Line, Shape & Form Deconstructions
LINE: This poster uses mainly line. The lines (and solid black shapes they create) represent telephone lines and street lamps. The point-of-view creates depth and intensity, but it’s all fundamentally based on the use of lines. The wires create a strong grid pattern, and with the grid pattern associated with the telephone wires and street lamps, the poster has a strong urban feel/industrial feel. I would guess that this festival takes place somewhere in a city setting. The straight horizontal and vertical lines match with the direction and orientation of the text, while the diagonal and squiggly lines help direct the eye to points of interest and give the poster more energy so that it isn’t boring.
SHAPE: Apple’s iPod ads are a great example of the use of shape. The silhouettes of people dancing around, enjoying their iPod are nothing but shapes, with no lighting to give them 3-dimensional form. The iPod itself and the earbuds are also simplified to a couple simple shapes and lines. This effectively highlights the product, shows that using the product is the reason for the person’s enjoyment, and creates a very simple, easily recognizable shape that represents the iPod. Even Apple’s logo is a simple shape, as are most logos. This makes them easy very recognizable. You don’t have to think about hat you are seeing to know what it is and what it stands for. The ad’s simplified use of fun shapes and bright colors also reflect Apple’s values: fun, simple, user-friendly products.
FORM: Here is an ad for the Playboy website in the Netherlands. Like most ads it uses many design elements, including strong use of color, but it also uses form. There are lines used to create shapes, and with the way they are lit, and with clever use of the negative space around the edges to create legs, they give the ad the “form” of a naked woman spreading her “mouse”. It’s sort of like a visual pun, like an illusion. It illustrates both the web aspect of Playboy and the sexual content they provide. The lines, shapes and negative shapes, color, lighting and use of framing really come together to make the viewer’s brain create the suggested form.
