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Data Visualization: This graph used for by FOX news during the early months of the pandemic shows us how scared we were during the first months and the coloring on this graph is really jarring to me. The dark background and the red tones and the rising chart showing no slowing down (and it didn’t, god bless america) was used here to really amplify the fear factor around covid-19. I wouldn’t say this infographic is lying, nor attempting to manipulate info, but it is manipulating emotions and targeting our limbic response system, likely from a cannon bard perspective which brings out a visceral, immediate reaction of “danger” that really makes me feel unwell.

Identity System: The Olly brand. Visual relationships connect all these bottles, even though they all have dissimilar ingredients, they have a similar effect. The soothing nature of the effects of these supplements create an identity system within the packaging that Olly uses to brand themselves. For example, a stimulant supplement might include red and yellow packaging, but a depressant might include cool hues and darker tones. Take this system and jam it with the packaging Olly uses to make themselves stand out, which is their unique bottle shapes, with a rounded square shape with many rounded shapes that combine the bottle to have a very solid appearance, but feels ergonomic when you hold them and open the caps. The lack of kerning on the font, confuses me however. I feel as though this font would benefit from closer lettering as to emulate closeness and unity in the font to convey their connotative attention of soothing ones body with their supplements, and mind with general appearance.  The smell of the gummies are also amazing, across all bottles. That’s an olfactory identity system, right 

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1. Denotative Meaning (“Please... wash your hands”): Signage found inside of a healthcare facility, placed inside of a bathroom. The sign literally puts into words “Wash your hands” but the design says so using a graphic of hands and soap. We know it’s soap given the context of the surroundings and the actions of the hands coming together, even without the text, it is implied. 2. Connotative Meaning  (“Please... wash your hands”): There is a sense of pressure created from this sign, that if one did not follow it, it would be considered improper. The connotation of the sign is created utilizing the placement in the bathroom (not shown but it’s right next to the sink), and the font shift for the word “Please....” compared to the rest of the literal meaning of the graphic and text following. The sign is heavily implying one should wash their hands in a healthcare facility! 3. Iconic Function (Protein bar): The major function of the branding here is simple: depict the food which is consumed by the consumer, and in doing so they carefully branded this particular protein bar to accentuate the brown colors on the exterior packaging to represent the malliard reaction which produces the brown colors in the protein bar. Everything about this packaging is iconic of the food itself. 4. Indexical Function (Fire Escape sign): This design comes into a literal sense in a similar way seen in the iconography of the sign promoting hand hygiene. The Indexical function of this signage is associating a universally understood reaction formed by the presentation of a dangerous stimulus such as fire, in which one prepares escape learning via operative conditioning. The sign introduces this subminimal cue to onlookers at any staircase, elevator, or position where they need guidance on the layout of this building on what to do in a fire: run. The sign shows us exactly the associative representation of fleeing fire by placing the actor (icon) in downward relation to the fire (icon) to indicate that there is an association with fleeing (the index). 5. Symbolic Function (soap): The symbolic function of the branding on this organic soap is most heavily utilized in the branding of it. The soap is already revealed to the consumer, as the top of the bar is not even covered (iconic) and comes wrapped in a package with associative visuals of clear waters from the spring in upper peninsula Michigan, Kitch-iti-kipi, creating an association of the soap bar with crisp, fresh water found in natural springs. It is these two components which draw out the symbolic function of the branding, as these visuals (combined with a wonderful fragrance I might add) sells the symbolic idea to a consumer that this soap is capable of promoting a lifestyle which can be spent outdoors, all while maintaining an aura of cleanliness and hygiene. 6. Past Style (Arbor): The significations of this design comes to present a design that has remained since 1995. The imagery this design is attempting to signify (visualize) is using the signifier found at the top of the design, the little tree. This tree itself is a literal representation that this (longboard) is organic and non plastic, coming from real trees (the denotative function) which garners consumer interest in the quality of the wood used for the longboard (connotative). As for the style, the off white color of the decals and the art decor era of clean, geometric shapes which embodied text and information about events, items, or art itself. I believe this design is similar to the art decor era and does so purposefully.

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Rhythm: The state news journal advert has a very specific taste that is accomplished through the rhythm of its serif design. Not included are the newspapers that had a consistency of the same serif font that flows through the entire journal, placing importance with middle indent titles.

Typographic hierarchy: The recycling posters were found next to the state journal advert, and they cover the idea of hierarchy quite well. Immediately anyone can recognize the text from afar, knowledgeable now of where to deposit their waste, and upon coming closer to do so, they might be able to read more info about what kind of recyclables are allowed and not allowed. 

Ascender: I like how the ascenders in Skyvue’s journal follow an almost perfect symmetry with their ascenders, with some exceptions like the ‘k’, which gives it a more humanistic feel

Descender: This one was hard to find, not many fonts like to use descenders, rarely were they around in posters, but this sanitation station included manty descenders in the lower case letters.

Counter: This paper towel dispenser had many round, counter shapes in the letters, notably a lower case ‘e’ is used when normally it would likely be occupied by an uppercase ‘E’. Gives it a soft feel, while staying formal, makes me feel like they’re green or something.

Crossbar: The ‘A’ in ‘Catan’ splits the letter in half, x-height and ascender height is somewhat equatorial.

Large X-Height: The font used for this calendar features very tall X-height that makes the ascenders feel squished, and somewhat forced and rushed. This makes all the characters feel very tall, and the font has some sense of masculinity to it.

Small x-Height: Rubbermaid features a smaller x height than most examples I found, making it stand out as unique. The ascenders of the letters take up a lot of the room of the font, making them seemingly tower over the rest of the word, which feels somewhat harmonious, as the first and last letters both become the tallest letters in the word, and feature characters with ‘mirror’ image shoulders (the R and the d).

