Bad Contrast

This bathroom design is an example of bad contrast because there is a lack of it. The marble patterns which make up the walls and floor of this bathroom barely distinguish each other with its overly matched design. On top of that, the mirrors and the reflective sink counter are not helping by reflecting even more marble. There is (visually)marble everywhere! The problem here besides a marble overdose is that lack of contrast makes it difficult to find anything in this bathroom because they are easily lost/camouflaged in this confusing design. It functions similarly to the military camouflage pattern with the purpose of blending in the environment. But this is a bathroom and the last thing a person using a bathroom would want is to have his things blend with it. You can barely tell that there is even a tub there if it weren't for the pillows and candles outlining it. This makes it difficult navigating through space and spotting things you can normally easily spot in a room with better contrast.

Creative Contrast

This is an awesome chair is aptly named the "Grid Chair" by designer Jaebom Jeong. I thought this is a great example of contrast of two different elements that make up the chair frame and the seat. You can distinguish two very different elements here, which compose the parts of the chair that creates this cool contrast of thick and thin, detailed and simple, heavy/sturdy and light, transparent and opaque. The wiry chair frame is made out of stainless steel while the seat is made of Walnut (wood I presume). While this piece of work may appear flimsy and light (from perceived transparency of its frame), it is actually quite the opposite and is fully functional. When you look at it, you might want to double take and look again at this graphic inspired creation that looks like a prototype draft illustration conjured up in a computer screen but the chair is actually a real physical object. Form definitely follows function in this piece, but with style and unique sense of creativity thanks to brilliant use of contrast in design.

Extra Credit

This is Google Maps. One of the navigation problems I frequently encounter when I use Google Maps is zooming. Zooming can be sometimes confusing and you can get lost in it particularly when zooming in to view a more accurate location. For example, if I am looking at San Francisco from a very general far away view and I slowly zoom in on it to get a picture of San Francisco, I find myself constantly moving around instead of focusing on one spot. When you zoom in, your area of interest shifts around the screen as you click on it. While the name 'San Francisco' might originally be on the left on your screen then you click in to zoom in, it moves a few inches here and there as the pictures get larger or come into place instead of focusing on one spot and enlarging that area while having the location name stay in position. Sometimes, when viewing something so detailed that you want to click in and get more of a focus, the clicking option can get a little tricky because the mouse does not highlight what your mouse is resting on or selecting so you are not really that sure that you are clicking on the area that you want.

Motion

This is a game scene captured from the latest Resident Evil 5 game. The character that stands in the middle of the picture is the character that is being played in the game. In this game, you move a lot through narrow spaces such as alleys and small streets full of stuff/clutter. For many parts of the game, you are usually not walking on level ground (implied by the constant changing level of your line of vision in the game) and occasionally you get attacked and thrown "off balance" in the game. I think for the navigation designer, it's the character's movement that is most of the challenge because they are trying to make this realistic attempt to give the player a "feel" of movement through the player's eyes. It gets especially visually confusing when turning in this game during times when you are looking for your attacker/zombies because you know they are there which are caused by jumpy screen views and sound effects but turning around and scanning your environment can be a bit of a challenge. Movement in terms of rotation/turning are not completely mastered yet because it does not flow smoothly and can be nauseating for a new player who is not familiar with these kind of games.

Extra Credit

This is a design by Danil Kryvoruchko from a design site myshli.com. While somewhat an abstract representation of an explosion happening, there is still motion going on here. This scene might seem familiar if you have seen a few blockbuster movies depicting explosions or world annihilation and such except in place of fire and smoke you see stars and candy. Motion is depicted here strongly through the foreground where you see it appears really blurry with rapid lines extending out from the colorful candy cloud explosion as if that area is quickly in the process of being blown away by wind and explosion impact. At the top of the candy cloud explosion, you can see tiny bits and pieces of stars sort of bouncing off/shooting out separating itself from the big cloud, ready to scatter. There are also these pointy green and red triangles that are circulating around the explosion at the bottom ground sort of resembling colorful gusts of violent wind circulating.

