What do you see? A chaos of color, shapes, textures, and fonts. Is this display misbehaving?
Susan says, “I love this photo. Mostly for what it isn’t more than for what it is. It is not well behaved. Look hard and you won’t find a pattern. Look for a center or an organizing grid and you won’t find that either. You won’t find an easy clue as to what it is saying, or meaning, or even pretending to be. What you will see, (and they jump right out at you), are the five clock faces with the elegant fonts marching around the edges. Those fonts give a retro elegance to the photo. They bring me to a time and place when cultured analog clocks kept us on time. These big faces were clearly meant for clocks in public places. Alas, these artful pieces are no longer common. We’ve all got our smart phone and digital watches to keep us in order. Too bad I say. My guess is that this stylish font is a kin of Bodoni. Anyone know for sure?”
Lucia says, “For me it’s the shapes. Circles actually. Even the brightest element in the photo is the arc of a circular mirror. The less obvious diamond shaped grid is a solid background for the chaos of circles. This display may not follow the rules of clean lines and organization, but I like the haphazard feel of the overlapping clock faces and temperature gauges. It looks chaotic, but who knows, maybe it was put together mindfully. Was it by design or happenstance? Either way, it’s a fun display of mere serendipity.”
