Proj1 Image Making through Type Process

W6 Process & Final Explanation: Making in Itself

I realised I didn’t particularly mention the typeface and colour choices during the presentation, and thus have indicated them clearly in here.

Overarching ideas/common themes:

Jobs can work both digitally and analogously
- To depict the versatility of the digital
Jobs are non-descriptive
- Only the “base” job, and the specification is hinted through the composition
Names are of invented online handles
- To depict the temperamental nature of the online identity
Backgrounds are vector drawings
- To present differentiation between the digital world and the “real” you
- To provide flatness, to avoid standing out
Foreground letters are pasted on
- To present differentiation between the digital world and the “real” you
- To draw focus through layering
Logo(s) present in each composition
- To show online nature of each job
- To show what kind of online website it might be associated with
Borders have colour and pattern
- Either black or white to contrast image, e.g. if composition is too light-coloured, use black background to offset
- Patterns related to each composition for visual quality than just plain colour

Idea for logos from realisation that cameras have certain logos…

Which can be related to social media icons

Making texture brushes. Took many tries, especially where I kept accidentally glitching it up.

All the Art Brushes I made, using Photoshop.

Experiments with Hue Shift, Tints and Shades, Tints and None settings.

My Scatter Brush (mainly for rice but also for texture), Swatch (repetition looks atrocious but surprisingly useful as texture) and Pattern Brush.

CRITIC

Came out slightly differently due to the lack of realisation that printing on A4 photo paper would still mean <A4 size in avoiding bleed.

Of sushi
Tumblr logo (implication of food blogging)
Experiment with Illustrator pattern brush
- Edited in Photoshop to fix perspective and lighting issues which could not be resolved with the sushi brush
- No particular typeset choice as opposed to looking reasonably like a normal piece of raw salmon (hence the curves along the corners than straight cuts)
- Neutral colours matching typical wooden sushi table, and orange with white for contrast and pattern. Green wasabi to accent slightly.

I built up each face, then added the wood lines, then textures, then slight shadows (with Colour Burn for more saturation).

Sushi brush, after original prototype. Avoided adding too much lighting since it would definitely come out wrong.

Perspective was vaguely problematic. I followed guidelines for a 2 point perspective, and tried to mimick it as best as possible.

Edited in Photoshop for lighting and perspective issues, as well as to smoothen intersections.

Tumblr logo reference. Attempted to make it appear to be carved inward.

PHOTOGRAPHER

In hindsight, the editting to incorporate lighting made the contrast too low, so the focus isn’t very clear this way.

Of cats
Instagram/Youtube logo (implication of online sharing)
Collaging with use of gestalt
- Dissection of pictures of cats into parts, then collaging together
- No particular typeset choice as opposed to fixing the parts together in a comprehensive manner, where tails/legs define direction while eyes/paws/etc cover up small gaps
- Cats of various shades of brown to avoid too high or low contrast (light-coloured/black cats), avoiding too much focus to any one part of the typeset

Slightly jumbled to maximise space, as a straight line left too much unused space and made it not focal enough. Also varied size of each letter slightly to encourage reading in the correct order, and changed colours slightly to make it appear more believably as part of the screen.

Few examples of cats I used. In total, there were 32 cats used.

TRANSLATOR

Of Japanese/English
Self-designed logo (referenced from, implication of online translation services)
Painting with brush and ink
- Dissection of hiragana into parts, then mixing together to form English letters
- “Painted” calligraphic-styled font to evoke Asian brush strokes
- Black strokes to emulate calligraphic style

Initial contemplation of the strokes, and mixing to make suitable matches.

Repeated until satisfactory. I varied pressure, amount of ink, etc to get slightly different results, and focused more on moving naturally with focused energy.

Linguistics-related online service logo. No particular established online translating logo existed, so I took the liberty of drawing upon common images (dual chatboxes overlapping).

RETAILER

(rendered interpretation by superimposing traditionally cut and painted plastics onto digitally created background)

Of terrariums
Amazon logo (implication of online selling)
Acrylic on cut plastic
- Shaping of terrarium with plastic, display of terrarium through plastic
- Convex “bubble” font to resemble terrarium’s curved surfaces
- Browns and greens with red-orange-yellow to resemble terrariums’ trees/plants and flowers

Colour choices. Used acrylic paints directly from the tube: browns, greens, warms and white.

Painted on the back side of the plastic to “contain” the plants

For some variety, I changed it up a little here and there.

