Week Three| Murphy

I agree with Lupton that there is "beauty and wonder of white space," but I think that white space can also be really ineffective. It is definitely not a good idea to clutter up an ad or a page because the message can get lost. However, the message can also get lost when all the eye can see is vast amounts of white. When not used correctly, white space can draw the eye away from the focus of the ad like in the example of the Orrick ad. This ad turns me away from the product or company because I never really look for what the ad is trying to sell me. Instead I focus on the blank areas of the ad. However in the other Ad, the white space draws me in because of how the stethoscope blurs into the background. The object also breaks up the white space, so I’m not looking at a big chunk of emptiness.

Week Three, Stefaniak

As Lupton says, 'one of design's most humane functions is...to help readers avoid reading." In this picture where the designer has used letters to form an object instead of a word, the design has succeeded. By disrupting, compressing, and migrating the letters, the designer has produced a better effect than if s/he were to simply type "gun" and "bang." The serif of the "r" creates the perfect trigger, just as the serifs elsewhere provide for the perfect outline for the design. It's evident that by manipulating the text, the designer knew that this form of typography was the best way to go.

However, as soon as you look away from the beautifully designed object, it's clear that something's not quite right. Though the thin/thick strokes create a perfect design for the gun, they detract from the threatening message of the actual words. The kerning/tracking adds to the skew of the message, replacing fear with delicate overused typeface. Overall, though half effective as a typeface, word exercise has proven to be extremely beneficial for this design.