technique which is finding increasingly common use among graphic designers, particularly in the world of advertising, is one which aims to gain attention by presenting a scene or an image in a way which defies the paradigms with which we expect the world around us to conform. Such a technique is not new, of course, being found in the work of artists like Salvador Dali and Pablo Picasso, to name but two illustrious exponents. Both produced works of almost hypnotic quality, startling the viewer with their unexpectedness and nonconformity with conditioned concepts of structure and order.

More recently, the work of the Dutch graphic artist Maurits Corneille Escher, who died in 1972, has become increasingly popular because of its unique combination of meticulous precision with visual trickery. In 1955 Escher created a visual paradox in the lithograph Concave and Convex by combining two separate perspectives into a unified, coherent whole. His work is especially notable for its creation of impossible perspectives and optical illusions – endless staircases and uphill waterfalls – as well as its exploration of the theme of metamorphosis. Even more recently, television advertising has exploited the new technology of morphing to capture viewers’ attention by progressively deforming one object – e.g. a car-until it becomes another object such as a galloping stallion.

Analysis of historical examples of this technique show that they fall into a set of categories. Dali’s clock appears to have the ‘wrong’ physical properties, for example; we don’t expect clocks to be flexible. Picasso’s portraits have the wrong spatial relationships; we expect eyes to be side by side. Many of Escher’s works appear to have the wrong perspective, although their precision attempts to persuade us otherwise. Other categories involve placing objects within the wrong context, giving them the wrong colour or texture, juxtapositioning objects with the wrong relative sizes and so on. In all cases the objective is the same – to startle the viewer and thereby to gain attention.

The historical examples mentioned above were, of course, created by master craftsmen, using traditional techniques to achieve their impact. In this first chapter of the workshop we shall explore ways in which we can also use digital techniques to defy the paradigms.

Magic Bricks

This example, which is typical of the work of Maurits Escher, presents a simple brick construction which, at first glance, appears visually convincing. Only a closer look tells us that there is something not quite ‘right’ about it. The secret about such deceptions is to position components within a composition in such a way that they appear to be physically connected when in fact they are only optically aligned. In this case, the first ‘brick’ which, in fact, consists only of two sides and a top, is created by skewing a square as shown in Figure 4.1(a). The key in this example is to choose the correct skew angle so that assembly of the bricks as shown in Figure 4.1(b) produces the required alignment.

Figure 4.1 (a) Constructing the first brick

Figure 4.1 (b) The final assembly

Weaving

In our normal everyday experience, organic and inorganic objects occupy separate domains (although there are minor exceptions such as the practice of body piercing for the purpose of wearing jewellery). This example overturns that normal experience by presenting the viewer with a hybrid object which seems to have been constructed by weaving together a face and what appears to be some kind of basketwork – Figure 4.2.

Figure 4.2 Weaving

Scuba Diving

One paradigm which alters with age is that of the scale of the objects around us in relation to one another. The baby’s perception of scale adjusts as it grows to adulthood – the large teddy bear which terrorised it from the end of its cot now looks like the cuddly toy it seemed to its parents. Once developed, this paradigm of scale is very strong, providing an opportunity for the designer of advertising graphics to gain the attention of the reader by altering the relative scale of objects within a scene so that they no longer fit the viewer’s expectations. The scuba diver in a goldfish bowl is an example of this – Figure 4.3.

Figure 4.3 Scuba diver

The Return of King Kong

One of my most vivid childhood memories is that of watching the film King Kong in a state of almost paralysed shock. I should explain that I was only about seven at the time and, to this day, I still wonder what the film censors were thinking about when they gave the film a general release certificate. Judging by the looks on the faces around me in the cinema and by the disappearance of heads in front of me as their owners sought refuge under their seats, I suspect the film traumatised many of my generation. Of course the director’s objective was to shock and certainly in the matinee performance at my local cinema, he succeeded admirably.

This success was achieved using the technique we just looked at for the scuba diver example – by giving the leading role to a ferocious mountain gorilla one hundred feet tall when most of us in the cinema thought of a gorilla in the form of the docile aging male seen amiably munching leaves on family visits to Glasgow’s Calderpark Zoo. The shock effect was further enhanced by removing the gorilla from his normal habitat – i.e. safely behind bars – to our habitat which we considered to be definitely a gorilla-free zone.

Figure 4.4 shows a modern day King Kong transported this time from his native Africa not to the height of the Empire State building in New York, but instead to La Grande Arche at La Defense in Paris.

Figure 4.4 King Kong

Spookbook

This example – Figure 4.5 – achieves impact in several ways. The first is due to the fact that the hand holding the book is skeletal, evoking subconscious associations with dark nights and grisly going`s-on; the second way is through the fact that the book is not just any book, but has a dark, slightly sinister appearance, reinforced by the title; the third way is that the rest of the skeleton is missing, the hand appearing to emerge spookily from inside the book; finally the image begs the obvious question ‘What use would a skeleton have for a book anyway?’

Figure 4.5 Spook book

Stonehenge

The megalithic structure of massive vertical stones and horizontal lintels which comprise Stonehenge has become an internationally recognised monument which attracts thousands of visitors to Salisbury in England every year. Dating back to the late Stone Age, its chillingly named Slaughter Stone harks back to the practices of our early ancestors who are believed to have used the site for pagan rituals. The positioning of the stones as a means of predicting certain astronomic events also gives the site a very special atmosphere. This example (Figure 4.6) further enhances the already ghostly nature of the site by adding a heavenly face which appears to be looking down on the stones, perhaps recalling with sadness the victims of the many sacrifices witnessed there!

