Alright folks I’d like to tell you all about a recent trip I had across campus.

I read online that I had to do this little thing called a “design blitz.” Seeing as how I enjoyed the last blitz, I decided to go on a walk  across campus. I searched up and down to see stuff that really stuck out to me, and it was not until I made it to my car (because I was thinking of going to Five Guys, and later did) that I saw this:

Typograhpy

– I’m certain many of you have seen this tag on the back of cars, but today I really stood still and took a look at it. This tag spells out the word coexist, but it uses the different emblems of religions/philosophies to spell out the word. Now, I know this holds more symbolism, but the way they are all used to effectively spell a word, and more importantly a powerful word, makes the arrangement and use of them far more effective in the word. I mean think about it, if they had just used some cool font for the word, would it really make much of a difference? Would it really mean that much?

Anyways, I continued my walk out of the parking lot, but then found myself stopping in the same parking lot to look at something that we all see, every, single, day, of, our, lives:

Color

– Now, I bet you are wondering why there is a picture of a “DO NOT ENTER” sign. Well, as I was leaving the parking lot, I had a quick thought about the color of this sign, and all signs for that matter. I had to ask the question, “Why is this sign red? Why isn’t it blue or white?”  For that matter, I stopped to think about other signs that were similar to this; stop signs, yield signs, and stop lights are all red. Somehow, we associated the color “red” with a warning. These kind of signs effectively use colors to convey some form of a message that we all can recognize.

After thinking about a sign for a while (which I would not do in the middle of a parking lot, people look at you strangely), I made my way up the hill (I’m not a real fan of the hill still), and stopped once more to look at a very famous structure on campus:

Balance

– Have you ever noticed that this structure is the same on all four sides? It is the same no matter which side you look at it from, and all the characteristics of it are the same. It is not darker on some sides, or lighter on some sides. It holds the same features and creates a balanced look. I had never stopped to look at the bell tower, but I saw it today and it really stood out. I’m not sure why.

Now then, after my little observation at the bell tower, I decided to make my way back to my dorm. All sorts of objects, posters, and other devices began to to really stand out, but then I found something in my hall that was perfect for the next category:

Symbolism

– This is a poster for a play. It is really simple, but take a look at the background and focus on the word doubt. The poster is literally an expression of the word doubt. Furthermore, the background is a black mist, which gives a strange sense. When you focus on the word and the background alone, all you see is doubt with nothing else around it. Sure you could have added some picture or object, but the lack of an object and the word alone + the background really create a good advertisement that focuses on the symbol alone.

With my trip now at an end, I stopped to look over each picture and make my final thoughts. I felt like they accurately explained several elements in design, and I hope you enjoyed reading this.

Let me know what you think!