When you look at this photo, where do your eyes go first? And where do they end up resting? Click the photo and it should open up in its own window at a bigger size.
I took this photo while Steve was driving. Pipe trucks always get my attention because they scare me so my eyes go to the pipes. And I like the look of these pipes – the blue, the different sizes. I look at the pipes. But the FedEx logo pulls my eyes over and I end up at the green 'Ex'.
Made me wonder how it would be in black and white…
Let me know what you see!

my eyes go immediately to those pipes
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I saw the pipes first but what happened to the “e” in FED???
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Thank you for pointing out what should have been obvious! I never even saw the bad e! I suppose I have seen that logo so many times that I saw what I expected to see. And you know what? That is something we do all the time. Thats why, when you draw, you spend more time really looking at what you are drawing than you do looking at your paper or canvas.
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I see the large pipe first. I think it is because naturally, or rather habitually, we read things from left to right. So your eye rests on the large circle first. The bad E caught my eye too. A few years ago my daughter pointed out the arrow shape that makes up the space between the E and X in ex. Now I always see it when I look at the Fed-ex logo.
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My eyes go to the green “Ex” (because of the color, I think) and then to the pipes. They end up on the “Ex.”
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In the color version, my eyes went to the pipes because they always scare me when I’m on the road! I always hope that they secured them properly! lol.
When you converted to black and white, my eyes would always go for the black empty spaces of the smaller pipes.
By the way, I always see the arrow in FedEx (between the letters “e” and “x”. It is an intentional part of their logo.
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I know that arrow is there too and I always have to work to notice it. Yet another reason why writing about absolutes in design is nearly impossible.
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This is an interesting exercise!
The large pipe catches my eyes first which has a scary sort of fascination so they keep going back to it. When I do look at the FedEx truck I’m drawn to the flaw in the “e” which annoys me so I dismiss it. I think I don’t “see” FedEx right away because I don’t have to read it. It’s such a common logo I don’t have to look directly at it to acknowledge it’s there, so it wouldn’t normally catch my interest.
Now if my dogs see the FedEx truck……
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I started at the large pipe but then the e turned o grabbed me. I didnt even note the EX
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Large pipe, small pipes, “e.” First, because the “e” is wrong, second, because the shape & scale of the “e” echoes the small pipes. A happy coincidence!
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I see the big round pipe. The big circle shape takes my eye.
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Wow, I have never, ever noticed the arrow before.
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This is so funny..like you I fixed my gaze on the pipes as I do when I see them going down the road. I think it is more the space between the piles that I find interesting, a secondary pattern of sorts. I did not even notice the missing bar in e or the arrow I. Ex- not very observant of me!
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What do I see?
Fed EX…..
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The big pipe caught my attention right away. Then I noticed the missing line of the e. Once I saw that, it held my focus and I stayed stuck there, even in the next photo.
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The big pipe and the light shining thru it!
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The truck with the pipes caught my immediate attention. Maybe because it’s different and I see Fed Ex trucks all the time.
Interesting that most people also saw the pipes first.
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The white area in the large pipe and the surrounding curve within the large pipe caught my attention first. Then my eyes rested on the dark area below the FedEx truck. The narrow stripe of white within the dark rectangle (under the truck) held my interest and rested my eyes.
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My eyes see the drunkards path block formed by the blocks, in both the color and BW version. I am (slightly) obsessed I think 🙂
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