Assignment 4

screaming into the shower is a favourite past time of mine, and so, it's inevitable that this is the theme of my poster.

(that sounded marginally boring.)

anyway. save the music is the running theme, and i thought about all the different things that are music related and thought about Singapore Idol, and how it's ironic that Singapore idols never really seem to become big stars like their american counterparts. i wanted to go with that theme, and how, sometimes, people should really not try and sing anywhere else but in the privacy of their own home. then i thought, where do people usually sing the most at home?

even the most tone death person can sing in their shower.

so for crying out loud, STAY in that damned shower.

so the poster. proper now.

basically i envisioned a mirror, cracking because the singer was severely out of key, and hitting notes not known to the human ear. In order to put that into perspective i decided to use the mirror over a bathroom sink, where it was probable that a reflection might be found. i also wanted to add in the feel of how bad the music could sound. and in order to be polite, i wanted any of the copies to be in a rather understated tone.

so the mirror cracks, with hard, distinct edges. i think you get the idea that it's a little hard on the ears. the centre point in the mirror part attracts attention to itself, and thus, the viewer should follow the lines that flow out from it in order to be led to see the whole poster. this mirror part is the central focal point, and thus, all the other elements of the poster may be allowed to fade into the background.

also, the text is plain, simple and in white. eyecatching enough, but not that in your face, a reflection of being polite about it. (and politically correct) :)

so in presentation, remy mentioned that there was no negative space (he has a point. thanks remy). and so, i am going to do something about the back ground, either grayscale it, or sepia, but i was also thinking of trying out the filters in photoshop. the whole point is to make the backgrounds less significant, and make the mirror part stand out. the mirror stays as full colour, again reiterating the idea that that is the central focal point.

also, the type face of the text seems to look a little warped. will look into that. :)

later friends!

Assignment 5

love, actually, is all around.

this assignment. THIS assignment, i finally understood what i was freaking doing!!! ok for starters the theme made perfect sense to me. and i mean perfect. what can i say? i'm a romantic. :) anyway. i got advise to stick to the quote i used.

"and when the stars fall i will lie awake, cause' you're my shooting star..."

hence. that renders a shooting star across the nightsky. i dont know how that's going to work. but i will try.

til then.

Assignment 3 part2

well. technically it's part one.

i have thought of a new concept for this assignment, something simpler, and i think, technically more feasible.

1. clock face shows 4 minutes left.
2. boy hard at work, thinking hard how to do his assignment.
3. boy in pose, counting on his fingers some numbers.
4. boy puts pen to paper, scribbles some numbers.
5. time shows 2 minutes left.
6. boy is stressed.
7. suddenly, a stroke of genius!
8. writes quickly.
9. stops time with 10 secs left.
10. Hand holds up a completed sudoku puzzle.

what sayest all of ye? :)

i think i'll put this into action. it's much easier, and the story's more direct. :)

Assignment 3

first up, apologies for the inability to produce more thant just sketches (and not very good ones at that) for this assignment. i've had a crazy schedule which has just ended, and i couldnt find a dog to shot the pictures with.

but it will be done, and they shall be flashed here for comment.

it's been SUPER HARD trying to get inspiration for the story. i'm not entirely satisfied with this one that i've chosen, but i'm going with it first, because all my other story lines seem crude. in any case, i cant expect any comments until i get the pictures done. anyway.

please dont have my head for lunch because i can only present my story idea tomoro. ARGH.

very frus now. ah well.

