Visual Techniques

               http://adsoftheworld.com/sites/default/files/styles/media/public/images/glow_Panasonic.jpg

            Exaggeration; Simplicity Economy, Brightness, Ascent, Sequentially, Clarity

            Humor, Color, Reflection

The Magus John  Fowles

                                           http://rutracker.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4186817

              

         Exaggeration; Complexity, Intricacy, Movement, Repetition, Activeness, Spontaneity  

        *Dramatic effect, Tone, Patterns

I tried to find two images which portray the two opposite ends of polar- pair visual techniques and use the quite different combinations to achieve purpose behind the design.

Let’s compare and contrast two images and see what techniques make them work. 

 First picture is Shiny smooth legs - the ad for Panasonic and second one is Russian version of  the audiobook cover The Magus by  writer John Fowles. Both of them utilizes exaggeration as the one of the dominant way to communicate the idea behind the design, but the rest of the techniques that help the designers to achieve that  are quite the opposite.  The Panasonic ad is fairly balanced  and easy to navigate. Designer uses girlish pink color as the main color to make it appealing to female audience and few other colors (colors of depilatory device and dog). Image is light and flirty. The Magus design on the other hands is complex full of intricate details it utilize movement unlike Panasonic Ad. The Magus designer wants to catch the viewers  by  giving up the visual hint that book will contain some  mystery  and main techniques by which is become possible are dramatic tone on top,  that contrasting with a little bit of soft colors of the woman and flowers on the left  low corner and splashes of yellow in windows. The Magus doesn't have any specific accent, designer just  wants your eyes scan the image and guess what all this images has to do with each other.

Shiny smooth legs' designer wants you to pay attention to specific part of the ad the reflection of the dog on the right leg. Patterns on The Magus are repetitive and Panasonic ad doesn't have any. The  Panasonic ad has sequence viewer sees;  shinny  legs >dog> and what is causing it >depilatory devise; The Magus doesn't have any special sequence it goes around both, though, have some element of unpredictably. In case of Shiny smooth legs' it is reflection of the dog. 

What makes the main impact in both designs is exaggeration which helps to communicate the metaphor. In case of Panasonic ad it is legs that are so smooth and shiny that even dog can see it face. In case of The Magus it is blindfolded man who has some kind of illusion going on in his head and he is clueless what is next. 

Contrast

                                           http://www.listal.com/viewimage/2437271hc

Designers of this poster play with contrast very nicely.  Smurfs pop out perfectly on less saturated background, so contrast in color makes characters more appealing and interesting. The big stone is serving as a good background for the   title of the move and as a podium to display Smurfs.

Another contrasting element is scale characters are quite big compare to buildings and that also let viewer focus on them rather than on background.

Next contrast based on opposition of amount of details. Although it is natural that objects that appear farther have lesser details, in this posters most of the buildings look quite similar in color and in term of details which makes them monotone compare to Smurfs. Smurfs have 3D look and have some distinguish belongings like; glasses, pencil, Scottish outfit and book which makes them stand out and give some idea about their personalities.

                                http://www.allposters.com/-sp/Don-t-Move-Posters_i6861367_.htm

This is the poster for Don’t Move movie. No worries there is other posters out there that make a better justice to this move, but this one not the best of them, in my opinion  First of all image neither faded or stands out enough  to get the all spot light ,but there is something wrong with the hierarchy in this poster anyway, because image and title of the move  are fighting for attention. Poor contrast in size and color cause some problems.

Contrast in color.  Yellow is contrasting with the red background very badly and make text less legible. White color is doing better job in term of contrast but use of size gets in a way in order to design to be successful.

Contrast in size.   Names of the featured stars that are written in white are smaller than quotes are written in yellow for some reason. Title looks like somebody was typing the first half of the poster and then change a letters to the bigger size by mistake, because title  doesn't stand alone.  I don’t understand why designer bothered to make such a contrast in size, because despite the change in size and effort of designer to embrace some idea he/she had in mind by not capitalizing the title and  not placing it farther from the rest of the text it didn't work. Text is all over the place name of the stars typed in a stairs. Words “don’t move” in the title of the move are not aligned and under word “don’t” we see text in black. We see contrast on that poster but it doesn't make poster nether legible nor pleasant to look at unlike the one below.

Movement/Motion

                       http://truethresholds.wordpress.com/2012/07/07/step-up-to-the-streets/

When I search for a good image I put “dancing” as a key word. I love to watch movies that involve dance, so I come across blog talking about Step up movie. Even though the image is still, we can easily tell that it is all about movement. It is perfect example of induced motion. In our imagination we cans try to suggest what the next move might be, so picture should be convincing in order to guess that. 

The placements of the bodies suggest movement. The couple in the middle is the best example because female dancer is in very uncomfortable position and male dancer holding the hand above her chest. Their position suggests on of a very spectacular moves in hip-hop, when guy would slightly raise his hand and her upper body will make a popping movement in the same direction with a perfect synchronicity. It looks like magician makes his puppet to do what he wants. Female dancer on the right leans forward her position proposes another step forward in a robotic manner. 

Another trick that always works in order to make dancers look dynamic in the pictures is “flying hair”. Hair of girls seems fluid, in reality, hair cannot stop in a position like it is shown on this picture, but when person is moving camera can capture that moment. Usually drops of water from the hair in movement direction make pictures even more fantastic, but in this case drop shadows and rain add realism to the dancing science. Drops of water double the illusion of movement. 

                                 http://www.behance.net/gallery/Typeface-Posters/56921

 On this poster the designer implies movement by dealing with type only. Left and right sides of the image contrast with each other. The text typed on the left side doesn't implement any movement and type on the right side does. It is perfect example of induced motion. We are under impression that latter are falling down. We see that direction of the smaller type imitates shower or waterfall effect. Letters are grouped closer together on the top of the image and then get looser and more parallel to each other. 

The bright red letters are turning in different directions while they fall and follow the letters that imitate waterfall of shower effect. Usually when you through some object down from a height it wouldn't drop down in the exact same position, based on that knowledge we perceive letters as if they are moving down. 

We also have the example of apparent movement here. Latter “g” on the top changing position and “shadow” of the letter makes stop in different position out of time while it keeps getting lower on pictorial plane. Seems like it falling down. Bright letter “g” is tilted on left side, than lighter version of the same letter gets straight, and finally it  tilts on the right side. This effect is often used in multiplication to show the movement of the character.