Extra Credit

This is a design by an artist named Josh Rodes from this site nib101.com This image shows a cool mixture of movement and depth. Looking at the picture, we seem to be viewing it from an implied angle where the legs and the lower torso appear closest to us and then as you look further up to the top of the body and the head, it appears to recede into the top distance. It looks like it's moving because it is in a mid-running position. One foot is completely off the ground while the other has barely set foot on the ground. You can also see that the foot on the right has caused some friction with the ground creating this splatter of grass and mud where his right foot touches the ground. There seems to be a wind implied by the dashing lines going from right to left (picture-wise) as well as a few strands of hair that hangs on to the head and trailing in light waves in the wind. ANd if this were really a moving strip of film, you can probably perceive the shift of light and tones on his body as he runs

Motion

This here is a cool example of motion and graphic design by an artist named Norway which I found from Flickr. The original picture features an actual person which the graphic designer photoshopped to make it appear like there is an invisible person wearing the outfit. Despite the lack of appearance of the 'person' who is doing the movement, you can clearly see here that a jumping 'person' is depicted in the image. You can tell that the 'person' is jumping up because he is raised off the ground as indicated by the shadow cast on the floor underneath the body. You can also tell that the 'person' is not standing up right. He is in all sorts of diagonal movement looking at his raised arms and bent elbows, the torso angled at somewhat 30 degrees and his feet/tip of his toes pointing away. There is definitely a lot of tension going on to suggest movement as well such as the multiple folds and wrinkles on the jeans and the t-shirt.And if you observe closely enough you will notice how the shirt is raised up slightly rising along with the movement of the body, wind going up against the shirt as he jumps.

Extra Credit

This is a website header picture I found from iDesign UK. This one shows a great amount of depth and just by looking at it, you can see the "distance". SIZE/SCALE is a big factor here as you can see that the outstretching arm is very big in comparison to its environment which gives us the impression that it is very close to us. Then as your eye follows the direction of the arm, it looks like it is shrinking or getting smaller. You can also tell that the arm is closest to the viewer because it overlaps everything else including the clouds and the whole landscape. Even though the arm appears to be receding in size with the hand being very small relative to the top of the shoulder, the clouds in comparison to the hand are roughly the same size or even smaller which indicates it is very far away. In this picture, depth also works with DIRECTION as obviously pointed out by the outstretched diagonal arm which seems to be directed or pointing towards the top right or center of the picture. Relative height is also used clearly here especially with the presence of the landscape's horizon as reference despite the angled viewpoint of the shot. The hand, which is above the horizon appears farther from us, and overlaps the space of the sky. The elbow and the upper arm is placed below the horizon where they overlap against the shore. On top of that, TONE is present as you see stronger tones and contrast on the arm especially in detail on the holes of the sleeve on the arm. The background which is made up of the sky and the water have little contrast of tone and appear blurred or vague thus indicating it is at a distance.

Extra Credit

This interesting architecture is the Asadi Tower in Tehran, Iran. This image and structure shows great depth which can obviously be seen through the arches. The depth here can be seen and detected by the SIZE of the appearance of the archs from this straightforward view point. The bigger arch appears to be in front and one that appears to be at the back behind it which is indicated by the smaller, similar size that appears to be inside the front arch. And while the smaller arch appears to be within the bigger arch, you can also see there is an overlap where the front arch and the giant angular posts on both side blocks/covers from view most of the back arch and its posts. You also see linear perspective here but this is more of a looking-up view point. As you can see, it looks like this picture of the architectural building is taken from the bottom and is angled to capture the top of the tower. The top looks relatively further away and smaller in comparison to the massive posts that seem so close to us. LINES help indicate the viewpoint angle and depth we see from bottom to top as we see the lines begin from the bottom and converge closer to the center as they go upward.

Depth

This cute little product here that looks like an injection is a USB hard drive designed by dialog05. This image here is the actual product and the picture is used in their website to showcase their work. This displays depth through it's positioning with regards to the relative height. Although placed in a diagonal position, half of the injection (the front)is below the horizon and appears very clear, big and close to us. The other half (the end) is above the horizon, appears like it's receding in size, getting blurrier and far from us so we think that the end of it is at the back.
The other elements that work with depth in this picture is the direction. It is easily identifiable which tip of the injection is closer to us and which tip is farther to us and this is supported by DIRECTION. You can tell it is pointing to the bottom right because that point on the bottom right (tip of the injection/USB) is the sharpest, clearest part of the image. It helps depth by indicating that it is coming from an angle and you can find the "front" and "back". Another element that helps is the TEXTURE, which in this case would be the surface of the injections such as the measurement lines and the numbers on the body of the object. As it gets "further" away from us (above the horizontal line), there seems to be a gradient of sharp to blur from bottom to top. The pattern becomes vaguer as it extends away from the viewer.

