David Carson Poster

David Carson's lack of concern for legibility is evident in this particular poster. Like alot of Carson's designs, the poster is meant to convey an atmosphere, and completely legible type would not allow that atmosphere to reach its potential.

Paula Scher's Use of Type

Paula Scher's excessive use of typography is appropriate in this rare case for a few reasons. One, it makes the poster aesthetically compatible with what is being advertised. Second, the type makes it clear that there are alot of things going on with the activity being advertised, so crystal clear legibility is not completely necessary,

Similarity Between the Peace Symbol and the Mercedes Logo

It only takes a small element to make one symbol completely distinguishable from another. The engraving on the Mercedes logo gives it an elite appearance that the peace symbol lacks and does not particularly represent. Symbols that are meant to be easily recognized and rather simple always face the problem of looking a lot like each other, but one change can change the entire meaning. Here, the change is the line down the bottom center of the peace symbol.

Bentley Logo

The font for the B inside the bentley symbol is not seen on any other type of car, but it still manages to ooze class. This sets apart the Bentley logo from other car brands, even Chrysler, who has a similar logo. The font that is used for the "Bentley" text could not be more legible, but like the font used for the big B, it is not a font that is seen every day. The wings are perfectly symmetrical. Overall, the logo shouts reliability and class

Cranberries-Wake up and Smell the Coffee

This Cranberries album cover is another example of Storm Thorgerson's obsession with surreal images and vast landscapes. The cover seems to remind you how insignificant a person is with respect to elements of space and physics. Thorgerson's work usually has a funny way of showing that. The red balls work well visually with the blue sky and the pavement, creating a sense of overwhelming size inferiority.

This sketch is a picture of a plate of food with silverware by its side. The outline of the drawing with scribbles inside certain corners represents the unpredictability of life. The drawing itself represents the concept of illusion and the preparation for a future that may never come. The drawings are not entirely realistic, but have a certain style and consistency that ensure that their identity is understood.

This sketch is largely concept driven, depicting what some would say is oppression, suppression, lack of choices, or trials choosing the direction of one's life. Sketching a drawing without a specific initial purpose can led to ideas that come natural to the subconscious mind. The drawing creates a depiction of balance and symmetry, but it is not accurately balanced or symmetrical. This is a consistent style that the illustrator uses, and is an artistic concept in and of itself: a subtle portrayal of human nature.

Converse Website Rollover

The magic-marker-box rollover is perfect for the style of Converse Allstar. The splattered background creates a consistent style throughout the site.

The Persistence of Memory by Salvador Dali

Surrealist art, like this painting by Salvador Dali, tends to depict certain obsessions of the artist. In this case, it is melting images. the work makes good use of bright colors mixed with dark brown in the foreground. The work could be seen as conceptual. Persistent memory can destroy one's logical idea of time. Hence, the melting clocks.

Dark Side of the Moon Album Cover

This legendary Pink Floyd album cover, designed by Storm Thorgerson, makes the use of contrasting colors in the background and foreground. Thorgerson's obsession with contorting space in his designs is also evident in this design, just in a different manner than in say, The Division Bell. The white line going through the 2 dimensional triangle transforms into the rainbow colors. With this design, Thorgerson uses a technique, similar to techniques used in optical illusions like the Never-Ending Staircase, that can only be accomplished with 2-dimensional design.

BP's Logo

BP's logo makes the oil company seem farmer friendly at first glance. When one looks at the logo, the first thoughts that arise are biofuels, ethanol, etc. Take a look at Sunoco's image.

This image puts more emphasis on speed. It does not give the company an environmentally friendly image whatsoever. It makes a person think of NASCAR or other activities that are a colossal waste of energy.

Keane's album cover uses vector graphics very effectively, using a color scheme that does not clash. The album cover mixes modern and postmodern elements, especially with the typeface.

UPS Cardboard Website

http://cardboard.theupsstore.com/

Although shades of brown and yellow make of the colors of this site, it is still visually pleasing due to the small details that it employs. Alot of animations take place, some of them simple, some of them looking more complicated. The makers of the site use the same tactic alot of moviemakers do: create the illusion of a large amount of space with lots of detail and movement.

This poster is an example of how typography can be used as building blocks in the construction of an image. The creator of this poster not only had to choose the right words, but also where to put them and how to size them. The specific words that add up to the question mark make it clear that the message is geared toward design students who need answers.

http://www.hondabluesky.ca/

This site uses vector graphics very effectively. The links on the top of the page that say "Yesterday," "Today," and "Tomorrow" have rollovers that prove this point. The 3D appearance of the text for these links give the site a childlike feel and go well aesthetically with the color that bleeds down when the mouse rolls over the link.

movie posters

Tracy Chapman's website

tracychapman.com

This website allows users to "color their world" by visiting the site. The user can choose from eight different colors and fill in the outlined graphics on the page. There are no links to any other pages, but that does not take away from the site's effectiveness. The site gets a message across: you can make your life what you want it to be. The site also magnifies the principle of how a change in color can change what a design means. The site was probably very easy to code in flash. All the web designer would have had to do was code the outlined images as buttons and had a color change as the down option on them.

