Who Am I (?)

Okay. This is a post on my final project, Ego, which got me to find out who I am. I am Hong Sheng anyway, if any of you haven’t known yet.

I feel that it was a very interesting project for me to work on as a last project for the module as well as to put a full stop to this semester. Everyone put up their best show for this project and they really turned out really nice.

In the process of working on this project, I figured out my shortcomings, and also how to work on them to be a better person. So, what have I done for this project?

A whole lot of thoughts and ideas on how I can translate what I think in to visuals during the brainstorming stages.

↓

Me, A Better Me, An Ideal Me and lastly, Me In 5 Years.

The above definitions of ME, were what we were required to work on. After research and ideas and sketches and ditching of ideas after sketching them out, what you’re going to see next will be what makes up to the above definitions.

ME.

hobbies + creativity

A BETTER ME.

time management – procrastination

AN IDEAL ME.

detailed planning + networking

ME IN 5 YEARS.

grabbing opportunities + hard work

Ideation Sketches.

What defines ME?

I started off with doodling down what would actually define me as I thought it would be easier for me to narrow down into certain details if I wanted to. By doing this, I wouldn’t be restricting myself to what I think, but I would also have a wider range of directions that I can move towards. With these keywords, I am now able to filter and pick out those that I actually feel that it would be nice to develop them into visuals.

Thumbnail Sketches

After this sketches, it’s time for me to move on to more detailed experimentation on how I want my definitions to look like as an equation.

HERE IT IS!

nah, there’s no pizza.

BUT THERE’S ME!

To define me, I would say that it is a combination of hobbies and creativity. I have a lot hobbies and interest. The main ones being shoes, cars, gadgets/ technology and most importantly, basketball. I love to collect shoes, especially limited edition ones. So many shoes but so little money right? As for cars, I like to look at how a high end luxury cars such as Lamborghini, Ferrari are being aesthetically designed. I also collect car models as a hobby. Lastly, technology is one thing that I would be constantly be updated with as I love how technology has evolved and advanced throughout the years as well as the significant breakthrough each time it improves.

I designed the hobbies panel in a diagonal manner such that it shows movement, complimented with the blurred basketball texture. The three different ‘balls’ that are about to be scored into the hoop signifies the aim I have in my hobbies: To collect a lot of shoes, get more car models, as well as be a tech-savvy guy.

Colours used: Complementary colours (Orange + Blue) on Black.

Being creative with whatever I do is something I like. Having knowledge on design prior to University, I’ve grown to think out of the box, looking at things from another perspective. Rather than dull boring books and studying (i don’t like to read), I have this light bulb that stands out in orange and blue, containing all my creative materials; including coffee.

Colours used: Complementary colours (Orange + Blue) on Black.

What happens when you add hobbies and creativity? You get ME! Using a pencil to form the lines of a basketball on the light bulb rocket, it’s prepared to launch my potential in my world of basketball to greater heights!

A Better Me.

Time management

No one is perfect. But there will always be room for improvement. I am someone who loves to procrastinate, which I believe a lot of us do. Hence for this equation of a better me, would be based on Procrastination. Usually, and normally, we would not be given only ONE assignment to work on. When there are a lot work given to me, time management kicks in and I am really very poor at it. When I have poor time management, I tend to procrastinate. All the time. There’s always tomorrow right? Well, sometimes it kills. Poor time management would result my work progress to snowball and accumulate to a point of disaster: sleepless nights. At the time management panel you can see a small clock at the corner with broken pieces, me leaving everything for tomorrow and a mess of work accumulating and I seem to be running out of time.

Procrastination

So I figured out that I would have to take out something, or make 24hours to 48hours in order to improve myself. But taking out something would be easier I guess? Then I would say I will minus procrastination. Without procrastination, I will have more time for work, do my work today instead of tomorrow, and also have my work planned nicely.

Better ME!

As the equation suggests, after removing procrastination from my already poor time management, I would be able to be a better person, at least in terms of how I handle work and stress. In the panel, it shows a better me with orange rays signifying enlightenment and a clock with different books in stead of number. This is to show that I have planned my time well and I have my workload distributed properly.

Colours used: Complementary colours (Orange + Blue) on Black.

Next up: An IDEAL Me!

