IMPLIED MOTION IN DESIGN

(Both examples below can be found @ revisionarts.com)

 Joe Melhuish "Metamorphosis"

I look at this odd graphic and my immediate thought is to see it animated. I envision the webbed-matrix form circling the land spike both rotating and moving in a wavelike fashion, similar to water. This is because of its diagonal nature, which suggests stress rather than balance, and also the lighting effects mirroring water surface, and most importantly the optical effect created by the web-like pattern inside the shape tricks our eyes into seeing movement.

The cap of the land spike is being blasted-off. The blurring effect applied between the pieces of the spike suggest this action. Also, the designers decision to show a lot of textured gradient in the shadows of the dunes helps to create the illusion of an actual environment in which movement would be possible. All these factors contribute to the perception of an even taking place. Perhaps the story is that the web matrix created a causal effect on the land spike, blasting its top off into space so that the pyramids can fulfill their destiny in the stars...

MODE poster by Travis Stearns

"In the MODE experiment I wanted to synthesize the four letter forms, already in their abstraction,
with their revolved forms to generate new, ancillary graphic forms." -Travis Stearns

We see several factors of implied movement going on here in this poster piece. Over all, the highly contrasted forms create a downward directional path of eye movement. The static-y imagery of each form implies a sense of movement, as if each shape was on an old television set that wasn't coming in right. Also, as we see a morphing from actual letter-forms to abstract globs, we sense a process of change. It's as if each descending shape is a still image in a film roll; we can easily imagine watching the footage of this succession of stills, so media motion is addressed here as well. Through the combination of the strong vertical eye-path created, along with the repetition of the figures as they morph, a stroboscopic effect is created which makes us imagine all the steps of change happening between each neighboring form.

 A narrative is created by the metamorphosis of these letter forms, it is the story of abstraction. I included a bit of the designers statement of process because it describes that he captured these odd shapes by rotating the forms, perhaps in 3d modeling software; it seems the blur caused by such movement was maintained, creating something similar to an aftereffect of seeing a bright light in a dark room that suddenly goes away leaving a ghost image. All in all, this static image captures he energy of movement extremely well.