Tone and Color

The Gluttony Lamp by Luis Luna displays many visual language elements, but the major elements featured in this product are tone and color. The eye first looks at the shadow that this lamp creates. The shadows that the light from the lamp creates displays the tonal range the light produces. Because the eating utensils are crossing each other, the light that is being emitted creates tone across a room. The tonal range is between light grey and black. Not only does the shadow display tonal range, but the light communicates a certain mood. The lamp itself produces a certain mood of awareness. The plastic eating utensils is an abstract representation of how our society consumes unhealthy foods. The texture of the lamp interacts with the tone and color as another element. Plastic forks, knives, and spoons are the texture of the product. Shape also plays a role interacting with the tone. The pattern of the the tonal range is created by the shapes of the utensils. The handles also produce the visual element of the line. Many elements interact with the tone in this lamp. The color of the lamp operates in a similar way as the tone. The shapes and textures of the lamp creates different color saturations. These elements both effect the color and tone of the product. The utensils in the lamp have areas of color saturation where the white light becomes darker because of the overlapping of the utensils. The shape, direction and texture interact with the color of this lamp to produce an idea that is communicated to the consumer. http://www.industrialdesignserved.com/Gallery/Gluttony/119580

Product Design- Elements

The direction of this Ripple chair designed by Ron Arad is the key basic element for visual communication. As you can see, the curving of the chair produces an infinite repetition in the body of the chair. The way the two circles overlap each other creates an illusion of continuation. The eye will follow the soft rippled circles as it continues in one direction to complete the visual communication of the chair. There is perfect balance displayed in this chair from the legs to the circular aperture. In return, the chair has perfect direction because of the balance in its shape. The lines in the texture of the seat help show the direction of the chairs flow. I like how the chair develops a visual communication of infinite direction and containment throughout the circular seats. The lines in the circular seats produce the traces left behind by sea waves in the sand, but that is an element called texture which I will show in my next example of a different product.    

The moss carpet created by La Chanh Nguyen displays the basic element of texture. Who doesn't like the texture of grass between one's toes? This bathroom carpet is made from real moss and can in fact live very well in the humidity of a bathroom. The moss also gets moisture from a person stepping on it getting out of the shower. The natural texture of the real moss creates an illusion of being outdoors while being inside an apartment or house. If there were no pieces of moss on this carpet, it would be flat and boring. Compared to other shower carpets, this moss carpet has an enjoyable texture that makes getting out of the shower more interesting and creates a depth to the carpet as well. The illusion of being outdoors can become real from the texture of the carpet inside one's apartment. The texture of the carpet helps the natural world of plants intertwine with the urban world. 

This ORB acoustic loudspeaker designed by Junior Phipps displays the basic element of shape as a form.  The circular shape of the speakers signifies protection for the actual speaker. The circle form creates an endless meaning of sound. The sound will always be amplified from the circular speakers. You can see that the shape of the speakers form contours around the speaker itself. The speaker is protected by its form.

Syntactical Guidelines

The Juxtaposed: Power Shelf by Mike and Maaike uses the horizontal construct to emphasize the balance and sharpening of this shelf. Because the shelf can only fit seven books, it has a large empty space to the right of where the books are. This may seem to create a visual imbalance, but once other items are stored on the shelf the dynamic compositions off the books and other items on the shelf will create a visually balanced shelf. Because the books are stored all the way to the left, the stress and focus visually create sharpening. All the focus and stress of the shelf is seen where the books are located. Even though the books may create sharpening, doesn't mean it has to be imbalanced. At the moment the shelf may seem to be imbalanced, but once other items are stored next to the books, the horizontal balance will become apparent. Both balance and sharpening can be syntactical guidelines for visual literacy.

The Saci Chair by Rafael Morgan displays poor visual balance. Because the chair only has one wooden leg and three acrylic legs, the composition is ambiguous. If the chair was not leaning back and had four wooden legs, then it could be visually balanced. The perception of this chair to the viewer is relating a message of being unstable and visually imbalanced. Another reason why this chair is not visually balanced is because the one wooden leg is the main focus of the chair. Since the other legs are not dark wood, they are not noticeable. The viewer will see that the legs of the chair make the chair itself imbalanced.  

Puzzles

By figuring out this puzzle, me and my friend had similar and different ways of solving it. We were supposed to count how many triangles created the image of a cat. Are first approach we very different. I started to count the triangles one at a time from the cat's head down. My friend started to count the triangles from the tail up. We both viewed the puzzle from another viewpoint. Our first operation of visual thinking was completely different right away. As I counted, I found myself matching the shapes and colors of the different triangles together. I saw the two ears first, the two small eyes. My friend didn't even use matching as a visual way of thinking until she reached the head. Colors didn't help her match the triangles, just shape. When I started to count the triangles at the tail, I was rotating the ways the triangles created the pattern of the tail. I was mainly visually thinking about rotation when counting the tail, and so was my friend. She said she would actually rotate the paper to count the triangles. By concentrating on grouping matching triangles together and rotating the triangles at the tail, I was able to find the correct amount of triangles. My friend was only one triangle short. We realized she forgot to count one triangle in the tail because she was rotating the paper too much. The main differences in our visual operations of solving the puzzle was our different viewpoints at the start.

