Design Principles - Final Project: Visual Analysis

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02.11.2022 - 02.12.2022 / Week 10 - Week 14
Lim Rui Ying / 0358986
Design Principles / Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media
Final Project: Visual Analysis and Final Blog

LIST
Instructions

LECTURES

Lecture 8: Visual Analysis
VISUAL LITERACY

Fig. 1.0 Visual literacy, basic definition by Visual Literacy Today

VISUAL ANALYSIS
Visual analysis is a critical part of visual literacy, a method of understanding design that focuses on visual elements and principles. It helps to recognise and understand how a design communicates ideas, content, or meaning. It helps sharpen our critical judgment skills in the information age in which we perceive so much visual media daily.

Visual analysis is divided into 3 phases:
Phase 1: Observation
Observation is to closely look at and identify the visual elements of the design, and accurately describe them in your own words.
Eg. describe lines, shapes, space, colours, etc that are used in the design work
Phase 2: Analysis
Think about your observation and make statements about the work based on it. Analyse how the visual elements are combined to form the design principles and create a whole.
Eg. describe how the design principles are applied in the design work
Phase 3: Interpretation
Interpret the meaning behind the design and the purpose of creating this particular design (may include the historical context you find in it with trustworthy citations).

Components to be evaluated in the final project: research, writing, design exploration, quality of work, active participation during tutorials, blog completion


Class Summary

WEEK 10
Dr Yip reminded us to complete the TES evaluation and the submission deadline for Project 2. Dr Yip then briefed us on the Final Project: Visual Analysis and the Final Blog: Final Compilation & Reflection. We should watch the pre-recorded lecture video before starting the Final Project. The lecture video and additional information are accessible on Microsoft Teams and myTimes .

Timeline for Final Project: Visual Analysis is listed below:
W10  Final Project briefing
W11  Final Project blog to be ready and show Phase 1 & 2 of Visual Analysis
W12  Show Phase 3 of Visual Analysis and discuss initial ideas and sketches
W13  Show progress work and developed ideas
W14  Show the finalised idea and submit the project on 2nd December
          Submit the blog of the Final Compilation of Design Principles module 

Dr Yip showed us an example of the Final Compilation blog post. The final blog should be named Final Compilation & Reflection. The content should be included in are listed below:
- List down all posts of the Design Principles blog and insert a jump link for each post
- Include all final outcomes of exercises and projects
- Write a final reflection according to the reflection questions given for this module 

WEEK 11
Dr Yip looked through phases 1 & 2 of our visual analysis and gave us suggestions to improve it. 

WEEK 12
This week, we showed our progress work to Dr Yip including phase 3 of visual analysis and idea sketches. Dr Yip mentioned that we should insert the citation for the sources of information we included in Phase 3: Interpretation part. She introduced the APA style of citation that we should practise using it.

WEEK 13
Dr Yip reminded us to complete this project and the final compilation by week 14. We should write a final reflection for this module and word count is not required. She also checked whether we have started our final compilation blog post to ensure we are in progress to meet the final submission.

WEEK 14
For the final submission, we are required to hand in two blog links (final project and final compilation) and a JPEG file of the final design of visual analysis. 

INSTRUCTIONS



Final Project: Visual Analysis

RECAP OF FINAL PROJECT BRIEF
Visual Analysis is the final design work for this module that would reflect the knowledge we have learned in this module and apply our critical thinking skills. This project is different from the previous projects in which we are to design for a purpose in this project, not design for expressing ourselves.

Theme: Reduced Inequalities
We should read and discover more about inequalities first. We have to decide on a particular type of inequality we are aware of/interested in and proceed to research a design work that revolves around the theme. 

To complete:
PART 1: VISUAL ANALYSIS
- Select a design work (poster, illustration, billboard, etc)
- Write 50 words about the reason for selecting the design work
- Conduct a visual analysis of the design work in about 500 words (refer to the lecture notes above)

PART 2: DESIGN
- Conduct visual research and idea exploration 
- Create our own design that is inspired/influenced by the design work selected
- Size: A4/A3, any medium
- Write 200 words rationale for the final design


DESIGN PROCESS
Research on Reduced Inequalities
Reduced inequalities is Goal number 10 of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDG). The main goal is to reduce inequality within and among countries. Inequalities exist in our society, regarding gender, race, religious beliefs, economic status, etc. Global inequality is closely related to wealth inequality and it often leads to financial and social discrimination.

To reduce inequalities and achieve sustainable development in the world, everyone can help to reach the targets with their actions.

