Feature Hierarchies

Here is a poster I found in the internet. This is an example of how a graphic artist can use channel hierarchies to their advantage. The man mixed with the graphics pops out the most. That or the graphic on the left may be the first to be seen. The green background helps with the contrast and makes it pop more. The birds and arrows direct the eye upwards, and the bubbles lead them down towards the text. The text on the bottom have different font sizes, with the larger text being the more important. The larger the text, the more it wants to be seen. Colors are also used in that context, and used to organize and separate the type of info displayed. Example: pink for the date, yellow/green for the price, etc.

Visual Language

Here are a few posters and images from one of my favorite shows, Breaking Bad. The show is about a chemistry teacher who finds out that he has lung cancer. Walter has a teenage son and his wife is pregnant and wants to make some money for his family before he dies, so he decides to team up with a former failure student and cook drugs. This show is intense and shows that right and wrong isn't black and white. There is always means behind any action, good or bad.
First of all, the title sends out a very direct message. "Breaking bad", meaning that the character is discards morality for the sake of his family's financial stability. The way the words are also put together with the element chart, showing that this show is about a science/chemist teacher. This how is very intense, so most images and posters found have a seriousness to it. For example all the faces in the second image have serious faces: no one is smiling. The last image is the first season's cover. He is wearing just underwear and a dress shirt. A gas mask is on the floor and he is holding a gun. A van is the background with smoke coming out of it and it looks like he is in the middle of nowhere. This image seems strange because you may wonder why he isn't wearing any pants? To me, this shows that he doesn't care what he is wearing- he has more important things to worry about, and him holding the gun makes it look like he has nothing to lose. The combination of the gas mask and the van are hints of producing drugs. The first image contains him and his partner sitting on beach chairs in the middle of the desert, wearing plastic suits and gas masks. There are bags of drugs on the floor and they are looking behind them, again with serious faces. In this image, they are looking behind them and have their faces as if something is going on. In this show, things are always going bad, so their faces portrait that aspect of the show. Their suits of course show that they have produced drugs and the evidence is right under the character on the right (the main character, Walter). It's also interesting that the drugs and money are under him only, showing that this mere chemistry teacher is in charge.
These images are viewed depending on how the viewer perceives them. This also depends if the viewer has seen the show or not. Integration of some symbols of science/chemistry in the text is used.

Visual Thinking Research

The first puzzle I did was Block Twins. You have to find the six pairs of blocked patterns. My strategy involved visually rotating the blocks in my mind. I used illustrator to help me mark any notes. But first I had to pick one part of the pattern and use that as a basis when looking for its twin. For example, bock A had an "L" shape. I just looked at every other block and attempted to find the same attribute. The next step was to find another attribute that matched. If it didn't match I moved one to the next block and started all over again. Marking them down helped with not getting lost and keeping track of what pairs were already found.
My friend looked at a certain shaped and changed her perspective/angle to find the similar shape. Her process was pretty much the same as mine. She didn't use illustrator or a printed document of the puzzle. She just eyeballed it in the computer screen and wrote down her answers on a pot it note.


The second puzzle was Colored Umbrellas. Finding the two matching umbrellas. I used the process of elimination as my strategy and again, using illustrator. First I looked at the first umbrella, examined one triangle with two colors, took note of those two colors, then checked each umbrella and searched for the same colored triangle. Once I found a match, I looked back at the first umbrella, and examined the triangle next to it, then checked if the other umbrella matched. If they didn;t match I would move on to the next. I did this repeatedly, eliminating any umbrellas that didn't have a match, until I found it. Later I just started to looked for grouped colors. For example a color that was next to each other in an umbrella, and used that as a basis. I found that method to be a little faster.
As for my friend, she basically used the same strategy, finding a similar attribute with the two same two colors, etc. But instead of using one triangle or grouped colors, she used the colors the were across or opposite side of the umbrella, backtracking back and forth when comparing two umbrellas until she found a match. She also eyballed the puzzle on the computer screen, same with the first puzzle, so no example of her process here either.

Top down processing example

This is a poster I have designed for a a final project in the semester of Spring 2009. This is a poster advertising the Japanese Tea Garden in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco. This poster also acts as a fold-able brochure, though there isn't an example of a folded version.
This is an example of top down visual processing due to the goal of the design - persuade the reader to visit the Japanese Tea Garden. Images and various information of the Japanese Tea Garden are integrated together. A reader may scope the poster as a whole to see what is going on. They notice pictures, images, and colors. The title is in a big bold font, easy to see, placed on the left, since we tend to read from left to right. They see "Japanese Tea Garden." The reader may wonder "what is the Japanese Tea Garden?" and pay attention to the images to find out what they are reading about. Top down visual processing may even start them at the images since it may be the most interesting area in the poster, then the reader may wonder, "what are those images about?" and look at the title. If still interested the reader will direct their eye towards the text to learn more about the Japanese Tea Garden. Headings are placed above the informational text to help the eye look for what they want to learn about. Does the reader want to learn the "History" or the "Features" of the Japanee Tea Garden? If they decide they do want to visit one day they will look for the the hours and prices. Images are placed to show an example, information is placed so readers can learn more about it, hours and prices are placed if the reader is interested in visiting. In Top down visual perception, the eye will search for and link all these together in order to understand and learn what they are looking or reading. Images to title, to information, to hours and prices. All these are placed strategically so that the reader can see all of these.