this the Day?” album cover uses a sort of pathway in its design. First the use of color contributes to directing the viewer’s eyes. By using a gradient of gray in the left center, an infinity sign “pops-out” which in fact is Hoobastank’s logo. Also by using this color, it directs eye movement from that point and onto the right side. By following the shape of the letters in its spatial layout the eye is able to see the form of a guitar.  

http://www.lyricspond.com/artist-mute-math/album-reset

For the Mutemath album cover I found myself looking at the top title then towards the middle down to the bottom and back up again. I realized that in this design there were three points that caused this eye movement. From the top left corner my eyes follow from left to right where you can see the band name Mutemath in its full extended and elongated form filling the top portion of the cover, from there my eyes continue to the right middle towards the silhouette of a city which is created with various shapes and defined by a darker orange color to contrast the background. Finally my eyes go back to the left into the bottom corner where again color and patterns establish contrast, here we see the name of the album “Rest”. Solving the reason for my eye movement I was able to find the pattern (pattern finding) and realized the entire album forms the shape of a triangle.   

http://www.cdstarts.de/kritiken/88139-Incubus-Light-Grenades.html

In this Incubus “Light Grenades “album cover color is an obvious contribute to feature hierarchy. By using the color red, the eyes create a bias and makes all that one color stand out. This bias directs the eye to find more red. By outlining the band name and filling the title of the album in red we can quickly identify them. Were as, though the largest portion of the design, the grenade in the center does not stand out as much because it is black and white and is overlooked by the red heart in the center of it.

Top Down

Being a visual communications major I chose a graphic image called Day-vs-Night created by Tang Yau Hoong. Using positive and negative space, this is a great example of Top-down visual processing.  The two different colors of black and yellow create eye movement for the viewer. Though the yellow background demands the attention the most, other factors in color direct the viewer’s eyes elsewhere. The blue color creates a bias in favor of signals to help amplify the color.  In using the color blue on both birds it “increases amplification” to focus the viewer’s eyes to both locations. The jagged edge patterns give visual information to the viewer which is then combined with nonvisual concepts to help the viewer perceive that the pattern creates trees in both the day and night.  

http://shop.tangyauhoong.com/product/day-vs-night

Syntactical Guidelines

http://readymade99.com/portfolio/childrenshopetransposter.html

The picture above is an example of bad design. With the use of color, scale and motion it is hard to focus on this graphic. The bright yellows throughout this design cause a bit of eye strain to the viewer which makes it difficult to read. The amount of information causes the scale of the lettering to be small and harder to read and makes "the eye must struggle to analyze" (Dondis, 28) the information causing ambiguity. The arrow in the top center causes the reader to focus on it with the intent to follow movement but it is not bring the reader to the important information given.

http://maptohealth.tumblr.com/post/21330358446/protein-your-diet-great-sources-of-protein

This information design layout above is an example that follows good syntactical guidelines. Using horizontal-vertical constuction this graphic creates balance. Without having to be abtained unconsciously, this design visually creates a felt axis. Following the "scanning pattern that responds to the left-lower perceptual pull" makes it easy to understand the information given (Dondis, 29). The colors used do not cause strain and are used to supply more information in grouping. 

This image is a visual representation of the economy. Colors of red, orange, yellow and white cover the background to create a sunrise coming from the right corner. In front of the sunrise is the silhouette of three men in suits and ties and two women in skirts and blazers to reflect business-like attire. These five individuals are all pulling up the symbol of American dollars, an “s” with a line through the top and bottom of it. The American dollar sign is hanging over a cliff while the five people are pulling a rope, making it seem like they are playing tug-a-war.

Responses or feelings

1.    Hope

2.    Struggle

3.    Heavy

4.    Business people

5.    Men out-weigh women in business

Symbols

1.    Dollar sign= money

2.    Men and women= citizens

3.    Sunrise= hope/ new beginning

Underlying compositional structure

This image contributes to creating the feeling of hope because the sunrise in the background denotes a new beginning or hope. The dollar sign being larger than the men and women denote that it is heavy and hard to handle. The men and women silhouettes give the thought that it takes all men and women to work together to create a better economy.

Wk 3 Interactions Between the 3

http://chasingdelicious.com/kitchen-101-produce/

Representational: This is a representation to show “visual information” of when fruits are in season throughout the year. This graph gives an interpretation or representation of information to the viewer to better understand and to be used for reference when it is the best time to buy and eat certain fruits. This representation abstracts into symbols used for expressive and communicative purposes.

Abstract:  This is an abstract graph reduced to use the “basic elements” of pie charts in the form of its shape. For the viewer it gives the outline of the circular cycle that the year forms.  This abstraction is more towards symbolism than “pure abstraction” because it has meaning and still bears “representational information”.

 Symbolic: The symbols in this graph are the written language and words used to describe the months and fruits being synthesized also the graphic in the center which is a logo of the company that produced this image. For the viewer, the symbol is the “transmission of information” that helps explain the graph.  The symbols are “information-packed” to give communicative purpose to the representation.

Meaning

http://arseniccupcakes.tumblr.com/

This hairstyle is representational because it gives the viewer a visual appearance of a flower. The level of categorizing would be considered a generic flower.  Though there is a level of detail, this representation is not detailed enough to be a specific type of flower. The design captures expressive style and functional purpose. Expressively, this hairstyle gives a whimsical and nature-centered feeling. For functional purposes, this hairstyle is a convenient way to get hair up and out of the way.

http://www.coolhunting.com/style/history-industry-jewelry.php

This necklace is an abstraction derived from royal accessories of ancient empires. It is an abstraction because the designer was able to reduce concepts of the representation with basic shapes, colors and tones. This abstraction also derives from the same function as the royal accessories. As royal accessories were jewelry the designer was able to keep that same function with creating this necklace. Stripped down, these less expensive materials of wood and acrylic also make it an abstraction of the representational accessories.  It communicates to the viewer a sense of bold simplicity with its simple geometric shapes and bright colors.

http://msjosnowy.tumblr.com/

The use of the two “c” is symbolic because it signifies language characters.  This trademark symbol denotes a product line. The product line is Coco Chanel.  With its luxurious handbags, Chanel’s symbol is famous. Though famous this logo is culture-dependent. Luxury comes with a price and not all cultures would be able to understand the reasoning for the logo.