Visual Hierarchy

Dashboard by Tumblr

Tumblr's dashboard is essentially the motherboard for all tumblr users and provides them with the tools necessary to get the most out of their blogging experience. With tumblr, you have the ability to create blog posts with text, music, videos, pictures, etc. Immediately your eye is drawn to their symbols at the top of the page which are all highlighted by a white text box over the dark blue of the rest of the page. The posts by the other tumblr blogs you follow are also highlighted this way for easy visibility. Along with their own distinct symbol, each post possibility is a different color, such as quotes being orange and links being green, to help the user easily distinct between each one. At the top of the screen are a variety of other symbols that help the user manage their tumblr:  an envelope for the message inbox, a gear for settings and configuration, a question mark for help, etc. To the left of the screen highlighted in bright green is the number of other blogs you follow and that follow you so that you are always in the know of how popular your blog is. More symbols are used on this side of the screen as well: your liked posts are symbolized by a little heart and the search box has a small microscope. I feel that tumblr has found a unique and creative way to show visual hierarchy through the use of symbols. These symbols are both clever in their design and useful in their purpose to guide the users eye to the tools they will need to run a successful blog.

Visual Perception 1 / Top-Down Processing

 

 Lego 3-in-1 Creator House by Lego

 An example of top-down visual processing in visual design is the packaging for Lego toy sets and their enclosed instruction manuals. The front design for a Lego set usually displays the finished product after all the the individual pieces have been put together. This particular Lego box shows 3 possible ways for the pieces to be constructed, providing 3 possible goals to be achieved and 3 different incentives for the consumer to purchase this product. It isn't until they open the box and find all the individual pieces inside does the work and attention to detail commence. The consumer must look ahead at the final result to understand how all the details, in this case individual Lego pieces, all work together to create the finished house. The included manual helps the consumer understand how to construct all the small pieces together to make the bigger picture a reality and ultimately achieve their desired goal. 

Design Success and Failure

Design Event Poster 

Success:

The syntactical guidelines have been put to good use. The grouping of the text establishes a hierarchy of type according to the most important information on the poster such as the event name and date. The text and the image is aligned to the left of the page which balances the overall composition of the piece.

 

Rave Flyer

Failure: 

Some of the type is grouped and aligned but then followed by other groups of text arbitrarily placed throughout the flyer. There is little to no variation in type size, therefore failing to establish a hierarchy of type or information. The "Everything Must Glow" warped type further throws of the lack of alignment and adds to the imbalance of the whole piece.

Visual vs. Symbolic Language: Economy

 Visuals:
On the edge of a cliff, a group of five people, both male and female, pull on a rope attached to a giant dollar sign. They attempt desperately, a look of strain on their bodies, as they pull to keep the money sign from falling off the cliff. The sun shines brightly behind them, transforming them, the cliff, and the dollar sign into silhouettes.

Responses/ Feelings:
Worry
Concern
Anxiety
Nervousness
Hope

Symbols:
Dollar sign = money
People = citizens of the United States
Cliff = economy's dangerous situation
Rope = struggle with the nations economy 
Sun = hope

The underlying compositional structure of this piece only enhances the responses and feelings experienced by the viewer. The struggle between the people and money sign on the edge of a cliff creates nervousness and concern in the viewer. The bright shining sun in the background arouses hope as if conveying a light at the end of the dark tunnel that is the country's recent struggle with the economy.

3 Levels of Meaning in Visual Communication Design

 

Ladyhawke is a pop rock singer-songwriter from New Zealand. She has released two studio albums as well as a special edition version of her first album. All three albums feature cover artwork by Sydney-based illustrator and painter Sarah Larnach. 

Representational

Many albums portray their main singer on the cover but Ladyhawke’s albums take it a step further. The illustrated watercolor artworks represent not just the singer but also the influences and feel of the songs on the album. The bright neon colors and retro gaming systems on the covers represent the 80’s, electronic influence of her songs. Her image represents her style and becomes a symbol seen on all her album and singles covers and gives way to abstractions of her image. All three work together to give a face and identity behind the beautiful melodies and hypnotizing voice heard in Ladyhawke’s songs.

Abstract

            The use of watercolor in the illustrations gives Ladyhawk’s image a dreamlike feel. Her signature messy blonde hair becomes a sea of yellow, brown, and red lines. The neon colors of the watercolor paint highlight her face, hair, and clothes. The backgrounds are all white, as she becomes an oasis of color in an otherwise blank, empty world. Her most recent album “Anxiety” features her with mini versions of her tangled in her hair. These abstractions further represent her image and sound and only enhance the singer’s symbolic status.

Symbolic

            Ladyhawke’s image becomes a recognizable symbol on each album. Her familiar baggy clothes, hypnotizing blue eyes, and tangled mess of long blonde hair become a familiar sight to the viewer. All the tiny women in the last image are easily recognizable as Ladyhawke due to her symbolic look, despite being tangled in her messy hair. Her symbolic status makes way for abstractions that further help to represent Ladyhawke’s signature sound and style. 

Symbolism

The Triquetra is a three-part interlocking fish symbol that symbolizes the Christian trinity. The word trinity comes from the Latin word "trintas" meaning "three are one." This is reference to the Christian belief that God is one Being made up of three distinct Persons; the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The use of fish as symbols is also reference to the popular bible passage in which Jesus performs the miracle of feeding hundreds with just a few loaves of bread and fish. The fish has become a popular religious symbol, representing giving and generosity. The fish symbol would be easily recognizable to a practicing Christian and effective in its meaning and message.

Abstraction

The eyes of a character in a Japanese anime are less of an accurate representation and more of an abstraction of a real human eye. The animators usually elongate the iris and pupil of an eye to more of an oval shape rather than a circle.  The highlights and reflections seen on the eyes surface are usually emphasized and enlarged. The eyelids and eyelashes are reduced to bold, angled lines that frames and holds everything together. Also, a character is usually drawn with their eyes taking up at least half of their face, which in turn abstracts the over all representation of a human face. Even with all this abstraction, the viewer is still given enough information and details to recognize this as a human eye.