Detailed Planning.

For this equation, I decided on what would be an ideal me, as a designer. Personally, I like to plan my things ahead of time. I would plan for the whole week on Monday, this is what I usually do. With a calendar as a backdrop to show my planning habits, I also illustrated a pie chart divided into different parts to depict the amount of time spent. The majority green shows work, the bigger orange part shows my social interaction and the smallest orange pie, rest and sleep. Well, designer don’t really sleep. Green gives me the feeling of having something accomplished, and orange gives me the feeling of comfort and rejuvenation. With me holding the pie chart, I hope to allow viewers to know that I am in total control of my won work rest cycle, on top of my planning habits.

Networking.

Networking. Yes. Without networking, to me, it would be very hard to be successful in anything that we are trying to achieve. For me to become an ideal me, I believe that I would need to improve on my networking skills. Networking skills like talking to people, pitching my ideas, presenting my works, public speaking, and coffee. I have centralized myself in the middle of the square, forming a triangular composition, it directs the viewers to me right away with the added help of a bright gradient background. My multiple hands shows me trying to gain a wider network of contacts, which I believe that is very crucial for me to be successful.

Ideally,

I should have more contacts (people shaking hands with me) and confidence, get better at talking and all other kinds of presentation skills. I feel that networking is very important no matter what field we are in. It is the door to endless opportunities, be it opportunities we provide, or be it opportunities that come through the door. Again, I’ve used triangular composition, with all the different handshakes leading to me, complemented by a bright blue background.

LAST BUT NOT LEAST!

well, it’s good to have dreams right?

Here’s what I want to be in 5 years.

Realistically, in 5 years’ time, I would have graduated from school and SHOULD have a year of experience in the industry. But what would I want to be in 5 years? Allow me to elaborate further…

As mentioned previously above, networking opens up a window for opportunities. So what happens when you come across opportunities? GRAB THEM! There may be a lot of opportunities out there, but if I dun grab them, I might never ever get to. In a clear blue sky full of hope and ~~opportunities~~ paper planes, I am grabbing onto one of them and yes, that’s a good move to make.

Right, I have an opportunity to work on something, what’s next?

DO IT!

I believe anyone in the creative industry would know that when there are assignments and projects, there are hardly any sleep. No such thing as day and night. So when I have the opportunity to work on a project, I would definitely prove my worth. How do I do that? Hard Work. Working in the day and night, trying to get the best out of my work would what I see myself be doing in the 5 years to come. With me making up a triangular composition, the differentiation of day and night is illustrated by splitting the image into two different shades of blue which I hope to give viewers the idea of me working hard through the day and night.

Me in 5 years?

Upon imagining myself having to work for at least a year after graduating, I feel that I should have a certain level of skill sets built up, as well as a wide range of network. That would also mean that I would be slowly gaining experience on all sorts of people, work, and also gone through ~~a hell lot of shit~~ the culture of working creative industry. With all the hard work I put in, I believe ~~i can fly~~ that I would be mature and strong enough to be a product designer of my own, and also have my own set of thinking and skills as a budding product designer.

And that’s me ! To sum it up, I feel that I am able to convey my thoughts more effectively through visuals and I am also very happy with the final work that I produced. Thank you Shirley for your guidance. It has been a wonderful semester. See you next sem!

Final Artwork.

Colours living in harmony.

Colour Schemes|Colour Palettes|Colour Harmonies

Colours can set a mood, attract attention, or make a statement. You can use color to energize, or to cool down. By selecting the right color scheme, you can create an ambiance of elegance, warmth or tranquility, or you can convey an image of playful youthfulness. Color can be your most powerful design element if you learn to use it effectively.

Colour Harmonies

Complementary Colours

Colors that are opposite each other on the color wheel are considered to be complementary colors (example: red and green).

The high contrast of complementary colors creates a vibrant look especially when used at full saturation. This color scheme must be managed well so it is not jarring.Complementary color schemes are tricky to use in large doses, but work well when you want something to stand out.

~~Complementary colors are really bad for text.~~

Triadic Colours

A triadic color scheme uses colors that are evenly spaced around the color wheel. Triadic color schemes tend to be quite vibrant, even if you use pale or unsaturated versions of your hues. To use a triadic harmony successfully, the colors should be carefully balanced – let one color dominate and use the two others for accent.

