Monday, September 19, 2016

Design Evaluation


Kellogg’s Special K line of cereals come in packages ranging in quality from mediocre to acceptable. While it’s difficult to outline what exactly is lacking, their designs indisputable could be improved. For now, we’ll focus on the shortcomings of the “fruit and yogurt” edition.

Why the packaging of these cereals are so feminine escapes me. Maybe they cut a deal with the bacon and eggs advertising department, but this product has appeal to both sexes at its heart, and still it incorporates soft, low-intensity colors and non-threatening curves (notice the giant K). Over the likes of Cinnamon Toast Crunch (diabetes in a box), Special K has potential with the health conscious crowd, but to this end it’s a bit overdone. It looks like something your doctor might prescribe. The design is needlessly cluttered with graphics and information. Furthermore, the package could benefit from a consistent color theme rather than blue, white, red, purple, a bit of black, and some shades of tan.

However, the current Special K design’s failings are most obvious when held against a proposed design from student Mun Joo Jane. This project offers a unique, cylindrical package with a bolder and more focused theme. Altogether it makes for a much more appealing product.


While the boxed package comes off cluttered, distinctly feminine, and slightly childish, Jane’s creation is refreshingly simple yet innovative, universally appealing, and mature. The “tube” boasts consistent reds and blacks on a simple white background that allows our focus to travel to where it really matters. The Gestalt law of pragnanz suggests a human preference for simplicity, and this product takes advantage of this to a much greater degree than the box. Opposite the current design, the tube is gender neutral, and strong, with a bold K+ replacing a dated, glossy K. This product refuses to buy into the way cereal is typically marketed toward children with bright colors and a collage of graphics (a smart move given how kids would probably react to the taste of the stuff). It isn’t specifically a man’s breakfast or a woman’s breakfast, but it’s got a sense of order that makes it an adult’s breakfast. Even though the Kellogg’s logo is smaller on Jane’s design, it still preserves brand identity better given that it’s one of very few graphics, and a red one at that, contrasting a clean, white base.

Although Kellogg’s design exhibits texture by presenting an enlarged image of rough, gritty flakes, the alternative accomplishes the same thing with a transparent window that lets the product speak for itself, and there’s a charismatic sense of honesty and genuineness to that. Plus, the cereal contrasts better against a white background than a cluttered, purple mess.

All in all, this student-designed product would have my eyes and wallet well before the current, so-so packaging due to its elegance, simplicity, and incorporation of design principles.



Monday, September 12, 2016

Gestalt Activity



Tay 650-15 Fan

Closure - Objects grouped together are seen as a whole

  • Fan is seen as a fan rather than a collection of blades
  • Space between blades is overlooked

Continuity - Lines are seen as following the smoothest path

  • Sculpture moves your eye around the propeller
  • Blades are placed circularly so your eye goes around looking at each blade
  • Light creates contrast by reflecting off the right side

Similarity - Items that are similar tend to be grouped together

Monday, September 5, 2016

Contrast, Harmony and Balance



Here we have a black and white image of an individual standing on a railroad river crossing. It’s fair to assume most would consider this a photograph of value because it’s cool or “real neat”, but there are distinct qualities captured here that make it an objectively effective image.

First, a lack of color provides obvious contrast. The literal shadows are defined against a highlighted floor, and the dark beams that make up the bridge’s structure (figures) pop against an illuminated body of water (ground). The contrast in size between the miniscule figure and the colossal bridge structure gives the image weight in that the size of a person is fairly consistent, so we can use it as a gage for the scope of the photo. In this case the person is also a figure to the ground of the bridge and begs our focus.

Second, the image is balanced through symmetry. The photographer took advantage of the bridge’s symmetrical design with an image straight down the middle. In this way neither side is off balanced by the other, and the picture has an organized, structured look to it.

This symmetry contributes to the image’s final quality to be discussed: harmony. Symmetrical balance creates a sense of tranquility and elegance that contributes to an overall feeling of harmony. However, the photo isn’t acutely mirrored down the center. It has a sense of natural symmetry to it instead of an artificial pattern, and this is easier on the eyes. The image feels at peace, like sitting on a back porch and watching the sun set after a long day’s work. There’s no active motion to be found. The water is still and everything seems to fit in its rightful place. Although a railroad crossing is probably not the safest place to stand around, the individual appears to be in no hurry. Their peace is contagious. Cross patterns are repeated throughout and give the image a consistent feel. Although it’s borderline too dark to make out the bridge’s upper portion, the Gestalt law of similarity connects the cross at the top with those lower down in the bridge structure. Repeated elements of the bridge make it feel like a single object even though much of it is out of frame. Furthermore, the law of continuity lets the railroad tracks lead our eyes into the image despite other lines intersecting.


Altogether, these factors contribute to a brilliant image.