NM2208

My portfolio

2007-04-19T19:36:00.000-07:00

Assignment 7: Final Presentation

2007-04-12T23:59:00.000-07:00

Printing for final presentation. Due to budget, we will not be doing hardcover copy; we will just be using thicker paper for our cover page. As the pages were not a lot, we also decided that binding were not necessary, therefore we will be stapling our book instead. Stapling also allow the opening of the book wide flat, which actually facilitated our reader in doing our activities. Re-ordering of the pages was needed to be made to allow the duplex printing of pages, to be stapled in the middle.

Presentation of our “The adventures of BoyBot and Asterix” went well. Although we did not manage to get the best book, we managed to grab attention of Mr. Reddy’s son. It proved that we were successful in attracting our reader. It was rewarding since the interest that we managed to capture. Not the best, but still all effort paid off and it is still a job well done, am proud of my production.

Assignment 7: Feedback

2007-04-06T23:58:00.000-07:00

After gathering feedback from last critique session, changes were made to our storyboarding and introduced more variety of exercises. Based on the new storyboard, we started to develop individual pages. We have to decide on the text font, the page layout and spacing and the color scheme. There were a lot of decision to make and every decision we made would have to be consider on the whole. As any changes to a single page would have effects on other pages as well.

We tried to have colored pages. We experimented using pale yellow as our page background in hope to add more dimension to our page and were surprised to find the disgusted response from the class. Guess it was too much noise to have colored page so we will be sticking to white pages.

The class also felt that our text were not cohesive enough and is overshadowed by our illustration. This is probably because of the heavy colors used in our illustration, pointed out by Mr Reddy. With the given advice we reduced the spacing between sentences to tighten and compact our text in order to give more weight. Softer colors were also reapplied to the background to reduce the impact of our illustration.

Having developed our pages individually, when coming to combine facing pages together, we found out that certain pages do not look good together and caused a stir. We contemplated with the idea of separating the text from the illustration to avoid having two illustrations side by side. However, in the end, after rounds of testing, we decided to make certain changes to the color in order to gel two illustrations. Re-looking at our storyboard, we also decided to have illustrations that would span over two facing pages to better allow the continuity between two pages.

Assignment 7: The birth of BoyBot

2007-03-23T23:57:00.000-07:00

The grand finale, the final assignment, am so looking forward to it. Realized why this assignment needed such a long period. A lot of researches were needed. Probably age is a factor, cannot remember when I last read an illustration book. Went to the library as well as asked my kid sister for illustration books as reference.

Putting ourselves the shoe of a 6-9 year old kid, Sheryl and I decided to come up with a story on robot. Unlike our time, kids nowadays tend to like more futuristic stuff, thus the idea. Besides being an illustration book, we want to engage our readers, by having some fun-filled activities. With reference to “Where’s Wallace” by Hilary Knight and “Where’s Waldo” by Martin Hanford, we decided to incorporate picture puzzle in our story book.

As time was pressing, we came up with a very simple story plot and sketches. Looking in different perspective of drawing robot, we decided on a curvier robot to remove the boring rectangular feel and BoyBot was born. Beside BoyBot, we also have to decide on the development of other characters. Other characters developed are the father, mother and pet dog of BoyBot. Understand that drawing subjects with expression was difficult, therefore we try to minimize the introduction of too many character. The first sketch of BoyBot was pretty well done, however, as we developed subsequence pages, BoyBot was getting out of shape and the feel tends to differ. Finally we managed to convince ourselves that by digitalizing our character, this problem of standardization would be solved, and we were back to work.

Presenting to the class our sketches, response was good regarding the characters. The class felt that the characters were children friendly enough. Therefore we will be sticking to our character. However, the story would need further development to give more flowing rhythm and more exercises were needed to better entail the reader. So it was back to the storyboarding.

Assignment 6: Design Analysis (cont')

2007-03-20T01:15:00.000-07:00

With respect to the visual principles that we have learnt in class, here’s our findings:

Fast Talk Chatline
- Unity & Contrast: Too many subjects.
Mandarins, Chinese Wordings, models, hongbao(red packets) are all over the poster.

- Visual Balance: Overcrowding.
Caused by the availability of too many subjects, causing the weigh down of the poster.

- Color: Hot, screaming contents, thrown at viewers.
The color of red and orange are attention seeking, but it also caused the eyes to be tired within a short time frame.

- Figure and Ground: Competing for attention.
The bright color background is fighting for attention over subjects in the foreground.

- Proximity: Good grouping, but too many groups.

