QUE SARA – Research, Process & Final

  Que Sara

Reflections

Upon receiving the project brief, i felt that this was a project that i would have fun in as i was looking forward to typography for some time. However, i thought that the project required us to use all sorts of elements to create the text which included the background, but it was in fact, we were supposed to create the font itself and to dress it up.


First Ideas & Visual References

These were some of the first few ideas that i came up with .

Chocolate Factory Worker

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Image result for chocolate river gif
All of these ideas were inspired from the movie Charlie & the Chocolate Factory.

Ideation
#1 Making use of the iconic chocolate river to twist it to form the name.
#2 Placing the name on the main gates of the factory
#3 Using the smoke from the factory as the font.

Architect

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Ideation


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#1 It was largely based on the city outline of Barcelona, Spain.
As the buildings were very systematic and linear, i felt that if i could alter the symmetry, i believe i could make a name pop up using the buildings. 

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#3  There were two ways to go about designing this. It was either photo manipulation or flat design. I was leaning towards the latter.

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#4  Architects design roads too! Maybe using roads as  fonts might be something cool.

Urban Photographer  

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English photographer Peter Defty has recently produced a fantastic print for lovers of unusual typography. Using just his camera, his talented eye and a lot of looking up, he’s created an entire alphabet using just the shapes of gigantic architecture.

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His print, titled Geordie Alphabet, features buildings shot in abstract. The space between the often modern, city-based structures is what creates the highlighted lettering we see so prominently when viewing the print at a distance.

As this was another unusual point of view, i had an idea to use my school to create fonts using the negative spaces.

Train Conductor

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These ideas were mostly inspired by Harry Potter’s Hogwarts Express

Ideation

img_0984#1 For the first design,  i planned on using the train ticket for the Hogwarts 9 3/4 to write my name on it.
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#2 The second design was to imprint my  name on the front of the train’s bumper.

Playboy Model/Gigolo

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Gotta admit, this was kinda weird and hilarious at the same time. I thought i could kinda imprint the words into his pecs and chest. Maybe using the nipple ring to symbolize the “O” in my name. This was just for FUN.


First Designs

These were some of the designs i came  up with based on the first few ideas.

Architect

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This was done using photo manipulation.  When piecing it together, i was skeptical as to how it would turn out. Well the final result was quite satisfying after tinkering with the  color correction and curves. 

Photographer

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Just a rough design, making use of negative space to depict my name.  Didn’t like it one bit.

Chocolate Factory Worker

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I really liked working on this project maybe because it has  a sort of whimsical feeling of that ticket in which it draws you in. Gave this piece a little texturing and beveling to make it slightly more realistic. I was satisfied with the outcome.

Playboy Model

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Quick and slipshod design combing the iconic Playboy logo with the letter “C”. Message sent across?


Secondary Designs

After consultation, i realized that i was moving on the wrong track. Instead of putting words and letting the background describe the occupation, you were supposed to “dress up” the font and the font itself should describe the occupation.  With this, the architect design was the only one that was approved. As such, i decided to go ahead with creating  more designs and not worrying about what job to choose.

Mechanical Engineer

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Just a rough ideation design from images found from  http://typelimited.tumblr.com/

Interior Designer

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Remembered i did  an interior design course back in poly.  Thought i could give SketchUp another shot. After building the first letter, i thought this could turn out pretty well!

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process

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There were many renders and it was hard to choose which angle looked the most aesthetically pleasing. I finally settled with this.

Photographer

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This was an improved version of the old design. I went around adm and shot some pictures. I realized some of the letters were really impossible to form with the current layout of the school (or maybe i don’t have the eye for it) so i decided to manipulate the photos.

Writer

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Pretty much the same idea. Played around with Photoshop 3D layers to achieve the look. Crashed multiple times in the process and it was really unproductive.

Game Designer

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I always wanted to try out pixel art when i was younger. I always thought it was really hard to master especially when you are working on a flat 2D layer and you have to manipulate the pixels to give depth and space to make the design look realistic. I used an online pixel maker tool – http://pixelartmaker.com/

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 As such, this was quite a challenge for me. Nonetheless, i was happy it turned out well.


