Zine part 2 (Reseach & Final)

Before I continue to my final process and outcome of Zine part 2, here is my link to my infographic from part 1:

RESEARCH- https://oss.adm.ntu.edu.sg/a160025/project-2-part-1-zine-neighbourhood-explorer-research/
FINAL- https://oss.adm.ntu.edu.sg/a160025/infographic-process-and-final-project-2-part-1/

INSPIRATION AND EXAMPLES OF ZINES

IDEATION:

Following my infographic, i wanted to follow the colour scheme of different shades of red. I decided to stick to yellow, orange and red for my background and decided to do a watercolour wash for all the spreads.

These are the backgrounds i used by using the watercolour brush on AI and then mixing it together

COVER PAGE AND BACK COVER:

            

I thought of this cover page at the end of my different spreads so as to tie the illustrations and background altogether.

1ST SPREAD:

Initially i just wanted to illustrate this obese lady on this spread only, but i decided to bring her along in all the spreads so as to make it more vibrant and fun.

2ND SPREAD:

Before- this was my test print and i felt that it was too dark and the readability is unclear. The background wasn’t very distinct in terms of water colour as well.

Final- Since i decided to add the obese woman in, i wanted to make my illustrations clearer thus i added a black outline to the mountains/hills to make it more distinct as compared to the previous one. I changed the watercolour sun and moon to something more illustrative as well.

For the content wise, i decided to incorporate the routine from my infographic to the middle spread so as to make the zine a more objective one linking to Redhill.

3RD SPREAD:

For this last spread, i wanted to add in recipes that is healthy for snacks and meals but i decided to go with small food type that can be snacked on in the everyday basis. I added the benefits of these food and show the transformation of the lady through a route to “good eating habits”.

OVERALL:
As for fonts, i decided to write my own for the titles and headers, so as to give it a more cohesive look to the zine.

YAY thanks for reading, finally ended 2D and I’ve really learnt a lot this semester and i think it was really interesting and i hope i had improved on my digital skills HAHAHAH 🙂 Thanks for the great 2 Semster Joy!! :))

 

 

INFOGRAPHIC PROCESS AND FINAL [PROJECT 2 (PART 1)]

After visiting Redhill for the first time as written in the last post, I decided to think in depth on what are the unique features of Redhill and what kind of information i can add into the infographics. At first, during the group consultation, i just wanted to do an infographic to guide the residents in Redhill on the different places they can go to since Redhill is a place that is pretty small and clustered. Another idea I had in mind was to do a guide for people to exercise in Redhill since I observed that the residents are mostly all really fit looking and thus to encourage more people to work out and exercise, my infographic could be about a rough routine that people follow to stay fit!

Thus, after much consideration, i decided to go with the exercise routine since it is a pretty fresh topic to work on compared to the normal boring guide around Redhill where most people would actually already know about. There were a lot of considerations to take note before starting on my infographic cause i really have no idea how I want my infographic to be and how it should look like.

To have a clear idea on how I should start, I wanted my infographic to be simple and clear (straight to the point) and my target audience was residents living in Redhill. Then, i sieved out the “healthy” places that people can go to which were:
1) Delta Sports Complex (Swimming complex, gym, running track included)
2) Enabling Village (Gym, fitness corners, Fairprice)
3) Redhill Market
Which I further picked out healthy food that people can consider- Chicken Rice, Teochew Porridge, Fresh Fruits and juice.
4) Bukit Merah Central- where there is a pretty renowned salad store
5) Tiong Bahru Park

Following up, I decided to do a routine kinda thing where people can follow once the day start and how to end the day. However, at that point in time, i was still considering if i should do something like a timeline, a route that flows accordingly to the Redhill Map or like a morning, afternoon and evenings routine.

