Design Success and Failure in Relation to Syntactical Guidelines

This tree swing is a good example of putting syntactical guidelines to use to convey to the viewer the functionality and appeal of the swing.  First and foremost, the viewer perceives it to be what it is--a swing.  The swing is centered in the photograph, calling our focus to it.  There is a slight stress placed on the seat of the swing itself because of the leaf design within it that shows plainly against the blue of the ocean.  The swing is singularly by itself against a level background, and there is nothing else to distract the viewer from the impact of what a swing on the beach means.  The swing is a  tropical-looking leaf pattern design evokes imagery of beachside dwellings-- one can easily picture themselves at a beach house or hotel, on this beautiful swing, watching the waves.  The swing combined with the background conveys a sensation: the feeling of relaxation.  Thus, the swing is put into the context of its intended purpose as a product.

This is a good example of syntactical guidelines not being put to good use, and therefore the intended purpose of the image is lost.  This beautiful porcelain is gorgeous to look at, however the porcelain pieces are lined up next to each other, almost as if they were canned goods on a shelf at the supermarket.  They are grouped together by design which shows the viewer the variety of choices within a certain group; but by doing so, it takes away from the beauty of the individual pieces.  Porcelain pieces normally convey an image as delicate, behind-glass-doors, purely aesthetic products that symbolize luxury.  But by trying to show a large selection, this image takes away from such an intended feeling, and rather appear like they are perhaps not so valuable.  Perhaps if they weren't in such close proximity to each other, it would make them appear to have more value.  Also, there is not much contrast between dark and light because both the products and the background are consistently a similar color, and so the products don't pop.  I feel these products should have been photographed in a glass curio case or on bookshelf where they are intended to be placed after the consumer has bought them.  Also by placing them as if they were on display would signify more so that these are beautiful, exquisite pieces of porcelain, and that "you know you want one too."

Responses

homeless, sitting on a box, cardboard sign, people passing by, ignoring, money tray, desperate, in need, pun, attention-getting, messy hair, business suits, casual wear, pondering, grey, in motion, in a sea of people, sidewalk, downtown area, challenging people's reactions, jacket, cold day, no food, water bottle, leather shoes, hoodie jacket, staring into the distance, looks intelligent

Underlying Compositional Structure

people moving away from the man, stillness versus motion, grey coloring, sitting versus standing, hurried manner versus killing time

Symbols

Money collecting tray, cardboard sign, business suits, unkept facial hair, clean-looking sidewalk, heels

Reporting verbally the image what the image reports visually

A man wearing a read hoodie, jeans, and leather boots is sitting on a petite metal box holding a cardboard sign reading "In need or just lazy?".  There are people passing by wearing business suits and heels who, with the camera's help, are shown to be walking swiftly past the man on the box.  The man has a money tray placed on the ground in front of him, a liter water bottle to his right, and an overturned styrofoam cup beside the bottle.  He is faced to the right of the cameraman, and is gazing down the clean-looking sidewalk into the flow of people.  The whole picture has a grey tint to it, as if to say the man is depressed.  However the man himself has an intelligent look about him, and his sign challenges the oncoming flow of pedestrians to stop and think about what he has written.

Meaning 2: Interactions Between the 3 Levels (Theme: Product Design)

Representational:

A banana is something we can recognize from nature, and here the concept of a banana is represented in the way this juice carton is colored.  The purpose of this specific coloring is to convey to the consumer that this is a banana-flavored drink, and allows the buyer to only take mere moments to visually analyze the intended message.  How it relates to the other two levels: the banana is symbolically probably the most widely-known fruit; this carton takes the banana as a fruit out of the context of reality and places it on the packaging of a food product, abstractly using it to advertise the product.

Symbolism:

A locket, generally considered to contain a picture of a beloved one instead, in this product, houses a USB stick.  Lockets have always symbolically been worn by women who are usually in love, but either way, lockets seem to have come to be recognized as a keepsake item.  To have it be used as a USB stick is a clever way of taking the historical context of a locket out of it's normal usage.  Representationally, it is a locket in form; abstractly it is used as a USB stick.

Abstract:

This bike is an example of abstract design because it takes the bare minimum of the essence of what a bike is and excludes the other parts you would normally think to find on a bicycle (the chain, a bar leading up to the seat, spokes in the wheels, etc).  Representationally, it has the frame and structure of what we imagine a bike to look like; symbolically it has all the basic of basic parts of a bicycle.

MEANING 1

Representation: 'what we see and recognize from environment and and experience.' This picture demonstrates representational aspects because it shows the artist creating her rendition of how she wants to represent the world to the viewers of her works.  In her paintings she takes real people and paints onto them, and thereby creating a 2D image out of 3 dimensional things.  This particular photo is very 'lifelike'- it takes aspects that the artist wanted to focus on (the shape and position of the person, the casualness of the moment) and plays down other aspects (like the color).  But the resulting photograph of the subject is not an exact portrayal of reality, instead it represents it.  It visually reports a feeling or conveys a message that the artist hoped to evoke.  What is emphasized is not the details of reality, and so such details are ignored.

Abstraction: 'simplification toward a more intense and distilled meaning.'  This example of abstraction, which I found at an art store where I purchased a sketch book, has stripped away realistic detail (save for the cable car).  The majority of the painting is a mix of shapes and colors which have little or no connection with familiar visual data that we see and experience in reality.  This is not a painting that specifically references any one realistic visual experience; it is more general and can encompass a larger field of the imagination.  The designs within the painting are simplified down to their basic elements.  I think the desired result was more to create a sense or a feeling rather than to portray an image.  This is not concept-, function-, or thought- based abstraction, but instead, at least for this particular painting, it's intended purpose is to convey the message that this store is an art store, and this is the kind of work you can create with the supplies they sell.

'A symbol, in order to be effective, must not only be seen and recognized but also remembered and even reproduced'.  This particular image is a symbol because it is recognized by large numbers of people around the world to stand for the coffee establishment Starbucks Coffee.  It is not the image itself that Starbucks wishes people to see, but the desired effect is for people to see the image and then associate it with a hot coffee drink.  Over the years, the company has redesigned the symbol and has made it more and more simplified; by making it less detailed it is easier for the viewer to quickly decipher what the symbol is and what it means to them, the consumer.  This kind of symbol is a logotype; a trademarked icon that refers to the company symbolically.