Presentation Options: Image Composition and Styles
When putting together a layout of any kind it is incredibly important to carefully choose or create images that not only further the over all, literal message of the piece but also help further the emotional message or feel of the piece. This can be done a number of ways, with some of the most effective and most dramatic ways being through the composition of the visual through arrangement, crop, style and medium used.
An image is not only viewed in the positive, but also in the negative. As was discussed by the authors in previous chapters, this is what is referred to as the figure-ground relationship. It states that an images white space or background — or lack there of — provide as much meaning, although, perhaps not immediately recognizable to the viewer, as the actual focal point of the images. This is why arrangement and crop play such an important role when selecting images for design. This is especially true when dealing with illustrations as opposed to photographic images. This is because illustrations, as the authors note, “are not bound by the realities of arrangement imposed by the scene they are rendering.” This means that the designer is able to push and manipulate the figure-ground relationship an incredibly long way — much further than what is realistic, what could be presented in a photograph, in order to instill the overlying mood, or feeling of the piece. This abstraction of the figure-ground relationship “contributes to the illustration’s power to communicate beyond the literal as well as helps engage the viewer and direct the eye.
The placement of the focal point inside the white space also plays a role in the experience of the viewer. When the focal point of the image is centered in the frame, it projects a feeling of neutrality. It doesn’t force the viewers eye to move one direction or another and therefore creates little excitement. Conversely, when the focal point of an image is placed off center, the viewer must move his or her eyes across the image, from one side to another, causing excitement, but also a degree of anxiety. Along with the placement of the elements within the frame, their size also plays a large role in how they communicate with the viewer. A smaller object, with a good deal of space around it feels sad, lonely and isolated. It creates movement, but more slowly and more directly. Where a larger element, that fills up a good deal of the frame and maybe even spills out of it, creates a more chaotic, aggressive type of movement. The authors of the book referred to this type of format as feeling “confrontational.”
Perhaps, more than the placement in the frame or the crop of the image, the medium of the image itself has the biggest effect on how the viewer interprets and feels about an image. While many designs will only use one image style — representational, sketches or photography — a design can often benefit from mixing image styles. A mix of graphic element styles helps to create contrast in a design, a contrast that the authors say is “key to surprising, refreshing, and enlivening layouts.” But they do warn, that although the elements that are combined need to contrast, they also need to “share some visual qualities” as well as some visual meaning. Each type of imagery carries with it a specific association and designers need to recognize these associations and use them to their benefit. Photographs carry with them a documentary feel, they capture life as it is. They are “concrete, pure, environmental, and reliable.” Illustrations, on the other hand, are created from men’s and women’s imaginations. They come off as more abstract and present life not as it is, but as it could be or we feel it should be, “they evoke fantasy, display impossible or ideal situations, and portray their content in a subjective way — even if they are naturalistic.” Icons, symbols and translations break everyday objects down into their simplest forms in order to inform, direct or identify.
Because each different image style is tied to a connotation they, must be combined with care and purpose. For example, an aerial photo of a zoo being used as a map may be supplemented with symbols indicating concession stands, restrooms, giftshops, etc., and line art representing walking paths. The photo works as a map because it is truly and believably the layout of the zoo, and because the symbols are created art they stand out from the image and are instantly recognizable as what they symbolize.
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