CH. 1 TERMS
Interactivity: ability of users to influence the media
Asynchronous: not dependent on the message sender and message receiver both being available at the time (one of the communicators is “offline” but the message is still “online”)
Mixed Media: a variety of presentation methods blurring the distinctions of each into one
message/experience
Artist: creates art for presentation
Designer: develops something that has a “use” beyond the aesthetic
Creation: how an image is made or converted to digital format (conceptualizing/designing/brainstorming/craft)
Delivery: how the viewer receives the image (digital file format, hard copy, print, disk, CD, DVD, streaming)
Display: method for making the image visible (PC, Internet, Projection, TV, iPad)
Pixel: the tiny colored (or black in a BW image) “square dots” that cover a display surface such as a monitor —the more pixels (dots) per inch of the image the finer the “resolution”
Bit: unit of measurement for storage of information as digital data (based on binary digits ie. 0 and 1. 1/8 of a byte.
Byte: unit of measurement for storage of information as digital data; one byte=8 bits
kb: kilobyte – 1000 bytes (8000 bits)
MB: Megabyte – one million bytes
GB: Gigabyte – one billion bytes
Raster: a bitmapped image delivered (on screen) pixel by pixel; Raster images lose detail when enlarged.
Vector: a scale-able image delivered using a mathematical process; Vector images retain detail when enlarged.
Pixelation: distortion caused as the “curved” lines of a raster image created by its pixels lose definition when the image is enlarged
CH. 2 TERMS
Design: to plan the construction of something new that requires both aesthetic value (creativity) and functionality, such as a house or communication message
Design Phase: A common (repeated) stage in any design project. You should know the phases (Information/Interaction/Presentation) of the Design Process from pp. 28-30 and have a working knowledge of the steps involved in each.
Incubation: A step in the design process often overlooked by inexperienced designers, incubation means thinking/mulling/noodling using your intuitive brain and not just your logical brain.
Project Goal: an objective for a design that takes into account the “purpose;” might involve persuasion (promoting “product” benefits, providing information and/or educating, entertainment, sales fulfillment (ordering), delivering content, etc.
Flow: the order in which the viewer or reader receives or follows content; the systematic delivery of content that takes into consideration how the user will “navigate” the message(s)
Mock-Up: A preliminary prototype of what the finished product will look like; mock-ups are created for approval/discussion/evaluation by the “customer” because they are faster and less expensive than a “finished” deliverable would be to create
Storyboard: Visual organization of proposed content into smaller units—provides a sort of “dummy” sketch of what the final display will look like and how it will be organized/navigated
Map: A detailed flowchart of a project containing many components and lots of content
Layout: visual arrangement of content and navigation tools on each page of a digital project design (shows where text, graphics, buttons, etc. will be placed on a page).
Thumbnails: Small drawings used to explore different page arrangements
Prototype: a working example of the entire project that can be beta tested to find where adjustments will be needed
Bugs: navigation or delivery problems that show up in the prototype when it is being tested (or later in the finished product when customers complain!)
Style: the overall “look” or mood of a project; the loosely definable “flavor” of a design (sophisticated, fun, content-heavy, retro, etc.)
Content: the information communicated in a digital project like a web page – typically refers to text/words, but might also include diagrams, illustrations, photos (particularly demonstrations), etc. (anything that’s a finite “message”).
CH. 9 TERMS (Color)
Visible Spectrum: wavelengths of light that can be seen by the human
eye
Additive Color: the method of producing color through mixing light waves made of three primary colors (red, green, and blue) for display on a monitor. (Referred to as RGB). RGB is projected through light.
Subtractive Color: the method of producing color through removing certain light waves made of three primary colors plus black for display on a printed page. (Referred to as CYMK: Cyan (a blue-green)/Yellow/Magenta/Black) CYMK uses an opaque surface (not a lighted surface)
Primary Colors: Typically “pure” red, blue, yellow on Newton’s color spectrum for mixing paint (but in the subtractive process specifically magenta, cyan, yellow and in an additive process red/ green/blue). The three colors out of which all other hues are created.
Secondary Colors: Colors achieved by mixing two primaries (orange, green, violet).
Tertiary Colors: : Colors achieved by mixing a primary with a secondary (yellow-orange, orange-yellow, yellow-green, blue-green, red-violet, violet-red).
Hue: “Pure” primary and secondary colors on the color wheel—yellow, red, orange, green, blue, violet
Tint: A hue plus white
Shade: A hue plus black
Chroma: how pure a hue is in relation to gray; a hue mixed with gray (white AND black) is a “tone
Saturation: The intensity of a color on a spectrum from pure hue to tint or shade.
Luminance: Amount of light reflected by a hue (more white in the mix will usually mean more luminance—but yellow is also more luminant than red, etc.)
Web-Safe Color: One of the 216 (true) colors that can be reproduced over the Internet.
HTML Color: Web-safe colors written in HTML code. HTML numbers use a hexidecimal (6 digit) system for combinations of red (left), green (middle), and blue right to make RGB color combinations. From pure FF (hue), to darkest shade (00, black) (other numbers/letters between)
See www.w3schools.com/html/htnl_colors.asp
Pantone Colors: numbered colors based on a printers ink system.
