Great Designs

On a daily basis we encounter numerous amounts of designs in advertisements in various mediums of media, such as print, video, sound, and more. This is an attempt by businesses and institutions to grab our attention and as a result we give them a few seconds to become aware of what is being advertised. Within these vital few seconds we are deciding whether to stop and listen, read what is being offered, and continue our daily routines. I believe within these few seconds a good design is significant.


A Good design is being able to translate a rather complex idea/message into visual, audio, or literary terms for a specific target audience.

With respect to the visual aspect, good design is having a good color scheme, attention grading, easy on the eyes visuals (controversial images, the grid system, etc.).

An example, of all these things taking into consideration in creating a great design, is the Häagen-Dazs website.


We can see these aspects of visual designs being put to use on this website. For instance, the grid system, great color scheme, and “soft” looking visuals that fits the “feel” of the ice cream.



Audio is a very challenging form because it is difficult to master. We are saturated by noise in our everyday lives. With respect to audio, good design is having “important” familiar sounds played out to get attention. For example, vocals of a well-known artists/actor, sound of fire alarm truck, or someone that is well known within our society, like President Obama, are all “important” familiar sounds that can be uses to create a good design. Music plays an important role also, however not every one have the same taste in music. In that case, familiar sounds should be used with caution unless you are targeting a specific audience.

With respect to the literary aspect, Good design is to have good typography with the appropriate colors, font size, spacing, balance and contrast, which can carries the mood/feeling of the message effectively to the individuals that will be receiving it. Here are some examples of great typography in its creative form.






A great design triggers emotions and sensations that the receiver of the message didn’t expect to feel, happy, inspire, sad, lonely, etc. It is the composition and presentation of the overall design that can generate these feelings inside of us. It is not the visuals or the audio alone that plays the part of carrying this message, it is the overall part of the design machine, visual/audio/typography and its gears, color, balance, content, contrast, words, spacing, etc, that are responsible in creating a working design.

Slumdog Millionaire

Slumdog Millionaire(2009) is a motion picture base on the adaption of the book "Q & A" by Indian civil servant Vikas Swarup. The setting of the film takes place in the city of Mumbai, India and is told through a series of flashbacks.


This movie is very fast paced. You really feel like you are in the dense and rapid moving city of Mumbai, with the constant motion of the camera. I believe the use of the low angle shots in the crowed area, for example in the train station and a slums brought forth the claustrophobic feeling of being surrounded by many people adding to the overall feel of the movie framing.

There were also various other shot sizes used in this the motion picture to tell the story, for example, ECU (extreme close up); CU(close up); MCU (medium close up); MS(medium shot); MLS (medium long shot); LS(long shot); ELS (extreme long shot), HA(high angle shot), and SA(standard angle shot or eye-level).
The dominance composition of the colors brown-yellow-red aptly reveals the whole interest of the film (1) and the urban setting of developing India.

What does "Slumdog Millionaire" look like overall?

A montage of the entire film reveals a dark image dominated by unsaturated light tans, greens, and blues, with a few bright oranges and blues at the beginning and end.

What is the "Slumdog Millionaire" dominant color and composition?

Taking the mean of the entire film produces an olive green image with slightly brighter center-shot.

What is the "Slumdog Millionaire" dominant color pallete?

The SI-2K Digital Cinema Camera (2) was used to capture some of the fast paced (tracking) movements of the city of Mumbai, which can be seen in this train station sense of the movie.



There was a continuous amount of dolly and pan shots throughout the film. Especially in the scenes in which, he is the contestant on the game show, “Who Wants to be a Millionaire".
It is obvious that to archive some of the shots in the movie, support systems such as cranes and rails had to be used to capture some of the landscapes of the slums and the city arena. Different lens, such as wide, normal, telephoto and zoom lens, were also used in the making this motion picture, that kept the flow of the narrative.

Overall Slumdog Millionaire is an incredible moving picture, even so that it has been recognize by the Oscars for the technical achievements in cinematography, music (song & score), film editing, sound mixing, writing and not to mention the best picture and directing Oscar. (3)

Sources:

1) http://lab.softwarestudies.com/2009/02/art-of-dominant-color-in-film.html

2) http://www.siliconimaging.com/DigitalCinema/News/PR_01_31_09_Slumdog.html

3) http://www.oscar.com/oscarnight/winners/