Everybody…REACH!!!

         For the collage and type relationship composition, I searched through many different sources such as children’s books, magazines, albums, postcards, and periodicals. Because the word “caregiver” is so prominent in my type composition, I decided to look for images that would in some way relate to that word. When I was selecting images, I knew I wanted to stay away from the traditional vision of a caregiver such as mothers. My first thought was to go with images that were the opposite but I was having difficulty making them relate fully with the text. I then began working with the pictures from the Richard Simmons album cover and the “Virgin Mary”. I loved how the picture quality and medium of these worked together. My next challenge was selecting a background that wasn’t too distracting and made sense within the space and compliment the over all composition. A cloudy backdrop seemed to be the most effective I just had to find the right one. I chose a single cloud with a bright blue sky that played well with the other shades of blue and contrasted with the golds of the other images. The positioning of the images seemed to fall into place nicely. The reaching arms mimic the angle of the type and the negative space also reflects well in this composition. The placement of the people reaching towards the Virgin Mary has a symbolic aspect to it. However, when you look closer and you see Richard Simmons among the crowd, it adds a humorous element without being overly offensive. It seems like the caregiver of the overweight and out-of-shape even recognizes the ultimate caregiver in history, the Virgin Mary.

Flying With Scissors….

        The type composition and the image pairing work together in a way that creates an interesting over- all  composition. the angled placement of the words reflects the angle of the eagle’s flight. The boldness and scale of the word “caregiver” cuts the image space in the same way that the eagle does. The combination of that particular word with the image pairing speaks to the viewer questioning them to find the coloration between them. The words surrounding “caregiver” are reversed or smaller to downplay their significance and to make them less important. the words coming forth from the bottom left corner of the type and the eagle and scissors directing towards the same corner, make it seem as  if the scissors have cut lines of text into strips and pinched them into that left corner. The motion of the text and the images suggests the fleeting nature of potential danger and of safety and care.

 

                 

Image Pairings Take Flight!

 

      In this image pairing of a cartoon bird in flight and the silhouette of a girl and microphone was intended to evoke a whimsical or dreamlike scene. The two images came together accidentally, but ended up working together nicely. Separately, he images were interesting and when they are combined together, they interact in a way that makes an even more appealing image composition. I played around with many different sizes of images and different positions and finalized an image that made the bird much larger than the silhouette. By doing so, it made i possible for the relationship between the two read as if the girl is being passed over by this songbird and some kind of musical talent is inspiring her. I hope that the image is  viewed as optimistic and also that viewers feel a bit of the inspiration I hope to convey.  

 

       The image of an eagle swooping down has always seemed to me to an awe-inspiring illustration. But what if that majestic eagle were carrying a pair of scissors in its talons? That is the very question that this image pairing asks. My original thought when I decided to put these two images together was that they had similar shapes and angles and it would be interesting to see how they would for or against each other. As it turns out, the two worked better when they seemed to be interacting together rather than opposing each other. I think this combination asks more of the viewer and begs for them to look beyond the obvious. I believe it can be viewed as perhaps being very menacing. An eagles has dangerous talons already and the addition of scissors could be seen as even more dangerous. At the same time, the pairing can be viewed as being humorous to a degree. It gives a whole other meaning to the phrase, “don’t run with scissors.” I suppose flying with scissors is even more dangerous.

 

ViRtUaL IdEa NoTeBoOk #2: IcOnIc & SeMiOsiS

Iconic images are images that represent some thing. They are images that represent objects in a separate physical space. They may not always be completely identical, but they always resemble the thing that they represent. Considering the images iconic can depend on the viewer’s knowledge of what the image is representing. What is considered iconic to one person may be meaningless to another. Images and things are not the only things that can be considered iconic. Signs that contain images of recognizable objects are iconic because they look like what they are representing. An easily recognizable iconic sign is what we typically see labeling a bathroom. The images of the people resemble the shapes and outlines of the human figure. The images are then placed in a common location. This particular image is also a symbol and an icon.

 

            Understanding what an image is trying to convey or mean is very important when looking at images. This act of significance is called semiosis. The elements that make up an image give it items that translate a meaning of some kind to a viewer.  This narrative of meaning depends on many different factors. Something as simple as color or shape can convey a completely different message to someone. Most of all the personal history and experiences of the viewer determine the meaning that they draw from a certain image. For example, the images below are clearly recognizable by most people as pictures of Che Guevara. The first image is merely a photo or portrait taken of the man where the second is the same man represented as an icon or sign creating an iconic image that means different things to different people. The meaning can change depending on whether the image is viewed as just a cool poster or a symbol of revolution. Our environments, culture, and education determine what the image means. 

 

 

ViRtUaL IdEa NoTeBoOk #1: Linguistic Signs and Duality

       Early 1900’s linguist, Ferdinand de Saussure of Sweden constructed many theories revolving round his studies of language and signs. For him, finding how meaning and linguistics correlate through signs was the core of his study. Linguistic signs are made of two parts, the signifier and the signified. A word that we hear or see written signifies an image or object that we have been conditioned to know as the signified. Seeing a word, we can immediately see in our mind what that word is and what it signifies. If there is a word and an image next to one another, we will easily know if the two represent the same thing and the combination creates a sign. In the pictures of the signs, the stop sign immediately causes us to stop and obey the traffic laws, but the sign paired with sign with the song lyric on it also makes us think of the song that contains those words.

                           (http://fogonazos.blogspot.com/2008/05/stop-in-name-of-love.html)

        The concept of duality occurs when this relationship between signifier and signified becomes arbitrary to the reader or viewer. What this means is that there is a relationship between the written word and what it represents in two different languages to two different people who speak them. If a word is written in two languages it will signify something to the person who speaks the written language and will mean nothing to the other person who doesn’t know that language. If neither person knows the written word and what it signifies, it will mean nothing to either of them. For example, in the image below, the image of the horse is followed by the word ‘equos’. In english, a person would see that image and think, ‘horse’, but because of the duality between the word and image, the word holds no meaning to the person looking at the image of the horse.

                                          (http://faculty.smu.edu/dfoster/cf3324/Saussure%20copy.gif)