Rhythm

Designers and artists have a whole box full of tools. Rhythm is one of the least considered, most used. Elements are arranged in such a way as to establish a pattern. The pattern may be designed to control eye movement, or to trigger emotional response, or simply because the artist or designer had a specific tune stuck in their head. (Hey, it happens!) In fact, music and visual art share many basic design factors! The flow of piece lies in the rhythm.

Examples:

Movement: Both of the samples below share a similar rhythm, both use the rhythm to establish movement. Yet, obviously, the theme and content of these works is very different. (You may recall proximity and color relationship from previous entry?)

When you look at the piece below, make a note of where your eye wants to go… what is the first thing you see in the piece? Is there a point where your eye wants to “rest”?

It is human nature to seek out rhythm and patterns. Our brain quite naturally wants to play, “which of these things is not like the others?” at any age. The first step in that game is to associate things which are similar. Thus, the human eye bounces across similar things, in search of anything that doesn’t “belong”.

 Perspective provides the illusion of depth on a flat plane. We are provided with a very distinct idea of a large, outdoor area. The arrangement of panels recedes a good distance. We are made to feel as though we could walk through the piece. Utilizing repitition, the viewer is quite literally “told” what to expect next, and “snagged” when that pattern is disrupted. 

Yes, your perception is unique… just like everybody else’s. Yet, in nearly every moment of our daily lives, the mood and the scene is set by an artist or designer, with a specific objective in mind. Consider the arrangement of desks in an office, the color of the walls in the super market (can you recall EVER having seen the walls inside a super market?), or the “austere” or “stoic” appearance of government and judicial buildings. The purpose is to recognize the influences these things have. Why is the area around the customer service desk painted such a cool blue, yet 10 ft away is a display of childrens toys in primary colors? Perhaps so Mom is calm and the kid will be distracted? Subtle or blatant, the effects are everywhere. Those who are not prepared to recognize it, not “literate”, are not making informed choices.

Tags: Add new tag, design, influences, proximity, Psychology, reading, relationship, rhythm, subliminal, visual literacy

What are the basic premises of visual language? The term has been virtually redefined in the computer age. Yet. basic premises still remain. To be literate is to know how to recognize not only the iconography of an alphabet, but also to have the ability to assign meaning to the strings of characters arranged on a page. The same is true of visual language. To be literate is to be able to recognize the iconography and “read” the arrangement of elements in a given piece. We know, from our first grade phonics lessons, when we see certain phonetic couplings of letters in text that a specific sound and meaning are inscribed. In this, we have learned to recognize a relationship between these letters and words. Perhaps, if you attended college and took more than a rudimentary art class, you learned to recognize spatial relationships between forms. Unless you took an advanced art class, you probably did not learn to “read” the iconography and metaphor in painting or sculpture.

So it is that few adults today realize that the visual artist or visual language composer has taken upon him/herself to quite literally control not only the movement of your eye, but to some extent even your cognitive response to the images presented. But, how, you might ask? (As well you should!)

1. Relationships: There are number of ways to manipulate your response to something by establishing relationships between forms and through the use of color. An artist can create tension, or impart placid harmony through the placement of objects or forms or through the use of color.

Let us consider our response to a small sphere cradled in a ribbon-like form. To most people, this confers a sense of nurturing, perhaps parenting, certainly safety and comfort. This is because we have mentally assigned a relationship to the two forms, whether or not we are conscious of it.  Please consider the four examples below, which all employ the same two elements. What is the relationship between the two forms in each example? This is an example of utilizing proximity to establish relationship.

It is a given that people have a cultural library of meanings which they will assign to specific colors. Red, for example… what is your immediate response to the color red? MOst of us in the west will assign three possible meanings to the color. Stop/danger, anger, and passion. A very large red painting is irritating, over time. Red excited our eyes and causes the photo receptors to fire in quick succession. It is almost impossible to ignore, even with concerted effort. The same is true of yellow, and yet yellow is generally associated with happiness… thus, we dont mind so much being in the presence of a large “sunny” canvas. We are not irritated by the presence of a big happy thing. We are likely to find our mood uplifted after 20 minutes or so.

With this in mind, look at the many ways that information is visually presented. Charts and graphs,  illustrations, headlines and photos, even forms you are asked to fill out every day of your life are carefully arranged to influence your perception.

Tags: character, color, definitions, design, fine art, form, iconography, illustration, line, relationships, visual literacy

“Nooo, NO NOOOOO!”

Frantically clicking, head bobbing like a chicken at a flea circus, I searched in vain… it was gone. Another reminder that I need to get the update installed with the desk top plug in. This is maddening.

So, today I am taking an alternate route. I hope my expansive readership won’t mind. Love Me When I’m Gone is a slideshow; spur of the moment. It is over run with cliche. It has to be… it’s about an artist’s sacrifice. But, things become cliche precisely because there is an element of truth and because the world becomes jaded. I consider them to be the equivalent of contractions, like “don’t, shouldn’t oughta.”  Truth is, the best an artist can hope for is to be worth more dead than alive. The product is rough and poorly timed, but the Lost Post was about “sacred art” and so is this… after a fashion… so to speak… sort of.

Tags: visual art, Visual languages, visual literacy