Extra Credit

This is an ad for red bull. This ad has a clear emphasis on the product using its signature brand colors of red, blue and silver. The rest of the ad, is quite light and white with very subtle tone. There is a strong contrast between the colored can and its white surrounding objects and background. Even though the brand name cannot be read clearly, especially the "red" in "Red Bull" on the top picture and barely anything can be read from the second picture of the can, you know it is Red Bull because you identify its signature colors and the familiar SHAPE of the can. When you look at the shape, color and its arrangements as a whole, even if you take out the label that reads "Red Bull" you already know what that brand is because of the memorable elements that make up the product. In this ad, you also see shape stand out, the roundness of the can (or rather the illusion of roundness)is set on a very geometric setting. There is the rectangular box on top and then the rectangular puzzle laid out on the bottom. The similarities of the shapes help further emphasize or differentiate the red bull can. Another element working with the color here is the TEXTURE. The coloring of the can is done in such a way that it appears shiny and rounded that is seems smooth. While we might generalize the colors on the can as blue, silver and red, looking closely, it is composed of various tones of blue, silver and red to create that shiny effect that makes it look smooth and round.

Extra Credit

This is a typical time magazine cover, except that besides the border and the text, everything is in black and white. The black and white, paired with the red borders and the red text create a strong contrast with each other and help set each other to stand out, particularly the text which says "TIME". In this cover, the text is seen very clearly because the layout is really clean, with very little color to distract or dominate the attention. The text is laid out in a clean bright white color laid against a solid pitch black background. The image on the left on the other hand, is not as simple or sharp as the text. Instead it is rich in TONE with different values of black, gray and white that create the dramatic effect even without the (other RGB) colors. Since it is black and white, the TEXTURE is also more noticeable in the subject's features with the fine details captured in a photograph. You can see the lines and patterns on her white veil, the wrinkles on her face, the fine lines which make up the strands on her hair and her complexion. While the range of colors are obviously limited, this duo toned cover gives a strong yet balanced expression. The border and the magazine title might be boldly and brightly colored, but to balance the strength of that, the subject or image counters that in black and white through tone and texture on one side, while the clear text balances it on the other side.

Extra Credit

This ad is for Pepsi Twist, a lime-flavored pepsi that was released for a limited time. The thing that makes this particular pepsi product stand out is the new packaging they did by customizing the typical red, blue and white pepsi colors and adding the green to emphasize the lime in the drink. Green is the associated color of lime so this is what they used to help sell the image of the drink and its identity as a lime flavored cola. The green color is used to help emphasize the lime in this ad. The green that was used was a bright and saturated green shade and really helps to identify that the weird round thing with legs and arms is actually a lime with arms and legs. This color paired with the SHAPE and TEXTURE, which is contributes to helping the viewer associate the little character as a piece of lime. The shape of the little green thing is oval which is the typical generalized shape of a lime. The texture, if you look closely is made to realistically resemble the skin/surface of a lime. These three elements put together compose this peculiar little character that seems so unusual yet familiar at the same time. It is pretty much the center of attention in this ad which helps market the key differential factor of this particular soft drink.

Color

This is an ad for the watch brand, Casio. As you can see, this picture used for the ad is unusual particularly because of its color and in the context that it is used. The picture itself (if it were displayed in black and white), is not out of the ordinary, but the color sticks out like an odd ball in the scene. It is definitely eye catching because of the contrast of bright bold pink in a sea and sky of blue. We do not usually associate the color pink with ships, and it is very unlikely we have ever come across one. This image is one of many in a series of Casio's advertising campaign which uses very "butch", powerful, strong, fast, high technology machinery like the navy ship above, all coated in pink. With social factors in mind, this ad is trying to market Casio to women and the color says it all. We all know (at least here in the U.S.A.) that the color pink is pretty much the stereotyped color for women and advertisers for Casio are using that to deliver the message. The attributes of "manly" machinery such as the ship are juxtaposed with the color pink to suggest that this can be made for women too. Other interesting design elements here are the movement and the direction. Although this is a still ad, you have the impression that the ship is sailing away by implied MOVEMENT. This is the impression because of the diagonal position of the ship which deviates from the concept of balance and the felt axis vertical-horizontal line guide. You can also observe the white foam on the bottom of the ship to indicate it is creating tension with its surroundings, causing the foamy white waves swishing in various small diagonals. DIRECTION is indicated clearly because of the diagonal positioning of the ship, the receding appearance of the ship towards the top right. There are strong lines that lead or indicate the direction especially the strong solid yellow line that seems to be pointing at two o' clock (or 45 degree angle).