With the rapid development of technology, people’s physical demands have been increasing. Issues other than superficial ones are often deliberately ignored. How the psychological aspects in illustration art works are presented to warn mankind against related problems through metaphors and correct their clinging of the misconception of superficial beauty; and how, through illustrations composed of illusions, to provide introspection on the common customs, society, or real life styles to further lead to questioning and researching are important issues for art creators. This study aims to explore the theories of illusions and meanings of metaphorical and sarcastic illustrations and presents the illustrations from the experimental creation based on the integration and application of both types of illustrations. The specific goals of this study include （1） to explore the features and types of visual illusion and illusion composition; （2） to explore the meanings of sarcastic and metaphoric expression styles and their relationships with semiotics; and （3） to apply techniques of visual illusion and illusion composition to creation of a series of illustrations which send warning messages to the modern society.
This study aims to explore illusion composition based mainly on three types of visual illusion images, which are “figure-ground” images, ambiguous figures or hidden pictures, and contradiction space images, and uses the works of two international well-know design masters, Shigeo Fukuda and Noma Bar, as examples to analyze the features of their styles in composition. Fukuda is good at diversified forms of visual illusion while Bar prefers using “figure-ground” images. Their styles are significantly different. The presenting styles of “sarcasm” are mainly through indirectly expressions （puns） between/among images, to achieve the “metaphoric” effect of “implied meanings” by rhetorical comparisons. Or, techniques such as exaggeration and contrast are used to enhance the function of “sarcasm”. As for the applications of semiotics, the bridges are usually the signifier and the signified from the theory of semiotics by F. de Saussure to control the internal concepts or extended double （multiple） meanings as “accepted through common practice”.
The direction of topics for creation in this study is to contain some social meaning. The purpose is to, through sarcastic and metaphoric techniques to discover all kinds of phenomena in the society, to expose things that are avoided to talk about or ignored, and to refer to greedy human nature or disadvantages caused by the advancement of technology. In the initial stage, a total of 15 sarcastic and metaphoric illustrations composed of illusions are completed. They can be categorized into five series based on their topics:
(1) The hypocrisy and greed series: the works which refer to modern people’s impractical attitude of hypocrisy and greed, including “Hiding a Dagger behind a Smile”, “Improper Thought”, “Hypocrite”, etc.
(2) The mammonism series: the works which refer to the attitude of dreaming that “money
can buy everything” under the influence of capitalism, including “Withdrawing Money to Make Purchases”, “Can Money Buy Everything?”, “True Love? Dear Love!”, etc.
(3) The lost in science and technology series: the works which refer to modern people’s attitude of being superstitious that science and technology can do anything which result in them indulging in science and technology and not being able to extricate themselves, including “Can’t Live with You?!”, “Which Is Real and Which Is Not?”, “The Culture of Vanity”, etc.
(4) The risk of peace series: the works which refer to Taiwanese’ attitude of pursuing peace while not knowing the price they must pay or the risk they must take for peace, including “Good Buddies?”, “The So-Called Peace”, “Where Peace Comes from”, etc.
(5) The cheating under cover of a diversion series: the works which refer to the attitude of not hesitating to go all lengths secretly to achieve a goal, including “Under the Surface”, “Having Fun with the Crane Game”, “Tearing Down Declared Monuments Properly”, etc.