a journey through nm2208

Assignment 1

2009-11-08T08:53:00.001-08:00

Original Ideas:

Instructions :
Select 2 words which best describes your character.
Come up with 8 design concepts.

My interpretation of my character is one that is bubbly, outgoing, always having fun. Therefore I chose two words, namely "cosmetics" and "having fun".

"Having fun" because... do I need a reason for that? =)

"Cosmetics" because they come in so many vibrant colours. Its a vibrancy that I want associated with me.

The ones on the left are "Having Fun" while the ones on the right are "Cosmetics"

I went with JOY instead of JOYCE also because I wanted to add another dimension to my design concepts. I thought that by using JOY, it will also portray the cheerful, optimistic person that I am.

Critiques:

After coming up with the 4 thumbnails, it is very much the refinement process that is important now.

I’ve got a couple of critiques about those thumbnails:

1. The colours are not appealing. (cosmetics)
2. The words on the card are distracting and pulls attention away from the letters. (cosmetics)
3. The sand looks out of place due to the colour contrast. (having fun)
4. The letters of my name are not very clear on first look. Distracting placement of elements. (having fun)

Improvements done:

Keeping in mind all those critiques, I managed to incorporate them into my final art pieces. I did the following:

1. I made the colour palette to be pinkish and purplish. More girly colours to bring coherence to the theme of cosmetics. (cosmetics)
2. I did away with the words on the card and clean up the perfume bottle so that the “J” looks more obvious. (cosmetics)
3. I brought my work piece over to Photoshop and used the blur and smudge tool to make the sand and sky layer look blended together for a nicer finish. (having fun)
4. I played around with the placement of the elements and brought the “O” up such that it leads the eye on to the man who is forming the letter “Y”.

Final product:

I am very proud of my final 2 representations of my name. I feel that they really incorporated the essence of my personality and they also portrayed a sense of style and playfulness.

Storybook preview

2009-11-08T07:50:00.007-08:00

Assignment 5

2009-11-08T07:50:00.005-08:00

Assignment 5

Original Ideas:
When I thought of music, I thought of Blues and Jazz which is why when I started sketching, I drew this outline of a man with curly ringlets with a trumpet.

Critiques:
Most people were happy with the colour template that I chose for my final postcard but were puzzled about the size that I chose for the postcard. It was an unconventional size, being much longer than the normal sized one.
I had one very critical critique that said my postcard and drawing looked a little like Clipart. In a way I’m honored cause Clipart is mass art meaning that my drawing has mass appeal. HAHA. But it also means that my drawing is very simple and easily replicated. This is a big NO NO, especially for a design module. I thought long and hard about this critique and decided that I should completely scrape my original idea.
Another round of brainstorming soon ensued. This time, I referred back to Assignment 1, finding something delightful in the way I saw letters in objects. Using that, I came up with a whole new design for the postcard.
Improvements done:
Since I redid my whole assignment, I would have to say that it is overall an improvement. At least my images were not like Clipart anymore. And my colour palette was also redone.
Notice how I incorporated the letters “M.U.S.I.C” into the picture. =)
I also decided to retain the sizing for my postcard. (UNIQUE)

Redoing:

After hearing those comments, I then went to redraw my postcard altogether.

Criticisms included how the people looked weird. So it was back to the drawing board...

Final product:

An improvement over the previous one? I certainly do hope so.

Assignment 4

2009-11-08T07:50:00.003-08:00

Assignment 4

Original Ideas:
I love racquet sports so I knew instantly that I want to create a poster targeting those aged who used to play racquet sports. My aim was to encourage those who had placed their racquets aside to collect dust to pick up the sport once again as well as to motivate those who are already actively engaging in racquet sports to continue with it.
I thought of tennis because of the ACE serve. In tennis, during service, if you manage to hit the ball at the highest point, the ball has the most energy and therefore your service would be very powerful. That is termed the ACE serve. I came up with a catchy tagline: Serve up an ACE.
I wanted to stake out at tennis courts to get people to pose for me but I wasn’t sure where I would be able to find the aged playing. I decided then to head on down to tampines sports hall where many old men engage in friendly badminton competition.

Critiques:
Because the photos that I took were not suitable for the poster, due to too much background noise that I couldn’t remove, I got my dad to pose for me with my squash racquet. However because I wanted to stick to my original tagline, I did some photoshop to come up with the following poster.

I had a few critiques:
1. The red words were not directly visible due to the background that it was on.
2. The words representing ACE were not seen to be directly relating to the letters, defeating the purpose of it.
3. The poster looked unfinished and the picture could be manipulated to look like a Polaroid.
Improvements done:
1. I tried to replicate the style of a Polaroid photo paper and fitted the picture into it.
2. I placed the red words on the white background so that it stands out more.
3. I also broke up the letters A.C.E such that the corresponding word could fit directly beneath the letters it represented.

