WEEK 4 - Visual vs Symbolic Language

This picture shows an old man in his late 70's early 80's wearing a metal army helmet that looks like a bowl. There is a brown leather worn strap keeping the helmet on fitting snug under his chin. He is wearing an old olive/ camel green uniform that looks cushioned and has a few pockets on the front. He has a slightly wrinkled face and glasses and a big nose. He has wrinkly hands and he is lightly clutching a large flag folded into the shape of a triangle. The blue part of the flag is showing with white stars. It is a close up portrait picture of the man but you can tell he is standing in the front of a crowd of people.

somber, dutiful, nostalgic, memory, proud, loyal, lifetime,

flag in triangle- patriotism honor
helmet- protection
uniform- team,

The fact that the picture is very close up makes the feeling more serious. It is like a portrait of the man's life and how he woule be painted and the painting be hung up for all to see reflecting his life. It is very personal and straight to the point. it focuses on his face and how it looks like he is remembering the past.

WEEK 2

This poster brings water conservation into awareness. In this poster we see a too-large fish trying to breath inside of a too-small bowl. This advertisement was commissioned by Hartman Design Studio in Calgary for the United Nation’s water for life campaigns’ website.

A real fish being inside water is representational of how fish are in their natural habitat, but this advertisement is different. It is the change in the fish’s representation from a comfortable to a harmful place that ensues the stress and concern from the viewer. The representational aspect of the real fish being in the real water is abstracted by the size of each of the objects.

The abstraction is the idea and what makes the advertisement have more impact. Viewers may be stressed and feel called into action to explore what the ad is about in order to save fish. The impact of the uncomfortable abstraction immediately leads to the symbol text at the bottom and also commits the image to the viewer’s memory.

The obvious symbols are in text form in the bottom right hand corner indicating the purpose or where to find the purpose of this ad. Due to there only being a short website and no fact, slogan, or call to action this ad and the text leave the viewer anxious to look for a solution or immediately visit the website. The two words in the website’s name is the only immediate solution- to be aware of water use. The symbols are the solution represented by the abstract visual.

WEEK 1

Representational

This is a representational study of a bottle.  The characteristics  of the bottle were observed from reality and recorded.

Abstract

This is an abstract print of a painting of the important attributes of light and reflectivity that bottles have. The painter concentrated on the importance of this subject's properties and reduced the image of an actual bottle to a few basic characteristics.

Symbol

The symbol on the side of the bottle can be recognized by part of the world without explanation. Whether it is in silent films or in a picture, there needn't be a description of the contents- deadly if ingested. There is another place the skull and crossbones is a symbol and that is on a pirate flag. The context of the symbol defines what it signifies and they are both equally known.