Well Done vs Poor Design

Gestalt is a term meaning "unified whole."  This concept surely does a bit of justice to the well designed insignia/brand logo for The Ledges Golf Club in St. George, UT.  I feel that this logo identifies with the five main Gestalt principles beautifully.  First, the similarity in the label can be seen with the eyes right off the bat.  The contours of each arch are all lined the same, giving the eye a chance to move around the individual arches and see the "unified whole" that makes up the label.

It is also an extremely simple design, with the contrast being immaculate here.  The six arches create a hexagon, and that is the major makeup of the brand.  What makes the proximity seem like glue are the three colors that were chosen.  They are laying on top of one another and each outside edge of the arches has the same tan color; this in turn makes the piece look as though there is a hidden star of some sort.  The colors playing off one another also represents the area of the golf course, as it is located near Snow Canyon, which have the tans, oranges, reds, and so forth.  This type of relationship brings the 'identity' aspect to the conversation.  The continuity of the shapes in place together brings closure, and when looked at long enough, is pleasing to the casual onlooker.

The poor design, to me, is the logo for Southgate Golf Club, also located in St. George, UT.  There are a few arguments that can be made on behalf of this logo to explain and give reason as to why this design is very well done, yet that can be the case for many, many designs out in the visual world.  To me, however, this design doesn't quite measure up.  

Simplistic? Of course.  But other than that it is left barren and unfamiliar.  There isn't much of an identity here, either.  I mean, you can see that the designers tried to bring in the 'red' theme like everything else in the St. George area, but how it is placed onto a mountain peak just doesn't fit right. This leads me into the next point (pun intended).  How the black and red mountain peaks are aligned give me the feeling of looking at an insurance company's logo, not a leisure sport's home.  The closure, or lack thereof, is leaving any onlooker to search for more.  Are they mountain peaks, or the grim reaper's collection of scythes?  

CoNtRaSt, HARMONY, & balance &

This photo was taken by my friend Garett Garcia on my iPhone 6.  We were golfing out at the Sand Hollow golf course at dusk when he took this, and it was while we were driving in a golf cart. Thus, it was a complete accident how it turned out.  However, that is how many of the beautiful pictures come to be.

The contrast does many things here.  The soft and subtle green grass evolves into an intensity of reds, yellows, and oranges.  This gradually fades to a slight pink hue and finally into that deep sky blue.  Psychologically, this image has toyed with my mind and emotions.  I feel very calm looking at the picture overall, as most individuals see a sunset as romantic or soothing (which can be very cultural as well depending on one's context of life).  This sense of security and calmness comes from the social meaning of a sunset, which most people group together in saying that the "twilight" of life is the most sublime, and where one enjoys themselves the most.
Yet, my eyes always drift to the focal point of the sun.  It's an explosion.  It catches me off guard the longer I study it.  The soft salmon pinks between the navy mountains and the white clouds shows the contrast of space the best.  It makes it feel as though the sun is a worm hole, sucking the earth into it, and that space between the mountains and clouds makes it seem as if the sucking is at an extremely fast pace; what an excellent play on space this is.  The contrast between the texture of the grass and rock formation covering the sun, compared with the seemingly silky, smooth sky really hits home physically.  If I were to place my hand on the sky and clouds, it would definitely feel like a type of soft fabric, i.e. silk, velvet, or felt.  Contrasting that is the almost 'carpety' feel of the grass, which gives another dimension of contrast in the position of these two elements.  The catalyst of the 'pop' of light that makes the light rays is the rock formation.  The rough shape acts as a covering for the light to make a splash.

The aforementioned light rays act as the "balance beams."  To me, it is as if the earth is somehow suspended from these lines of light, holding onto the light and keeping the earth in tact and appropriately aligned.  At first, I thought that without the sun and beams of light in the picture, it would have felt more in balance. Yet, that is just what we are accustomed to.  Seeing patterns of the horizon being a line, or a harmony of dark and light.  Somehow the sun pulls away from that normality, and disrupts the expectation of a smooth transition enough to make it perfectly balance each of the sides of the picture.  This has everything to do with the orientation.  Without the effect of the rays, and the perfectly assembled perspective that the clouds bring would not have the zoom-zoom Mazda effect.  Lastly, the social perspective of a cowboy or desperado beating the odds comes to mind.  This cultural aspect gives one a sense of winning, or overcoming.

Visceral Response

Like many in the class have pointed out in their responses, nature is the most stupefying reality in the entire existence of human observance.  This picture was actually taken on my birthday last year with my iPhone.  It is located in Kolob Canyon, which is directly adjacent to Zion National Park.  It was a very rainy December day in St. George and I told my then fiancé that I would love to go see the weather and landscape in Kolob.  I had previously been there when it was inclement weather, so I wanted to venture into this part of stupor to recapture that vivid, yet elusive feeling.  What a wonderful birthday present.

The way the jagged lines that the clouds form over the red and jolting mountains gave me the chills.  We were driving up the road and as soon as I looked to my right, I was floored.  It spoke to me beyond the ears.  It encapsulated a very real power from within with the contrast of the red against the white, combined with the texture of the rock and the bristling of the sage and yellow grass.  It is as if the unseen crispness of the air protrudes from the picture to add a sense of being in the picture; the stiffness of the lines in the grass conveys this perfectly.  All of the mild and cool hues brushed up in contrast against the vibrant reds and oranges sent chills and tingles down my spine. I didn't think I could capture the shadows of the cliffs against each other on a phone camera, but it came out amazingly.  The clouds are shrouding the heavens, evoking a mystifying feeling that somehow there is more that we are missing.  Yet, that is what is so 'stupefying' to me, the curiosity and wonder that brings the breath-taking effect to one's being. In describing this frame of time and place, visceral truly is the only relatable process between the mind and the soul.