Design Evaluation

I love seeing an impressive newspaper layout design. If I pick up a newspaper, and the layout is awful, I usually won't read the content. I chose this layout design from The Ithacan because it automatically caught my attention, and it's impactful. Not only is the story itself impacting, but the way the title works itself into the photo with "It happened" in the background, automatically drawing my eyes toward the woman. What I love the most about the title is the lower portion where it says "and it will again" is shaped and cut out from the grass, making the headline a part of the photo. With print design, it's so important to make your artwork as impactful as the story is. And that's exactly what this design does. 

With this design, a Gestalt principle that stands out to me is figure/ground relationships. The distinct figure in this design is the woman on the ground, and the background and scene of the photo makes her stand out. I also see the law of continuity. Your eyes follow the path of least resistance. If you look closely, the path is easy to follow because the words are staggering from shorter to longer, and back and forth.

Other great examples of print design: https://designschool.canva.com/blog/editorial-design/

This design gives me a headache. There's a lot of white space going on this design, and that's a big no no with print design. I get what the designer was trying to do with the graphic, but it's disproportionate to the article, and the pills are a little too big to be visually appealing. There is no law on continuity here because it takes me forever to look through this page. And many of the other Gestalt principles don't apply to this design either.

Need a good laugh?: https://www.buzzfeed.com/lukelewis/newspaper-and-magazine-layout-disasters?utm_term=.lc1WW9W51#.uagPPXPxY

Markee, Beaux and Anthony 

After walking around campus, this water sculpture in front of the Eccles building stood out to our group. Here are the Gestalt principles we found that apply:

Law of Pregnanz (Beaux): Reality is organized or reduced to the simplest form. On an individual basis, the sculpture is composed of a bunch of smaller shapes: squares, rectangles, elongated ovals, etc. On the other hand, the object is composed as a triangle/pyramid while comprising of many smaller shapes.

Law of Continuity (Markee): Lines are interpreted as following the path of least resistance. If you look at this sculpture closely, the lines flow with the way the water is flowing. The water flows off of the sculpture and down into a drain in a simple and easy manner.

Law of Similarity (Anthony): The definition for the law of similarity states that items that are similar are grouped together. The cement squares that make up the triangle are closely grouped into a triangle shape. Also, they are typically grouped together for a purpose, and that purpose might be for complex design. The similarities from the architecture of the design are similar to the architecture of the Eccles building itself.

Contrast, Balance, Harmony

Portrait of a Yak by Sherrin Lim

Here is a stunning photo of a Yak, which caught my interest because I've never seen one before. When it comes to contrast, the difference between the animal and the land it's on greatly shows contrast. The Yak itself has light fur, which is contrasted by the darkness of the mountains and even the Yak's horns, which are darker than the fur. Another way contrast is shown in this photo is by size. Yak's are typically large animals, but this one looks even larger because of the way the photographer framed the photo. The horns of the Yak are taller than the mountains in the background, making it seem larger.

With balance, this photo seems to have a symmetrical balance because the weight of the mountains looks equal compared to the Yak. And the Yak is symmetrically balanced itself because of it's facial features, The horns and face are symmetrical.

When it comes to Gestalt principles, figure/ground relationships would apply. The Yak is the main focus of the photo, but the landscape still draws people in and gives context to where this photo might have been taken.

I see harmony in this photo because of the contrast and the landscape. This light fur colored Yak would belong in a harsh environment like this, and the mountains in the background add to that feeling of harmony. It also shows harmony through repetition of the mountains and the way they point upward throughout the photo.