Analogous Colours

Analogous color schemes use colors that are next to each other on the color wheel. They usually match well and create serene and comfortable designs. Analogous color schemes are often found in nature and are harmonious and pleasing to the eye.

Split-complementary Colours

The split-complementary color scheme is a variation of the complementary color scheme. In addition to the base color, it uses the two colors adjacent to its complement. This color scheme has the same strong visual contrast as the complementary color scheme, but has less tension.

Tetradic Colours

The rectangle or tetradic color scheme uses four colors arranged into two complementary pairs. This rich color scheme offers plenty of possibilities for variation. Tetradic color schemes works bestwhen one colour is dominant.

Square Colour Scheme

The square color scheme is similar to the rectangle, but with all four colors spaced evenly around the color circle.

Monochromatic Colours

The first way to achieve color harmony is through the use of monochromatic colors. It means that different tones, tints, shades of a single (mono) color (chromatic) are used. To achieve this, add more black, white or grey to a chosen color on the colour wheel. This creates a visually appealing image that is balanced. However, it may lack color contrast.

Visual Examples

Triadic Colours

Complementary Colours

Split Complementary Colours

Analogous Colours

Tetradic Colours

Sources:

Color Harmony: Why Hulk Wears Purple Pants

http://seeinginmacro.com/colors-in-photography-learn-how-to-achieve-color-harmony/

http://www.tigercolor.com/color-lab/color-theory/color-theory-intro.htm

Colour it up!

Everybody has a favourite colour of their own. Colours make things interesting and appealing. Based on statistics as shown in the infographic above, majority of the consumers would purchase products based on the colours.

There are 6 different colours that appeals to consumers the most.

RED | Excitement, Youthful, Bold

Red is the color of excitement. It is one of the most popular brand colors and is iconic of some of the top companies around the world. Coca-Cola, Target, CNN and Pinterest all contain distinctly red logos.

The exuberance of this color makes it stand out and connects with people instantly. While the color can be seen as unstable, it is generally something people can relate to.

Red is also a popular choice among food manufacturers since the bold color is thought to help stimulate the appetite. Kellogg’s, Nabisco and Heinz all use red to help steer customers into buying their tasty offerings.

ORANGE | Friendly, Cheerful, Confidence

Orange is a popular color for brands related to fun. The color exudes a warmth and friendliness that brands such as Nickelodeon and Crush soda have built on for years. The color is also cheerful and confident.

BLUE | Trust, Dependable, Strength

The most universally accepted color emotionally is blue. The color of dependability, trust and strength is used by businesses of all kinds.

Banks, retailers and auto makers rely on the color to make customers feel at ease. Healthcare companies also rely heavily on blue to gain the trust of patients and put them at ease.

Darker blues feel more solid and trustworthy, while lighter blue loses some of those associations while maintaining feelings of dependability.

GREEN | Peaceful, Growth, Health

There’s nothing more soothing and calming than taking a walk. That’s the emotional connection you get when you see green – the color of nature.

So it makes perfect sense that companies like Whole Foods, John Deere and Animal Planet use the color as a dominant hue in their logo and branding materials. It’s also of interest that green is also a popular color for gas and oil distributors, such as BP and Hess.

Green has also come to associate with some tech-based business as well – no doubt that the emotional connection to growth is an undercurrent. Android and Spotify both use bright greens.

While there is quite a large spectrum of green hues, the emotional connections are fairly consistent. It is worthwhile to note that lime green is very trendy and has been called the new neutral, and is being used with a variety of other colors.

YELLOW | Optimism, Clarity, Warmth

If you want to be associated with happiness and sunshine, yellow is your go-to color. While the color can be difficult to use in overall design schemes, it can make a great color for a logo. (Just be wary of yellow text.)

Brighter sunnier yellows are the happiest hues. While more golden yellows are thought to be richer. Yellow is thought to be a fast color as well and often implies some sort of movement.

Yellow is the color of optimism. This is not the color for a project that is depressing or unhappy.

When it comes to yellow, the color works best as a shape or background to text or another icon. Think to the yellow tag used as the Best Buy logo or the iconic National Geography rectangle.

