Graphic Design

The first example that I found was the "Who's watching your drink" coaster. The thing that I think this design does best is guiding your eye along the z. The shape of the text as well as the descreasing size naturally takes your eye along the path of the words. The message is clear and consise as well as the design. The author chose a unique way of making a text dominant advertisement somehow merge into an image dominant advertisement depending on how you look at it.

The next example I thought was good was the "Dirty Disco" ad. This ad also leads your eye along the z path. The womans hair flows along the top leading your eye back to the curve of her elbow then finally to the lower right corner for the company name and date. This is an image dominant ad and the image does well to intrige viewers because of its sensuality. The image, although it dominates the ad still does not detract from the information text that it advertises. It stays enough in the background and leaves just the right amount of white space for the mind to still see and comprehend the text. The choice not to show her face also helps, in that her body portrays sensuality etc. but the attraction is to the company not the woman, because there could be any face on that body which seems to tell the reader that if you come to their club you will find many women that look that good.

The last positive example that I included was the "Four Eyes" company logo. The image does well in portraying the company name, however what I liked about this exapmle was the type. The company uses a nonscript, bold, blocky, yet slightly slanted type. I thought this matched with the name very well. The plain blocky thick lines make you think of the nerdy smart kid that was nicknamed four-eyes in elementary school. Yet the forward slant and the modern non-script part shows that the smartie-pants thing is now in style and that is exatly what they are trying to sell. They are proud to be "nerdy" and you will need their smarts to help you with your problems.

Next I looked for poor examples of graphic design and found the updated DQ logo. This I think is bad because the colors do not fit or represent anything to do with DQ. I think that it would be a bad idea to update a logo that was already so recognizable, and the additions make it much harder to recognize. I also think that the additions confuse the eye, and force it in a counterclockwise circular direction, rather than the natural z pattern. In other word what they could do better would be to leave well enough alone.

The last bad example I found was the picture illustrating the decline of a business. I think that the thumbs down is not only unneccesary, but also distracting from the idea of the ad. It doesn't seem to fit. The ad as a whole does not have a color scheme, mixing black and white as well as color. Also the red line and the hand come from the same direction making the whole very unbalanced. I think that to removing the hand altogether would improve the image greatly, or at least to have it entering from the other side of the page, making it smaller and maybe in a shade of gray so that the red line would be more prominant.