Final Consultation

After the final consultation, three designs were finalized (Architect, Interior Designer & Game Designer) and i was left with one more.  I had an idea for the last one. It was going to be hand drawn since i had not done before and i wanted every design to be of a different creative medium. Shirley challenged me to design  something like this.

Garamond CorpusAn anthropomorphic study of our Latin letters:

This was quite interesting in my opinion as the bones were studied before hand and they form the skeleton of the font instead of warping to fit the font which i believe was really incredible.

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At first , i wanted to be a musician. I made use of the tuba pipes to form the letter. img_1020

However, i thought that the idea of wrapping the pipes around the font was not my kind of design. As such, i decided to go for something mechanical.

I drew inspiration and references from steampunk equipment mechanics.

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This was the final outcome. I made it 3D to allow it to stand out more. I was quite happy with how it turned out as i’m not too good in drawing.

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Final Designs

 My name is
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And I’m an Architect

My name is
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And I’m  a Game Designer

 My name is
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And I’m an Interior Designer

 My name is
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And I’m an Engineer


Final Reflections

Overall, i felt that this project was a lot of fun and enjoyable. I was always looking forward to typography and i just had a lot of ideas for it. Even though there were many mental blocks and design issues, i was able to overcome them. For example, i thought that the hand drawn design wouldn’t turn out well. It was alright in the end. With that, i look forward to the next project and hopefully i will still have a cloud of ideas in my head.

Forest Gump

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 Movie Quotes 

Pirates of the Caribbean:
Curse of the Black Pearl

Well, women in London must have not learnt to breathe
 - Elizabeth Swan

Synopsis

Ever since the death of his wife, Governor Swann had raised his daughter Elizabeth on his own. Over the years, Elizabeth had blossomed into a beautiful young woman, although at times drove her father to distraction with her disregard for propriety. Despite Will Turner being the man of Elizabeth's dreams, Weatherby Swann would never let them marry as a governor's daughter was considered too good for a lowly blacksmith. Rather, he'd let her be betrothed to the debonair and ambitious Commodore James Norrington, a marriage which would have brought her wealth and respect. Ultimately, even Weatherby realized that he could not persuade Elizabeth to change her mind about wedding someone she first met when they were children, one who was a blacksmith that had pirate in his blood who also had a strong sense of what's right and what's not.

Dialogue

[Elizabeth is being laced into a corsetGovernor Swann:  Elizabeth, how's it coming? 
 
 Elizabeth:  It's difficult to say. 
 
 Governor Swann:  I'm told it's the latest fashion in London. 
 
 Elizabeth:  Well, women in London must have learned not to breathe.

Designs

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Analysis

 

Over here we have the Big Ben and a noose wrapped around it. The Big Ben is an iconic image of London which indirectly represents women in London whereas the noose which symbolizes the corset is wrapped tightly around the body of the clock. In other words, this shows how tight the Elizabeth corset was that she was complaining that she couldn’t breathe

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Analysis

This picture shows the London Bridge seeping into a jar with a pirate ship in it. Like the previous variation, the London Bridge is an iconic structure in London. It can be seen to be squeezing and sinking through the bottleneck of a jar which implies that it is very hard to fit a larger object into such a small space, thus relating to Elizabeth’s difficulty in fitting in her tight corset. The flow of the structure through the jar also implies an arduous journey in which the pirate ship at the end symbolizes her final relationship with the pirate Will Turner.

UP

Adventure is out there!
- Ellie

Synopsis

Carl goes inside to investigate and meets a young, outgoing tomboy who shares his passion for exploration and admiration of Charles Muntz. Startled by her loud, boyish demeanor at first, Carl loses his balloon in the rafters. The girl, Ellie helps him retrieve it, though Carl falls from a beam and breaks his arm. Ellie sneaks into his room that night and shows him her adventure book where she expresses a desire to one day move to the top of Paradise Falls in South America, showing him a picture that she 'ripped right out of a library book'. She makes him promise that they will go together someday before leaving.

Dialogue

[Carl has a thought. He looks at his toy dirigible]

YOUNG ELLIE: That's it! You can take us there in a blimp! Swear you'll take us. Cross your heart! Cross it! Cross your heart.

[Carl does]

YOUNG ELLIE: Good. You promised. No backing out. Carl shakes his head "no."

