Perception or illusion?

Putting design into a social concept. Understanding how we work as human beings. Convey meaning through visual communication.

We achieve meaningful communication through developing a deep self awareness and more importantly the how audience perceive things. Designing for a useful purpose that will work in the real world. Taking into account the things that you can't see. Looking at different perspectives of design and investigate things that aren’t as obvious.

The image that we see when it hits the eye is upside down, however our brain flips the image. This is a good example of perception, as the things we see are filtered into different parts of our memory. 

A touch can change perception, and the mood of someone. An example of this was on the video where a women went into a library. The women on the desk touched her arm and did not smile, however when the customer was asked, she said that she thought that the cashier women smiled however did not touch her. 

We skipped further into the video and watched a basketball being thrown between some players, having to focus on the ones with the yellow jackets. As i was focusing on counting how many times they threw the ba

ll between each other, i didn't notice a man in a gorilla costume walk through the frame.

We then looked at optical illusions. This specific one is a test for people who are colour blind. I was able to see all of the numbers, 6,12,68, 8, 10 and 74. However some people were not able to see the numbers due to not being able to see primary colours properly. 

This plays a trick with the bling spot in your eye. We all have a blind spot where our retina connects. We drew this on a piece of paper and put the paper at arms length. As we moved the paper closer to our face, we couldn't tell how far away the paper was and hit ourselves in the nose. 

Due to the contrast on this image, it make it look like the image is moving even though there is no animation involved at all. This is down to the eye attempting to make sense of the image. If you focus on one black dot, the image should stop moving. 

InDesign Interactive PDF

The third InDesign task started with looking into setting up a grid in pixel perfect. This was so it was easier to design the album cover for web based content, as when an object was nudged with the arrow key for example, it would move one pixel, opposed to a bit of a pixel. In order to change this we went into units and increments on InDesign preferences. I realised that it is very important to set up a document correctly before creating the design, as the small things such as increments and units, as well as having a baseline grid and workspace grid to help with alignment and composition creates a more professional looking graphic, and can help save time in the long run.

The aim was to recreate this album cover first, with help from the grid in order to place the shapes and type in the correct place. We went into more depth on alignment of shapes as the album cover was recreated, and I learned how to align multiple shapes vertically and horizontally to create a consistent gap between the shapes. This really helped to add to the aesthetic of the piece. 

We also learned how to create swatches. This helped to recreate the album cover more efficiently, as it allowed me to eye drop the colours from the original design and save the colours into a custom swatch. This allowed me to use the colours when ever they were needed. This made the process of deigning the cover a lot easier and efficient.  

This is my recreation of the album cover. I used arial black for the font as this was the closest i could find to the original. I created the Sutton logo on illustrator and placed it into the indesign document. At this point, paragraph styles were introduced. This was a very useful tool as it allowed for the colour of text as well as the font, size and even leading and tracking to be customised and saved. This is another way of saving time when designing a large document. 

We then created incorporated images, placeholder text and a video into the InDesign document. This would allow a button and a contense page to be added later on in the Interactive PDF setting. 

I used the 'basic paragraph' paragraph style for the placeholder text. The chapter headings were created with the 'chapter headings' paragraph style. This made it possible for a contense to be created. When creating the contense page, i selected the chapter headings paragraph style. This added the chapter headings to the contense. When each heading on the contense is selected in the interactive PDF, the user will be taken to that particular page in the document. 

Another feature of an interactive PDF is adding buttons. This also allows the user to quickly navigate to another part of the document by selecting the button. In this case we learned how to turn an object into a button, therefore we chose to use the inner blue circle on the album cover as the button. 

We added an drop shadow effect to the shape in the fx. toolbar in InDesign when the cursor hovers over the button in order to make it visible to the user. 