Some reference that was quite useful:
         
                                                   

 

After that I decided on the title where people would not just throw the infographic away once they see it. I decided on: GET REDDY TO HEAL BY EXERCISING hahahha REDDY (RED) HEAL (HILL)= REDHILL!!!! i was quite proud of myself thinking of this pun heheh 😛

DIFFERENT PLACES THEY CAN HEAD TO IN THE ROUTINE:
Mornings-
Delta Sports Complex, Enabling Village, Swimming Complex

Afternoons-
They can eat at Redhill Market, Bukit Temah Central or simply just buy ingredients from Fairprice @Enabling Village to cook at home

Evenings-
Enabling Village
Tiong Bahru Park for a stroll
Sports Complex

Since there are only a few places they can go, i was actually quite scared that the places would turn out too repetitive in my infographic, thus it was important to add a balance of icons and words so that they won’t look like a copy and paste of details.

When i first started on the mornings: there were a lot of blank spaces everywhere and i didn’t know what image to put in. Then i decided to play with the sizes of the text to make it fill up the space instead of adding more pictures which may look very clustered and squeezy.

Oh yes, and for the colours wise, people who do not know what/where Redhill is, they would often associate it to Red, which is the distinct representation of Redhill, judging from the MRT station, the HDB flats which was the muddy red colour in the past and now it gradually fades to pinkish colour as more whites are added to the buildings. These are all from my observations which there are different shades of red involved in the buildings of Redhill.
Some examples would be the sports complex and the redhill market:

(Notice the flats behind have the shades of red too!)



The colour palette i decided to reference from in my infographic.

To sum things up, I wanted White to represent modernity hence the Red gets gradually lighter in my infographic and the pinkish tone is used at the end to represent how people are adapting to having a healthy lifestyle which then links to the idea of Pink of Health!

Also, I added a few facts here and there so that the target audience would know the benefits of exercising! Plus another pun(?) in the map i added at the bottom of my infographic for people to see Redhill as a big picture and know where are all the places!

YASSSS FINALLY after the wordy paragraphs on top, this is my final infographic!!

Pretty satisfied in general and I was really happy that there were many positive feedbacks! However, maybe it would be better if i could add more benefits to actually motivated the people reading this infographic to actually WANT TO exercise to stay fit. HAHAHAH although i assume most of them would already know since even the old people are so buff and strong 😛

I do not really have any idea on how to incorporate this into a zine yet but i’ll research more about it and post it in the next post. 🙂

Thanks for reading!

 

Project 2 Part 1: Zine-Neighbourhood Explorer Research

For the second project, we were given a neighbourhood to explore and find out interesting areas in the specific place. The neighbourhood i got was Redhill. I was just glad that it is still on the green line and it’s not that far from school.

So, of course before heading down to Redhill to explore, i did some research about the place and where to go. Redhill isn’t really a place with unique places of interest but it has a history? We all do have some memory of hearing how the name Redhill came about when we were younger.

The legend basically started a long time ago when Singapore was merely a little sleepy fishing village. To cut the long story short, in these early years, the fishes that had sharp, sword like mouths used to swim up to the shore and attack fishermen, making it unable for them to venture out and fish. Nobody had any idea what to do then.
So one day, a young boy,  who lived on the hill came up with a solution. He advised the Sultan to use banana tree trunks as a wall to ward off the attacks, as the fishes mouth would get stuck in the tree and they can kill the fish more easily.  This plan worked very well, and the fish eventually stopped attacking.
However, the boy became a hero in the eyes of the villages and the Sultan became to be threatened by him, growing paranoid that the villagers might want this young boy to become the next ruler and overthrow him. His paranoia increased day by day, until one day, he ordered a small squad of his elite guards to assassinate the boy in his sleep. That night, the head of the this team took out his kris (wavy blade dagger) and stabbed the boy in the heart. Killing him instantly.
The blood that flowed out would not stop gushing out of the wound, and the young boy’s blood coated the hill that he lived. None of the villagers knew who ordered the boy kill, but that it was a tragic event, and to commemorate this event, they called the hill Bukit Merah (Red Hill) to remember this boy.

There are many versions of the legend but this is the one i remembered and read on the internet!

