Meaning in Design

1.  Representation

This picture is a representation photo of a 747 jet.  More specifically this is a Dragonair Cargo jet that transfers cargo all across the world.  You can tell this photo is representational because of the large amount of detail in the photo.  This photo was captured this year at the San Francisco airport late in the evening.  You can see that this shows all the elements of the plane, surrounding areas, as well as the airport itself.  Capturing this much detail from the photograph proves this is a representational photo.

2.  Abstraction

This is a picture of an airplane that is reduced to the basic elements of what a plane is.  This makes the picture an abstract drawing of what a plane really is.  This is a function based abstraction because it looks like what it does.  It gives the basic function of the plane by showing the shape of the fuselage, the wings, and the jet engines.  You can tell it’s not a representation because of the lack of detail on the drawing.  It is a primitive sketch of what an airplane looks like in flight thus making it an abstract drawing.

3.  Symbol

This is a common sign that we see on the roads that signifies to the driver that there is an airport ahead.  It is a graphical symbol that is common knowledge to our culture as well as many other cultures.  For most countries this is the common symbol we see to find an airport.  This symbol denotes a basic drawing of an airplane so it is easy for the viewer to understand what they are looking at.  There maybe different types of variations of this symbol from county to country, but most of the signs look very similar.  It is a common sign we use everyday that signifies a symbol.