Assignment 2: Theme:Needful Things - Making images talk

Exercise:

• Select an object or activity or location (telephone, running, bus stop, car, cooking etc). Try not to select an existing subject (eg. Toilet or well known sports symbols)
• Create a representative image of the object (you may choose either iconic or indexic representation)
• Distill the image through process of abstraction. (atleast 5 levels of abstraction from realistic to abstract) Indicate at what point in the abstraction process the object looses its specific identity and communicates generic meaning. Select that image and develop it into a symbol.

Objectives:

• Understanding and overcoming constrains/ problems of representation
• Developing skills in controlling visual message

Conceptualization:

• I chose a taxi as it is a needful thing in our everyday life and it is ubiquitous.
• I first took a picture of a taxi, which is also my first level of distillation because it is an iconic representation of the object
• For my second level, I used photoshop to take away minor details of the taxi that identified it as a particular taxi, such as the logo at the side of the taxi, the car-plate number, as well as the model of the taxi.
• For my third level, I made the entire taxi black except for the taxi logo at the top. This is the point where it loses its specific identity. The picture shows the outline of a car, and it is identifiable as a taxi because of the logo. However, it is just a 'shadow of the taxi' and does not show what color it is, the brand of the taxi etcera.
• For my forth level of abstraction, I drew the front outline of the taxi in Photoshop using the Shape tools. I then added the blue logo on top.
• My final symbol was the blue logo because it omitted all details of the taxi. The blue logo on top represents taxis in general and is what distinguishes a normal vehical from a taxi.

Modifications:

• After the critque, many people pointed out that in step 4 and 5, the object would still be recognizable as a taxi even without the blue logo.
• Thus I modifed my design to further distill the taxi so that in step 4, instead of the blue outline of the logo, it is replaced by a black object in the same shape.
• For my final symbol, the object is a black outline of the taxi logo.