Compose by Nature

Sunday, May 10th, 2009

I woke up around 10am on Sunday, May 11, 2009, Mother’s Day and went about doing my daily morning routin.I grabbed my tooth brush and toothpaste from my dresser top and headed to the bathroom, and took a shower shortly afterwards. After eating my breakfast, I realized that my dogs have not been walked as yet. I went back to my room to put on a more “public fitting” attire and off I went with my dog Tommy. 

            

 Somewhere between the sun beaming down and the wind stirring past me, I became more aware of my surroundings both visually and acoustically. Visually everything was more detailed. I started noticing things around my neighborhood that  I did not realize before, such as the small tree in front of my house and how

 neatly the trees are aligned along the road.  Its important to note that I have been living in my neighborhood for almost 4 years. I was also taking a panoramic view, as compared to focusing on a specific item/subject.

      

Acoustically, my ears picked 

up detailed sounds that would have

 gone otherwise unnoticed. On this sound walk I heard the wind rushing by the tree leaves over

 head, the storm door aggressively fighting with the wind to stay closed, the metal lash on my dog’s collar wrestling with him to contain his excitement.  It was a surreal feeling hearing these everyday sounds that are not so everyday. What was amazing about this whole experience was stopping and listening to this beautifully constructed and orchestrated soundtrack that was being performing, in which, I did not know was playing before.

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.