Then i searched for places to go in Redhill and found some places:
-Redhill Market
-Enabling Village
-Delta Sports Complex

So on Thursday, Huimin and I went to explore each of our places together since it was just a few stops away 🙂 Immediately after we stepped out of the Redhill MRT station, we were greeted by super high HDB Flats! Its actually very cool to me because i live in Pasir Ris and the highest flats i see if probably less than 15 storeys. These flats here are at least 30 floors high!!

img_2788

img_2789

img_2790

We decided to walk to a direction for less than 5minutes after the MRT station… and we ended up heading to Alexander Road (Queenstown) and Tang Lin Road (Orchard???) LOL, Redhill is really very small actually. It is like once you walk towards a certain direction for a while, you will not be in Redhill itself anymore HAHAHAHAH

img_2791
This stretch of road has many buildings of different car brands.

img_2792
A temple we walked pass while heading to the other direction instead of Tang Lin Road.

img_2793

img_2794

Still pretty impressed how tall these buildings are! 😛

img_2795
Manage to go to one of the old HDBs there which has many little shops at the first level. These flats are mostly 2-3 Room flats as the doors of the houses are so close to one another!

img_2796

img_2803
If you look closer, you can see each unit is very near to one another

img_2805
Towards Enabling Village. The roads are actually quite hilly (cause redHILLLL hahah) but honestly there are a lot of slopes and curve in the small roads.
img_2808
This place reminds me of a community club but it is actually a place that have a long history in education and training, having formerly been the Bukit Merah Vocational Institute and the Employment and Employability Institute. The site has been extensively retrofitted for easy access by visitors who have disabilities.

img_2809

img_2810
Cute wall arts.

img_2813

img_2811-min
A kindergarten

img_2814-min

img_2816-min

They have many gyms and fitness corners as well in this “Village” which is really interesting compared to other community clubs. Then, we realised that almost all places in Redhill are accessible to gyms and other forms of exercise. We even saw a super muscular and fit old man walking around. Thus we concluded that the people living in Redhill do have an active lifestyle HAHAHAHA.

img_2820
Next Stop: REDHILL MARKET

img_2821

img_2824

img_2825

img_2829

img_2830 img_2836

img_2838
I
t feel abit like Bedok Market to me and the food at the hawker is probably pretty good but we didn’t try them hahaha

img_2842

img_2843 img_2844
Delta Sports Complex which we didn’t go in to explore due to lack of time

img_2847

Pretty pastel coloured flats which was so pretty!! This was actually the end of redhill and we were on the way to Tiong Bahru since its really near redhill i decided to explore abit on tiong bahru too! (Told ya redhill is pretty small)

img_2850-min

img_2853-min

img_2859-min

img_2860-min

img_2861-min

img_2862-min

Went to the Tiong Bahru park which was VERY SMALL

img_2866

img_2868

REALLY PRETTY RESIDENTAL HOUSES!!!

img_2874

img_2877

Many cafes along the road around tiong bahru market:

img_2878

img_2881

img_2882

img_2883

img_2884

That’s it for my exploring part! 🙂

 

Project 1: Que Sera Sera FINAL

These are my 4 final compositions! 🙂

dentist-final

cleaner-final

“Chia” here is depicted as the dust, thus the composition looks a little dirty and dusty. It is linked from the dentist composition where the stick of the broom is actually the mirror tool top from the first composition.

hairdresser-final

When two broom stick intercepts with one another, it becomes the blade of the scissors, thus i decided to link them together in this way for it to flow into the hairdresser composition.

designer-final

For this composition, i decided to put my full name in showing that it is now a clearer job i am working towards to instead of just putting in my initials where it may be read as another person’s name. This composition is the most colourful and i added the most tools to it as i wanted it to be the most distinct one among the other 3 composition as this is something closer to my dream job at this moment in time.

all-final

Finally, this is how all of them are linked together. I made use of split complementary colors for this whole 4 compositions, trying to use the pop-art effect on my final project.

colourwheel

img_2571 img_2573

Overall, i would say i really enjoyed doing this project despite all the tedious process i faced from Ai which i’m glad i tried to do this whole project digitally. 🙂 I learnt a lot from this project on how to incorporate typography into visuals and how colours play such an important role visually. Thanks for all the feedback and i will improve more on future projects! After seeing all my classmates compositions, i feel that everyone really put in a lot of effort and all of them really did a great job! :))

Project 1: Que Sera Sera Process

Before starting on this project, I thought of what jobs i really wanted to be when i was younger and how it gradually changes along the way when i grew older due to the difficulties faced on achieving it along the way.