Overall, i learned a lot of new features and functionalities of InDesign in this session. I believe that i may use an interactive PDF in the future, especially if i want to show off an animation in a document format. It is very customisable, and creates a professional finish if done correctly. I will defiantly use swatches, paragraph styles and pay attention to units and increments in the future when using InDesign, as this saves a lot of time in the long run. 

Intro to abstract

In this seminar we looked at the introduction to abstract. After having a genealogy recap with James we were asked the question "what is an abstract?".  We learned that an abstract is a brief summary or overview of the context. An abstract is usually between 250-500 words, and its purpose is to give the audience an idea of what is going to happen in a short and sweet paragraph.

After talking about this, James went on to show us some clips. We had a task to split into groups, and each of us had to summarise 20 seconds of the clip. When each of us had summarised our short bit of the clip in one sentence, and added it to everyone else's sentences, we created an abstract. However it did not flow as an abstract should because everyone thinks slightly differently.



After watching the clips, we watched a clip from casablanca. This is not a film that i have seen before, however have heard of it. It is meant to be a good film and is classed somewhat as a classic. When watching this clip, i noticed that it was a very good example of an abstract. Each of the characters were asking the right questions in order for the audience to know what is going on. When one character says "two exit visa's" and the other character asks "why?", this introduces new characters into the scene, Questions like this in films are what keep the narrative moving, and allows the character to give an abstract.



Finally we were shown a had example. This was a clip from a film called "the room". I have never heard of this film personally, and after watching the clip, i never intend to watch it. In the clip, none of the correct questions where asked for the audiences benefit and things where shown that had no relevance to the storyline. An example of this is where the character pats the dog on the head. This brings attention to the dog, however it has nothing to do with what is happening in the scene. The speech isn't vey informative either, and nothing could be taken from the quick conversation that both of the characters had. This would be a terrible example of an abstract. I can defiantly tell the difference when comparing the clip from "casablanca", and the clip from "the room".



A tip that James gave about writing an abstract was to start off strong. This will set the tone for the whole essay, therefore you need to make it interesting, in order to intrigue the reader into reading on. I found this seminar interesting, and think that i now know what an abstract is and what are good things that i should do what writing an abstract, and bad things that i shouldn't.

Key Words

Objective - a thing aimed at or sought; a goal.

Contingency - a future event or circumstance which is possible but cannot be predicted with certainty.

History - the study of past events, particularly in human affairs.

Genealogy - a line of descent traced continuously from an ancestor.

Subjective - based on or influenced by personal feelings, tastes, or opinions.

Establishing Chart - introducing a frame of interest rather than being an actual technique.

Perspective - the art of representing three-dimensional objects on a two-dimensional surface so as to give the right impression of their height, width, depth, and position in relation to each other.

Pre conceived - something that has already been created.

Attributes - what makes up a style.

Intensities - how style works.

Style - a style can be a way of life, a way in which someone dresses and acts, however it is more than just design.

Stylesness - something without a style, however this is not possible, as something without a style is a style itself.

Influence - the capacity to have an effect on the character, development, or behaviour of someone or something, or the effect itself.

Opposition - resistance or dissent, expressed in action or argument.

Repetition - a style has the ability to come back.

Philosophical - relating to the study of the fundamental nature of knowledge, reality and existence.

Fears of the dark - Peur(s) du noir

Richard Mcguire - mapped a particular place over a period of time. Intersected other images into a main image which is in 1964, and added other smaller images that link with the main image looking at other time periods such as 1932, 1993 and 2014. 

 

The animation started with a figure walking through the snow as a silhouette, and knocking on the windowed door of a house aggressively. The screen goes dark and something smashes, then a light match is lit in order for the audience to see only areas of the screen at one time. This creates a good visual that links well with 'fear in the dark'
as silhouette images, with deep shadows creates an creepy effect. 

Loud and sudden noises are used in order to create a jumpy effect, and the man in the animation seems distressed in some parts of the animation. An example of this is when bats suddenly fly out of the darkness and scare the man. Silent moments are used to create suspense and anticipation before the sudden louder noises. 