Fig. 1.1 10 targets of Goal 10: Reduced Inequalities, from The Global Goals site


PART 1: VISUAL ANALYSIS
Design work: Parasite (2019)
Artist: Andrew Bannister
Source: MUBI - Movie Poster of the Week: The Posters of “Parasite”, Andre Bannister Portfolio - Parasite
            
Fig. 1.2 Parasite movie poster by Andrew Bannister (2019), from MUBI

Why this design work is chosen?
I decided to head into the wealth inequality out of all the inequalities. I think of the movie Parasite when it comes to wealth inequality. This movie is about the Kims, a poor family who cunningly places themselves in the service of the Parks, a wealthy household. They entered the semi-basement of the Parks' house secretly and deceptively to rely on the Parks for income, food and shelter. This movie significantly reveals wealth inequality in society. I found this movie poster when browsing the posters for this movie. I was attracted to the highly contrasting colours in this design work. I like the sarcastic feel revealed by this poster and the impressive composition created by the designer.

*Discover the original poster and more designs or fan art inspired by the movie on the MUBI site.

Phase 1: Observation
This design work is in portrait format. The colours in this design work are mainly red and cyan and are distributed equally. Points and lines are used to illustrate the pendant lights. Shapes are the main elements in this design work. Shapes are predominantly used to illustrate the characters and the background. The characters are opposite to each other in direction and position. While the paintings in the cyan background are placed diagonally to the water pipes, wires and the air conditioner compressor in the red background. The designer works on the texture of the different walls, the top with beautiful wallpaper texture and the below with mottled wall texture. Space is used in the bright areas in this design work. 

Phase 2: Analysis
This design work is strongly contrasted with the high saturation of red and cyan colours. Light and shadows are applied have also created contrast in this design work. Harmony in colours shows on each side, with red on the side of the poor family and cyan on the side of the wealthy family. The asymmetrical balance can be found in the design work in which the design work seems to be separated in half but differs in the characters and background. The characters and other elements create a good balance in this work as they are equally weighed in the design work. Emphasis is shown in the bright pendant light. The title of the movie is duplicated in an inverted direction showing repetition. Repetition is also presented in the postures of the characters. Movement can be seen in the characters going up the stairs. The staircase shapes are created by utilising light and shadow, and the letters in the title are distributed isolatedly in a diagonal stack indicating the stairs. The depiction of the staircase applies the principle of figure/ground in Gestalt theory. 

Phase 3: Interpretation
This is the alternative UK poster for the movie Parasite (Curry, 2020, p. 5). The main characters are separated by the staircase and positioned in an inverted direction. The wealthy family in the movie, the Park family (on the top side) are going up the stairs. The stairs ascend to their luxurious multi-storeyed house. In contrarily, the poor family, the Kim family (at the bottom side) seem to be going up the stairs in their direction but actually indicate they are moving down to their basement apartment and the secret underground bunker of the Park’s household. The basement apartment and secret underground bunker symbolise the status of the lower class in society. In fact, they could not change the truth of being poor and the lower class. The contrast between the clothing of both families also indicated the enormous disparity between wealth and poverty. 

Other elements in the design work depicted class and wealth inequality. The Park’s (wealthy family) side has a background of wallpaper texture-like wall, adorned with their family photo and the younger son’s artwork. While on Kim’s side, there are water pipes, wires and an air conditioner compressor, the essential hardware in a household that usually are concealed underground for a pleasing exterior appearance. 

The basement apartment where the Kim family lived reflects the truth of people living in Seoul’s basement apartments. The existence of basement apartments and the secret underground bunker in Park’s household is actually a product of history, the conflict between North and South Korea. In 1968, North Korean commandos slipped into South Korea to assassinate the President of South Korea, Park Chung-Hee in his residence, the Blue House. The Blue House Raid was unsuccessful but the tension between North and South Korea intensified. Fearing an escalation of North Korean attacks, the South Korean government updated its building codes in 1970, requiring all new low-rise apartment buildings to have basements to serve as bunkers in the case of a national emergency. Initially, renting out such basement apartments was illegal. However, due to the housing crisis in the 1980s, the government legalise these underground spaces to live in. This is how the basement apartment formed and exists. The basement apartments have a symbol of poverty. The basement apartment dwellers struggle to overcome this social stigma on them. (Yoon, 2020, p. 15-20, 24-30)

In short, the poster design significantly implies the uncrossable gaps in social class and between wealth and poverty.
(700 words)

References
Curry, A. (2020, January 24). Movie poster of the Week: The posters of "Parasite". MUBI. Retrieved November 11, 2022, from https://mubi.com/notebook/posts/movie-poster-of-the-week-the-posters-of-parasite 

Yoon, J. (2020, February 10). Parasite: The real people living in Seoul's basement apartments. BBC News. Retrieved November 11, 2022, from https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-51321661 


PART 2: DESIGN

1. Visual Research 
I remember the fact of the world's largest slum is located just beside the most prosperous area of Mumbai city in India, which I learned in the Geography lessons in my secondary school. Thus, I did some research on unequal scenes around the world in São Paulo (Brazil), Mexico City (Mexico) and Mumbai (India) that reflect the wealth inequality in the world. I would like to picture the extremely unequal scene in my design.

