Hierarchy in Design

In this book cover for A Clockwork Orange, David Pelham has managed to distill the main character of the book into an abstracted silhouette of a man with one eye covered in makeup (Friedman). The bright colors combined with the different shapes all work to direct the preattentive channels in the brain to focus on the eye, a symbol for the main character and significant for the aesthetic of the story. The unnatural roundness of the eye breaks from the outline of a man and conflicts with our image of how a person should look like, making it stand out. The fact that the eye is also slightly off center in the frame makes it break the balance of the composition which brings it even more to attention. The white of the eye stands in high contrast to the black eyeliner as well as the vibrant background colors. After focusing on the eye, the viewer is lead to observe the figure as a whole, and especially the bowler hat stands out with its dark black contrasting the red background. Then, at the top of the book cover, the title draws attention to itself with the use of yellow lettering on a red background. These are the main attributes in guiding the eye. After these features have been observed the viewer can start scanning the rest of the frame, finding aspects like the logo for Penguin Publishing in the upper corner, or what the person in the picture is wearing.




Friedman, Vitaly. "Excellent Book Covers and Paperbacks | Smashing Magazine." Smashing Magazine. N.p., 14 Apr. 2008. Web. 18 Oct. 2012.

Top Down Approach

The legendary Paul Rand, who is famous for his work at IBM, and a master of of the play on negative and positive space, is the source behind this ad. He masterfully grabs attention by his use of colors and bold illustrations to create an image that sticks out. The representation of a person holding binoculars is instantaneously recognizable, as are the shapes of a car and a roadway. These images evokes the notion that the person is on the look out and that traffic might have something to do with it. Since it is a very simplistic illustration with use of only four colors, there is not much distraction from the main illustration, and focus can be put on a top down approach to interpreting the message. By scanning the ad further, the message becomes clear as the headline explains the illustration further. As the eyes travel from the illustration, the brain struggles to solve the riddle it has produced, and as the headline explains the idea further, the riddle can be solved, and the observer can find satisfaction in understanding the message.

Good vs Bad Vis Com

In this example for the bikenyc campaign, the message is to leave the car at home and take your bike instead. To enhance this message the design been sharpened by tilting the text and giving it texture as if it was part of the pavement. I breaks away from the traditionally balanced and leveled properties of text, and creates an integrated, active visual within the photograph. This integration between the text and the road really works well to illustrate to the viewer that bikers belong on the streets. The birds eye perspective and the yellow taxis also work well to illustrate New York and gives the ad that recognizable and attention grabbing quality that is so important.

Here is an example from the New York State Department of Motor Vehicles where the visual syntax does not work well to communicate the message. The main message regarding Point Insurance Reduction Program as been transposed on top of the "&" symbol, obscuring the text and making it illegible. But the fact that this text is also placed to the left, and off center while there is still a lot of space toward the middle, makes the placing quite ambiguous and confusing. It offsets the balance in the  ad and creates disharmony in a bad way. The addition of the photograph to the right in the ad has not been incorporated into the rest of the ad in a satisfying way, causing uncertainty as to how it fits in to the rest of the ad. It also offsets the balance and creates an illusion that the headline "NYS DMV" is not centered.