- Continuity: Overflowed.
The wave of the background is able to achieve the effect to lead audience around the poster; however it leads to the bottom of the poster, throwing the audience off the poster. Although the mandarins are used in an attempt to stop the audience from falling out of the poster, the wave is too wide and strong to be stopped by a few small faint mandarins.

A Few Good Men
- Unity: Flowing rhythm.
The three faces of the actors are symmetrical leading the audience down the poster. The fleet of stairs with a man walking up is able to bring the audience back into the poster.

- Contrast: Composition, Value & Size.
The three faces on top of the poster compared to the one man walking up the stairs gives the composition as well as size contrast; and the use of black and white give the contrast in value.

- Visual Balance & Controlling Attention: 3 faces stepping down, 1 man walking up.
The 3 faces on the top of the poster brings the attention to the left bottom of the poster, but was brought back to the center of the poster with the fleet of stairs showing a man walking up to the center of the poster.

- Color: Black & White, with drop of Gold.
The choice of color expressed clearly what the film was about, Honor and Dignity

- Figure and Ground: “A FEW GOOD MEN”.
The choice of the color as well as the contrast in composition, size and value give a very distinct difference in the figure and ground, except for the film title at the bottom which was gold in color against a white background. To bring out the title, I proposed to have the title bigger, bolder, which will most probably make the title more visible.

- Similarity: 3 faces.
The 3 faces give the poster a symmetrical look.

- Closure: Steps.
The 3 faces stepping down from the top right of the poster to the bottom left of the poster provide the closure of the fleet of steps.

Assignment 6: Design Analysis

2007-03-20T00:57:00.000-07:00

In this pair-work assignment, Sheryl and I choose “Fast Talk chatline” (courtesy of 8Days Magazine) and “A Few Good Men” (courtesy of www.allposters.com) for our bad and good design analysis respectively.

We sourced for our research on the Internet for movie poster as well as magazine for advertisement. Finding good design was not as difficult compared to a bad design and the reason probably lay in our source. As we are researching on art work done by professional, we found that it may not be smoothing when we zoom into specific area of a design; overall, it would all still look pleasing. We realized that art work is very subjective; the meaning of a good or bad poster would be defined differently by different target group.

As the phrase goes, Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder

Assignment 5: Greeting card, Theme - Love

2007-03-13T00:05:00.000-07:00

Love Message - Lots of Love (LOL)

The theme is Love, and a sense of bubbling sweetness is the feeling that I want to portray in this assignment of greeting card making, therefore the choice of bright vibrant color. At the same time, I wanted to break away from the norm of having regular shaped card. Therefore, I decided to have the cover of my card to be in the shape of a heart which suited my theme.

Brainstorming for my card.

My cover also have a latch which can be used to lock the love message written in the card, to give a confidential feeling, hoping to make the loved one feel important. The writing area of the card is confined to the shape of the cover, heart, to fortify the love message.

With the intention to market the card as a Do-it-yourself (DIY) card for sincerity, I also had to think of ways to have it avoid the hassle of aligning the printing on double side. Working on this idea, therefore I came up with the end product of a card that required the user to print only on a single-sided A4 size paper, before folding and trimming the card into desired shape.

If you like my card, print out on A4 size and
follow the instructions below...

1. Having printed out the card,
folded the card into half (from top to bottom)

2. Trim the front of the card to the shape of the heart.
Slit an opening at the back of the card, so that you can slot the latch in and
etch your love message in the card.

*Do not trim the whole heart out, do leave the left side of the heart attached to the card.
*Don't forget to keep the latch at the right side of the heart too.

3. Fold the card into half and tada...

Final product - Lots of love

Disclaimer: There's an error to the orientation of the card, have since rectified the problem.

The only problem with the presentation of my card is the choice of paper. Due to time constraint, I printed my card on normal 80gsm paper. I should have it printed using a matt cover paper, at least 200gsm, to achieve the rich greeting card quality feel. Taking functionality into consideration, it is needed to use matt paper as it will be better able to allow end-user to write their love message on the card.

Being the only card that breaks the tradition of having regular shape, which probably fascinated the class, I did not receive much negative feedback. In my revised work, I would have to have the card printed on better quality paper (ok, as well as change the orientation of the card).

Revised: Printed on 220gsm matt paper

Revised

Assignment 4: Stop Shark Finning

2007-03-02T19:25:00.000-08:00

It was the Chinese New Year Week, and it was still in the Chinese New Year mood that I came up with this poster. After all, inspiration comes from our everyday life experience. I could easily identify stalls selling shark fin at Chinatown and from the news, I know a number of species of sharks are nearing extinction from the cruelty of shark finning. Hand in hand, it was just the perfect idea for this assignment.