Final product:
Thanks to my dad being my model this time around, I was able to come up with this poster. (It’s just jarring that his hair colour is not exactly that of an elderly man)

Assignment 3

2009-11-08T07:50:00.001-08:00

Assignment 3
Original Ideas:
When I heard this assignment, I was quite excited. I wanted to play around with the idea of a twist within a story that is to be told in 8 pictures. It’s a very compelling concept to me because we were limited by words and we really have to make FULL use of visual cues to get our message across. They say “pictures say a thousand words” but for it to be able to convey the same thousand words that the photographer wanted to express takes more than just the ability to point the camera and snap.
After brainstorming, I came up with a few ideas. The first was about a marshmallow and chocolate (because I had cravings!) and another was about my cousin and her birthday.
I actually did both stories because I can’t decide which would be more interesting.

Critiques:
I did the story with a marshmallow as the main character first.

However, the story wasn’t well-received so I went ahead with my other storyline.
Improvements done:
In the second story, more humans were being photographed and it was better received because the audience could identify with the human expressions. It was also a more interesting story by vote.

Final product:
I am grateful that my mom was sporty enough to be a character in my story. I have to say that she did a good job. My dad was also part of the production team, photographing us while we posed.

Assignment 2

2009-09-23T11:33:00.000-07:00

This week's assignment is about how well we handle and manipulate visual images. The theme this year is iconic SINGAPORE buildings/places.

I've got to say that once I got the assignment outline, I was doubtful about the places I could do. A few went through my mind. Marina barrage was one of them.

Marina Barrage: I've always had the impression that marina barrage is a place for people to fly kites. So I thought of incorporating the element of kite flying into the winding pathway leading up to the level field. However my initial drawings felt mundane and a little ridiculous. Even I couldn't tell that I was trying to portray marina barrage. FAIL.

And so I thought of other buildings.

I wanted to do the Singtel building but I found that it wasn't iconic enough...

After much deliberation, I decided to work on National Indoor Stadium. The architecture of the building gave me much to work with and I appreciate the outline of the building too. Its definitely modern stadium. Another more practical reason was that there is no existing symbols for this building (I wouldn't have to fight with a national authority over whose symbol looks better/ represent the building better! yay!)

My abstraction process is as follows.

This is my final chosen abstraction to signify National Indoor Stadium.

I chose this particular abstraction because it encompasses both the elements that I felt were the key elements for this building- the windows and the unique Japanese-inspired roof.
The abstractions before this were still too complicated and the others after it lacked the windows.

I am happy with my abstraction process because i managed to make a 3D building and turn it into a 2D symbol that is still representative of the National Indoor Stadium.

*Lost more hair for this assignment because of Illustrator again. Thankfully its mostly straight lines. 10 strands and counting...

I also did a signboard with my abstraction to show the practicality of my design.

Lecture activity

2009-09-23T11:00:00.000-07:00

iconic: guitar

indexical: guitar pick

Basically, for this lecture exercise, we were supposed to draw 2 objects that are related to each other. One being the indexical object and the other, the iconic object.

Drawing on my personal likes and hobbies, I decided to draw a guitar and a pick. I realise that all guitarist and other person who is well versed with music and musical instruments would be able to draw instant connection between the pick and the guitar. To play clear bright notes or chords, a pick is usually used. The concept is no different from that of the fake nails that pi pa players use yet a pick is unique to the guitar.

One thing that might prevent anyone from thinking of a guitar when shown the triangle shaped object would be if the person is totally unaware of the existence of a pick or if the person has no prior knowledge of how a guitar is being played.

Therefore, I conclude that there must be a certain amount of learning prior to understanding the symbols/objects as they themselves do not represent or depict the original object wholly or in part.

*not too much hair lost on this exercise. =)

Cheers.

Assignment 1 (final 2)

2009-09-23T10:14:00.000-07:00

After much time spent using illustrator*, I proudly present my 2 masterpieces!

I incorporated background into both design concepts to bring about coherence in my pieces. A side table for the "cosmetics" design concept and a playground for the "having fun" design concept.

Note the use of vibrant colours. I feel that they allow cheerfulness to shine through and the colours evoke a sense of happiness in viewers.

*It was total craziness picking up everything from scratch and with absolutely no guidance at all, save for the internet. I think I lost much hair from this assignment. Hopefully I won't continue losing hair for the other assignments or by the end of 2208, I'd probably be BALD. eeks.

Cheers.

ASSIGNMENT 1 (lecture activity)

2009-09-23T08:00:00.000-07:00

Instructions :
Select 2 words which best describes your character.
Come up with 8 design concepts.

My interpretation of my character is one that is bubbly, outgoing, always having fun. Therefore I chose two words, namely "cosmetics" and "having fun".

"Having fun" because... do I need a reason for that? =)

"Cosmetics" because they come in so many vibrant colours. Its a vibrancy that I want associated with me.

The ones on the left are "Having Fun" while the ones on the right are "Cosmetics"

I went with JOY instead of JOYCE also because I wanted to add another dimension to my design concepts. I thought that by using JOY, it will also portray the cheerful, optimistic person that I am.

Cheers.