Fig. 2.1 Brazil: Paraisopolis, São Paulo, from Unequal Scenes

Fig. 2.2 Mexico City, from People's Daily Online

Fig. 2.3 Mexico City, from Sohu

Mumbai is the sixth most populous metropolitan area in the world. However, the old and new areas exist side by side and the city has the largest slum in the world.

Fig. 2.4 Mumbai, India, photography by NAC India, from NAC

References


Fig. 2.5 shows two sides of the world. I was inspired by this illustration to create a world split into two (Fig. 3.1 Sketch #1).

Fig. 2.5 The Other Side, Illustration by Dean Stuart

As I would like to apply figure/ground Gestalt theory, I do some visual research on that and I found some interesting illustrations.

Fig. 2.6 Two of the posters for the Coca-Cola campaign 'Friends, Piles, Kiss, Tools" (2014),
posters by Ogilvy ad agency
(images from Ads of the World)

Davide Bonazzi is an Italian illustrator. He is very adept at creating editorial illustrations and has great accomplishments in the illustration field. He has worked for clients worldwide including major publishers, advertisers, institutions and animation studios. I am amazed at his idea and creativity in creating these illustrations.

Fig. 2.7 Illustrations by Davide Bonazzi; left: Unity is Strength - Il Sole 24 Ore,
middle: Winter Painting - Season's greetings card, right: Save the Arctic - Greenpeace
(images from Davide Bonazzi portfolio)

Fig. 2.8 Illustrations by Tang Yau Hoong; left: Yin and Yang 陰陽, middle: Panda Park, right: Flying Fox
(images from Tang Yau Hoong's Instagram)


2. Idea Exploration
WEEK 11 / sketch
Fig. 3.1 Sketch #1, Week 11 (15/11/2022)

The sketch is split into two, a wealthy side and a poverty-stricken side, indicating the extreme unequal in wealth. I plan to use high-contrast colours that are inspired by the design work above (Fig. 1.2 Parasite movie poster) to reflect wealth inequality. 

WEEK 12 / developed idea
Fig. 3.2 Sketch #2, Week 12 (20/11/2022)

I intend to use leather shoes to indicate rich people while barefoot to indicate poor people, to imply wealth inequality. The rich man is wearing trousers while the poor man with skinny legs is wearing short pants. It was the first time I try to apply figure/ground Gestalt theory in my design, so I am not sure if it really works. I think there is still progress to be made.

Fig. 3.3 Attempts #1 and #2 (slight difference in direction), Week 12 (20/11/2022)

In attempt #1, the legs are in an upright direction, the same as in my sketch, while I rotated the legs a little in attempt #2. I tried another colour combination in attempt #3, using dark brown skin colour for the poor man and a suit texture for the trousers of the rich man.

Fig. 3.4 Suit texture

Fig. 3.5 Attempt #3 (colour attempt), Week 12 (20/11/2022)


WEEK 13 / progress work
Fig. 3.6 Attempt #4, Week 13 (28/11/2022)

Fig. 3.7 Attempt #5, Week 13 (28/11/2022)

On Dr Yip's suggestion, I featured a scenario of the rich man and poor man sitting on a train, just showing their legs. I added some shadows to the legs and tried two colour combinations in this design. It is a simple design, so I need to include more details in the scenario.

WEEK 14 / finalised design
I was good to go with attempt #5 for the final design but I refined the design for a better outcome. I added light and shadow details to the shoes of the rich man and the legs of the poor man respectively. I also made stronger colour contrast by increasing the colour saturation of the seats on the train.