I shortlisted 5 jobs at the beginning which was:

  1. Dentist
  2. Cleaner
  3. Hairdresser
  4. Netballer
  5. Designer

DENTIST

I always wanted to be a dentist since young as i was never really afraid of going to the dentist and in fact, i actually like it a lot. Many kids would cry when they reach the Dental clinics but i would be a little excited every time cause i really like the smell of a dental clinic HAHAHAH. Also, i used to always pluck out my baby teeth myself when i was younger when it was of course, very shaky. Thus i took triple science in Secondary school and i realized that i can’t do science for nuts, however it didn’t really kill me yet as my results were still acceptable. Only until i entered JC and i stubbornly continued taking Biology and Chemistry which i knew i couldn’t take it anymore as I’ve been failing very badly throughout my 2 years. It was too much content and i really couldn’t absorb any of it.

Due to all these failures i faced, i got really demoralized at a point of time when i really wanted to give up which brings me to my next job.

CLEANER

There is a sterotypical way of thinking that if you don’t study well, you would end up being a cleaner as you don’t need any qualifications to do this job. Thus, for a period, i was really afraid that i would end up as a cleaner or a road sweeper due to all the failures I had after taking science all my life.

HAIRDRESSER

However, to persuade myself that i could actually get a proper job, i thought of an easy way out to my failures. I could just take up a hairdressing course in other schools and just take over my dad’s shop since he owns a salon himself. Therefore, my third job is a hairdresser. Which was something very interesting and new to me.

NETBALLER

Or maybe i thought that since i am bad at science and studying, i decided to focus on what i am actually pretty good at which is playing sports in particular Netball. However, a job that i can think of for being a good netballer is just simply representing the country for it and making into the National team which i never pursued due to my studies.

DESIGNER 

Lastly, after all the failures and difficulties faced along the way, i still got into a local university and studied something i always had a interest in but never thought of pursuing further since i do not have a strong background for Arts. However, everything somehow worked out and i am in ADM now, thus, a job i want to be now would be a designer.

IDEATION:

In the end, i decided to leave out the job as a netballer and chose the other four jobs: Dentist, Cleaner, Hairdresser and Designer for this project.

As i brainstormed on how i wanted to illustrated the jobs out, it was tough thinking of how to incorporate initials of my name into the compositions as well. Then i decided to go with a cheeky and happy approach to this project since its something that i wanted to be and i was young and how it gradually changes along the way. Therefore, i wanted to use bright colours for all the 4 compositions and somehow link them together since it is pretty much a short story of my life.

An approach i really want to take was to have a repetition of a tool that is required in the job to represent the job-
For example Dentist, teeth and some other tools could be used. Hairdresser, scissors, comb?
I also sketch out some of the tools, thinking how to link them from one composition to another to make all of them to have a similar tone to all the compositions.

img_2686

Also, i wanted to do a full on digital to try to experiment on Ai and photoshop since i have never learn them before. I a decided to draw out on a wacom for all the equipments.

I started with the Dentist composition and it turned out something like this at first:

picture1

However, after the first consultations, Joy suggested that i don’t add any text into the compositions and instead use the tools to form out my name.

scissors

Before adding colours to it.

coloured

Making use of the whites from the scissors by playing with colours to bring out the initials “CT”.

Next, another difficulty i faced was the colour i should use for the compositions. I wanted the Dentist job to be bright then it fades for the cleaner job, increase in the brightness of the colour again for the hairdresser and for the designer, it will be bright and clear. Then i decided to find some artist reference i could use for the colours.