Modernist: The STOP sign has a very simplistic, sans-serif appeal that seems to stand out quite well. It cements itself very sternly, and has become a universal symbol. Modernists would classify this as modern design due to the lack of serif and prominent use of negative space (the red background contributes a lot to the connotation of the font)

Connotation: The candle I bought has a sweet aroma to it, and an subtle elegance that is matched by the font designed for it. The curvy, wispy serifs in the font create many counters that develop the font into something that might begin to take on a personality, matching the aroma produced by the product it advertises!

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Complementary Colors: The clorox bottle is utilizing contrasting colors through complements. The primary cool hues of green/blue complement the bright RED!!! colors that outline the two important parts of the bottle: outlining the logo, and establishing the effectiveness of the germicidal wipes with stats.

Analogous Colors: The colors on this energy formula are likely there to muddle the attention of the eyes on details that all come together to contribute to the same message: this powder gives you energy. BLENDING of words widely understood like caffeine with ones less known like dynamine solidify the fact that all the ingredients in this formula are used to create energy and work synergistically. 

Cool Colors: Cool colors are especially effective to communicate a soothing or pleasurable stimulus, and especially in this case effectively. The green transparent bottle with cool hues used to complement the white lettering is even more obvious when the context of the bottle is directly saying that the gel is moisturizing. The red color that appears is the only delineation in this trend, used to denote the sanitary component of the hand sanitizer. I think this is the best design I found as it was so effective in matching the sensory context with its visual design!

Warm Colors: This is the third example of a sanitation product, and acts to foil the previous one mentioned. This one is very loud and uses bright, warm colors to effectively do so. The whole of the product seems to be much more focused on the fact that this wipe will obliterate any germs it comes into contact with by boldly advertising the number “99.9%.” I wouldn’t likely buy this product to use on my skin, but would for my counters, as it’s intended for!

Contrast to emphasize: I noticed the probiotic bottle I bought used colors very sparingly, only as backdrops and in minimal amounts of text. The colors that do appear also are limited and complement each other distinctly. The large text in orange denotes a number of cultures in the bottle, and then the number of capsules in said bottle, both with orange in mind. Then, the blue background contrasts the immediate numerical info with some background context about what the numbers mean. It’s a vibrational experience that makes the product seem very professional.

Gestalt; Proximity: The board I own is pretty beat up, but it always stood out to me as a unique design. The principle of continuity is very subtle here, but after some thought, I saw it plain as day. The singular letters spell out a sort of abbreviation of “Weekend,” and the reason we process it this way is not only the english language, but the fact that we don’t read “WNKD” due the the proximity of the W and the K with one another atop the square, and the N and D inside of it. Pretty clever.

Active Figure Ground: This design trope was hard to find, and the best I could find was the indie graphic tee I bought a while ago. The black space on the shirt acts as the empty space that becomes part of the design, and blends into the figure to accentuate the text. The chiaroscuro elements are important in the aspect of negative spacing, and coordinate focal attention.

Historical-Mimic: The longboard which mimics the style of the psychedelic/conceptualism era of the 60′s by using a blend of complementary color in the iconic “psychedelic tie-dye” pattern which appears on the classic BMW van.

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Image 1- License plate: Now that I think about it, it’s designed very carefully! The splash in the background pictures famous structures of michigan, using a very light values. The contrast here is the elevation (texture) of the plate numbers compared with the rest of the metal plate. I know color should be left out, but black is only used for important info relevant for the legal system!

Image 2- Very simple title graphic for Lyman Briggs College. The contrast is within itself, appearing elevated with the wall, it contrasts. The text ‘College’ also appears more spaced out according the the ‘Lyman Briggs.’ 

Image 3- This absolute mess of a map has almost no selective contrast, which makes it a lot harder to read than image 4. It almost appears alarming to the eye, it uses symbols listed on the left that appear throughout the map, marking the locations of important utilities such as emergency phone.

Image 4 - This map of Lyman Briggs is much more position oriented, it uses a combination of symbols and text to convey information about the floor. The contrast here lies in symbols vs words. Symbols are used for universal locations such as bathrooms, while text is used for classes. 

Image 5- Some lotions of the same brand. It’s interesting to see how a more generally advertised version of this lotion has more information in low contrast, vs the men’s has higher contrast. Both utilize contrast in sizing/alignment of text to really advertise what the lotions are purposed for, and the smaller text is specific details most won’t read due to their size. It’s like selective advertising in a way...

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Image 1- Playing Cards: Symmetric design in the central compass of this playing deck stays true only for a split moment, as the general shape is symmetric, but upon closer examination, it is revealed how the details are highly asymmetric in nature, creating a sense of juxtaposition.

Image 2- Grocery Bag: This Aldi shopping bag exposes a bright, vibrant green, with accent colors on the shapes which form a rectangular shape around the rectangular logo. This harmony works to make the bag stand out more than the logo, while guiding the eyes towards the center.

Image 3- MCAT Review Books: These books have more text than visuals, as the text supersedes-the imagery in the background, which merely acts as a splash to the foreground text.

Image 4- Munn Ice Arena Cup: I love this design! The way they incorporated “SPARTANS” wrapping around the cup with various figure, such as Mel Tucker and the spartan logo. All the colors stay in the same range to create a harmonic color scheme.

Image 5- iPhone Case: Lots of parallel lines and perpendicular cuts in the design of this phone case makes it stand out as something ‘NASA’ would likely use as a protective covering for one of their spacecraft. Imaginative association with the famous company makes it feel like you’re holding one of their machines.