Automotive Design

One of the main design principles brought up by Dondis really stood out to me in this example, and that is lines.  Lines are such a powerful part of what we see here in this Ferrari 458 Italia xx.  The line and angle of the hood as it come up from the ground and into the window.  The basic shape of the car is very sweeping from front to back with almost a teardrop design.  The curves lead the styling to be very soft, but the harshness of the lines contrast the curves and give the car a very edgy feel.  The edgy feel and Ferrari deserves.  The lines that follow the intake on the sides of the car open up very wide then get smaller to give off a very powerful feel.  The rear fenders that extend outward are very flat but start lower and end higher, this gave the car a very controlled and powerful feeling as well because of the size of the rear tire and fender areas.

The next element that I would like to talk about is shape.  The circle is a very powerful shape in that it never ends and there are no weak corners to get in the way.  The Volkswagen beetle was designed by in command of Hitler during the WWI.  Hitler demanded that Dr. Ferdanand Porsche design him a strong practical car that his country and people could use.  This was the car that Porsche came up with.  The circle is used heavily in the design of the beetle and is still scene in the 2011 beetle.  The circle is a very strong design both structurally and aesthetically, you can see the roof curve down as if were just half of a circle.  With no edges or line to get in the way you create a very simple car.  The car doesn’t see to be superfluous at all and seems to blend in.  This design is meant to be simple, cheap and strong.

The factor of color places a huge roll in design and is especially strong in color.  This is a house that was designed by my father that uses color to make the appeal more powerful as well as using color to bring to gather the different clashing materials to produce an affect all in its own.  The brown rusting metal that is on the outside of the house gives off a very natural feel that tries to blend in with some of its back ground colors.  The brown is there not to clash with the environment but to simply contrast it.  But when we look at the very blue glass used as the roof over the front door or the glass used in the landscape we fell something sharp that hadn’t been felt with the other colors before.  The different color of blue gives of a very cool and cold feeling in contrast to the warm brown of the rest of the house.  The use of color in design is very powerful for it interprets many different parts of the brain and helps you understand more clearly what the architect was trying to show.

Visual Thinking Research

         I asked one of my roommates to participate in these puzzles with me.  He actually found them interesting and sometimes difficult.  Some of the techniques that we found helpful were to write down on each shape the number that we counted it as.  When we didn't do this we tended to lose our spot very easily, and tended to count shapes more than once or not at all.  We noticed that once our eyes found a certain pattern or arrangement of shapes it was hard to unfocus on that space and begin looking at the picture again like it was our first time.  This has a lot to do with our visual memory for our brains did not want to forget where those triangles or squares were when we originally saw them.

        When we couldn't find anymore shapes we tended to try and step back and slow down a little bit so that our brains could look at every possible scenario.

Visual Perception 2

This is a picture of my house designed by my father in the east bay; the house is located in Lafayette.  This picture I took myself from the top of the street looking down upon the house.  The mountain you see in the background is Mt. Diablo.  Driving up too the house the structure remains invisible until you crest the hill into the driveway.  The first thing you notice when you drive up is the huge view of Mt. Diablo and many areas surrounding the mountain.  The view is breathtaking and holds your attention for the first few moments then your eye and brain begins to explore the rest of the house.  After the mountain my eye goes straight to the front door, and the glass plate that is above protecting and changing the light that lands on the front door.  After the front glass has been looked over I find great interest in the extremely aggressive green plants in the blue grass on either sides of the front door.  These wild plants give an almost “avatar” feeling.  

            Many of the lines on the house are horizontal so my brain started to connect the lines and make patterns both horizontally and vertically.  The amount of glass that is used is a real eye catcher because of the color differences.  The contrast of the brown metal and blue glass is awesome, as well as the grey driveway.  The contrast helped me a lot to organize what I was seeing for the metal is usually grey but in this case the rust made it brown, an almost wood like color.  With these colors between wood and metal being so similar I was left to look at the differences between the textures of the two surfaces.  The patterns within the building leave my mind to think and eager to see the rest of the house in order to find more and more line patterns. 

Visual perception 1/ Top-down Visual Processing

This is the Porsche 911 GT3RS driving very skillfully and fast through the mountains.  I chose this picture as an example of bottom up and top down visual processing because they’re many great examples to point out.  As soon as I look at the picture my brain begins to find patterns and make ideas happen so that I can further understand what is happening in the picture.  Because I have so much experience with cars I already have background knowledge helping me out in interpreting what is happening here.  I see the Porsche with the unique fin and streamline design and assume that “speed” is what the car is built for.  I see the curvy road all around the car that leads me to believe he is on a long drive through the mountains as there is nothing else around but trees and cliffs.  To confirm all of these assumptions I look at the wheels and see that they’re smoking and spinning, these are all signs of a serious sports car on a windy mountain road doing what it does best.