References from: https://www.designcontest.com/blog/color-and-emotion/

Time for the Rhyme

In the previous post, I’ve researched and introduced several principles of design. Following which, I went on to applying and exploring these principles. Inspired by nursery rhymes, I put together different graphic elements into an art canvas.

With different compositions and the application of a few design principles, I came up with several artworks which I find some of them turned out to be pretty interesting.

I have taken more towards the approach of symmetry, leading lines and the Rule Of Thirds. I find them very pleasing to the eye and it catches my attention easily, which is the reason why I decided on this approach to adopt.

Here are some of the first few explorations I’ve made.

Hey Diddle Diddle! The Cat and The Fiddle

This would not be a good graphic image as the foreground appears to be blur after the post processing, while the background is very clear and sharp. This should not be the case.

All the King’s horses and all the King’s men.

Initially I liked this image as I feel that it has a strong emphasis on the subject in context of the sentence of the rhyme. However, I feel that this image lacks of a variety of elements. The smaller illustrations are the same as the main subject. Therefore, it makes the image look flat and uninteresting.

The cow jumped over the moon.

This image is a good intepreation of leading lines. However, it looks plain and lacks context in showing more background instead of just the moon.

Humpty Dumpty sat on the wall.

The framing of the image which shows Humpty Dumpty sitting on the wall is one thing i like about this composition. One thing that can be improved on this is having more perspective on the wall and Humpty Dumpty itself. This would make the image more dynamic and interesting.

After exploring on different sentences of the rhymes, I proceeded to explore more on bolder, out-of-the-box compositions. These are the final ones which i chosen for submission.

All the King’s horses and all the King’s men.

I have chosen this one to be my final piece is because I find that it falls safely in terms of composition and design principles. I also like how it turned out when I placed the horse heads on 4 different corners of the artboard.

And the dish ran away with the spoon.

The strong diagonals of the dish and the spoon runing is very interesting as it shows them getting clearer on each wooden spoon. It looks very simple and clean yet interesting.

The cow jumped over the moon.

As compared to the previous tryout which I have done, this image shows more context. Having a stronger background, the cow immediately blends into the background that shows not just the moon, but also clouds and stars.

Hey Diddle Diddle! The Cat and the Fiddle.

Last but not least, playing with inverted grayscale is something new which I tried. I found that the inverted and normal grayscale image of the cat complements each other well, hence I decided to place them alternately and it did form an interesting composition afterall.

Through this project, I have learnt to think more creatively. By thinking out of the box, I am able to get results which are more unconventional which ultimately will make my work different from others.

Right, Design Principles.

What are design principles?

To me, design principles are guidelines which help artists in creating their artwork. They are also methodologies which have been proven to work over the past centuries. Creating artworks and design with these principles, everyone will have different end products. These end products will reflect the artist’s thoughts and ideas, as well as the message or objective that they want to bring across.

Having said so, what exactly are the principles of design?

After some research on the various design principles, I’ve a few design principles which I found them to be more interesting.

- Definitions quoted from an online PDF article:

https://www.getty.edu/education/teachers/building_lessons/principles_design.pdf

Balance
Pattern
Movement
Rhythm
Emphasis

Balance

Balance is the distribution of the visual weight of objects, colors, texture, and space. If the design was a scale, these elements should be balanced to make a design feel stable. In symmetrical balance, the elements used on one side of the design are similar to those on the other side; in asymmetrical balance, the sides are different but still look balanced. In radial balance, the elements are arranged around a central point and may be similar.

Pattern

Pattern is the repeating of an object or symbol all over the work of art.

Movement

Movement is the path the viewer’s eye takes through the work of art, often to focal areas. Such movement can be directed along lines, edges, shape, and color within the work of art.

Rhythm

Rhythm is created when one or more elements of design are used

repeatedly to create a feeling of organized movement. Rhythm creates a mood like music or dancing.

Emphasis

Emphasisis the part of the design that catches the viewer’s attention. Usually the artist will make one area stand out by contrasting it with other areas. The area could be different in size, color, texture, shape, etc.

Project 1 // Putting them together.

Short reflection;

This project was an interesting one to kickstart the module, and it has definitely allowed me to be more creative about creating my work as well as making me think out of the box. My objective for the final product was to show a contrast of the different emotions so that the overall work would not be dull, but interesting.

