Graphic Design Visual Analysis
— by Ilgin Ucar
Preattentive Preception:
Pre-attentive processing is the subconscious accumulation of information from the environment. All available information is pre-attentively processed. Then, the brain filters and processes what is important. Information that has the highest salience (a stimulus that stands out the most) or relevance to what a person is thinking about is selected for further and more complete analysis by conscious (attentive) processing. This report will focus on the pre-attentive perception and try to understand it how it works with human factor and the design principles.
This experiment aims to collect data on how people pre-perceived the design. The experiment took place in Zoom application due to the circumstances of Covid19. A graphic design shown to 14 participants at the blink of an eye time and asked them to describe what they had seen. 2 minutes given to the participants to answer and asked them to send their answers at the same time to avoid to effect from the other’s answers. An online application called "Tachistoscope" is used to show the design which made the showcase at the blink of an eye time.
Two different shapes as circler shaped drawing which placed in the middle part of composition and the blue rectangular shape at the bottom were the the most noticed elements by the participants. %50 percent of the participants used the word “circle” to define it. While others prefer the words like; rounded thing,dot and eyes(who perceived the whole image as a face). While the circler forms had noticed by everyone, rectangular form was noticed only %50 percent of the participants. The rectangle shape was defined in the context of line and rectangular bar which shows that the thickness of the shape had perceived differently. The color of the rectangle shape was seen correctly by only 2 participants. The most seen colors were black and white. Even though %28 of the participants mentioned about the color, %42 of them perceived it from space while using the words like; full and empty. %28 of the participants drew attention to the texture of the drawing. They preferred the words like; hairy, soil, shiny and bacteria to describe it. Only one person could able to noticed the text. And one person could able to noticed the white rectangle which placed vertically to the left.
Overall, the participants mostly mentioned about the shapes than the colors. Middle part of the composition was the most seen fragment.Nearly none mentoned about the background or the space. As you can see it below, after the analyis we designed the distorted pre-perceived image with the data that we collected.
Emotions:
By interviewing with 6 people with the task of filling a semantic differential table(as you can see it bellow), an impulse towards what kind of emotions does the design expose on viewers can be found. Here we can see a clear leaning through elaboration while some people also prefer to describe it “simple”. We could assume that choice of colors in design has a big impact of this effect. As we can see it from the chart that 5 out of 6 of the participants prefer to describe the design as pale. While 3 participants perceived the design as vibrant, others choose the word “quiet” to describe it. We could clearly see that viewers have different opinions on the design if it is loud or calm and contrasted or harmonized. So we could say that people perceived the design in two different perceptive, general emotional environment of the design by its colors and the complexity of the drawn elements.
Construction:
Horizontal format suggests that horizontal stacking of the elements. Excapt the white collum which placed vertically to the left. It is placed like that to balance the composition. We can clearly see a black&white contrast used with the circler forms. Also contast of saturation could be noticed by the deep blue rectangular form to soft blue gradient at right bottom. The elements in this composition are likely horizontally centered.
Generative principles of axes and grids:
We could clearly see that the design sectioned with two axes. While the paper textured white rectangular form creating a vertical axis on the left part of the design, the symbolic line which used in the convention of mathematical quarter equation is creating a horizontal axis from the slightly upper part of the design.
Meaning in composition:
The first thing that we could noticed in the arrangement way of this composition is that the breathing white spaces. Especially with the usage of contrast of saturation in bright colours helps to create this floating feeling of the elements. Textured white rectangle suggests us this could be a sketch from a sketchbook and with this suggestion it gives us the feeling of undone and continuing design. The long line suggests us two circular forms which placed in the middle of the design are related with the text above. When we look how texts are arranged, we can see that they have theirs opposite meanings of each other's also by the placement way of the sentences. The placement of the two circler forms is suggest that they could be the solution of the verbal quartet equation above. The relationship between those forms could explained as positive and negative components of each other’s. This suggests that there is a conflict in the meaning of the design.
Semiosis:
Semiosis is any form of activity, conduct, or process that involves signs, including the production of meaning. A sign is anything that communicates meaning, not the sign itself, to the sign's interpreter. This section of the report will investigate this design's visual elements through semiosis analysis. Multiple semiosis versions can be seen in this design through the text's index and the elements' general organization. Because of the semiosis nature itself, it can be formed again through the changing meanings and contexts. Umberto Eco explained this approach as, "Semiosis is the process by which empirical subjects communicate , communication process being made possibly by the organization of signification systems. Empirical subjects, form a semiotic point of view, can only be defined and isolated as a manifestation of this double (systematic and processual) aspect of semiosis." (Eco,1976: 316).