In developing the poster, the question I asked myself was how to attract audience. My solution was to make my poster look tasty, as people tend to avoid awfully done poster. Therefore I made my poster to make it look like it was promoting shark fin soup, furnished with a replicate recipe, except that the ingredients are slightly different from expected. The idea of the slogan was derived from the feeling of how good time tend to end fast while hardship always seem to last longer.

5-mins of Savory, Forever Extinction

Second variation.
Tried plane view of the shark fin instead of side view...
Which one looks better? Still the first right?

After presenting to the class, the feedback was that the use of red for the background was too taxing on the eye and that the color was too close to that of the shark fin. The wording “Stop Shark Finning” was too small.

Personally, I felt that using red as the background color went well with my theme. Red associates with Chinese New Year, at the same time depict danger. Probably, what I could do to revise my poster is to reduce the brightness of the red while adjusting the color of the shark fin away from the reddish tone. As for the caption “Stop Shark Finning”, I felt that the size was just right. If the text is bigger, it will cause an imbalance and weigh down the poster. Having the caption bigger than the copy text, is enough to grab attention of audience who actually took notice of my poster.

Revised

Shark Fin Soup
Ingredients:
20g Shark's fin
50ml Sheer Cruelty
75g Callous Nastiness
25g Mindless Brutality
1x Unfeeling Heart

For over 400 million years, sharks have swum our oceans, playing a vital role in maintaining the health of the ocean ecosystems. Today, however, this prehistoric animal is under severe threat of overfishing. Currently 18 species of shark are listed under the IUCN’s Red List of species threatened with extinction, mainly due to increasing consumption of sharks' fin soup. Because sharks breed slowly, they simply cannot sustain this high level of demand. Sharks' fins are obtained by hauling them onto the deck and their fins hacked off. The body, often still alive is tossed back into the sea, starting a slow and excruciatingly painful death for the shark as it sinks to the bottom of the ocean. Barely alive, it will now bleed to death slowly or drown because it cannot breathe, as water no longer flows through its mouth, and over its gills. Support the ban.

Stop Shark Finning.

Assignment 3: The Making

2007-02-16T17:21:00.000-08:00

This is by far the most challenging assignment. I had a hard time thinking of a novel story line. Initially, I could only thought of a usual love story plot. However, I also need to consider the cast and the scene for my story. It was difficult to rope in too many people given such a short notice. Therefore I needed an alternative urgently. Went for a show, Protégé. It was about the world of drug and I was hit upon by an idea for this assignment, to do up a meaningful story on the abuse of drug, going through the process of drug abuse and the ending of a drug abuser.

As my lead (my sister) was not willingly to cast her face in the show, I had to thinking of ways to depict my story in a more abstract manner to avoid exposure. It was this constraint that provided me room to learn even more, to explore further with the limited resources that I am provided with. Zooming into the details, I realized that a pair of arms was more than enough to explain my story. I guess assignment 2 helped me to work in a more abstracted way.

Since I wanted my story to be more abstract to invoke the audience to think, I decided that my starting and ending could have continuity. The first two and last two pictures of my story are similar; lighting and extinguishing of a candle.

Having completed the photo taking, looking at all the pictures, it gives rise to the idea of having the photo in black and white. The use of black and white was better able to portray the feeling of a grey world of drug abuse. However, looking at the B&W photo, I feel that it was too gloomy, stealing away the glow of the candle. Therefore, I decided to add effect, coloring back the glow of the candle.

Overall, the response from the class was not too repulsive of my idea. The only question was scene 3, the handicapped toilet. It was not meaningful enough to just show the sign of the toilet and the question why a handicapped toilet. Scene 3 was also quite out of place with the rest of the scenes, it was also the only scene without a candle.

A way that I could think of to improve scene 3 is to have a hand pushing open the door and another holding onto a candle, trying to light up the toilet.

Assignment 3: Candle of Life

2007-02-11T20:56:00.000-08:00

"Candle of Life"

(In support of anti-drug campaign)

Synopsis:

Life is like the flame of a candle. If used wisely, it can bring hope; yet, if used thoughtlessly, it can also burn an individual. Life is as fragile as the burning flame; with a light gentle puff, the once passionately burning flame can be reduced to no more than thin vanishing smoke.

The burning of a candle brings light to one’s life, yet this candle of life can also take away the light. Drug abusers often use candle to liquefy their drug to be injected into themselves for a moment of foolish enjoyment. This moment of enjoyment do not last, it only brings one closer to the door of death. Drugs kill. Stop wasting life. Stop drug abuse.