Dithering: electronic process in graphics display that allters the noise to signal ratio (intentionally creating “noise”) to create the illusion of color depth, adding and diffusing additional colors and shades from an existing palette by interspersing the pixels randomly within an image. Dithering is used to create tiled backgrounds with seamless borders, to soften/diffuse the “stairsteps” or posterization in a pixilated photo, and to create colors outside the Web “gamut (pixels of differing color blend to give appearance of the desired color).
See Wikipedia article
Unity: when the different elements of a design “hang” together visually as a whole.
Conceptual unity means “the meaning” of a design or composition is unified/clear.
Color Scheme: a logical combination of color
Complementary Colors: pair of primary or secondary colors opposite each other on a color wheel (red/green, yellow/violet, orange/blue). Placed side by side, these colors often appear to vibrate.
Analogous Colors: Colors adjacent on the color wheel.
Monochromatic Color Scheme: Colors that are all shades or tints of the same hue.
Contrasting Colors: Colors with varying degrees of luminance or saturation.
Saturation: purity of a hue. Also known as “intensity.”
Color Triad: Color scheme formed by three equally spaced colors on the color wheel.
Split Compliment: One hue plus two others equally spaced from the compliment.
Warm Colors: colors associated with daylight including red or yellow in the hue. Warm colors are considered “active” in that they appear to advance toward the viewer.
Cool Colors: colors associated with evening including blue in the hue. Cool colors are considered “passive” in that they appear to recede away.
Truecolor: method for representing graphical information with a very large number of colors, shades, and hues for high quality photographic images or complex graphics. (Provides “millions” of colors in display—16.7 million precisely.)
CH. 9 TERMS (Color)
Additive Color: the method of producing color through mixing light waves made of three primary colors (red, green, and blue) for display on a monitor. (Referred to as RGB). RGB is projected through light.
Subtractive Color: the method of producing color through removing certain light waves made of three primary colors plus black for display on a printed page. (Referred to as CYMK: Cyan (a blue-green)/Yellow/Magenta/Black) CYMK uses an opaque surface (not a lighted surface)
Primary Colors: Typically “pure” red, blue, yellow on Newton’s color spectrum for mixing paint (but in the subtractive process specifically magenta, cyan, yellow and in an additive process red/ green/blue). The three colors out of which all other hues are created.
Secondary Colors: Colors achieved by mixing two primaries (orange, green, violet).
Tertiary Colors: : Colors achieved by mixing a primary with a secondary (yellow-orange, orange-yellow, yellow-green, blue-green, red-violet, violet-red).
Hue: “Pure” primary and secondary colors on the color wheel—yellow, red, orange, green, blue, violet
Tint: A hue plus white
Shade: A hue plus black
Chroma: how pure a hue is in relation to gray; a hue mixed with gray (white AND black) is a “tone
Saturation: The intensity of a color on a spectrum from pure hue to tint or shade.
Luminance: Amount of light reflected by a hue (more white in the mix will usually mean more luminance—but yellow is also more luminant than red, etc.)
Web-Safe Color: One of the 216 (true) colors that can be reproduced over the Internet.
HTML Color: Web-safe colors written in HTML code. HTML numbers use a hexidecimal (6 digit) system for combinations of red (left), green (middle), and blue right to make RGB color combinations. From pure FF (hue), to darkest shade (00, black) (other numbers/letters between)
See www.w3schools.com/html/htnl_colors.asp
Pantone Colors: numbered colors based on a printers ink system.
Dithering: electronic process in graphics display that allters the noise to signal ratio (intentionally creating “noise”) to create the illusion of color depth, adding and diffusing additional colors and shades from an existing palette by interspersing the pixels randomly within an image. Dithering is used to create tiled backgrounds with seamless borders, to soften/diffuse the “stairsteps” or posterization in a pixilated photo, and to create colors outside the Web “gamut (pixels of differing color blend to give appearance of the desired color).
See Wikipedia article
Unity: when the different elements of a design “hang” together visually as a whole.
Conceptual unity means “the meaning” of a design or composition is unified/clear.
Color Scheme: a logical combination of color
Complementary Colors: pair of primary or secondary colors opposite each other on a color wheel (red/green, yellow/violet, orange/blue). Placed side by side, these colors often appear to vibrate.
Analogous Colors: Colors adjacent on the color wheel.
Monochromatic Color Scheme: Colors that are all shades or tints of the same hue.
Contrasting Colors: Colors with varying degrees of luminance or saturation.
Saturation: purity of a hue. Also known as “intensity.”
Color Triad: Color scheme formed by three equally spaced colors on the color wheel.
Split Compliment: One hue plus two others equally spaced from the compliment.
Warm Colors: colors associated with daylight including red or yellow in the hue. Warm colors are considered “active” in that they appear to advance toward the viewer.
Cool Colors: colors associated with evening including blue in the hue. Cool colors are considered “passive” in that they appear to recede away.
Truecolor: method for representing graphical information with a very large number of colors, shades, and hues for high quality photographic images or complex graphics. (Provides “millions” of colors in display—16.7 million precisely.)