Putting strips of 391mm x 44mm onto a piece of A1 was sure a challenge, but the results were rewarding. The final work turned out to be nicer than I thought it would be. Totally worth my sleep.

Final artwork.

Project 1 // a line is a dot that went for a walk.

how would you express your emotions through lines?

Project Brief:

Use the concept of lines to interpret a set of 18 different emotions, with the use of different mediums and method in creating the different emotions being anxious, embarrassed, bizarre, exhausted, fragile, systematic, lyrical, turbulent, nonsensical, psychotic, ambiguous,, spontaneous, distracted, sloven, sensual, aggressive, awkward, and indecisive.

Research & Exploration:

By looking up the definitions of all the emotions on the internet, I started the journey on creating the emotions. Having to know more of each emotions and what they really are, it gave me a better idea on how to approach this project.

Stage 1 | Ideation

With all the definitions on hand, I am able to start sketching and generating ideas on the different emotions.

Anxious: shaky, tremble, up and down

Embarrassed: shy, exposed, blushing, centre of attraction

Bizarre: weird, unusual, mysterious

Exhausted: tired, used up, empty

Fragile: delicate, brokeen, weak, brittle, shattered

Systematic: uniformed, patterned, repeated, automated

Lyrical: music, poetry peaceful

Turbulent: violent, impactful, agitation

Nonsensical: foolish, absurd, meaningless

Psychotic: crazy, mad, disturbed, insane

Ambiguous: several possibility, doubtful, unclear

Distracted: bored, lost focus, loss of attention

Sensual: fleshly, lewd, arousing

Sloven: untidy, messy, sloppy

Spontaneous: sudden, unplanned, natural reaction

Aggressive: fierce, anger, force

Awkward: inconvenient, unfamiliar, clumsy

Indecisive: unsure, uncertain

Stage 2 | Execution

Having sketched out the different ideas on the emotions, I proceeded with the execution on a smaller scale of the final product. The main mediums used were markers, fineliner pens, and pencils. I also had in mind what were the possible mediums i could use for the final product.

↑↑ possible mediums that can be used.

Finalising the artwork.

(Description in order with sequence of strips)

Exhausted: The use of thick markers and slowly dying down to finer marker lines depicts the sign of exhaustion and being worn out.

Bizarre: Using organism-like illustrations is how I think of bizarre, as microscopic cells, which we cannot see with our naked eye and it could look like anything.

Embarrassed: Having the black dots as a person, the lines around it, be it going towards or distancing away, conveys the idea of one being the centre of attention when done something wrong/ unexpected, hence feeling embarrassed.

Anxious: Thick and thin up down arrows would be how being anxious can be shown.

Fragile: The use of the cross section of a wooden chopstick with ink stamped, shows the structure, and by dapping the ‘broken pieces’ with the broken tip of the wooden chopsticks, shows the pieces broken when something has snapped/ been broken into half.

Systematic: An abstract of the DNA structure.

Lyrical: Curvy and wavy lines; as though leaves are bristling through the wind. Done with calligrahy pen.

Turbulent: Impactful and fast, with thick markers and thinner markers to portray the fast movement.

Distracted: a sudden surge in activity after a period of constant concentration. Thick and thin lines can be related to different people with different kinds of distractions.

Ambiguous: Organic shapes, and then geometric shapes. What could it be?

Psychotic: The doctor said to the mad men, ” Now, draw me proper squares, circles and triangles.”

Nonsensical: Curvy, yet with some illegitimate scribbles in it. You call that a curve? That’s nonsense.

Aggressive: Hard, sharp lines. Even tore up the paper. You,ve gotta chill man.

Spontaneous: Let the dot be a soccer ball. Imagine someone kicked it and its going everywhere out of a sudden.

Sloven: I drew it on a piece of crumpled paper. Acceptable i guess?

Sensual: Inspired from the human muscles, curvy and sleek with different tones.

Indecisive: Not sure on which medium to use. Used correction tape to make amendments over and over again.

Awkward: Let the lines be some sort of a construction. You have to get from Point A to Point B. The black tape is path you have to take, awkward.

The Next Episode

// // shakha weed everyday.