This movie poster uses different colors very effectively. Everything except the title has a warm color, making the title and tagline stand out. The poster makes it very obvious that it is a movie from the seventies. The colors do a very good job of portraying the fact that it is a comedy as well as an action film.

My Chemical Romance cover

This album cover depicts the album Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge very effectively, with its comic book style of art. I'm sure it's no coincidence that the lead singer of the band, Gerard Way, is a comic book artist by trade. The title text has a reckless, unbalanced sort of feel, the same way the music does. The colors black, white, and red also give the album cover an aggressive yet melancholy attitude.

Incredibox Musical Game

http://www.incredibox.fr/

This is the link to a website where the user can choose different combinations of sounds

to make a song. The graphics are incredibly simple, vector shapes. This website is a very entertaining way to kill tiime.

Storm Thorgerson

Something is very consistent with Storm Thorgerson's designs, whether it is the vast use of open space or the contortions of reality. Maybe it's the open fields that this designer depicts a lot in his work. Would Pink Floyd be half as popular as they are if not for this man's incredibly unique designs?

Besides doing an overwhelming majority of Pink Floyd's designs, Thorgerson also has done designs for Phish, Muse, The Cranberries, The Offspring, and The Styx, to name a few. Almost every design has the same unique style, with lots of open space and very surreal images.

He also made several music videos, Notably for Yes and Pink Floyd. Here is an example of how his style translates to his cinematography.

Michael Bierut

This design is by Michael Bierut. It is an extremely simple way to get the message across that our society relies on design to be informed. This piece is typical of Bierut's modernist style of design.

Bob Dylan's Style of Painting

Bob Dylan-From the Drawn Blank Series

Bob Dylan's paintings portray the quirks of working class life in such a subtly colorful fashion the same way his music does. His style is similar to Picasso's where the reality is defined by the color and not the "realistic" details. The painting at 0:33 shows the figure walking in the background in the way I just mentioned: with color defining what the viewer sees, and letting derived emotions and familiarity fill in the blanks.

http://changeperspective.saab.com/global/en/# This is the link to website advertising for Saab. The site looks to be mostly of animated photos and drawings. You can click on different links that interactively describe about what makes Saab different. For example, there is a page where an ant is carrying a leaf and you click to make the leaf grow into a stem. The metaphor is the way in which Saab faces environmental challenges. Overal, this website is a great way to convince people that Saab is a cut above the rest in advanced technology.

Animal Collective Album Cover

Merriweather Post Pavilion, Animal Collective's newest album, features a cover like none other. The design creates the illusion that the image is breathing. If it were not for this effect, the album cover would be boring.

Honda Website

http://www.a-wards.com/wiedenkennedy/honda/ded/ This website makes a great use of simple graphics and is very interactive. The music has the sound of liquid drops to mimic the way a Honda sips gas.

Diesel's Website

I visited the Diesel Jeans website. Any expensive brand of casual clothing needs to have an extremely creative website. The website has almost a counter-culture feel to it. The rollovers in the jeans section are the effect of a TV screen with a mixed signal. Static is the theme throughout the website. It is a great way to advertise an expensive product.

Mono Face website

http://www.mono-1.com/monoface/main.html. Here is the link to a website for an ad agency that "believes in the power of simplicity." This particular part of the website combines different facial elements of each team member into one. You can click on a link that reshuffles the face and a new combination comes up. Going along with the company's motto, it is very simple, yet extremely fascinating and well designed.

Album Cover Inspiration

http://www.concordmusicgroup.com/assets/artwork01/Artists/Elvis-Costello/HRM-31280-02/Secret-Profane-and-Sugar-Cane-Cover-Art-Hi.jpg. This is the link to an album cover by Elvis Costello I first saw at Barnes and Noble. The album is called Secret, Profane, and Sugarcane. The album cover looks like a design you would see on a book of fairy tales. A crow with some sort of plant in its mouth is the focal point. There are vines in a circular motion with different scenes, none really related, embedded inside them like pictures in a picture frame. A creek of blood is the background. The drawings are not especially incredible, but they all have a consistent style. The album cover art probably depicts the seemingly random yet interrelated events of a person's life, which must be a theme Costello consistently expresses.

Pulp Fiction Inspiration

Today I took a good look at the cover of Pulp Fiction. I realized how it was created to have the look and feel of an actual pulp fiction(a cheap fiction magazine published from the 1920s throughout the 1950s). It has wear and tear on the sides(I mean real wear and tear, the collector's edition does, anyway). Also, a version of it on google has a cheesy retro-looking "10 cents" logo on it. This classic movie poster reminded me that good design means getting a message across, not necessarily making something look pleasing to the eye, although it should involve both. When I see a movie poster like this, it leads me to question the way graphic designers follow the latest design trends. I guess with every design, the creator needs to choose whether following the latest design trend or going for something completely horrendous-looking according to modern day standards is the best way to catch a viewer's attention, or get an underlying meaning across.