Hierarchy

This is a picture of an ergonomic office design.  It demonstrates a few elements of hierarchy but first I'd like to ask you to ignore the man in the chair.  I know it's hard to do because he is one of two things in the photo that has some color to it.  Your eye is immediately drawn to the computer screens because the color is bright and vibrant.  The next thing you notice is the shape of the chairs support system.  It's a large shape that encompasses most of the piece and your eye will not ignore it.  I imagine that if this piece was being seen in action, there would be movement in the screen and from the mans hands.  Of course that movement would probably draw your attention before the shape of the support system.  These are just a few examples of how visual hierarchy works within this piece.

Visual Perception

 This is a coffee making. It is and industrial design product and that is what I'm studying. The product is from Nanpeng Technology (HK) Co., Ltd. It's an example of Top-Down perception because the form is well-known as a coffee maker. The form suggests function and the coffee mugs add to the visual description. If I was craving coffee and I saw this product, I would know immediately that my goal could be achieved.

Success and Failure

Success: Perception: It's easy to see that this is a rocking, reading chair.  It invites you to sit, rock and read a book because of the shape and lamp on top.  Balance: It is balanced (Imagine the view from the front).  It is stable on the felt axis and is bottom heavy to provide that stability.  Stress:  The stress is on the seat and lamp because of the use of color and lighting.  Attraction and Grouping:  The use of the lightening with the relaxed connotation of a rocking chair attracts people to use it as a reading chair and adds to the meaning.  Positive and Negative: The use of positive and negative space in the design of the chair not only adds to the aesthetic beauty, it also adds to the functionality on the chair.



Failure: Perception: The design is very ambiguous, it's hard to tell that this is a chair.  Balance: It's balanced but in a very boring way.  The folds/armrests seem a little haphazard. Stress: The stress is on the chair underneath the chair cover.  It looks awkward.  Attraction and grouping:  The idea of this design is to cover cheap chairs and make them more comfortable and appealing by the soft material and use of bold color. Positive and Negative:  The design is mostly positive. There is not much negative space and where there is, it seems almost unintentional.  Such as the folding of the cover so you can sit down.  Also the fact the cover fit completely over the top of the chair creates a negative space and what looks like a mistake. 



Meaning 2

Representational - This is a rendering of a concept for a new iPod design.  It is very realistic and makes the viewer think it is real.  As far as I can tell it is just a concept.  It ties into the abstract and symbolic areas by showing that it is an mp3 player and tries it to apple specifically.

Abstract - It is shaped like a pill instead of the usual retangular iPods.  Also being that this isn't a real product yet, it is an abstraction of the existing one.  The pill shape gives meaning to the symbolic level.

Symbolic - The pill shape could hold the meaning that we are all "swallowing the pill" when using an Apple product.  The reference is from a movie where the characters have a chance to choose their pill which would allow them to live in the real world or a carefully constructed and controlled one.  I would venture to say that this would be a negative commentary on Apple products and I would assume that Apple would want to stay away from this connotation. The symoblic level affects the representational and abstract by influencing the physical form itself. 

Meaning 1

Representational-


This is a representational image because it is a photo of Paradise Cove.  It is a direct reporting of the area.  The colors are faithful and the image is detailed.  We can clearly recognize this as the ocean with mountians.  It is a real image in a real environment, therefore falls into the representational catagory.  It is not an image that can be easily interpreted into something else.



Abstract-



This is a sktech of a cartooned solider.  It distorts some of the elements of a real soldier, such as the helmet, face and gun.  There are still enough details to let the viewer know that it's a soldier but nothing to determine a specfic person.  The helmet, gun and camo outfit help to tell the viewer what the image is.  It is a distilled version of what a soldier could look like.  It's more towards the representational spectrum of abstraction but still qualifies as abstract for the reasons above.

Symbolic-

This is a music symbol.  It is a part of a code that tells musicians what to play.  Real music doesn't actually look like is, nor is real music visable.  This is a visual way to depict an abstract concept.  People must be taught what this is and what it represents in order to understand it.  It is a shared and coded form.