CH. 14 TERMS (Association) and
CH. 15 TERMS (Abstration & Semiotics)
Semiotics: A theoretical system adapted from linguistics study for
understanding visual communication as a form of language with its own conventions
and meanings communicated through visual signs and symbolism that are heavy in
connotation.
Connotation: Having latent meaning imbued with symbolism.
Denotation: a “dictionary” definition of a word, symbol, sign, or term
Sign: A representation in language (gesture, word, recognized icon)
that stands in for another concept or message. Signs are said to be
iconographic: the meaning is immediately recognized.
Symbol: A representation in language (often visual) that by
analogy or accepted convention indicates a common or implied meaning. Symbols
are metaphoric and often visual — their meaning is implied by analogy,
tradition, or association (via metonymy or correspondence)
Signifier: a symbol or sign used to represent an object, place,
thing, concept, idea, or other message.
Signified: The message that is communicated.
Referent: The object or concept a sign or signifier refers to.
Conceptual
Art: When art uses a comparative
similarity of different visual elements based on a common idea or thought (As
in Seven: seven circles, the numeral 7, the printed word seven. Also, art that
evokes a mood or feeling versus a direct representation of an object or scene.
Sensory: Invoking one or all of the non-visual senses touch, taste,
smell, but particularly touch or feeling.
Metonomy: A figure of speech in which a thing or concept is not
called by its own name but by the name of something intimately associated with
(or a part of) it, as in business executives being called “suits” or the
Federal Government referred to as “Washington.”
Abstraction: A form of artistic expression that departs from
representational realism and instead strives to focus the artistic message on
the alteration of reality in a way that expresses the artist’s internal state,
feelings about the subject, or how an object might be seen differently.
Non-representational
Abstraction: A conceptual approach to art that
explores the subconscious or depicts an altered visual reality of the world. Abstraction
exists along a continuum. Even art that aims for verisimilitude of the highest
degree can be said to be abstract, at least theoretically, since perfect
representation is likely to be exceedingly elusive. Artwork which takes
liberties, altering for instance color and form in ways that are conspicuous,
can be said to be partially abstract.
Total
non-representational abstraction:
bears no trace of any reference to anything recognizable, such as the work of
Jackson Pollack.
Pure
Design: geometric or abstract imagery focused
purely on subjective beauty or drama and exploring how shapes, line, form, and
color work together aesthetically.
Two
Concepts you should know from Chapter 15
- Know the reasons why a designer uses abstraction
- Be prepared to name several techniques a designer might use to apply abstraction to an image.
Rhetorical Resonance: an
attribute of persuasive language or imagery that resonates with the audience by
echoing familiar meanings in new situations. For instance, emphasizing two
language objects together as a hybrid unit (as in headline-graphic linkage).
The two elements may be arranged to give a brand new meaning to each separate
“word” and/or icon. Puns and other similar plays on words (the double entendre)
are believed to be the most common rhetorical tools for creating resonance
Masking: In digital imagery, covering up or “erasing” a selective
part of the content of a layer to reveal differentiated content from a layer
below. Photo masking is used to change value, color, detail, sharpness, special
filter effects, etc. to one part of a photo while leaving other parts
unchanged.
Masking is sometimes likened to stenciling in painting — the cardboard around a stencil forms a mask and when lifted away reveals the original surface while the “hole” has, when sprayed with paint, imprinted a new image.
If you've ever painted a wall, you probably used masking tape to protect specific areas from getting paint on them. Masks in image editing software work almost the same way. But masks in your image editing software can provide varying levels of protection by utilizing grays (percentages of black), thereby allowing you to create soft fades, decorative edges, and translucent effects.)
Masking is sometimes likened to stenciling in painting — the cardboard around a stencil forms a mask and when lifted away reveals the original surface while the “hole” has, when sprayed with paint, imprinted a new image.
If you've ever painted a wall, you probably used masking tape to protect specific areas from getting paint on them. Masks in image editing software work almost the same way. But masks in your image editing software can provide varying levels of protection by utilizing grays (percentages of black), thereby allowing you to create soft fades, decorative edges, and translucent effects.)
Layers: In photo - imaging software,
image “palettes” overlaid one on top of the other to complete a single photo composition.
Layers provide greater control over the imagery by placing objects or photo
effects in separated palettes, enabling related selections to be worked on
without affecting the rest of the image. In other words, a layer is simply one image
stacked on top of another as though on pieces of cellophane. Objects or effects
placed in separate layers can be freely moved apart from each other. Objects
can be added, or any object can be removed or changed without affecting the
images in other layers. The final result viewed on the monitor is the composite
of all layers, which can then be "flattened" into one layer for
conversion into a JPEG, BMP, TIF or other raster file format. (The original
image can be maintained in its layered format for future modifications, such as
in Photoshop's proprietary PSD format. Layers can be turned on and off for
slightly different compositions.)
Compositing: Combining visual elements from separate sources into a
single image, often to create the illusion that all those elements are parts of
the same scene. In Photoshop, compositing is created using layers.
