Word and Image: Mom’s Cancer by Brian Fies

Image Source: http://listverse.files.wordpress.com/2008/02/3250-23-tm.jpg?w=350&h=256

During his lecture in the Design 001 class, Brian Fies talked about the relationship between word and image in his graphic novel, Mom’s Cancer.  One of the images that he used as an example of his use of words and imagery was the image of his mother sitting with a panel bisecting the image between her head and her body.  He explains that he had multiple reasons for bisecting the image in such a way, the first was because the panel looked like a window, symbolizing that the reader is looking in on her.  The second reason was that it symbolized her medical condition; she had both a brain tumor and a lung tumor.  The words for this image are bisected in a similar way as the image.  In the upper panel, the words all describe her psychological condition, such as depression, while the bottom panel describes her medical condition, the pain she is experiencing and her physical reactions to the medications.  In this way the words and the images work together to show the reader what she is going through.  The words tell us this, but the image illustrates this for the reader, and together they create a powerful image that shows the reader the struggle that his mother is going through, both physically and mentally.

Forget the Comfort Zone

After watching Gary Hustwit’s documentary film, Objectified, a comment made by one of the designers reminded me of the topic of the role of play in design, discussed in class.  The designer, Chris Bangle, was talking about the designs of cars and how repetitive some designs are and how this shows that people are often very afraid to walk out of their comfort zone.  I really think that designers should always take the time to experiment and play with their designs.  It’s important to try new things and new techniques because that’s how you learn.  So often we get stuck in these trends and after a while of just simply seeing the same thing over and over again it gets boring, and we forget what made the original design so great.  Designers should never be afraid to experiment with their designs and try new things.  Even if you try a new technique and it doesn’t work for the design, you can still learn from it.  Maybe it’s a technique that you can use in a different design.  Or even if it’s just a failed experiment, you learn “well, don’t do this again!”  You should never be afraid to think outside the box and play around with a design.  You never know what you might learn.  Be creative.  Be unique.

The Motorola H710 Bluetooth

Image Source: http://di1.shopping.com/images1/pi/58/8d/a0/28588693-100x100-0-0.jpg

A Bluetooth is a wireless device that allows the user to continue talking on the phone without having to actually hold the phone.  The Motorola H710 Bluetooth is very compact, and hinged so that the microphone can be folded closed when the device is not in use.  A small plastic arch wraps around the user’s ear so that the device doesn’t fall off.  The largest button on the device is located directly in the center of the Bluetooth and allows the user to answer and hang up on calls with the push of a single button.  The design of this object does indeed address the issue of needing a hands free wireless device for your cell phone, and it is an aesthetically pleasing design, it’s very sleek and shiny.  I personally, like the combination of silver and dark blue; however I do feel that the design has some flaws that have been improved upon in newer models.  To begin with, while it is still small, the device still a little bit bulky in comparison to other models available.  The earpiece just sits awkwardly on your ear, held there only by the thin plastic arch, where newer models take some inspiration from the ear bud headphones to that they fit better and more securely into your ear. The build of this Bluetooth makes it more likely to fall off your ear if bumped than newer models.  The plastic arch is rather rigid, so it’s not the most comfortable to wear for long periods, where many newer models are more flexible.  I do feel that the design accomplishes its goal of being an effective hands free wireless device, and its sleek design and color scheme is aesthetically pleasing. However it is an older model of Bluetooth, about four years old, and I feel that the design has been improved upon in the last few years, to make the Bluetooth even more comfortable and easy to use.

Objectified: Form and Content

Image Source: http://www.moviegoods.com/images_blog/objectified.jpg

Gary Hustwit’s documentary, Objectified, examines the relationship between everyday objects and the people who design them.  One of the key ideas that are emphasized throughout the film by the different designers interviewed is that the form of a design is directly derived from its content.  Good design identifies the needs or wants of the public and seeks to meet that need.  One of the examples discussed in the film is the design of a potato peeler.  The designer of this object decided to improve upon the design of most potato peelers because his wife, who had arthritis, had trouble keeping a grip on the peeler.  Thus the designer sought to design a potato peeler which fit more naturally into a person’s hand and would require less force to keep a firm grip on it.  Designer, Dieter Rams, states that “good design should make a product useful” and understandable, while David Kelly states that “bad design is where the customer thinks it’s their fault that something doesn’t work.”  The film highlights the process of designing an object such as the potato peeler, where the designers considered a variety of different handles, really taking the time to consider how the handle would fit into the hand and whether or not it effectively solved the problem at hand.  Ultimately, their design was inspired by a bicycle handlebar. I think that the film does a good job at making the viewer think about the thought process that goes into the mundane objects that we use on a regular basis, things that we often take for granted.  The film challenges the viewer think about the details of design and what makes a particular design effective…or in some cases, ineffective.