  1. Keith Haring:

keith keith2

I really how he uses contrasting colours to bring out the subject making it look very fun and happy.

2.  Andy Warhol

andy andy2

Andy Warhol uses more of the pop-art techniques which was effective as well in bringing out the content to the eyes.

I got inspired by all of these pictures and decided to use split complimentary colours for my compositions but i have yet to think about which colours until the last part.

2

The thought of how to link such tools was another big problem cause i wanted all my 4 compositions to be close together showing how each job evolved into another through the tools.

img_2687

Whether the compositions should be placed into one straight line or a rectangle (2 at the top, 2 on the bottom) was another consideration i had in mind. As i continued to work on the dentist composition, i decided to incorporate my name in this way:

 

den

The mirror tool makes out “TE”. 🙂

For the other compositions i was thinking of a way to insert my name as for this kind of repetition composition, it is best if the words don’t have many letters or it would be too complicated.

Names: Chia Te, Te, CT, Chia, 21? (my favourite no.)
I scraped the idea of my chinese name as it was too much strokes to it and it would definitely make the composition very messy.

These are parts of my process mainly only for the first two compositions and i’ll have another post on my final compositions! 🙂 Thanks for reading!!

Hello, my name is…

For our first in-class assignment, we are suppose to introduce ourselves and our personalities with a representation of our names.

My first nametag:

img_1780

I coloured an orangey-yellow tone to represent the colour of the sunset as my name in chinese 缇 is actually the colour of the sunset. The colour does indeed represents the kind of bubbly and optimistic characteristic of myself 🙂

My second name-tag:

img_1781

My name is slightly faded as i feel that if i am around strangers or new people, i would tend to feel very awkward.
I decided to write with my normal handwriting for my name and went to research more about what our handwritings say about our personality. Surprisingly, it is actually pretty accurate.
Long crosses on “t’s”: someone who is enthusiastic but also stubborn
I would have to agree that this is very much like me! hahaha, i don’t like writing the T in my name in small letters and i do know that i am very stubborn at times. About the enthusiastic part… not super true unless it’s something i really enjoy.

-Handwriting slants to the RIGHT: Open to new experiences
This is very much true as well, i LOVE adventures and travelling a lot, and i love to try new things such as a new sport or just like learning new and interesting things!

Lastly, this is my third composition which has no colour added:

img_1782

It represents a track as i really like to run whenever i feel stressed or just restless in general. As i drew this track it reminds me of a target which leads me to think that i am actually quite a goal-oriented person. I usually get things done if i really want to do it, of course, with much procrastination as well, but i guess if it’s something that i really like, i would definitely want to complete it with my best efforts? hahaha, yup, thats all for this post!! 🙂

Project 1: Que Sera, Sera- Research

For our first project, we have to use typography to express our future jobs by exploring with different material and techniques.

What is typography?
Typography is the style and appearance of printed matter.

First, there is 3D typography:

I find this really interesting and appealing!

3d-typo

cinema1
download
An artist reference for 3D typography would be Chris Labrooy who is a freelance designer and illustrator based in the UK. He experiments in typography and 3D font projects which are really interesting an eye-catching due to his excellent use of colour and bold statements. I really like how bright and clear everything is in his works!

More of this vibrant works can be found on: http://www.chrislabrooy.com/

Secondly, there is handmade typography as well, which to me is the usage of different mediums to create something.

bdd8d549dfb2e26cc323fe0c8a2188e7

I actually really like watercolour typography as it gives a clean look and it can be varied very differently for each. I may look into the medium of watercolour as I am really drawn to it and i want to try something new as well 😛

Another artist reference would be Hannah Hoch who was a German Dada artist. She is best known for her work of the Weimar period, when she was one of the originators of photomontage. Her photomontage are all very interesting as they vary in sizes which comes off as a totally new image forming a different meaning when you see it as a whole.

Das schöne Mädchen [The Beautiful Girl], 1920

After researching, I still don’t have a definite idea or medium to use, but i would like to explore materials to make my work potentially slightly 3D or maybe using brighter colours to bring out the jobs i have chosen.