I saw The Color of Words assignment elsewhere, so I thought I’d take a look at it. I used joy as my keyword, in true Bob fashion, and the above image is what I got. One of the images in the mix featured the word prominently, so you can see it in the middle. You can also faintly see a person with a big smile in the middle. Some of the images the system picked had happy colors, but most used a muted palette, so the image is pretty muddy.
I’m kinda glad the assignment only has a star and a half, which is probably one star too many for the effort it took. But I really have to question how this is considered design at all. I see design as a deliberate decision making process to achieve a desired end, and this is lacking in both decisions and goals.
I played with the interface a bit – removing some images, sizing and cropping others, and came up with something a little more… something. The colors speak a little more, and the contents are a little more intelligible. It is possible that this could be used in a design to express washed-out joy and faded happiness, nearly forgotten memories of better times.