Fig. 3.8 Shadows on the legs of the poor man, Week 14 (30/11/2022)

Fig. 3.9 Highlights on the leather shoes, Week 14 (30/11/2022)

Fig. 3.10 Finalised attempt #5, Week 14 (30/11/2022)


Final design of Final Project: Visual Analysis

Fig. 3.11 Final Visual Analysis - JPEG, Week 14 (30/11/2022)

Software: Adobe Illustrator

The design shows wealth inequality through the use of people's body parts in the form of the legs of a rich man and a poor man. These are the two legs that represent inequality in wealth. I create a strong contrast between them, where the rich man is wearing a pair of trousers and leather shoes while the poor man with skinny legs is barefoot and wearing shorts. On a train, they are seated next to each other and seem equal, yet they are unequal in social status, financial status, educational opportunities, and so on. 

Design Elements and Principles applied
Texture  suit texture on the trousers
Shapes  clothing and the legs of the rich man and poor man
Balance  the elements are well-balanced asymmetrically and white space is applied to the design
Contrast  contrast in colours of the seats of the train and the clothes of the poor man

TO THE TOP ↑

FEEDBACK

WEEK 11
Phase 1: Observation
Tell about the characters in phase 1. I may derive the description of the opposite position of the characters and other elements in phase 2 to the observation phase. 
Phase 2: Analysis
Describe further how the characters and other elements create a great balance and state the specific type of Gestalt theory. The principle of hierarchy should be reconsidered whether it is applied in the design work. I may describe repetition and movement shown in the characters. 

Dr Yip commented that I have a good understanding of this module in how I conducted phases 1 and 2 of visual analysis.

WEEK 12
Phase 3: Interpretation
Remember to insert citations for the source of information. My interpretation has no issue in which I have explained the meaning behind the design work and how it is connected to inequality.
Fig. 3.1 Sketch #1
Dr Yip challenged me to create another design and apply the figure/ground of Gestalt theory in the design to picture the extreme unequal in wealth. Dr Yip reminded me that figure/ground Gestalt theory is that we could see two things at the same time, and the shapes used should not be too complicated for easy recognition. The main thing to apply in my design is Contrast.

WEEK 13
Dr Yip suggested we try several colour combinations in our design for more exploration. Dr Yip commented that the idea of sketch #2 (Fig. 3.2) is a good change from sketch #1 (Fig. 3.1) but I have to feature a scenario to better visualise wealth inequality. I may feature scenarios like the two men sitting on a train or a scene of their legs under a table in a coffee shop and illustrate them in an upright direction.

WEEK 14
Dr Yip commented my developed design was good to go, and she could see the context in the design. I can use attempt #5 (Fig. 3.7) as the final design as it shows more contrast in colour compared to attempt #4 (Fig. 3.6) and I do not need to add anything else as the design depicted wealth inequality.

REFLECTION

WEEK 10
It was difficult at the beginning of this project. I spent a lot of time and effort researching the theme of Reduced Inequalities to best decide on the design work that reflects the theme as the design work chosen for visual analysis affects the following phase of this project. 

WEEK 11
I did a lot of research on the analysis of the movie, the characters and the hidden meaning and clues in the movie to interpret the design work most. I was shocked when I saw the unequal scenes (Fig. 2.1 - 2.4) I use for my visual references. I could not imagine the slums and the poor areas just beside the prosperous area of the cities. Those images significantly depicted wealth and poverty sitting side by side. The theme (Reduced Inequalities) of this project allowed me to discover these photographs and this particular social issue.

WEEK 12 
I did a lot of visual research on Gestalt theory artwork but I still find it difficult to create my own. I need to improve my observational skills and association thinking skills to create better Gestalt theory designs. It is the first time I try to apply figure/ground Gestalt theory in my design so I am not sure if it really works because I feel a bit hollow for the design. I tried out Dr Yip's suggestion to feature a scenario, and I think the design turns out better.

WEEK 13
I tried out Dr Yip's suggestion to feature a scenario, and I think the design turns out better. However, I feel the design is quite simple so I would have to add more details to create a more interesting design.

WEEK 14
Designing is not creating something complicated but conveying messages. Simple design can also convey a message. I should try to create more simple and minimalistic designs in the future.

Final Reflection
This project requires us to analyse a design work and create our own design based on a theme, which is different from previous exercises and projects. We have to do quite a lot of research on this project. I felt challenged at the beginning of this project but my progress work went smoothly with Dr Yip's guidance. Although this is not an easy project, we have the opportunity to discover inequalities in the world, which is a global issue that we should pay attention to. As I started looking at wealth inequality, I was reminded of the slums in Mumbai, India. I feel shocked about the poor area next to the prosperous one. We should take responsibility to reduce inequalities in society such as help out low-income kids get education opportunities. This project has raised my awareness of the importance of reducing inequalities and that I should strive to reduce them to the best of my abilities.

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