1. Candle of Life

2. Brightly burning flame of life

3. Behind the closed door

4. Bringing light to the darkness

5. Giving heat, bringing warmth

6. After the flame

7. Enter the world of drug

8. Drug kills

9. Last light

10. No more than vanishing smoke

Assignment 2: Tiger Abstract

2007-02-09T20:42:00.000-08:00

In this assignment, I have chosen Tiger as my subject. I decided on the use of Tiger as I like the vibrant color of its fur and its ferocious stare. The first concept that came to my mind in the development of an indexical representation of a Tiger was to depict its orange coat and black stripe. Operating on this idea, I worked backward by visualizing my last abstract representation first.

Iconic

Indexical

With start of my iconic representation and the end of my indexical representation ready, I proceeded to reduce the details at each stage. At stage 4, reducing to only the head of my subject, I feel that any further reduction will loss its identity. Therefore the final symbol that I choose was stage 4.

Degree of Abstract

Only at our critique session, do I realize that we should not play on the color. However, I felt that the color was important for me to depict my subject, till a classmate pointed out that white tiger can solve my problem of use of color. Lucky for me, white tiger exist.

Too many details still exist at my point of selection of my symbol. I was provided advice to break the outline of the face, keeping only the eyes till mouth and of course, the distinct stripes of a Tiger.

In my revised work, realized that even without the silhouette, the stripes around the face is still able to provide the closure for visualization. The details have been reduced, but the room for imagination still does exist.

Revised

More than meets the eyes

2007-02-07T20:01:00.000-08:00

Design and Art are both subjective to personal views, however behind this subjective perception still lay a systematic process in coming up with a more readily acceptable final artworks.

Design and Art is more than what meets the eyes. It goes beyond the naked eyes into the complex gearing mind of individuals.

Assignment 1: Final Prototype

2007-02-02T20:20:00.000-08:00

In the final prototype for flying, I have decided to use the N from the second rough as suggested by the class. As for the 'G', it was back to the drawing board. With the toying of the use of control tower, I have decided to have two aeroplanes to accompany it, to depict the coming in and going out of aeroplanes in the airport to give more meaning to my design.

Prototype: Flying

Instead of using the shark which the class was more interested to see in my rough, I have decided to use dolphin leaping out of water to form my 'G'. It was able to display the shape of 'G' more coherently as the waves are easier t manipulate. Similar to the suggestion of using shark of lesser associative value to diving, I believed that dolphin will also be a good choice for my design.

Prototype: Diving

As I was afraid that it was difficult to visualize my G, I decided to add a faint backing of each character at the back of my prototype.

The feedback that the addition of the backing was unnecessary, it only added noise to my prototype. The tail of the 'G' for the Flying prototype was not very clear, making it look like a 'C'. The tail of the aeroplane was not long enough to form the end of the 'G'. I could instead try to replace it with a runway, which can form the curve back of the tail of 'G' more at will. The class also asked about the coloring of the arrow 'N'. It was distracting. On the other hand, there were not much of feedbacks for the prototype of Diving.

In my revised work, will take out the backing of the character, replace with a runway to form the tail of G for the subject flying as well as change the color of the arrow to reduce noise.

Revised: Flying

Revised: Diving

Assignment 1: Thumbnails and Roughs

2007-01-26T20:16:00.000-08:00

The subjects that I have chosen for Assignment 1 are 'Flying' and 'Diving'. Based on these two subjects, I formed my surname 'NG'. The first thing I did was using associative link, to brainstorm for objects that are linked to these two subjects.

Thumbnail: Flying & Diving

Coming up with 4 different thumbnails for the 2 subjects, a total of 8 thumbnails were not easy. It was even more challenging to find objects that can form the curve of the character 'G'. Having come up with the thumbnails; next was to develop the thumbnails into a bigger rough before the final prototype. Thought it would be easier having developed ideas into thumbnails. However, I realized that it was just as tough. As the roughs were bigger in size, it was more difficult to draw it out nicely compared to when drawing thumbnails.

Rough: Flying

After presenting to the class my thumbnails and roughs, the feedbacks that I received were that the use the second N of the rough was more interesting and less rigid. The use of the control tower is a good idea, but need not have to be so confined to forming the shape of the character and may choose to have the radar ball extend out of the shape of the character.

Rough: Diving

Having the shark in my design for diving bring away the boredom, as it was of indirect association to diving, giving a variation to my design. Design is about exploration, being willing and daring to try.