Week 11: Towel, Bucket, and Life Ring Variations

Craft:  Our assignment this week was the same as last week, but this time, we had to create 3 new images.  All of the images had three variations applied to them.  I used Adobe Illustrator, along with the pen tool to trace the images. The Fill button was applied to the images along with the Brush tool.  The brush tool allowed me to choose different outlines for each of the images.  While I'm not using the color or the stroke for my card deck, I will be focusing on the blue bucket with the ant outline.
Composition:  Since the bucket is viewed from the side, it gives the appearance that the handle is not the most important piece, but the body of the bucket is.  This allows the viewers to focus on the bucket design and not too much on the handle.  The white background exemplifies this idea. Without a blank background, it would be harder for viewers to focus on the ant outline and the use of the blue color.  The outline is what viewers would focus on first since the ants contain a majority of the bucket and are two different colors. The black and the red ants portray a contrast within the blue and as a result, makes the ants stand out among the rest.  They are able to stand out because of their color and the fact that half of the ants are black.  The color black is a dark and powerful color, contrasting against the blue.  The darker blue is what viewers see first since it's the main color of the bucket.  The lighter blue is seen second since the color is only located on the handle and the top layer.  This contrast in shades and the ant outline makes it easier on the viewers to distinguish between the handle and the bucket.  The color in correlation to the stroke allow the viewers to see that the bucket comprises of two different objects, but at the same time, is one whole design.
Concept:  Using the ant outline for the bucket, including the handle, creates a scary feeling towards the viewers.  Beaches contain ants so having ants located all around the bucket elicits fear.  No one ever wants to see ants crawling all over any of their items.  Seeing an image that contains what no one wants to experience changes their feeling about the image into a negative one.  Since the color contrasts with the dark ants, the ants are more noticeable, and because of this, they attract the viewers.  The ants are an exact replica of real ants which makes the image more terrifying.  One simple stroke can change the meaning of an object very quickly, as illustrated within the bucket design.