Week 14_ Visual Techniques

The first two images are vector graphic illustration made by Canadian illustrator Martin Bregman. I really like the style of his work. The composition of the images are simple and elegant. The color usage is few and not overwhelming. It has a great balance of the light and dark positive and negative spaces. I really like how he groups different objects together, making them having the unity with different variations. The subtle shapes of the objects are very calm and elegant. What i like the most is the simplicity style, it really brings out the meanings and expressions in a artistic way.

Visuals can be on different medium, it can be traditionally hand drawn, it can be graphic design, it can be motion graphics. I’m interested in doing the combination of all three. To me, visual communication isn’t just creating the images, but also sending message that makes impact, with full of emotions.

The second example is one of my favorite visual designs, one design that truly impacts and inspires me. This video is called the “girl effect” by made by Nike Foundation to help 50 million girls in poverty survive. The entire video is only 3 minutes long, but its wonderfully plotted and graphically illustrated beautifully to express the deep meaning with the most concise and simple graphics. I always wanted to create illustration visuals with the simple lines and concepts. The entire video used less than 3 main colors, with no photos or complicate images. Only a series of bold shapes and neutral Helvetica typeface. The background music is also a huge plus in addition to this wonderfully designed video. Comparing both illustrations and the video, I noticed a few of their similarities and differences. Their similarities is the use of simple intuitive vector graphic, the unity of simple geometric shapes and the wonderful balance of limited color use. The differences is the still image has more information on one surface compare to videos are showing informations in sequence. Both of them are really successful designs using the simplest aesthetic shapes to represent the big message that just words can’t describe.

week 13- Contrast

Blog Exercise - CONTRAST

The first design is a cover illustration made by Milton Glaser, it is a very successful design because of its beautiful lines and contrast. The image consists of three major groups, the colorful hair, the black and white face/background, and the text which says Milton Glaser Graphic Design. The first part is the hair, which made out of many curvy flowing shaping that has different colors and textures. The hair is nicely set up in contrast with the black face with back background and the black background behind the hair. Because the colors and the textures of the hair are very eye catching. The background are set up in a very subtle, black and white. Besides the contrast in color. The shapes outside the hair are also bigger and bolder. Created a strong support for the colorful hair as the focal point. The last part of the image is its text, the text is set in white which contrasts the black background. The typeface of the font is modern and edgy, the straight and horizontal lines in the text contradicts the curvy lines for the graphic, while the curvy part of the text and the overall set up really complements the graphic. The entire design is very well balanced by its contrast in color, shape and composition.

The second design is a graphic illustration for Frozen Products Catalogue. This visual contains both real figure and surreal illustrations. The entire design has a poor use of contrast which overwhelms the eye. First of all, the overall color is warm and yellow, the background is yellow and the surreal objects are yellow. The color choice isn’t anything wrong here, but the little girl is dressed in the same color palette. This makes the two elements competes each other. Now look at the over all composition, we noticed it’s very hard to tell where in the image is the main message. Is it the girl who’s covering her mouth, is it the flowers, or is it the ice cream bar. The major contrast failure in this image is the graphic parallel. Both main objects the little girl and the pop up shapes are standing out and eye catching, it’s hard to identify the dominant focus although we know its made for frozen products. Have focus is very important in cover graphics, but with the lack of contrast in both color and object, this design piece is overwhelming and out of focus therefore not very successful.