Figure 4.6 Stonehenge

Kicking Horse

The image of the wild, unbroken stallion is one familiar to lovers of old Western movies. Throwing its would be riders and kicking down fences were virtually its stock in trade. The horse was also a popular subject for paintings in the centuries before photography, as wealthy owners commissioned artists to immortalise race winners on canvas. This example (Figure 4.7) combines these two threads in an unexpected way. A picture of a horse in a picture frame, or a picture of a horse kicking down a fence would be unremarkable. The sight of a horse within a picture kicking itself out of its picture frame, on the other hand, would be an altogether more unexpected image.

Figure 4.7 Kickinghorse

The Sign Painter

Of all the members of the animal kingdom, few command our respect more than the tiger. Perhaps we have inherited such respect from those among our ancestors who managed to avoid becoming a sabre tooth’s supper! The image of the tiger used here (Figure 4.8) plays on our subconscious fear of this powerful predator, while the ploy of bringing such an outsized inanimate version to life is the stuff of nightmares. Amusement at the misfortune of others – in this case the hapless sign painter – is probably another instinct we have inherited from our ancient ancestors.

Rodeo

While the classic Western movie may have given way to modern equivalents like Star Wars and Top Gun, the romance of the Wild West remains an enduring one. A familiar scene within the Western was the rodeo, where cowboys pitted their skills and experience against the strength and wiles of wild mustangs. Inspired by such memories, this example plucks an unsuspecting cowpoke from his passive and clearly aging mount and places him on the back of a rather surprised looking grasshopper whose height to weight jumping ratio would put to shame the wildest of rodeo stallions (Figure 4.9). Like earlier examples, this one uses the incongruity of scale for its effect as well as the unlikely partnership of man and insect.

Figure 4.9 Rodeo

Chessboard

Providing the arena for perhaps the purest form of one-to-one intellectual competition, the chessboard, with its orderly rows of black and white squares, presents an environment for structured conflict – a virtual battlefield on which the combatants, representing royalty, the church and the army, play out the strategies of small boys and Grand Masters alike. The rules of the game are precisely defined and must be assiduously followed.

In this example, that order and structure is overthrown. Across the set piece runs a human figure, fleeing from some unseen danger, blissfully unaware of her surroundings, even knocking over one of the pawns in her haste (Figure 4.10).

Figure 4.10 Chessboard

Muscles

Few teenage boys have not fantasised about how their lives would be transformed if only they could acquire the physique of an Arnold Schwarzenegger – a fantasy which has been fuelled for reasons of commercial gain since the days of Charles Atlas, with products ranging from lotions and potions, pills and tablets, to ingenious (and usually useless) exercise gadgets and contraptions. Playing on this male vanity, this example (Figure 4.11) offers an alternative solution!

Figure 4.11 Muscles

Schizophrenia

A technique exploited for many years in children’s stories and films has been the transformation of a character in the story or film from one form into another – from a frog to a prince, from Clark Kent to Superman, for example. More often, however, particularly in horror films, the transformation is from a benign form to a malign one, the classic examples being Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and Portrait of Dorian Grey. This example (Figure 4.12) employs a similar technique.

Figure 4.12 Schizophrenia

Lamode

In this example, the viewer’s attention is captured by the unexpected scale of the models in relation to the size of the text. The typeface chosen for the text – Bellevue – echoes the elegance associated with high fashion and the positioning of the models, such that their hands appear to be resting on the type characters, helps to integrate them into the composition.

Figure 4.13 La Mode

The Web

Given that a significant proportion of the population suffer, in varying degrees, from arachnaphobia, or fear of spiders, the use of spiders or spiders’ webs in any graphic is a sure way to get attention! This example plays on that fear by mutating the spider and web to human size and creating the illusion that a child has strayed on to the web, provoking conflicting reactions of repulsion from the spider and protection for the child (Figure 4.14).

Figure 4.14 The web

Further Examples in Brief

Figure 4.15 – The clipart baby was scaled and positioned within a hostile fantasy background, then edited to appear to be crawling down an icy slope towards the cliff edge.

Figure 4.15 The baby

Figure 4.16 – Clipart cartoon arms, legs and musical instruments were grouped, scaled and positioned, then musical notes were added for effect.

Figure 4.16 Dancing musical instruments

Figure 4.17 – A screenshot window was captured and pasted into Painter. Painter’s Distortion Brush and Image Warp (from Effects/ Surface Control) were used to distort the image.

Figure 4.17 Screenshot

Figure 4.18 – The old man’s beard was cloned in Photoshop to cover his mouth completely.

Figure 4.18 Silence is golden

Figure 4.19 – Two clipart figures were scaled and one was rotated and then both were placed in position as hands of a clock.

Figure 4.19 Clock hands

Figure 4.20 – A copy of the bulb’s outline shape was edited and then given gradient fill. Corel’s Transparency Lens was applied to two copies of the fish (50% and 25%) and one copy was positioned behind the filament support.

Figure 4.20 Lightbulb

Figure 4.21 – A clipart clock was rotated and perspective was applied, then it was imported into Painter, where Surface Effects/Mesh Warp were used to distort the shape further. Droplet shaped selection made from bottom edge of clock using the Pen tool and three droplets were created, scaled and edited. Finally, the clock and droplets were given drop shadows.

Figure 4.21 Dripping clock

Figure 4.22 – A mutation was produced by importing clipart sheep and clipart wolf into CorelDRAW, scaling them to match in size and then node editing both objects to remove their heads from their bodies. The wolf’s head was then positioned in relation to the sheep’s body, using Arrange/Order/To Front to keep it on top

Figure 4.22 The wolfsheep