The man looks through a photo album listening to a song on the record player which creates an eery feel. Some of the heads in the photos have been cut out which is not explained in the animation.

Their is a scene that is being repeated throughout the of the man pulling a spiders leg out of his hand, with it getting longer each time. 

A women is introduced which appears to be the figment of the mans imagination, as when she cuts him with a knife he is not hurt. It could be speculated that the women is out of the photo album that he had been looking at prior to the scene. 

The man is attacked by something in the dark with a flurry of fast paced images which created a scene that cannot be explained. He is hitting at nothing with a metal weapon.

The animation plays with silhouettes in the dark. An example of this is where flowers are made to look like a face coming out of the shadows before he moves closer and the extra light shows their true identity. 

The man is very cared and distressed at this point and is stuck in a room kicking at the door with a box falling down on him with a mannequins head falling out and distressing him more. He manages to hit his way through the outer wall so he can see the outside through a small crack, however the women appears with the knife behind her back. There is a sound of children playing outside the house, however the mans screams for help are taken wrongly and the children run away.

Intro and Abstract

The seminar started looking at key words from last week. We were separated into groups and James went round the room and got a key word and definitions from each group.

We then looked at 'What is the point of abstract?'. Ab abstract is something existing in thought or as an idea but not having a physical or concrete existence. An essay will start with an abstract therefore it is a good skill to have. When writing a 5000 -10000 word essay 250 - 500 words will be expected for an abstract which is 1 paragraph or 10 to 20 sentences. It is important to keep the start of the essay clear and concise, and interesting enough to make the reader want to continue.

We then looked at a short clip called; Withnail and I. Each group had to write a sentence about 20 seconds of the clip. My group had the 20 - 40 seconds part of the clip. My sentence was 'A character who hadn't slept in 60 hours was very annoyed and quite aggressive, with the smaller character attempting to calm him down over the washing of dishes.'

What I took from this task was that I should be able to summarise something in one sentence without any access. This is called clipped writing. When putting all of the sentences together from the group, there ended up being a paragraph to summarise the clip.

We then looked at Casablanca in regards to where the dialogue take us and whats revealed. It wasn't to fast and didn't drag and introduced a relationship between two characters. The whole character profile was described in one sentence 'In a cynical shell and inside a sentimentalist.' It involved a lot of content which creates intrigue leaving the viewer wanting to watch more. What I took from this is that it is the same with the start of an essay. Ask the correct questions for the reader and summarise what needs to be said in a clear and concise fashion as clipped writing does not mean in has to be inconsequential.

Post-It Pixel Parlance Workshop

In workshop week I took part in a group task which consisted of creating the words 'work' and 'play' by using marker pens to fill in the post it notes in order to create a word on a board. The process helped me work as part of a team with people who I hadn't met before.

The word 'work' was constructed on the board first, and photos where taken each time another post it note was added to the board. This would a allow a time laps to be created of the process. Once the word was on the board, we then slowly started to make the transformation from 'work' to 'play'.

The transformation consisted of different coloured post it notes being added and the other word slowly becoming more visible. Overall I think the main task went well, however in hind sight I may have gone about the transition in a different way. Also there are people visible in some of the photos which in my opinion takes away from the still motion video effects. 

A small group of us decided to create a second post it note design, however this time instead of using words we created the classic game 'Snake'. We used the same process of taking photos after each post it note had been added and slowly made the snake bigger as it ate the food. The result of this was good. We concluded the game with a flashing game over after the snake had died. 

InDesign double page spread

In this process and production session, we focused on laying out type on indesign. 

This is the example that we were given, and had the task of recreating it. 

This was my recreation of the piece. 

I feel like i am becoming more confident in using indesign, and believe that it is a very important tool to have, especially as a graphic designer. I underestimated the need for the program before i came to university, however now i have looked into the program in a little bit more depth, I can see why the program is needed.