Album Artwork

The Basic Elements:

     Taylor Swift's third album, Speak Now, cover; movement:  This image incorporates movement not only through the direction Swift's dress is flowing or how her hair seems to be blowing in the wind, but also through the photoshopped paint splatters. Her dress seems to be moving from right to left, as one can tell by the angles of the spinning dress and through the shading. The purple paint splatters on the right side of the image denote that that they are moving away from Swift; as though the bottom of her dress was soaked with paint that splattered as she spun. It is clear that movement was incorporated in the design of this image as well as the result. The role it plays is Swift's idea of the spontaneity of 'speaking now' and no regrets in doing so.

      Taylor Swift's Speak Now CD design, line:  This image incorporates lines in its design and result. The six arms/hands put together the way they are in this image create a sort of asterisk shape. Each hand is directly linked to another hand, creating four different lines that all intersect in the middle (shown by the purple lines added to the photo for clarity). It's job is to create a unique, yet sophisticated CD cover that shows not only the unity of Taylor Swift and her band, but also the incorporation of bold lines that represent strength.

       Pink Floyd's Dark Side Of The Moon album artwork; shape:  This image of Pink Floyd's Dark Side Of The Moon album artwork illustrates how the design and result of this album cover used the element of shape to create a successful, recognizable image. The primary feature within the image is a triangular prism. The role of this triangular prism relates to the album title, Dark Side Of The Moon, by having light and vibrant colors on one side of the prism and a dull line connected to the dark side of the prism. It is clear that this ideation is concurrent in both the design and result of the album cover. This image also incorporates line and movement, as the singular ray of light (line) turns into a rainbow going in the direction of left to right (movement). 

Visual Thinking Research

Puzzle #1: The Cat

My roommate's attempt:

My roommate, Rebecca, chose to start with the most simple, noticeable triangles first, starting with the body, then the tail, and finally ending with the complexity of the head. This strategy is categorization because she chooses similarly shaped triangles and categorizes them based on complexity. Rebecca succeeded in counting all 18 triangles.

My attempt:

I chose a similar approach of categorization. However, I did not categorize based on level of complexity - I categorized by each body part of the cat in a directional matter. I started with bigger triangles in the head-shaped area, then moved to the smaller triangles. Then I traveled to the body of the cat, and again, I began with the big triangle and ended in smaller triangles. As I moved on to the tale, I followed the direction that the triangles were pointing until I reached the tip of the tale. I missed two triangles - I counted the two small triangles (per each eye) but did not count the larger triangles that they make.

Puzzle #2: The Squares

Rebecca's attempt:

Rebecca's strategy for solving this puzzle incorporated categorization. She started with the biggest square, then moved on to the center squares. As she was outlining the center squares, she saw that two of each side of the four small center squares made up half of a larger square. She successfully counted 11 squares.

My attempt:

My strategy for solving this puzzle also incorporated categorization. I started with the four squares along the outer edges (connected to the four center squares) and then moved on to count the smallest sized squares. I then counted the largest square and finally the large square that the four center squares make up. I successfully counted 11 squares. 

Top-Down Visual Processing

This image is the album artwork of Pink Floyd's record, Dark Side Of The Moon. As simple as this image may be - after all, it is a line going through a triangle and coming out a rainbow - it shows the design strategy of top-down visual processing. It does this through the scientific functionality that this photograph depicts. The eye can see a silver line start off as a simple line, go through a prism, and with enough light, be able to produce the colors of the rainbow. This goes along with top-down visual processing because top-down is a "goal-biased attentional looking." In this image, one's eye movement is goal-based: eye movement begins on the left side, then travels through the prism, to find the colors of the rainbow, so one can see the functionality and purpose.