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!