Assignment 2

why does it seem so difficult to find SOMETHING to distill and turn into a symbol?

because we live in a world where virtually EVERYTHING has been simplified into a symbol.

but. i managed to convince myself into doing something. it's not great (at least i think it's a little too simple and primative at this stage), but i am, of course, going to get some advice from my classmates. ultimately the whole concept might change, but at this point, i am happy, somewhat, with what i've done.

so the assignment entailed that i should select something, object or event alike, and develop a symbol for it. for this assignment, i selected badminton as the event to be symbollized. i selected the shuttlecock, seeing that it is, in essence, the defining symbol of badminton. other objects associated with badminton are not especially distinct to the sport of badminton. thus, i selected the shuttlecock to develop into a symbol.

for the process, i chose iconic representation, which pretty much entailed trying to imitate the shape of the shuttlecock, and developing that into a symbol for badminton. AGAIN, the picture files need to be converted to jpeg before i can upload them, so they'll be up soon. hopefully.

i'll be writing more when i get comments and stuff, but at this stage, the main difficulties were looking for the object to put through abstraction; especially looking for one which wasnt already obviously developed into a symbol. i'm not saying the shuttlecock hasn't already been developed, it's more like i havent actually seen a symbol of badminton that is quite like the one i've developed. whether that is due to ignorance or inability, i'm not sure. but when comments come streaming in tomorrow, i will know. hopefully, it works out.

ok. that's it for now.

Assignment 1

and so. the journey begins. me with almost zero design experience and any art skills. sometimes i wonder if this module is the right one for me. AH well. no turning back now that i'm already here, taking the module.

i shall post my sketches later, when i find the time to scan them and put them up. but the prototypes! they are done!

i cannot upload the images at the moment though. blogger doesnt accept tiff format. so i must convert them before i upload them.

however. that being said, this assignment was quite an experience.

for starters, i've never had to do anything with regards to design in my life thus far, so it's definitely an eyeopener. learnt quite a number of things this time around.

firstly, there are many things you can do with letters in a name. manipulating them and changing their shapes to create your own type of "font" can reflect many things. perhaps many examples already exists, like stylised fonts, but you never realise how versatile letters can be when you dont attempt to work with them. in any case, i've also realised that while words dont grab attention first when placed with other things in say, a sign, for example, the way the words are arranged and placed, which adds a whole new visual element to it, becomes the thing that grabs your attention. it's all in the manipulation. my classmates mentioned that from far, viewing my first design, with the guitars, it looks like it says only NG, and nothing else. if NG is associated with "NO GOOD", then i must look into it again. but the point is i was just trying to relate the letters of my name with the various shapes associated with a guitar, which is why the straight and angular letters form the fret board, and the curvy letters form the body of the guitar. i think the image DOES convey the message that i like guitars. that's what i think; the important thing here is what people think of it. at first glance, my classmates are right. NG stands out. but the guitar shape is also quite clear. in fact, i'm rather satisfied with the design. i think i might not change it. we'll see how it goes.

Secondly. in terms of technical skills, i've learnt how to use macromedia's suite of programmes, beginning with Freehand, and now, the product i'm most well versed with is Fireworks, thanks to an extremely tech savvy friend of mine. this particular friend also helped me with my second design, advising me as my concept took shape. which is why i decided to change the concept for my 2nd design, the one about the shoes. anyway, i've had ALOT of practice trying to draw out the shoe, from scratch, without a scanner and anything to trace. it took forever. might have been a better idea to scan, but not being able to scan also gave me the freedom to make changes without being influenced by the original design. it seemed much easier and less painful when i didnt have anything in the background to act as a benchmark. i think the process allowed me to come up with a better shaped shoe, with better shaped letters. the colour scheme though, might need some work. right now the letters dont particularly standout yet. also, the shoe needs to be further shaped, to look thinner and more realistic. hopefully the final product will look better.

thirdly, and well, finally, after reflecting on the whole process, and looking back on my work, i realised that at each stage of producing the prototype the design changed, or the concept changed, or some change was definitely made. the ideas developed into something quite different from the initial sketches. i suppose when tou design, depending on your mood and the working atmosphere, different inspirations come. i think my ideas in general do show to some degree the idea that guitars are a passion and shoes, an obsession. however, the shoe design could definitely do with colour changes to make the words stand out more.

so the novice designer me, shall return to the drawing board (or rather, computer screen) and work with colours. i pray my eyes make it through the semester.

off i go!