Shapes

Shapes play a big role in advertisement that many people may not recognize.


Circles are very popular and important. They serve as an enclosure or a central field. They are simplistic and perfect. A ring is a variation of the circle, and is used to show unity, eternity, wholeness, a cycle, and completion. The circle or sphere in the ATT logo is simple but appealing. It represents the globe and ATT's global presence. While its rings show unity and wholeness.


Squares are used as a filed for application. They show stability, structure, and secureness. They are very simple and welcoming- but not as welcoming as a circle. The Lego logo is very simplistic, but also shows complexity- because it is a product that is used to be put together. The square may also represent the lego blocks. It would not have made sense to make it a circle because there is no circular legos.


Triangles are less commonly used in logos because they symbolize danger due to their sharp, unfriendly points. In many triangle logos, the edges are rounded to became more friendly. Entrepreneurs don't want to scare their consumers away. A triangle pointing to the right shows moving forward, or the future. It is commonly used as a play button. A triangle pointing upward usually shows an upward motion. Companies like Delta use it to show a plane flying up. A triangle pointing downward is seldom used because it shows danger. Just like the yield sign, it is an upside down triangle, is Yellow which is dangerous and catches your eye, so it shows danger approaching.

Anatomy of Type

Just like people, type comes in all different shapes, sizes, colors, and personalities. "Handglovery" shows the different anatomy of letters. This can change depending on what font is used or whether it is upper case or lower case. Vocabulary like Crossbar and Serif are shown in the picture. It is interesting to learn in depth what makes up letters.

After learning a little bit about the anatomy of type, we had the opportunity to identify the parts of each letter in our own name. I used the font Plantno Linotype, which was just a basic font offered in Adobe Illustrator. The font that is used affects type anatomy. For example: If I chose a sans-serif font, I would not have the little lines at the end of each letter or at the end of a line in the letter (which is what a serif is). We learned not only parts of letters, but also lines where the letters fall. Like the base line, descender line, and cap height line, which are all illustrated in the picture I constructed. 

I am becoming more familiar with Adobe Illustrator, but some concepts and buttons are still confusing to me. I am enjoying graphic design very much still, and I wonder what concepts we will learn next on top of color and type.

Color

In our first part of graphic design we studied color psychology,specifically the types of colors and color vocabulary. We also learned how colors play a role in advertising and how they show different emotions. To the right is a color wheel (which I made in Adobe Illustrator), which shows the color triads. The circles at the end of the solid triangle are the primary colors; these colors can not be made, and mix together to make secondary colors. The secondary colors are the squares at the end of the dashed triangle; secondary colors are the result of two primary colors mixed together. Lastly, there are tertiary colors which are the combination of a secondary color and a primary color. This is the standard and simple color wheel.

We also learned color vocabulary. Terms such as analogous, complimentary, split-complimentary, hue, tint, shade, warm colors, and cool colors. These terms are very important in understanding color, and how it is used. Colors don't only play a role in making stuff appealing and colorful; but they also play a big part in advertisement. The color red represents fire, blood, war, danger, power, energy, passion, and love. While green represents naturalness, basic needs, and freshness. This is why, for example, gum packaging is a lot of times green, to show freshness.

After learning about color psychology, we had the opportunity to use our creativity to make our very own color wheel, and become familiarized with the editing software (Adobe Illustrator). I decided to go down the literal path of a color wheel, and make it look like an actual color WHEEL. Adobe Illustrator is very fun to use, but also gets confusing because there are so many different buttons, shortcuts, and things to remember. But I think that once I can work well with the software, I will enjoy it much more. Graphic design has been very intriguing so far, and I look forward to see what we do next.