ITAP Lecture 3 Visual Hierarchy

Visual Hierarchy



What do we see or read first when we look at something, it can be anything from a newspaper to a poster to a billboard in the street. What does your eye catch first?

Above is an image I created in one of my previous projects. The reason I used this image is because to me it is a  good example of visual hierarchy. Now first of all you need to think about  what attracted you first to the image was it the colour, could it of been the image itself, the layout, layout of the text, maybe the font of the text or even the different thicknesses of the lines. there is so much that could of been the one thing that attracted you to the image 

To me the first thing that struck me was the image itself. To other people it could have been anything. Whatever it was could you change the image, could it be a clearer hierarchy and how could it be a better hierarchy?

Would you change the composition, weight, scale of the image, there are so many ways too have a good solid visual hierarchy. Also how did you read the layout, was it from the image to the text or text to image. There are so many ways to observe it, for example did the layout work if not why did it not. Did you agree with the ordering of the image or didn't you. Maybe you could go into what devices were used to produce it and yet again do you approve of the devices. 

This is an image that i found on the internet that i think yet again is suitable for visual hierarchy. The rainbow in the back of the image was the first thing attracted me due to fact of the strong, bright and vibrant colours which sets its off from the rest of the image. Also the contrast between the colours and how the colours are used in the image. For example they used colour to do the rainbow but decided to do the city landscape in black and white. Which i think is a very clear hierarchy, personally I would not change that or even the composition and layout of the image. 

ITAP Lecture 2 Understanding and Knowledge of an Audience

Understanding and knowledge of an audience





I think its vital to understand your audience no matter what you do. Their needs to be a specific audience that can include the age category, young or old and also which gender you're aiming for, male or female. There is a lot to take into consideration but once you get over that barrier it can enhance and focus the communication so much clearer also becomes so much easier.



Its very easy to create a piece of work and a solid RVJ along with it but if there is no specific audience for that work particular piece then you could say that there is no meaning behind the work. The way I see it when you design something in your head there should be a clear group of people that you are aiming the work at.

Above is an image done by an illustrative designer Jon Burgerman

Personally this kind of work appeals to me it is an in your face image, uses strong bright colours which lifts whole image. Now I am only eighteen but I think this could attract audiences form as young as ten to as old as audiences in to their late twenties. Which is very good thing because like I said this kind of work attracts young people. Clearly when Burgerman was designing the image he knew what his audience was and based around that he created everything within the image to attract his specific audience and he has done that very successfully.

ITAP Lecture 2 The Notions of Inspiration

Inspiration can come from anyone or anything. Wether your on the train or bus. It can be from day to day objects or it can be from artists and designers. That then leads to go off trying new things, new methods which you have never tried before.

For example below is a piece of work done by an artist called  Ed Fella

Untitled 2007

Now after observing this image it made me think how the artist created it. What methods and techniques did he use. So below I have used Ed Fella's techniques and designed some of my own images.

Pound Coin  Zaf Hussain

Swirl  Zaf Hussain

I think inspiration plays an enormous part of any illustrators and even designers work because every piece of work that any artist has done or even your own work it has in some way been influenced by someone or something. As I above have shown exactly that.

ITAP LECTURE 1: Relationships developed from existing forms of historical culture

When i first observed this image, the first and obvious thing that struck me was it obviously had something to do with beer and that the waves in the image had been constructed using bottle openers. the title of the image was Ashanti Beer, still at this stage i had no idea what it had to do with anything apart from it being a advertisement for beer. But once i saw the original image things made more sense.

Now the original image is called The great wave of Kanga created by Hokusai who was a printer designer, illustrator and painter. Personally myself i have not heard of this artist before or ever came across any of his work. i think that is the main critical point I am trying to make.
The majority of people around the world such as different cultural societies have never or never will come across this image of The great wave of Kanga, the Ashanti beer advertisement or the Japanese artist Hokusai. Relating back to the beer advertisement even though the shape of the waves on both images are the same, even the form .


It has a different purpose all together which is like i said before it is selling beer through this image that is clearly advertising the product. But the way i see it is the whole thing is on a cultural basis, the Japanese community out of any other community maybe would understand more whats going on, how or where did the influence came from and how far back did the ideas come from. The reason I'm saying how far back it is because Hokusai was a 1780's artist. his not one of your modern artist that are still around which their techniques are more contemporary i guess what I'm trying to emphasise is that influence, structure and shape can come from any piece of art dating from any era.

Notions Of Originality

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This painting originally was created by a artist called Diego Velazquez, the painting itself is called Las Meninas which stands for The Maids Of Honour. The image shows a large room in the Madrid palace of King Phillip IV and in that room presents several figures from the spanish court. 


However the image that you are observing in front of you has totally been changed, recreated by another well known artist Pablo Picasso, who as you can see has taken his own twist if you like on Velazquez's original painting, Well you could argue the point that has Picasso copied the original concept, idea of the painting. well yes you could but the way i see it is that Picasso has taken the painting and transformed into its simplest form. Something on a whole new level. If you observed this image and did not know anything about it and you only was told it was created by Picasso you would straight away assume its his work he came up with the idea. 


As you start getting the information about image in more depth you start to realise Picasso was inspired, even influenced by Velazquez work and reconstructed his original painting Las Meninas to his own taste or in this case his style of work, by breaking it down into simple but yet very effective shapes which he does very well. i think its fine to be influenced to be inspired by other artists and their work so long as your using it for ideas for your work and using your own styles to create a image with a whole new and different meaning.