Color and Season Chapter 4

For the project Color and season I designed a color collage composition for the season summer. For me nothing says early summer more than flowers in full bloom in Homer Alaska. You would think that flowers would bring to mind thoughts of spring, and they do. Although in Homer we get our flowers in early summer; so for me flowers mean summer.

For my color scheme I developed a color triad consisting of two related colors yellow and orange, and a contrasting color of blue. I choose these colors to help communicate the message and feel of summer. Yellow is a warm color that is associated with sunlight and energy. Orange is active, appetizing, and hot. Orange is made from two warm colors and is associated with sunsets. Both colors yellow and orange invoke feelings of those long sunny summer days. The blue in the composition adds contrast to the orange background and makes the images of summer stand out. This small amount of blue, which represents a cool temperature, reinforces the overwhelming warm temperature colors of summer. This slight warm-cool contrast works toward that warm summer feel. I choose summer flower photos with yellow in them to support my color scheme.

With my composition people’s eyes are drawn first to the title, from the title viewers eyes are taken slightly down and to the left to the image with butterflies; this image has a dominate yellow color. Viewer’s eyes are then taken in a circular counter clockwise motion around the collage and then to the center image that again has yellow flowers. The images in the collage were specifically positioned in order to accomplish this visual round trip view of the composition.

"24 Shots" Chapter 4 Assignment

I have to admit when I started this project there was a lot of confusion for me, after reading the books version of the assignment I was under the impression that we were to take 24 photographs of the same image and change the appearance of the image through color design principles. I thought forever “what one image can I take 24 photos of and make each image unique? I was at a loss, so I decided to do take 24 photos of a place, so that all the images are related, they’re the same but different; I chose to photograph the Pangborn Memorial Airport in Wenatchee Washington. It was not until after I read John’s blog entry that I put everything together. John made sense of the assignment, unlike the book; so with this in mind I am going to do the best job that I can with the photos that I have, anyway isn’t that what it’s all about seeing design in everything “visual splendor of life all around, it's order, its caos, its beauty in all things obvious and not so obvious.”

This first composition represents symmetrical balance; the photos were taken in the waiting area at the airport. The center image is photo of the waiting area and the images on the sides are photographs of art on the walls. The images are balanced symmetrically; the images are similar on either side of the center axis. Also notice the symmetrical balance of the center photograph with the placement of the art on the walls.


This second composition represents asymmetrical balance; the photos were taken from various areas at the airport from the parking lot, to the ticket counter, to the restrooms. With this composition I was striving to create balance of these different sized images through likeness in the signs. I was also striving for contrast of temperature, from warm to cold with the Apple Blossom queens on one side and blue signs on the opposite, with red signs in between. I threw in a yellow to blue gradient in the background to reinforce the contrast of temperature.


I read over the assignment a few more times and I think I have been looking at this assignment all wrong, I think that my photograph itself is to illustrate the principle. So with that in mind here is a more appropriate photo of asymmetrical balance.


Here is an image that exhibits repetition, this photo is of neatly stacked apple boxes at the Stemilt apple warehouse.


Here is an image that exhibits orientation, this photo clearly shows the viewer the point of view that the designer intended it to be viewed.


Here is an image that I feel displays color balance. In this photograph we see color harmony through color complements; the red of the semi trailer just below the red tips of the apple trees in the background stand out yet are complemented by warm yellows and earth tone shades of brown.


Here is a photo that displays rhythm, from this photo we see the alternating rows of apple tree in a straight line. This alternating rhythm of landscape tree, grass, tree, grass gives shape to the movement in the photograph. The viewer’s eyes are transported up and down the rows of apple trees in a harmonious rhythm.


In this photograph we see dominance in the graffiti art spray painted in 1971. The spray painted flag dominates all of the other graffiti art in this photograph. The combination of vivid colors, image association, and image placement allow this spray painted flag to dominate all of the other graffiti art in this photograph.

Graphic Animal

I choose to research the behavior, anatomy, and physical characteristics of bats. Before I committed to using a bat for this project I did a physical analysis and studied the bat through photographs from the Internet. I looked at many different photographs these photos offered a wide variety of viewpoints and behaviors, it also allowed me to see many different species of bats. To reduce my image I did a series of drawings, with each drawing I tried to concentrate and emphasize on essential qualities. These essential qualities for my graphic reduction were the bats wings and ears. I felt that taking the photograph down to its simplest form while preserving its ability to be recognized would have to include the wings and ears of the bat. I tried many different versions to refine my image while always emphasizing on the wings and ears of the bat. First I tried an outline of the bat traced in Adobe Illustrator, this was ok but lacking. So next I traced the outline of the bat and put in detail of his bones and body, this was too much. Next I drew the outline of the top of the bat’s wings and ears. This one came out nice, I liked it although I wanted more this was not exactly what I was looking for; so I tried many other different combinations to reduce this image. My last two attempts at the image reduction are my favorites. I traced the outline of the bat and colored it in black to make a silhouette, this image reduction is not an exact line for line trace. In this reduction I left out the feet and shortened the tail. I really like this one it is a perfect graphic reduction of the original image. The next image reduction that I really like is a silhouette of the original image, expect on this image the bones in the bats wings are left white. I like this image because it adds detail without taking anything away from the simplicity of the graphic reduction.

Expressive Type and Design

I started the project Expressive Type and Design by going through each font installed on my computer, analyzing each font in order to find a typeface that was expressive in supporting the meaning of each word. For the word Stodgy I choose the most boring font I could find, this boring font was Arial; I also used lowercase to help support the stodgy expression. I then put path of zs in a wave to represent sleeping. This typeface is so dull and uninteresting that the text is falling asleep. For the word Crush I used the font Westwood LET Plain: 1.0, I chose this typeface because I felt the outline of the text made the typeface look animated as if small pieces of the text were falling off. I then took this typeface into Adobe Illustrator and manipulated it to look as if the text were being squeezed in a vise. For the word Ornate I used the font Rosewood Std, I used uppercase to help support the showy heavily ornamented expression of the text. I also put a boarder of diamonds and gems around this text to make it stand out and showier. For the word Sludge I choose the font Poplar Std Black, I choose this font because it is heavy and thick just like sludge. I used uppercase to help emphasize the heavy thick expression. I took this typeface put it in Adobe Illustrator and manipulate it. I made the bottom of the typeface thicker to make it similar to mud or ooze. I then made the typeface slightly wavy to look like a slimy oozing deposit. I think the typeface used for the text Sludge does the best job of supporting the meaning of the word. The typeface just looks like heavy slimy ooze coming out of a pipe, this is actually what inspired me to create project 2a. After seeing the typeface I had created for the text sludge I thought to myself this looks like ooze coming out of a pipe of faucet, this would make a great design composition for project 2a.



I started project 2a by looking for a pipe on the internet for my type to flow out of. My initial thought was a screen shot of Super Mario Brothers, a screen shot that included the pipe that Mario uses to transport himself from level to level. After acquiring a few of these screen shots and manipulating the pipe in Adobe Photoshop I knew that this was not exactly what I was looking for. I then started searching clip art databases and came across the faucet illustration that was used in the final project. I then took each letter individually and manipulated the typeface. The bottom of each letter gets wider as the text travels from the faucet just as a thick drop of sludge would in real life. The typeface of each letter is manipulated to look like an individual thick heavy drop of ooze, yet retain its readability. This oozing single drop typeface functions as a design element in the final composition by a interesting visual element that functions as shape and texture, this type is extremely relevant to the composition. The typeface effectively enhances the text, engaging the audience to create visual appeal while communicating the intended message in a clear and compelling manner.