            When I have started the top down processing my eyes go directly to where the road is going to see what the cars next move will be.  I am interpreting the road and all of the other obstacles around, including rough roads, guardrails and water on the surface of the road.  I also look at the road behind the car to get an idea of where this Porsche has been and to get an idea of how fast the car is moving now and how fast it could have been moving before the turn.

Citation: http://images.pistonheads.com/nimg/21533/PorscheGT3_oppo_wide.jpg

            

Design Success and Failure in Relation to Syntactical Guidelines

In this Porsche I feel that balance was the number one idea they had in mind when designing the way the car looks and feels aesthetically.  They didn’t put any visual stress to one side or the other.  The car feels perfectly symmetrical and doesn’t lead you to get stuck on any one point of the car.  The exhaust ports are located at the same exact distance from the outside edge of the car.  We can draw a vertical axis straight down the center of this and have exactly the same image but reversed.  This balance that is created visually, is also there for a purpose.  Visually balanced cars are usually physically well balanced as well.  With both sides of the car containing the same visual cues makes for the weight of the car to be perfectly symmetrical as well creating better overall handling and stability.

This is the Nissan cube that I found to be lacking the balance that the Porsche had.  The rear window has been moved to the left to eliminate the blind spot.  They took out the structural steel and just put glass there as a replacement.  On the right side of the car the steel has been left alone and there is now glass wrapping around that corner.  This was a great idea in safety for the blind spot is gone, but imbalance was also created when this happened.  Looking at the back of this car I instantly go to the rear window and ask myself what these designers were thinking aesthetically.  Stress is instantly put on both sides of the car and I keep looking back and fourth to try and figure what is going on with the rear section.  This lack of balance that I saw in the Nissan Cube reminded me of this quote from the text, “lack of balance and regularity is a disorientating factor”.  This car that is lacking regularity is difficult to process because different design points and colors on either side of the car put stress on different points making your eyes continue to look for information to find a center.  When that center is never found you are left confused and disoriented by this bad design.  

Visual vs Symbolic Language

Green.

Efficient.

Self-sustaining.

New.

Powerful.

Saving Money.

Stopping global warming.

New Energy.

New way of living.

Technology.

Beneficial to the environment.

This image shows the sun setting over a solar farm.  I get is a warm positive “saving the world” type of feeling when I sit back and look deeper into the photograph.  There are little images towards the bottom of this photograph that have several images of “green” money saving items like florescent light bulbs and wind farms.  In this time of our economy the environment is extremely important to people as well as saving money.  Solar farms and efficient light bulbs are included because that’s what people think will save their wallets, our economy and the environment. 

The sun is a constant source of energy for the earth and everything that is living.  This is why it is the most visually appealing part of the picture.  Your eye instantly goes to the sun because it is the brightest most relevant part.  The suns energy is used through these solar powered fields and also represents green technology.  The suns power can be made into all of these different other types of power that we use today and some of those different ways to use the suns power is shown at the bottom of the image.  The suns power is hard to replace as we have relied on it since the beginning of time, it has been providing its energy, heat and life.  This photograph is formed around the sun; this could go along with any natural energy source.  If we wanted to we could put a dam producing power up in the right and corner or a wind farm.  All of these different sources of energy could be used as the energy in this photograph.

Interactions between 3 levels

Representational

• This porsche is a automobile that has been redesigned and refined for almost 70 years.  This doesn't just represent a car but years of hard work and testing.  This Porsche is not just a car but far more to the person sitting in the drivers seat.  This car represents passion for design and brand passion.  The representation is the more direct "what is it" and its a 2012 Porsche 991.

Abstract

• The sweeping lines that are seen on the cars surface are there to make the car slide through the air. These lines have been tested over and over to achieve the most slippery shape.  The lines also make the car pleasing to the eye, making the car appear like its moving fast even if its just standing still.  The abstraction is more of what you're mind has to figure out as you look at the car, the aesthetics or look of the car plays a huge roll.

Symbolic

• This car symbolizes so much more to me than just a car.  It symbolizes just a small amount of what Porsche has to offer.  Porsche has put its best forward in the new Porsche 991 that was released yesterday at the Frankfurt Auto show.  This car is what they will be judged on and what people will relate to the brand so they have made this car to the exact specifications that all of the designers dreamed up.  This car symbolizes the porsche brand as a whole and all of the hardworking designers, testers and builders who produced this piece of artwork.