For my design blitz I used my iPhone and took pictures all week of some designs that I found really interesting. I took a lot of the same type of photo and struggled with finding the right photos/designs to fit the elements. I ended up with six and here they are!
Color-Brings attention or focus to a certain object; this can be done with black and white or bright colors through accenting a certain object through color. This is a photo of a cool painting of sorts I got in Bath, England. I thought the color was really cool on it. It uses a comic strip of The Fantastic Four, which I thought was really cool because comics use color so particularly and have such bright colors. This is why I thought this was a perfect photo for the color design element.
Typography-This is where font comes into play, the actual text design, as well as spacing, slanting, style, size and font weight. I snapped this photo of Blackstone’s new October specials list. I was drawn to it because it references Harry Potter, but also because the typography and colors were clearly designed to gain customer interest. By the way, the pumpkin juice is great!
Metaphors/symbols-Objects can represent ideas, as symbols and metaphors, and thus display them in a visual. These are two of many books I own and I really like both series of book designs because they pull something out of the book and symbolize it on the cover. For Moby Dick there are whales and spears, obviously because of the plot of the novel. The Picture of Dorian Gray cover is more artistic, but still includes the painting of the titular character, which is a major aspect of this novel. I thought the designs of these books were great examples of symbolism and metaphor for a design.
Form/function/message-This explains how well a certain visual displays the message (symbol, metaphor, etc.) to its viewers. I saw this magazine cover and thought it was really cool visually, and is perfect for this form/function/message design element. First of all, the title is “Seeing into the Future,” which is paired with Patrick Stewart, star of all things cool and futuristic (Star Trek the Next Generation and X-Men). The monocle is a clear representation of the message of looking into the future, which is further pushed forth by the various formulas around the page. I thought everything on this cover was designed with the sole purpose of making the message of the future visible to readers.
Balance-This describes the visual composition of a visual; how symmetrical/asymmetrical, white space, etc. perform in the visual. As mentioned, I have a lot of books, and I thought they would be perfect to show the element of balance because they are all nicely lined up. I made them all symmetrical and organized them by design, so they all look quite nice and balanced.
Unity-Each component of a visual adds up to a whole and this unity explains how the whole comes together in the visual and sense of design. This is the sports page the awesome newspaper sports editor made and I thought that each portion of the design of the page showed unity. The pictures at the top are perfectly proportioned and the side bar is visually pleasing. The cut out is designed to pull the eye in. This whole page includes elements of color, white space and more, and all of these things add up to its unity.
The design blitz was a really cool exercise and I liked being able to work on it all week and think about the perfect pictures to support these different elements. I also realized that almost everything in the world is designed somehow and figuring that out was both crazy and cool.
