Design Principle - Final Project - Visual Analysis

30/5/2022 - 10/6/2022 - Week 9 - Week 11
Design Principle / Bachelor of Design in Creative Media

Lee Yan Xu 0347696

Final Project - Visual Analysis

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LECTURE

Visual Analysis

Visual analysis is a method of understanding design that focuses on the visual elements and principles. It is also known as a description and explanation of visual structure for its own sake. Moreover, Visual analysis is a critical part of visual literacy, a skill that helps people read and critically interpret images, whether in a museum, on social media, in entertainment, advertising, or in the news. 

Visual Analysis includes 3 phases

1. Observation

Observation means closely looking at and identifying the visual elements of a design, trying to describe them carefully and accurately in your own words. Furthermore, The observation phase is about looking, thinking, and finding good language to communicate what you notice. 

2. Analysis

Analysis requires you to think about your observations and try to make statements about the work based on the evidence of your observations. Besides, you can think about how the specific visual elements that you’ve identified combine together to create a whole, and what effect that whole has on the viewer.

3. Interpretation

your observations, description, and analysis of the work are fused with facts about the design work and historical context that you find in trustworthy published sources.

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Instruction

Additional Instruction

Phase 1

1. Select a design of your choice (poster/billboard/illustration/etc). 

2. Conduct a visual analysis of the design in about 500 words (refer to the steps shown above as guidelines).

Phase 2

1. Produce a work of design, in A4 or A3 size, inspired/influenced by the design you have analyzed, or as a reaction to it. 

2. Write a 150-200 word rationale for your design. 

Visual Analysis

Fig 1, Design by Quality Foundation on Twitter

First phase - Observation

The artwork is in landscape format. There is a sink on the right and the pipe leads into the wall. Moreover, there is a silhouette of a skinny boy and the pipe leads into his body. The silhouette of the boy is made by the break of the wall. There are some words on the top left which is “ THINK ABOUT WHAT YOU COULD SAVE WHEN YOU SAVE WATER”.

Second phase- Analysis

Firstly, as you can see there is a very obvious contrast between the environment of the two sides in the artwork the room looks very clean and pretty but the wall does not even painted and is cracked. Besides, you can also see the gestalt theory inside which the boy is made by the break wall. Thirdly, the pipe which connects the sink can be represented as a movement because it has come from the sink into the wall and finally into the ground. Other than that, the artwork is also a word and image. 

Third phase- Interpretation 

I think the artwork is inequality in resources. Imagine those people in distress who have no food or even water to use, we should feel very happy and grateful to have these resources. We should save these resources because they are limited. I think the artist used this color as a metaphor for the boy being an African and as you can see the water from the tap is flowing into his body to show he is thirsty.

Idea Exploration

Visual Research

The first idea in my mind is literary this game named "where is My Water". The purpose of this game is to make every drop of water flow into the hose so that the crocodile can take a bath to be considered a pass. In other words, the player has to save every drop of water so that the crocodile has enough water to take a bath.

Fig 2, Where is My Water

Fig 3, Gameplay of Where is My Water

Here is the link for how does this game work

https://youtu.be/spWab8MQixU

Here are some of my other research

Fig 4, Visual Research

Fig 5, Visual Research

Fig 6, Drawn by Olga Viogiatzi on Pinterest

Sketch

Fig 7, First sketch

Fig 8, Second Sketch

Fig 9, Third sketch

Fig 10, Final outcome

Fig 11, Final outcome in PDF

Rationale

At first, I want to do about the theme of gender but then I realized it didn't suit me, so I changed the theme from gender to resources. The water resource was the first resource I thought of, so I decided to use it as my theme. The reason that I choose this is that I can relate to some places where water is scarce. For example, the water got cut off in my house often, although it is not possible to compare to those places where water resources are very scarce, I still experienced a small period of time without water. To be honest, it was very torture, cannot take a shower, cannot cook, cannot drink water, etc. As you can see from all my blogs from research until the final outcome, all I want to say is to those people who can have water resource to use have to be very grateful and also do not waste it. Try to think about some countries, underdeveloped towns, or villages, they might lack of this precious resource. So, let us save the water together!!!

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Feedback

Week 12

Some feedback about the 3 phases, can be improved a bit.

Week 13

N/A

Week 14

Can improve in the final outcome. When writing rationale, must be clear on what is the main purpose or the reader can be confused easily.

Reflection

The final is quite challenging for me because I had no idea about what should I write and what should I do. After asking my friends and getting some tips and advice about it, I can start to understand some. After I did it, I found that I could slowly start to understand more and it started to appeal to me more and more because it wasn't just entirely about design but also reflected some of the problems and injustices in society. Overall I really enjoyed this assignment.