Italian

798787

BA Industrial Design - Politecnico di Milano
MA PSSD (Product Service System Design) - Politecnico di Milano

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The three adjectives I identified as keys for my design process are: intuitive, emotional and rigorous.

Because of my background, I can easily explain how I conceive these words in terms of examples of design products, even though I would like to work about graphics transformations for the following assignments.

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INTUITIVE

With this word I mean the characteristic of objects of being immediately understood by someone who has never seen that one: firstly in its usage, then in it’s function.
This is exactly what the light switch does.
The simplicity of the objects itself and the instant response to your actions can tell you how it works and what it does.
Above all, it’s a metter of form, which is the first characteristic of an object which users get in contact with. Form has to be an advice that tells you what to do in order to make it works.

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EMOTIONAL

For me emotional in objects is first of all a metter of touch and sight.
In sense that objects that move me the most are the ones which I would constantly touch or see.
It’s like when you have your hand in pocket and you start playing with something inside. You are just touching that object regardless of its function. In that moment that object lose its function to dress the only function of “being touched”.
Sometimes sight can gives you illusion about the material of which objects are made. In this case I’m excited twice: because I want/won’t to touch them and then because I may be surprised by that touch.

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RIGOROUS

I think this adjective can goes in a sense with the intuitiveness because is strictly relating to the simplicity of forms that leads to an easy understanding of objects.
At the same time it can be also very distant from it, in the sense that - by virtue of rigorous - you can simplify the form up to make it obscure of even useless.
For me a rigorous object is something that follows evidently some geometrical rules and gives you a feeling of perfection and quiet.

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CATALYST AND PARADIGM

The starting point of my design is to select a catalyst I will use to elaborate a paradigm to transform any other image.
As you can see below, my catalyst is a soccer graphic by Yellow Mellow for Calcio Retro.
My process for this assignment was: understand the basic shapes of the catalyst, assign every element to a layer, choose an object that will correspond to each layer.

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RULES

Then I comes with some graphics rules I defined through the trilogy of memory, thinking and imagination.
For the intuitive's attribute I tried to draw up some rules taken from what I learnt during my previous packaging design course: I studied some technics useful to gain users' attention when they facing images and texts.
For the emotional one I just thought how to hand over into graphic some good sensations I feel when I touch or see something I like.
For what concern rigorous' attribute, I pointed out some basic but precise rules I apply continuously whatever I do in every day life. (Yes, I am a bit obsessive/compulsive -.-)

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Intuitive

1. Titles have to be evident >> High contrast between image and letters
2. Multilayers are ordered by importance >> From foreground to background: title + subtitles; image; detail; pattern + texture; full colored square.
3. Differentiate sizes accordingly to importance of elements >> relation between objects are multiples: texture has double height of pattern; title has double length of subtitle; repetitions of each layers can be twice, triple etc…

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Emotional

1. Use vivid/smooth colors , contrasts >> choose only one vivid color and use it as a filter for graphic
2. Transparent >> every layer can be duplicated horizontally, vertically or following shape’s angles; use opacities (100% - 80% - 60% - 40% - 20%)
3. 3d illusion >> titles have same colors of background (look punched); blurred effects; graduated shading; shadow to foreground, second layer and background’s detail

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Rigorous

1. Readablility of secondary texts >> capital letters, sans serif fonts, space between letter is 450 pt, character is 10 pt
2. Objects are placed in the canvas in relation to each other >> every object of every layer works as guide line to other objects of other layers
3. Allign all the elements >> vertically centered to artwork, horizontally centered each others, repetitions organized in cycles centered to foreground

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TOPIC

For this project I chose to work on Celebration of Italian Kitchen, and in particular on the main plate of my country which is pasta.

Barilla is one of the leading Italian food groups, a leader in the markets for pasta worldwide and is an example of successful enterprise that last since 1877, thanks to the constant research for excellence in taste and attention to nutritional balance.

But what makes Barilla known all over the world is the long view of its founders that invested since the 1910 on communication.
Between the Twenties and the Thirties Barilla start to become famous also in the North of Italy where manifests and advertising were affixed in many cities.

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IMAGE TO TRANSFORM

Emblematic remain the baby-knight riding a macaroon of the advertising by Adolfo Busi which is the image I chose as image I want to work on.

I love this image because in my opinion it sum up all the three adjectives I pointed out as my keys for doing design both referred to the design of the object itself (pasta) and to the immediacy with which the message comes to consumers.

- About pasta:

The macaroni is perfect in its design because is at the same time intuitive, emotional and simple.

It’s intuitive in its function, because everyone can gather from its rounded and curved shape with kind of sauce is the most suitable for it; moreover it’s easy to understand that you have to try to fill the macaroni with the sauce to taste the plate at best and the form of this pasta is so appropriate for that.

But the macaroni’s shape is also emotional to me because of its consistency: it’s rough and it gives to me a sense of health and genuineness; it’s streaked and it’s a very delicious sensation both in taste and in touch.

Again it’s so beautiful in its simplicity because it’s really just as it has to be to fulfill it’s function, it doesn’t have ornaments and all the lines are parallel and straight.

- About message:

Even the poster is intuitive, emotional and simple.

The baby-knight is wearing a waiter’s suit and that gives you the feeling of genuineness and overcomes the weakness of being a mass-produced food.
The kid is coming to you riding his macaroni with elegance, and is offering you a delicious plate.
The ease and happiness with which the subject is carrying out the task means the easy process of cooking pasta in your house. It also makes you feel confident with a product that is no more hand-made produced but still remain excellent on a quality level.

Colors are vivid and give to you a sense of a serene calm; at the same time waiter’s suit and italic bold font makes you categorise the product among the ones of high quality level raising in you the desire of buying a box of pasta.

I really love the simplicity of this picture. The designer put just the name of the brand, the place of birth and the coordinated image: the bare essential to be understood by everyone, nothing more, nothing less. This choice let you enjoy the poster without confusing over layers and concentrate on the subject/message.

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SCENARIO

Here there is the senario I chose to have the showed result.
As you can see below, I chose to use my Intuitive 2 rule, first of all, as temporal logic to start transforming the image (multilayers are ordered by importance >> from foreground to background).
Then for each layer I applied some of the rules in a random way, both in number and in choice.
At the end, I add all the layers one by one with their own transformations an I applied to all the elements and layers the Rigorous 3 rule (final transformation).

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OPINIONS

Obviously this is just one of the endless possibilities through which I can combine and repeat my nine different rules.
Every time I decide - randomly or not - to build a new senario of the applied rules (how, when and where to use them), I will have so much different results but in a way those outputs also will look so similar each other thanks to the constraints imposed but the fixing rules.

I think this generative process it's very useful expetially in graphics where the surprising effects caused by those strange associations are appreciated. Moreover it's an easy way that allows you to be always new and original, but at the same time to be recognisable by everyone because, at the end, you are just continuing to use the same rules creating every time different senarios.

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After this project, and some reviews, I understand I was too much tied to structure of the catalyst. So now, with this new project I want to adjust this mistake.

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NEW PROJECT

Using the same attributes and transforming rules of the previous work, I choose another catalyst and I create create its relative paradigm.
Then I will produce different scenarios to have different outputs and understand how an image can change so much simply transforming the elements of my paradigm following the same rules.

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TOPIC

The topic I chose among the ones given, is the cover for a children's book. In particular, the tale I want to represent is "Alice in Wonderland" by Lewis Carroll.