This image is a photograph taken for the advertising campaign behind the 1957 Pontiac Thunderbird II Concept Car.  The car was never put into production, but the image evokes an era of automotive design that has been mostly forgotten.

Representational:  The image is of a car built during the time of space-age design when American was at the forefront of design and ingenuity.  The picture shows two young, dapper men taking their (most likely) girlfriends out for a nice drive.  The car is positioned on a runway in order to evoke an even more jet-like feel and approach.  While on one hand this is just a photograph of a car, it was much more than that for proud Americans in 1957 as it represented the future.

Abstraction:  The abstraction is visible not necessarily in the medium used but rather in the car photographed.  While it has four wheels, headlights, a steering wheel, and other basics that allow it to arguably fit our standard definition of an automobile, it has been melded with the design cues of a jet aircraft to make it look like it was delivered out of the future.  The fact is, that this 'car' is more aircraft than car at all.  It is only a car by using an abstract sense of the definition and that was obviously the entire purpose of its design: to link the gap between the automotive age and the space age.

Symbolic:  The styling cues of the car are obviously used in an effort to evoke space age fantasies.  But these are not done through functionality but rather parts and pieces that represent something else to us.  When you view the rear of the car you immediately see a large vertical fin along the back of the trunk as well as taillights on either side designed to mimic jet engines.  The large, glass bubble-top covering the passengers allows its occupants to opportunity to look up and around in space and the sleek design makes it appear ready for take-off.  All of these styling cues are used not in an effort to fool the onlooker into thinking it is an actual spacecraft, but rather to symbolize the signs of the time.  With them, this image is able to show the past as well as the future of automotive design and Pontiac's willingness to adapt to a futuristic world.

I chose this image of a 1927 Ford RPU because its is very obviously a photo-graphical representation of an actual car.  The photographer separated the image from the rest of the background to balance the image and to avoid the observer from being distracted by an unnecessary setting.  In doing this, the viewer is able to notice details of the car which make it obvious that it is an actual car and not a drawing or 3D representation.  The large shadows allow for the size to become apparent so that it is not confused with a small but physical model.  The image is succinct but efficient and expressive.

For my abstraction I chose a painting of a very similar 1929 Ford RPU by Keith Weesner.  The artist has obviously taken the time to include details to make it appear somewhat realistic and life-like, but at the same time has been liberal with his artistic expression in order to make it his own.  The basic dimensions of the car are obviously modified and changed in order to make it appear more sleek and aggressive.  Furthermore, items like the wheels are tires have been painted as more elliptical shapes rather that rounds ones.  The view can still appreciate the fact that it is a tire, but the ellipse gives the viewer the feeling of forward movement.  The almost cartoonish proportions of the rest of the car allow us to see the woman in the passenger seat as more of a character than a person as she as similarly awkward angles and features once she is closely examined.  Although this image would fall short as a technical sketch, it works great as an abstraction because the liberation taken flows throughout the entire image.

 As my symbolic image, I chose to use an image that was created as a thought provoking backlash towards to over-used 'Coexist' bumper stickers.  The coexist bumper stickers had the word spelled out using a multitude of religious symbols.  This allowed the original creator to express the image of coexisting not only through word-play but also through visual cues by showing the view religious signs shown together when they are usually independent of one another.  This artist, in order to mock the original, did the same thing but used emblems from firearm manufactures.  It uses symbolism in three ways to get it's point across.  The first is simply by putting logos that use or resemble letters of the alphabet together in order to make the view see them as a word.  The second, is to assemble it in such a fashion that the viewer sees it and initially recognizes it as the bumper sticker using religious symbols before realizing what has changed.  The third way is just the mere fact that he or she used logos from firearms manufactures to spell out a word like "coexist" creates a certain amount of irony since anybody that recognizes the logos will inevitably know that they brands they represent are not in the business of selling coexistence.