YOUNG ELLIE: Well, see you tomorrow kid! Bye.

[Ellie hops up and jumps out the window]

YOUNG ELLIE: "Adventure is out there!!"

[She pops back in]

 

Designs


up

Analysis

The picture depicts an image of a man (Carl Fredrickson) with a picture of a map pasted on his face. This design is based on the quote which summarizes the whole movie. It all starts out from the inverted snail is used to symbolize the fast growth of the metropolis which leads to the growth in high-rise buildings around a low-lying house. 
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It was the man's dream to use balloons to lift the house which are symbolized by birds flying.
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The journey to Paradise Falls was accompanied by a dog and a human boy which are depicted through the footsteps. There is a grave of a woman (his wife) and the crows on the grave represents death. 
Image result for up house paradise falls
This whole journey depicts what her wife wanted - An adventure that never ends.

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Analysis

 This image depicts of an aged man's (Carl's Fredrickson) with a girl, a dog and birds popping out from his head. Despite Carl's old age, not a single day goes by without remembering the memories he had for his wife and he spends everyday reminiscing about the times he had spent with a young little girl in a dusty room talking about anything under the moon. I wanted a more three dimensional feel so i went with the idea of interior view of the head. Inside the head, the girl was wearing an aviation goggles which relates to the actual scene in the room and her dreams of flying. The dog represents Dug which accompanies the man with his journey to paradise falls. 

The birds are literally the birds from the jungles in the movie but it also implies the freedom that the old man had when he was travelling. With his life starting to change with so much happening, Ellie's quote of the adventure is out there starts to come true.

Alice in Wonderland

Most everyone's mad in here
- Cheshire Cat

Synopsis

 Alice sings "All in the Golden Afternoon" with a garden of talking flowers, chases after the Rabbit again and she finds herself in a garden of talking flowers and strange insects. Image result for alice garden plants gif
The flowers at first befriend Alice, but then mistake her for a weed and angrily drive her out of the flowerbed before she can "take root." Image result for smoking caterpillar gif
She engages a hookah-smoking caterpillar who turns into a butterfly, though not before giving her cryptic advice about the mushroom she is sitting on. Alice breaks off two pieces and nibbles them alternately (first growing very large and unintentionally aggravating a Nesting Mother Bird (Queenie Leonard), who accuses Alice of being a "serpent", then shrinking very small). Finally Alice manages to restore herself to her normal size and stores the pieces in her apron pockets.

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Alice receives mysterious directions from the Cheshire Cat (Sterling Holloway), an eerily grinning feline that can disappear and reappear at will, which lead her to the garden of the March Hare (Jerry Colonna), who is celebrating his "unbirthday" with the Mad Hatter (Ed Wynn) and the Dormouse.

Dialogue

Cheshire Cat: If I were looking for a white rabbit, I'd ask the Mad Hatter.

Alice: The Mad Hatter? Oh, no no no...

Cheshire Cat: Or, you could ask the March Hare, in that direction.

Alice: Oh, thank you. I think I'll see him...

Cheshire Cat: Of course, he's mad, too.

Alice: But I don't want to go among mad people.

Cheshire Cat: Oh, you can't help that. Most everyone's mad here.

[laughs maniacally; starts to disappear]

Cheshire Cat: You may have noticed that I'm not all there myself.

Designs

alice-in-wonderland-2

Analysis

This is a threshold image of the Cheshire Cat which i am really happy with the design. I made use of the iconic crescent-shaped mouth which represents the Cat himself.
Some examples of the crescent-smile

With this in mind, this gave birth to the current design. In addition, the combination of the eyes and mouth emanates a whimsical and wacky aura which befits the atmosphere of the movie quote itself.

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Analysis

This picture is similar just that i felt that the current smile is more aesthetically pleasing than the former. Now, the feeling of madness is amplified through a more exaggerated smile.

