Tone and Color

How Tone is Operating

In this infographic image, the overall tone is noticeably blue. There are generally muted tones at play here but the image does a nice job of creating tonal hierarchy with the bar graphs and circle graphs. Since the overall tone is a light blue, the designer makes sure he doesn't use lighter colors for text, instead he contrasts it with darker tones of blue to allow readers an easier experience.

How Tone is Interacting

Each object in this image is differentiated with the use of tone. Tone has a definitive relationship with shape in the illustration as each shape is only one tone and it tells the mind, "if this is a different tone it must mean something different." This is evident with the bar graph that displays The Causes of Major Oil Spills and the circle graph that displays The Volume of Oil Spills per Decade. As the numbers and percentages increase, the graph is given a darker tonal value.

 How Color is Operating

Colors in this image are simply blue, orange, white, and black. Color is being used as a indicator of information. There is a sense of hierarchy though. Most of the small text (descriptors) are written in a more vibrant blue than the background. Black is used as headers for the different sections, and white is used as a labeler for the numbers given on the top portion of the infographic. It appears to be an intentional placement by the designer.

How Color is Interacting

Color is also interacting with shape in this model because color is used to represent the vectored images in the data along with the map of the world in the top portion. Color is also being used to grab attention from the viewers with the one splash of orange that yells, "Look here! If there's one thing I want you to take away from this article its this!!" This is very intentional because the designer knows that he only has a few seconds to attract attention of the average user and uses it on the most valuable information in the illustration.

Basic Elements found in Infographics

COLOR

This is an infographic that discusses the idea of color in common corporate logos and their potential symbolism to society. Each color has a certain emotion to it, blue symbolizes strength and trust, while yellow suggests optimism and warmth. The design itself is very simple in color tones, but looking at each of the logos one can identify the different tints and shades that the individual companies incorporate. Intentional differentiating of products can be seen with the bright playful orange being used by Fanta and the bold classic red in Coca-Cola, this usually falls on the shoulders of the designers as they look to create an appeal for audiences. 

LINE

There is a clear expression of lines throughout this infographic of how to pair up certain foods with the right wine. The lines connect and establish key relationships between the top selection and the bottom selection, they lead the eyes to make the experience more intuitive and give viewers choices as to where they want to go with the information. The pathways give the idea of "if this, then that" and each line is color-coded which makes it easy to follow and identify specific connections.  

SCALE

This infographic cleanly represents the data for research that was found on carbon dioxide emissions around the world. The three elements that are easily noticeable in this depiction are color, shape, and scale. The color arranges the data into more recognizable sections while the shape of circles create a consistency among the data. Scale is probably one of the most important aspects of this model because it is what the data is being represented as. The larger the circle the greater the CO2 emissions, and that's something the viewer can easily tell without really having to read the information within the circles or in the legend. It makes the data intuitive and simple to comprehend. I know, without having to search the entire graph that China has the greatest carbon dioxide emission followed closely by the USA. This sort of visualization through scale makes a more effective and engaging design for readers of all interests.

Visual Thinking Puzzles

The challenge for this puzzle was to find how many hidden triangles were within the pentagon. This first puzzle was done by my dad and he counted 20. The method he came up with 20 was by starting small with the singular triangles and progressively counting up to the larger ones. This type of visual thinking can be identified as pattern-seeking, or finding, constructing up each triangular shape.

For my version I followed the same method of starting from the smallest and finding larger shapes from there. When I did my puzzle I found there were 28 shapes, which my dad went back and found more of them. It turned out there were 35 shapes total but our methodology was in line with the solution given. I also used visual thinking through pattern seeking and finding.  

This puzzle was very challenging as it asked to navigate the person to their respective houses without crossing the path of the others. This is the one that my dad did, we were both working in pen which probably wasn't the best idea because we couldn't erase but it just made finding the answer more challenging. My dad used inductive reasoning to find out that all boxes must be used and that none of the lines can be straight. The answer to the puzzle was found using visual reasoning and spacial analogy.

This is the version of the puzzle that I completed. I mentally had to go through each of the different pathways and I would ponder, using visual reasoning, whether or not the path that I was drawing would be blocking another path. I definitely did not figure it out on the first, second, or even third try but I used deductive reasoning to figure out which alignment would allow the right passage for each of the lines.

Top-Down Design (Simpsons Editions)

This here is a photo of the main characters on the hit show The Simpsons. In the context of Visual Design Literacy, it is also a great example of top-down design. There is a great amount of detail going on in this picture; Snowball the Cat has a tutu on, Patty & Selma are smoking,Bumble Bee Man looks worried, while Chief Wiggums is content with his donut. That being said, the eyes see a big blurb at first while the mind has to catch up and process all the information in the scene. This is called deductive analysis; the picture only makes sense when the individual parts are identified by their unique stories. How else would we know that Martin is getting an atomic wedgie? Top-down design wins again.