Design as a Conversation

Design has an amazing ability to communicate with its audience. For example you can tell a lot about a person by the way they design their homepage for a personal website or their profile on a social networking site.  Are they minimalistic, fun, classic, quirky, energetic? You can tell a lot about them by the way they chose to design the things around them.  Similarly you can look at the advertisement for an upcoming movie, and often without even knowing anything about the film you can tell from the design what kind of film it will be.  Will it be a horror film? A comedy? A romance? A drama? Will it be exciting, mysterious, humorous, or a tear-jerker?  All these things can be communicated to you simply from the way a poster is illustrated.  The design for a clothing brand’s logo can tell you about that clothing line.  Is it classic? Modern? Fancy? Retro? Quirky?  The design of a company’s logo is its identity to the public, it conveys the main feature of its style, like the classic Gap logo which when changed created a major uproar amongst consumers.  Design is always communicating something.  It is our first impression when we encounter something and it communicates to us, in that first experience, the primary characteristics of what we’re looking at.

New GAP logo fails to impress

Last week Gap tried to launch a new logo for their company, replacing their 20 year old logo of a blue box containing the word Gap in an all-cap serif font, with a logo that incorporated the blue box in a different way.  The new logo had the word Gap written in a sans-serif font, no longer in all caps, with the blue box sitting just above and behind the lowercase p.  I suppose it was a design meant to be modern and fresh, but the design was quickly changed back to their original after the negative response it received on social networking sites.  I found it interesting how strong the reaction against this change received.  In the article I read on CNNMoney.com, the article stated that one person wrote how they would no longer be shopping at Gap because of the new logo change.  I wondered why a change in the logo would incite such a strong response.  The clothes aren’t changing, just the logo, so why threaten to stop shopping there? To me it shows the impact a brand’s image has, the old logo says classic, and I believe that it’s very classic style is a big part of Gap’s general appeal.  Personally I also prefer the old logo which I see as a very clean, classic image, while the new one just felt BORING!

Compare and Contrast

Image Source: http://iwritealot.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/harry_potter_and_the_sorcerers_stone.jpg and http://www.bscreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/harry-potter-and-the-deathly-hallows.jpg

In my very first blog post, I talked about the cover art for the first Harry Potter novel as one of my very first memories of realizing the power and impact of design.  Today I will compare the cover designs of the first novel to that of the final novel, released ten years later.  As someone who has read all seven of the Harry Potter novels (multiple times, I must admit) I can appreciate how the changes in the cover designs for each novel pertain to the changes happening throughout the overarching storyline of the novels.  Seven years pass by, the characters mature, the plots become darker, and these changes are evident in the way that Mary GrandPré chooses to illustrate JK Rowling’s novels.  The first book’s design is very whimsical, the characters are cartoonish, and the color scheme which employs a lot of reds, purples, and gold give the cover a very fanciful feel.  It is a much more colorful and lively design that is clearly meant to appeal to a younger audience.  As the novels progress GrandPré’s depictions of Harry changes too; with the passing of each novel the main character’s appearances morph’s from the juvenile, cartoonish figure to a more realistic and mature appearance.  The cover of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows shows an older Harry Potter with an intense expression and his hand stretched out as the main figure occupying the cover.  The cover is simpler than many of the previous novels, showing Harry alone on the front cover and the villain, Lord Voldemort, as the main figure on the back of the cover.  I always liked GrandPré’s approach to illustrating the Harry Potter novels, her cover designs were always fitting for each book, and I think that it was a very smart decision for her to subtly alter her depictions of Harry as the character matured throughout the novels.