Peter Pan

To die... would be an awfully big adventure
- Peter Pan

Synopsis

 After the children are asleep, Peter and Tinkerbell sneak into the house to locate the errant shadow. They find it, but Peter is unable to reattach it. Frustrated, he breaks down in tears waking Wendy. Unable to understand the attraction she feels toward this strange boy, Wendy offers to sew his shadow back on growing more and more interested in his tales of adventure in Neverland. First she offers him a kiss but when he is clearly unaware what the word means, she give him her thimble receiving an acorn from him in exchange. Then she offers him a "thimble" this time placing a gentle kiss on the confused boy's cheek. Even if he doesn't understand Wendy's actions, Peter knows her to be a first-class storyteller and eagerly offers to teach all three children to fly. They joyfully follow him out the window of the nursery and off to the Second Star on the Right and Straight on till Morning.

As it happens, whenever Peter is away Neverland become locked in a freeze and nowhere is it felt more than off the coast aboard the Jolly Roger--the home of Captain Hook and his crew. A sudden thaw alerts all on board that the boy is back! They prepare to once more resume their endless war with Peter's crew, the Lost Boys.

But first, Tinkerbell selflessly drinks the poison that that Hook tried to leave in Pan's medicine cup for him to drink.

With that, Peter went to confront Hook but was unfortunately overpowered by him. Just before Hook dealt the finishing blow to Peter, he said: "to die would be an awfully big adventure".

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With tears streaming from his eyes, he starts to say, over and over, "I do believe in fairies! I do! I do!" Before long the entire cast (including the pirates) are saying it too! Tink wakes up and flies about, casting fairy dust in every direction

Dialogue

Hook: And now, Peter Pan, you shall die.

Peter: To die... would be an awfully big adventure.

Designs

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Analysis

This picture depicts an hourglass with skulls flowing from the upper bulb to the lower into a rider with wings. Often times adventure lies within the unknown. Death, being an event in which we will never really know what happens afterward, would be a big adventure because it is traveling into the unknown. The skulls which symbolizes Peter's  death brings him through the flow of time and this would be him venturing into the abyss while riding a motorbike, flying through the galaxy. In addition, since Peter's life is full of exciting adventure but, just like his age, his life never changes. Death is just a change for him. The aerial motorcycle also represents a change from his usage of wings.

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Analysis

This is another adaptation of the quote which is about Peter's adventure with his life as it comes close to an end. The planes at the back portrays his ability to fly freely and the roses represents the close relationship he had with Wendy. I believe that these two traits were the most evident throughout the movie and i wanted to highlight it.
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 In addition, the feather at the top is an iconic symbol of Peter pan's hat which in combination with the skull shows Peter Pan experiencing death.

– Silkscreen Process – 

Step 1: Washing of silkscreens
Step 2: Inking the screen with photosensitive paint (Hardest part for me, screwed up all the way!)
Step 3: Drying of screen
Step 4: Exposing screen
Step 5: Washing off the ink 
Step 6: Inking the exposed design
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Final designs:

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Looks lovely, but details wise i was not too happy with it so i decided to scrape off everything using beta strips and redid another design.

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AND BOOM!

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Looks like the original! So satisfied with this! Just hope that it turns out well on the tote bag...

Final Print on Tote Bag

 

It came out well!!

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Final Outcome

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Project Emo is finally done!

After five weeks of messy and tedious work, I’m glad to say that the outcome was satisfying even though i believe there’s always still room for improvement. IMG_5069

It was a rocky start at first as i struggled to find the emotions to express myself. Without an aim in mind, process making therefore came to a standstill. Most of the outcomes at this point of time were fully experimental and random to say the least.

IMG_4827Some of the first few works

In addition, i was focused more on the aesthetics of the journal which shouldn’t be the case as the process was the crux.

IMG_5077Salvador Dali was one of the inspirations

IMG_5079Andre Masson

Eventually, i got a wake-up call from prof to take a step back from work and to just chill! That really help as it allowed me to see things from another perspective such as through using the cropping tool – which allowed for more possibilities of design. IMG_4960

Slowly but surely, i started developing the techniques and began churning out the emotions like a popcorn machine. IMG_4978First batch of attempts with aim in mind

 

I was kind of happy with these batch of products as i had an aim in mind.

IMG_5014Even tried experimenting with wax

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Soon, i affixed and mounted the final works. It turned out great!

IMG_5083 IMG_5076 IMG_5075 IMG_5082Few pages from the journal

Overall, this project has really helped me to get used to expressing myself vocally and visually and i believe that i could use the knowledge of whatever i have taken away to future upcoming projects!