Selective Preference in Visual Design: A Case Study of Cover Designs of Industrial Design Magazine

Abstract

The cover designs of professional magazines can reflect trends in visual design. Based on the cover designs of 27 issues of “Industrial Design” magazine from 1967 to 1974, the purpose of this study is to study how people recognize cover designs which purposely reflect Taiwan’s design development and visual design trends. In particular the study explores the empirical selective preference of “Industrial Design” magazine’s cover design and how matches between the designer’s intension and user’s preference support the assumption that visual design trend exists in these cover designs. In this study, the stimulus materials are cover designs as an “encoding” process, and the subjects are viewers as a “decoding” process, both of which draw on the visual significance of the cover design in terms of “Creativity in Layout” and “Balance in Proportion.” Results showed that the selective preference of viewers differs with age, gender and education background. This study also purposes an approach of using MDS analysis to understand user perceptions and demonstrate that the results are worthy of further study.