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. 

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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

Representational - Abstract - Symbolic

representational design focuses on abstracted forms that are expressive and still retaining functionality. this piece is a representational form of puzzle, as it retained it's functionality while being an abstract form of a puzzle.

Abstraction is using a visual event reduced to the basics to convey message. in this piece that i made i wanted each side to remind the viewer of a tree out the window. some of the abstractions i put into effect include, turning the tree into a 2d view of tree branches, simplifying it. making the branches more angular really changed the feel of it, taking it further away from a tree.












this is a good example of a symbol, as it indicates/conveys something with out words. in this case a windy stretch of road is up ahead. this is fairly common knowledge, but the time when people really need to understand this symbol is when learning how to drive. the sign is very clear as the shield signifies defense and keep guard, the arrow indicates the up coming road and indicates that there will be a veen soon.