Week 14 Blog Assignment

Geometric house, exemplifies; asymmetry, balance, mechnical.

This Celtic Knot patch exemplifies intricacy, balance and symmetric.

DAI Week 14 blog assignment

this is the 2008 Megelli Motard motorcycle, i believe that the design of the motorcycle is  good example of good use of contrast, as the main body of the bike is black but is accented with a strong contrasting yellow. black and yellow is one of the most contrasting color combinations in our visible spectrum, and so they have assured that the contrast in color draws views into the design making the motorcycle more visually interesting. the intent of concentrating most of the contrasting yellow color to the front of the motorcycle is to create the sense of motion while the bike is in motion and as well as in its static position. in a way this bike looks like it has been speeding and hit a water balloon full of yellow paint, therefore conveying motion.

this is the Hand Painted Multi Colored Mango wood Antique style two-tone trunk sold by Wallmart, in my perspective i think that this is an example of bad use of contrasting colors. i am unsure of what aesthetics that the designer was trying to emulate, but i believe that i can make the assumption that this was inspired by some east Asian aesthetics. this piece primary uses the contrasting colors of blue and red, with the focus of red encompassed by blue on the front panel. this draws the view to the center of the trunk however, i do not think that it works well because even though the red is beveled with ornate gold lace it is too much of a contrast and takes away from the form and the aesthetics of the trunk. this piece there is little harmony in the color, leading the the feeling of something cheap or an attempt that was not executed to its fullest potential.

Blog Exercise: Movement/Motion OPTION 1

This is this is Spiral Theme by Naum Gabo's 1941, Spiral Theme, this sculpture conveys kinetic motion very well, this is achieved by the utilization of many factors processed by this sculpture. The asymmetric formation of the sculpture implies motion as it draws the eyes from one side to another, essentially making the view apply motion to the sculpture. The utilization of the material is also genius as the transparent plastic enables a multiple layer effect to the piece, making there multiple foreground layers and background layers creating depth and motion. The most district feature that gives this sculpture motion is the use of curves and lines. The artist utilized the natural motion in flowing lines and forms; however he used angular lines to break up the flow of some lines adding a sense of change and motion in the piece. 

http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/gabo-spiral-theme-t00190

 

This is another sculpture by Naum Gabo, it is entitled Standing Wave, 1919-1920. Standing Wave is made of hundreds of metal strips that he has arranged into a flowing spiral formation. This has a great effect of creating a sense of motion to the viewer. Another factor in the creation of motion would be the perspective of the viewer, if the viewer is to walk around the sculpture the view will get the sense that the sculpture is rotating. This piece is named standing wave and that accurately describes the piece very well, the shimmer given off by the metal strips mimics the reflection of light on waves and water. This piece captures the sense of flow and motion very well.

 http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/gabo-kinetic-construction-standing-wave-t00827

WK10 Blog Tone and Color

Ovente 1.79- qt. Cord-Free Brushed Electric Kettle from the website WayFair.com.

How TONE is interacting
this electric kettle uses tone to help the user understand how to use it, the darkest tone on this object is the black handle, which is the only place you should grab the kettle. this design plays off thermal imaging as the lightest tones the main vessel and then the metallic grey would indicate the hottest areas and the darker the color the area is.

How COLOR is operating
This electrical kettle came in different colors, blue, red, pink and white. i liked the pink color because it is a soft color compared to blue and red but not as bland as white. the design of the kettle uses the light pink to accentuate the water indicator. this makes it not only visually grasping as well as clear and understandable.


How COLOR is interacting
The colors on this kettle create clear divisions, the strongest contrast of color is the black handle and the pink vessel, because of the strong contrast we naturally focus on that area which in the case of an electric kettle the ony place you should touch when operation it.

Visual thinking

 in this puzzle the objective is to find the total number of triangles that the cat is comprised of. my friend went with the approach of out lining the triangles, but that got a little confusing for her. i went with marking each triangle with a 1 and added another if the triangle was used twice, such as the ones in the cats tail.

This puzzle was a lot harder, my friend again tried to draw outlines of stars but found out quickly that there was no apparent star. i went with shading in triangles that i thought would make a star but i really count not find the star. but than we both started to think that the star would be on its side or in some other orientation that was not the same as indicated. focusing more on vertical lines instead of diagonal lines we found the star in the bottom left corner. this one was hard because of the miss leading instructioms.

Top-Down Visual Processing

I choose a classic and nostalgic image to me, the ever recognizable Chutes & Ladders board game.

I Believe that this is a perfect image that implements the Top-Down Visual Processing we all use on a daily basses. we have been trained to read things from top left to bottom right, this board game utilizes that fact to its advantage, by marking the final goal to the top right to draw your attention to where you need to end up and/or how to win. when looking at the board we easily neglect to notice or pay attention to the starting location which is an important factor to the game. this board game also utilizes our ability to recognize color differences as the chutes are colored red which makes them pop out comparatively to the background and ladders. emphasizing the chutes also makes the players to also follow the curvy chutes as they cross the board.  by using red the designers drew from the notion that red means a warning or a "don't", like stop lights, stop signs, warning labels and etc. another trip that the designer of this board game implemented was segmenting the board into a grid system, making use focus on each square as we move our eyes across the board.
this board game utilizes many basic ideas and associations that are engrained into our society and our collective notions. 

WK3_Blog_Meaning2

Representational

this is a BellaFina Electric violin, this piece is representational because we recognize this as a violin because of the shape and it retains its function as a musical instrument. 

because this is an electric violin it emulated the traditional violin in form but mechanically it is more like an electric guitar, giving a different kind of sound and feel.

the relationship between representational level and the other 2 levels are an intertwined one as it is the base of the other two levels of visual design. 

Abstract

this violin is an abstract piece of art in its self as visually all we see is the finger board and a chin rest. in a way removing all the other elements of a traditional violin and leaving the essential parts for it to function. the S shaped curve can be seen as an abstract representation of the outline of the violin.

this violin makes the user or listener question if it really is a playable instrument or if its just for show. giving the listener a sense of mystery to it, but once people hear it played they know that it is a playable violin.

the S shaped curve works on all three levels as it makes the violin more recognizable, it also is an abstract form of the violin reducing it to just the outline of a traditional violin, as well as working on the symbolic level as i will explain.

Symbolic

the symbolic aspect of this violin is in the S shaped curve on the violin, this is because it can be seen as a musical note, a G Clef to be exact.

this has an impact on the user/viewer as, which in my mind, symbols music which is what a violin or any instrument is all about. so it adds another musical element to the instrument.

this symbolism is related to the other 2 levels of visual design because it symbolize music which is an over arching category for all violins. 

sources: 
G clef: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Music-GClef.svg

BellaFina Electric violin: http://images.guitarcenter.com/products/optionLarge/Bellafina/DV016_Jpg_Large_470404.901.904_black_R.jpg