Week 15 - Interactions Between the 3 Levels

The Vespa scooter has been one of my favorite industrial designs and I consider it combines the representational, abstract and symbolic levels of visual design communication and reception.

The representational level within this design is present in its actual realistic form of a motorcycle. The role it plays in the whole is to demonstrate through its visual information what this object does: it transports people from one place to another. Its form follows its function. And every single detail of it suggests what it really is: a motorcycle. Therefore the impact it has on the user or the audience is that of a realistic interpretation of its elemental visual terms, and general and specific characteristics of such vehicle.

The Abstract level is present in the several variations of the original Vespa. There have been multiple different designs that are ideas of juxtaposed concepts that are put together in the production of different styles of Vespa scooters. As an example, I’d like to show this American football helmet-inspired version of a Vespa that mixes the representation of a motorcycle with the abstraction of American football helmet basic and essential visual elements. The role of abstraction in this specific design of the Vespa is present in the way it adds a special value of fun, sporty look, emotion and sense of humor. The impact it has on the user is that of a more customized design that will fit people’s interests and will ultimately attract people’s attention toward these kind of simplification of forms and elements achieving a very intense meaning conveyance.

The symbolic level of visual communication within the design of Vespa scooters is present in the iconic and symbolic value that this object has acquired throughout the decades.

According to Vanessa Jones in her article The Wasp a 20^TH-Century Icon the Vespa is not just a scooter, but a way of life that has become part of the fabric of our society and that at the same time offers an affordable, easy and comfortable to drive form of transport and has stood the test of time for more than 60 years. Clearly, people had given the Vespa other attributions more than merely a way of transportation  and this demonstrates that the Vespa not only served as a simple vehicle to move around, but it also had its own character and role in society, and people wanted to see themselves identified with it.

“This vehicle has the ability to engender varied social responses and posturing among its owners. Rather than simply a practical transportation device, the Vespa has become a focus around which groups of people can engage in self-definition. The scooter allows for a visual representation of the rider’s values.”(Jones, The Wasp a 20^TH-Century Icon)This is the impact the symbolic level of the Vespa scooter has upon society; its symbolic value refers to a group of people in society and to an idea of independence and light mobility.

The Vespa scooter had also become a symbol of a country’s [Italy] recovery after the war, people’s freedom and it had a connotation of an independent lifestyle. Many people of many ages owned one or wanted to purchase one. It was a trendy product and it rapidly became a social symbol in cinema, advertising and literature. (Neumann-Braun, Retro Meets Rat, or the Vespa Legacy in the Hands of Young People)

Every aspect of this design, and the combination of the three levels of visual design communication and reception: the representational, the abstract and the symbolic are greatly influential in the success this design has and the way it is looked at from many functional, practical, aesthetical and emotional perspectives.

Jones, Vanessa. "The Wasp a 20th-Century Icon." The Gold Coast Bulletin [Southport, Old] 8 Mar. 2008, Q Paradise ed., Paradise sec.: 5. ProQuest. Web. 17 Nov. 2010. http://proquest.umi.com.proxy.sierracollege.edu/pqdweb?did=1442457521&sid=5&Fmt=3&clientId=7985&RQT=309&VName=PQD.

Neumann-Braun, Klaus. "Retro Meets Rat, or the Vespa Legacy in the Hands of Young People." International Journal of Motorcycle Studies. Trans. Angela Oakeshott. Spring 2010. Web. 17 Nov. 2010. http://ijms.nova.edu/Spring2010/IJMS_Artcl.NeumannBraun.html. 6, Issue 1 Volume

Week 14: Representation, Abstraction and Symbolism

Representation:

These two products: the drink boxes design and the tableware designs both represent actual things we see and recognize in our environment and experience. The box’s textures are mimicking real fruits’ textures in the most realistic ways. This must have great impact with the consumer of these products as they could literally say that they’re drinking the fruit and have a better product-user experience while doing so. The designers have been able to reproduce in other kind of materials (non-biodegradable) the same exact structure of these fruits’ textures to make the appear as real and fresh as if they were actual just picked fruits. It’s obvious the degree of attention the designers must have put in the observation of fruits’ textures, and then blending in this strong idea in the box design for these beverages.

The tableware set also represents real figures and shapes of actual things in the real world of physical experience. The bowl which contains apples has been designed in a way each one of the apples can fit in its own space. The little separate plates for apples have the three-dimensional shapes of what a whole apple would look like from its bottom view and what the middle part of an eaten apple would look like. This detail makes the overall experience of this design as something fun for the user. It’s definitely a successful approach of representation within the field of design. The raw meat plate has this extraordinary carved shape of the branches of a tree, and the blood that comes out from the piece of raw meat will give color and contrast as it flows through these little channels. And last, the plate that looks like a frame for a painting or something like that is actually framing the food that the plate contains. Here, again, they represent the natural experience of what food is, how it really looks in its most realistic way by showing real food. Framing it gives it an attribute of image representation.

Abstraction:

The kinesthetic quality of these two designs is giving the viewer and user an emotional sense of what these are with a minimal use or representation of the characteristics or elements that exist in the actual object. The tree on the left is constructed by means of abstracted forms of its branches. This naturalistic modular shelving unit with a shape of an abstracted tree is reduced to its basics in a way that it is not completely obvious what this is if the tree image were not painted on the background. This modular shelving structure design is incorporating the representational and abstraction levels of communicating visual messages. The representation of the tree is painted in green on the wall, while the abstraction of the concept “tree” is derived from this mix of rectilinear and curving shelves that make reference to the abstracted shape of the branches of a tree. It communicates a functional way of conceptualizing the idea of a tree within the structure of a modular shelving unit. Its meaning is also communicated by means of the simplification of its visual information.

The chair on the right is another example of abstraction that I found. Even though it looks like a chair, and it has many representational elements that make part of the furniture concept, I believe it is an abstraction of a bicycle because the designer has reduced the idea of a bike to its basics, essential or most typical elements(a couple or tires and a couple of rims) and the creation of this abstracted object has derived from the use of these few elements that have been put together to represent something else, a chair. This is why I came to the conclusion that although this represents a chair, it is at the same time the abstraction of a bicycle because it conveys its meaning throughout a simplification of visual elements.

Symbolism:

This is a symbolic necklace that conveys its meaning through coded forms that have been drawn from nature. This unusual petroglyph design symbolizes a Shaman conducting a ritual to bring abundant crops for the coming season. The rising snakes signify ancestral spirit guides who travel beneath and above the earth. Ancestral Spirits protect the living as well as, departed ancestors on their life journey.

A person would only know the meaning of this symbol if they belong to a specific culture or tribe. Here, some education of the public on what this symbol denotes is completely necessary for its message to be clear. We may see the abstraction of this symbolic Shaman depicted by a specific civilization for a specific religious or folkloric ritual. It is brought to its essential elements or basics and does not have too much of a detail in its depiction. It could have been a code that was created long before written language existed, so in this case this code serves as an adjunct to written language.