Visual Techniques

 

Instability

Complexity

Fragmentation

Exaggeration

Activeness

 

Balance

Depth

Simplicity

Economy

Juxtaposition

 

These two Nike advertisements use a lot of visual techniques to convey their messages.  The first advertisement uses complexity, exaggeration, and movement to show that the shoes are powerful and cool.  The advertisement uses fragmentation and instability to draw in the viewer.  The second advertisement uses depth along with juxtaposition, simplicity, and balance to draw in the viewer. The advertisement uses economy with the simple text of “FIND YOUR GREATNESS.”  The two advertisements are both done by Nike but both convey a different message.  The first advertisement is more about the shoes, and customizing your shoes on NikeID.  The second advertisement is more about motivating the viewer to go work out, and “Find Your Greatness” and then go and buy Nike shoes.

Contrast

This Nike advertisement uses contrast very successful.  There is contrast with the bright text against the black-and-white background.  The football player’s shoes, socks, and parts of his uniform also contrast well against the background.  The uniform, itself also uses contrast because the bright yellow is placed on a white and grey uniform.  The text and the uniform give a pop-out effect when placed in the black-and-white background.  The background is also out of focus, which is in contrast to the player, who is in focus.  This also makes the player pop out.  This advertisement uses contrast very well.

 

This advertisement uses bad contrast.  The advertisement uses transparent boxes to place the text in because of the brightness of the background.  However the text in the boxes are still hard to read.  The boxes are too transparent.  The boxes are overlapping too many things in the background and the result is difficulty reading the text.  The logo and the text in the bottom white space are also hard to read.  They are not bright enough to highly contrast the white area.  Overall this advertisement does not use contrast very effectively.

Movement/Motion (Option 1)

 http://theinspirationroom.com/daily/2010/nike-women-rock-victorious/

 

Implied motion is being used in this Nike advertisement with Serena Williams.  Serena Williams seems to have just taken a swing with her tennis racket, which is motion in real life.  In this 2D print it is implied motion because we don’t actually see her in motion.  It is implied motion by the position of her racket, her position of her feet, and the particles that follow her racket.  The particles move from Serena’s left side to her right side and follow the direction she would have swung the racket.  The particles in this advertisement do a lot to show implied motion.  Without them we might just think Serena was just standing there.

 http://www.coloribus.com/adsarchive/prints/nike-sandile-10088705/

   

In this Nike advertisement about skateboarding implied motion is being used.  On the right side of the advertisement it shows a person doing a trick on a skateboard.  But since it is a print ad it has to show us the progression of the trick in 3 still shots.  When the 3 still shots are shown next to each other and overlap the viewer gets to sense that the skateboarder is in motion.  The viewer follows the direction of the skateboarder to get the sense of motion.  There is also some blurring of the person on the skateboard.  The blurring also gives a sense of implied motion because the viewer thinks the person on the skateboard is actually doing a trick and moving.

 

Dimension/Depth/Space/Scale

 

In this Nike advertisement the basic elements of scale, space, and dimension are used.  Scale is used with the relative size of the players in the background.  They seem smaller but are more likely the size of the person in the front.  The goal is also smaller and we know the goal is taller than all the players on the field.  The soccer ball is closest to us so it appears bigger.  Atmospheric perspective is used to show dimension.  The people in the stands are so far away that we cannot see them clearly, but we know they are there. 

Tone and Color

 

How TONE is operating

Tone is operating in this advertisement to show the contours and lines of the body.  By the shadows contrasting with each other the viewer knows this is not a flat object, but an object with dimension and shape.  The tone lets the viewer see the object is moving with all the tonal variations in the clothing.

How TONE is interacting

Tone is interacting with the element of shape in this advertisement.  Tone helps to further define the shape of the object.  The viewer sees the shape as a familiar soccer move.  Tone interacts with the shape to help show that the object is not flat.

How COLOR is operating

Color in this advertisement acts to draw attention to the viewer.  The reds of the jersey are very prominent compared to the other colors in the advertisement.  Color also adds to the shape and tonal definition to the advertisement.

How COLOR is interacting

Color is interacting with the basic element of dimension in this advertisement.  The color on the socks works with dimension to show the perspective of the object.  It also acts with the ball to show how far the object is from the ball in the air.

The Basic Elements

This magazine cover uses the basic element of tone.  The intensity of darkness and lightness on Kobe Bryant’s face adds to the dimension to the photograph.  Although the photograph is monochromatic sense there are a lot of variations of tone, we are able to clearly make out the photograph.  The black and white photograph adds an aspect of simplicity to the magazine cover, which can be very cluttered and distracting.  The magazine cover also uses color.  The color used for “Vogue” and for “Kobe Bryant” make them pop out.  They pop out because of the high contrast with the photograph and the rest of the text.

This magazine layout uses the basic element of scale.  The “M” drop cap gives scale to the rest of the text.  The reader is able to compare the rest of text to the “M” and realize the size difference.  The drop cap adds dimension to the page rather than having all the text be the same size.  It draws in the reader and encourages them to read it.  I think this layout works well with the use of scale.

 In this magazine layout the basic element used is shape.   The layout of this magazine is divided up into basic shapes of squares and rectangles.  The pictures and text fit into shapes of squares and rectangles.  The layout seems to use a grid which I think works really well.  The layout looks simple and clean and is nice to look at.  I like how the text on the left side makes their own rectangles by how the text is set.  It further gives the prominence of the use of shape. 

Visual Thinking Research

 In this puzzle you are suppose to count how many triangles there are in the picture of the cat.  My girlfriend and I both did the puzzle for 5 minutes.  This first picture is of the puzzle I did.  I used pattern seeking and finding to figure out how many triangles there were.  I started at the top of the head counting triangles and moved down through the body to the tail.  In the end I counted 19 triangles, but there was actually 20.  I messed up on the middle part of the tail.  It is broken up in to 4 separate triangles.  I thought there was a pattern with the first part of the tail with a big triangle and a small triangle.  But there are actually two big triangles in the middle section.

 This puzzle is the one my girlfriend did.  She also used pattern seeking and finding to figure out how many triangles there were.  She also started at the top and moved down and ended at the tail.  We were sitting on opposite sides of the room, so it is interesting that we had a similar approach to the puzzle.  She also got 19 instead of 20 triangles.  She made the same mistake I did with the middle section of the cat’s tail.  That is also interesting that we both made the same mistake.

In this puzzle you are suppose to figure out with spiral consists of a single piece of rope and which has two separate pieces.  For this puzzle you are not suppose to write on it while solving, which my girlfriend and I did not, but I wrote on it after to illustrate how we both tried to solve it.  This first picture is of the puzzle I did.  On the left spiral I focused on the blue lines and followed both of them around until I got to the middle and they separated.  Because the separated in the middle I figured this was the spiral with a single piece of rope.  On the right spiral I followed the blue lines again.  When I got to the center the blue lines ended together.  Because this happened I knew this was the spiral with two pieces of rope.

This puzzle is the one my girlfriend did, and I think she had a better approach then me.  Instead of following the blue lines she followed the white space inside the blue lines.  On the left spiral she followed the white space and ended up on the other end of the spiral.  That is how she knew it was one piece of rope.  On the right spiral she followed the white space again and ended up in the middle.  That is how she figured out that spiral was made of two pieces of rope.