Week 1 of this module UXD104 ‘Visual Imagining and Interaction’ was an introduction. This included a brief overview ode to the module, expectations and some key information that will help going forwards.
The content of this module focuses on how ‘a picture is worth a thousand words’, focusing on non verbal communications using photos, illustrations and diagrams to present information. Images can be used to communicate a message, which dates back thousands of years to original wall depictions of scenes on walls.
People can read pictures, attaching a meaning to them bakes of their own interpretation of what is shown. Images can be used together to tell a story, such as multiple used side by side. \It’s vital that image combinations are used approapiatley, as it’s extremely easy to completely change how people will view them together based on one image changing.
Master-apprentice has been a structure used in creative work for some time, dating back to the renaissance period. Apprentice painters went through a lengthy process, often several years, of observing the ‘masters’. Often, years went by without the apprentice being allowed to contribute to the works, eventually being allowed to insignificantly contribute and produce replica works to show what they had learnt. At the time, this wasn't only used for painters, while in fact many jobs used the master-apprentice structure.
To me, this shows the importance of patience. I have often seen myself rushing into work, such as jumping onto Figma before even gathering my thoughts about a task. The master-painter structure shows me how I won’t truly learn and work to the best of my ability doing this, while it would be better to take a step back to think, sketch etc.
We looked at a key widely recognised logos and designs, such as Mail Chimp and Vic Bells rocket. When broken down, you can see the sketching process and composition of simple shapes that let to the final product. This really showed me how easy it is to overcomplicate design, especially when starting with a blank page. In reality, even the most well recognised icons and logos can be broken down.
I wanted to look into this more in my own time, to better understand how to break things down to see their structure. I found a great example of how the apple logo can be recreated using just circles placed overlapping on each other. Although a more complex example of breaking something down as this uses several overlapping shapes, it shows how even the most well recognised logos can be formed simply.
However, I also found an interesting example of breaking things apart in the infamous Pepsi Ratio document. This shows a countless number of circles and ovals used to design a logo. To me, this shows a clear example of breaking down a design can be overcomplicated.
As an example of the master-apprentice structure, I recreated a chosen set of icons. This showed my why the master apprentice process often took a long time, as although I initially thought this would be simple, it was quite hard to replicate the original icons using just shapes.