The other puzzle we did was a bracelet one. You were supposed to find the identical bracelets that matched each other. The first way I started to solve this puzzle was by using the visual operation of matching again. I started off my finding the part in the bracelet that had two touching triangles. Then went to the right to see what was next to that. I didn't even look at the circles because I my visual memory on completing the bracelet already knew there were four circles in every bracelet from the first glance I took of the puzzle. My friend started the puzzle off by categorizing all the triangles and how they are facing. She said she looked at the two triangles touching noses and then she said she looked at the other two triangles of the bracelet that were following each other. After that, she looked at the single triangles and saw the way they were pointing. I was trying to complete the pattern by following the shapes after each other in a continuation form. She realized that the bracelets were symmetrical right after she grouped the similar triangles together. It took my awhile to realize that the same bracelet was just flip symmetrically.  

Top Down Visual Processing

This modern bamboo spring chair designed by Anthony Marschak demonstrates the Top-Down visual process. Average chairs have four legs, so immediately a consumer is looking at the flat surface that provides the chair with sustainability. The curves of the chair denote the shape of a human. The curves in the chair catch the attention of a viewer's eye and symbolize a human form that is sitting. When people view this chair, the look ahead of the curves provide an organic feeling. This organic feeling makes the viewer feel comfortable. Because the viewer sees this chair as an organic comfortable product, they will expect the chair to be comfortable. The main goal of the consumer viewing this chair is how comfortable and unique it looks. In return, the chair provides a comfortable visual look while also giving comfort and support to the user. The simplicity of the chair has few fixation points which allows the consumer to comfortably view the chair.

Interaction Between the 3 Levels

This is a product design by Rafael Morgan called the Killer Closet that uses the primary tools that make the anatomy of a this visual message apparent. The representational is displayed as two different ideas. The main idea that this product represents is a unique closet. This closet also represents the old school magician sword trick. The magic sword trick closet represents how the closet can transform magically to accommodate several different items. This representational of a closet is inspired by the deadly magician trick. The viewer is interested in the various ways the closet can transform. Because this closet is not your average closet, the representation of the symbolic of a dead figure and the idea of the sword trick tie into the other levels of visual communication. The abstract idea of this product has an underlying message of a magic and demonic representation. The trick itself is very dangerous to attempt, and this is why magician perform them. Because the impact of the abstract idea is something magical, the impact is the shelves are moveable. Its impact is the concept of the magician also. How they are able to perform the illusions they do is taken into consideration in this product. The symbol of the dead figure and the representation of the magic trick display the abstract idea of how the closet can work in different ways apparent. Lastly, the symbol of a man with X's through his eyes denotes that he is dead. Because this is drawn on the outside of the closet, its impact is that this closet is dangerous. The other idea of the sword trick signifies that the closet is also magical. The symbolic idea of magic and transformation is relative to the other visual levels of communication because it derives from the representational product and the abstract idea behind the representation. 

Application- Meaning 1

This painting is a representational painting called The Fly Fisherman, by Peter Bougie. It is noticeable that Peter wanted to capture the natural world that everyone is familiar with in his painting by using certain colors to signify fall. The color of the leaves and grass denote that fall has already came. Most people can recognize that there is a fisherman standing in the realistic water. The shadows from the trees give a great sense of detailed shadows cast over the top of the water. The overlying message is peacefulness found in nature. The fisherman has a vest on which is visible because of the detail Peter has used in his painting. The painting displays the realistic act of fishing in a calm river. The form and content of the painting make this a representational piece of work.

 This is a product created by Florian Krautli called puppet lamp. This is no traditional lamp that you would see in an office, school, or home because of its abstract shape and design. You can see that this lamp is created from a toy doll, and that alone is very abstract. going out to find secondhand dolls to create lamps out of is abstract. These bright little minded dolls represent a message that different products are brilliant and useful. People should stop thinking product designers as someone who gives shape and color to a product, and see a designer more of an inventor, visionary, and freak! The lamp communicates to the viewer that not all products have to be traditional and most products are designed from something realistic with a twist of abstract ideas. The content of a toy doll and a lamp are there as ideas, but the form is skewed. This creates abstract designs.

This is a simplistic symbol that signifies a female or male. It is a very recognizable symbol throughout cultures around the world. Without explanation, almost every person knows what the symbols are that denote the gender. Gender is something everyone is born with whether they accept it or not, so this symbol is permanently recognizable to people. Because some are proud of their gender, they will use this gender symbols as a symbol of pride.