Timeline for Why do so many graphic designers suck at making gears?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
16 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mar 15 at 6:29 | comment | added | Chris H | @Esther a ring of 19 on a small circular object masks the problem a bit. Unlike with smaller numbers you have to count them, rather than seeing the quantity at a glance (an interesting phenomenon in its own right) and the lack of rectilinear symmetry means you don't have a reference to see that it's an odd number. I'll have to look more closely, but don't use coins much these days | |
| Mar 15 at 2:43 | comment | added | Mentalist | On the subject of scripts and the like, if working in Blender the bundled Extra Objects add-on includes gear types and can be a real time saver. Just needs to be enabled in prefs. | |
| Mar 14 at 23:41 | comment | added | Scott | @ChrisH There's a "Gear Up" script from Jongware for Illustrator.. out there somewhere.. just in case that's your interest. | |
| Mar 14 at 21:26 | comment | added | Esther | Matt Parker talks about this phenomenon (and it's in his book about mathematical mistakes). The British two-pound coin has 19 gears in a circle, which wouldn't move. The designer originally put 22 gears, but 3 were removed because it didn't fit properly. Also, the designer didn't really care if they would work, because they're just symbolic. | |
| Mar 14 at 20:44 | comment | added | Chris H | @supercat yes, I've seen those too, surprisingly often given that it feels like more trouble than just getting one out of excel | |
| Mar 14 at 19:03 | comment | added | supercat | @ChrisH: What's funny are pie charts that are produced by taking a piece of "pie chart" clip art and adding labels and values, without any regard for whether the sizes of wedges in the clip art bear any relationship to the values being represented. | |
| Mar 14 at 13:29 | comment | added | Chris H | I think I've used that extension in the past, but I've been doing a lot of mechanical design recently | |
| Mar 14 at 13:27 | comment | added | Billy Kerr | @ChrisH Sure. There are even plugins and extensions to create accurate gear wheels in graphics software. I used the one in Inkscape (Extensions > Render > Gear > Gear) to produce the one with the realistic teeth. The curvilinear stylisation was made using the Polygon tool, with some rounding. | |
| Mar 14 at 13:23 | comment | added | Chris H | That seems likely in many cases. I guess in all fields we see stuff going out that was finished by a clip-art user rather than an expert. I'm not a graphic designer myself, though I have to do odd bits. I might fall back on rendered or exported CAD models in a case like gears, because my skill and experience is there rather than being artistic | |
| Mar 14 at 13:13 | comment | added | Billy Kerr | @ChrisH - yeah absolutely, but the general assumption by the OP is not quite right. While a graphic designer may have initially drawn a stylised single gear wheel, putting them together in a layout is often done by people who are not in fact graphic designers. The crude scaling causing gears that could not possibly mesh is evidence that it's just copy-paste, scale and re-use. People do it because it's cheaper than hiring an actual graphic designer. This seems to be the crucial "deeper cause" the OP has not considered. | |
| Mar 14 at 11:52 | comment | added | Chris H | From more on the engineering side, I think a gap that makes it look like a gear train that meshes loosely (and would make a horrible noise in real life) is OK and equivalent to an outline in the background colour for contrast. Teeth that couldn't possibly mesh (because of crude scaling perhaps) or locked up arrangements of 3 gears are more problematic, screaming that someone is trying to look technical but doesn't have a clue. | |
| Mar 13 at 18:09 | history | edited | Billy Kerr | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
edited body
|
| Mar 13 at 17:30 | history | edited | Billy Kerr | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
added 88 characters in body
|
| Mar 13 at 17:25 | history | edited | Billy Kerr | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
added 88 characters in body
|
| Mar 13 at 17:20 | history | edited | Billy Kerr | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
added 88 characters in body
|
| Mar 13 at 17:13 | history | answered | Billy Kerr | CC BY-SA 4.0 |