Aesthetics:
Aesthetics covers both natural and artificial sources of aesthetic experience and judgment. It considers what happens in our minds when we engage with aesthetic objects or environments. This chapter of the report will investigate the design's aesthetics. We will not concentrate on the words "good" or "beautiful," which are entirely uncharacteristic. We will be describing the design's aesthetics through the design's visual preferences and the element's placements. We will analyze what the design is saying or not saying. There had been many different approaches on how to understand aesthetics. There is still no absolute answer to that, but we can be sure that the meaning of language and action is essentially social. Aesthetics play a very complicated yet definite role in what we call a period's culture. To describe and talk about their use, we have to describe the culture first. This report will use the moodboard below to demonstrate similar aesthetic findings related to the design visually.
Even though the aesthetic experience is an incredibly complex notion that admits very different, often conflicting conceptions, notions of aesthetic experience that embrace context, content, interest, and function have been common in today's pragmatist aesthetics. Following that, we will use a chart to understand which visuals work for the aesthetic understanding of the design and how they work. The design refers to different kinds of aesthetic approaches. The most noticeable one is the unfinished aesthetic. The design leaves the doors open for the audience to explore more. On the other hand, that sketchy aesthetic gives a profound insight into the creative process, which also works well with its philosophical context. A similar approach also could be found in artists such as; Miro's abstract sketches and CW Twombly's artworks. We could see the referring to "romantic symbolism," The design's titles can be interpreted visually through shapes and forms and words.
Socio-cultural Background:
The most relevant question that we could ask should be, "How can art provoke feelings for individuals related to the commonality of assent overvalue?" Philosophers had discussed the answer to that question for decades. We still can not formulate this clearly, yet the meaning of language and action is essentially social, deriving not from autonomous referents or facts in the extra-social world, but rather from the complex and context-dependent social practices and conventions that help constitute the lifeworld and that vary with social and historical conditions. Because background context is crucial to the meaning. This chapter of the report will investigate the socio-cultural aspects of the design.
The design was created in 2020 by a 24 years old Turkish artist Ilgin Ucar. When we look at the text's context of the design, we can see the attempt of philosophical questioning. We are all aware that in 2020, most people witnessed a broad range of responses to a profound new wave of social and personal uncertainty. On the one hand, and for the most part, people have expressed an urge to restore certainty. When we look at the design considering this social situation, the artist's approach makes more sense. Within this context, we can also see a reference to Spinoza. This particular text used in the design refers to "verum est index sui et falsum," the proverb of Spinoza, which means "that is, truth is a touchstone both of the truth itself and falsehood." The design demonstrates the artist's flow of thoughts and urges to understand the influenced philosophical texts. The design's aesthetics also shows us the artist's thinking process and the internalization of complicated thoughts through abstract visuals.
Human Interaction:
Graphic design is a significant part of our communication systems. It incorporates with our daily lives. We see graphic design on streets, social media, television, public transports, printed media, etc. Sometimes they catch our attention, sometimes not. And in this chapter, we will explore the human interaction with graphic design by analyzing the behaviors and the gestures of the audience.
Two different interactions can be seen below. One with the graphic design setting and the other one is how viewers paid attention and how their bodies formed through their reactions. The first movement of noticing is generally with the eye gaze, and then if the design catches the viewer's attention, eye gazes turn into a head movement towards the design. When the context reached out to the viewer, and she/he likes it, we see that they stop and give more time to process the message or enjoy it.
Below you can find a little story about how the possible viewer could have interacted with the design.
Practice:
Every human being has involved with drawing and sketching. Even though you are not an artist, you are familiar with those processes from your childhood. For children developing, it's a remarkable process of the information. In everyday life exposed to too much information visually and verbally, and when we grow up, we tend to pick and process most of it, yet it's impossible for a child because this is how they develop their minds. So they try to express what they are processing in their sketches or acted little plays. When there is too much input, there has to be another useful output to understand the world better around us. When we look at the little children's sketches, we can see that they insist on drawing one particular object or a figure. And when we investigate their process, we can see there is quite a development in every try. Sketching is not the rehearsal of the "done"; it's the journey itself. It's a way of developing your ideas to explore your flow of thoughts, and art is the best tool for that. It doesn't have to be useful or "perfect"; it's just the expression of something from you; it's the output of this endless information. You will see some sketches of a four years old girl below. It will demonstrate the precise approach of exploring her surroundings, mostly illustrating basic human figures and the solar system.
First, we notice from her earlier sketches that she works on understanding the different body parts and then she evolves these characters with more detail. After those sketches, we see that she add them into spaces, so the pages have less white space and interact with their surroundings. For artists, this process works the same. Sketches are not only the material for the "artwork." They are the artwork's steps, and the artwork is just where they stop because they are convinced that they could express that thought or emotion. But in this design, the artist decided to stop here because she was convinced she also finds beauty and value for it. And clearly, she wants us to think in that way as well. In this case, artwork can also be a manifestation without its context.
You can see the design´s sketches bellow.