What I stated during the presentation was that the difficulty was really in using Illustrator, as aforementioned and suggested, particularly in relation to the brush creating (it took me a while to understand joining and separating shapes too). For me, too, the difficulty always lies in making the product match the overarching concept I have in mind, which is a necessity for me lest I end up with too wide a scope and a lack of direction. Certainly, though, what I HAVE taken away is that it’s always good to experiment nevertheless, and to avoid creating the “final” product too early lest it’s subject to changes when you think of something better.

W3-5 Research & Process: actually trying to make the composition

Preceded by | Succeeded by (to be published)

Previously, I established the brainstorming behind the main concept, and the selection of jobs and names. This post focuses more on compositional process, edits after consultations, etc.

Note that as of this point I’ve yet to particularly finish compositions, in that I prefer to work on and finalise a draft before actually embarking on creating the final piece. This, unfortunately, means that I’m very susceptible to changes which MUST be made to the final piece for it to look alright, even if it SUPPOSED to look alright according to the draft. Said final changes, if any, will be updated in a separate post.

Consultation 1 (via email)

I sent Shirley the sketches from previously, along with a few new ones. These were the general ideas I had in mind, though:

Photographer. Shirley mentioned not to force the shape of cats into the letters.

Translator. It was vaguely boring, but nothing particularly seemed wrong with the composition to me. Shirley suggested dissecting Japanese characters and turning it into a typeface. She also suggested a vertical placement to suggest the Asian association (though not recommended in general!)

Retailer. I had a few doubts as to composition due to the boxy, orderly form of the online shop, but pushed them aside in favour of the letters first. Shirley suggested having the terrariums slightly rotated than head-on, and to actually find out what terrariums look like (since they looked like vases).

Blogger. I had literally no idea, and thus attempted to modify food into shapes. Shirley mentioned not to “force” objects into certain shapes though, and thus I revamped the entire design.

All in all, the conclusion was mostly to avoid forcefully warping objects into certain shapes, and to add more dynamism through avoiding straight lines, if possible.

Consultation 2

I attempted to have a clearer composition by using Illustrator to make vector sketches.

Photographer. The idea still remains the same, but the typeface was incomplete and thus not shown. The idea I had in mind, though, was that of dissecting and reassembling cats to make letters.

Translator. With the previously mentioned genkouyoushi in mind, I attempted to figure out how to work the composition to have the name in focus while still in the genkouyoushi format. Shirley, however, suggested that it wasn’t necessary to have the words in the paper, but rather have the paper as a background texture.

Retailer. The idea remains the same, but with the letters slightly rotated here and there. I also established that I would likely paint it since digital painting is unavailable to me, and vector is still too new for me to effectively work anything.

Blogger. As can clearly be seen, I really had no idea, and tried focusing on the nature of blogging as something wordy (by putting in common words used in blog posts) and that of the plate and cutlery to imply “consumption”. When I mentioned my lack of ideas, Shirley suggested reducing the scope of food to get a clearer image, and thus I narrowed it down to sushi on a whim.

Other than that, I also established the Translator font by doing as Shirley suggested:

Dissecting Japanese strokes (specifically, hiragana), then
Mixing them together to form the letters

(insert picture when I actually have it)

I didn’t bother to try to make it look like actual characters, as opposed to a clear amalgamation of preexisting Japanese strokes.

Email Suggestion

Shirley mentioned to Google to see what already exists, which I realised I didn’t even think of.

1. Cat Photographer

The font I had established in the meantime. This was done by downloading many, many cat photos, using the Lasso tool to take out various parts like the legs, ears, paws, mouths, eyes, etc, then pasting them together. I mainly used tails and legs for direction, with smaller parts used as per appropriate to fill spaces based on their shapes.

The key image is cats, so I searched for cat typography.

Many cats together form the shape of the letters.

Cat-related images form the letters: I think it’s really cool.

A sort of very extensive serif defines parts of the cat, and negative spaces to change the shape.

Of all of them, my current typeface resembles the first and second most closely, that of the collaging of many cats to form the letters. Looking at it makes me finally understand what Shirley meant by cat gestalt, and what she meant when asking what I’d do to cover the gaps during consultation (which I didn’t understand at the time, but now I think it meant that she thought I would be putting a lot of small cats together?)

On the bright side, the misunderstanding means that, yes, it’s not a mainstream idea currently in use, probably because who would even want to cut up cats?

2. Japanese/English Translator

Attempts to write out were not very effective. Also, I highly doubt modern genkouyoushi can handle ink without bleeding, so the consensus is to create each stroke separately (on hot-pressed watercolour paper for good measure), then scan them in.

Based off the Japanese hiragana to look like actual Japanese characters, when they actually aren’t.

Similarly, based off katakana (another Japanese script) for a similar effect.

Not sure what exactly to call it, but it’s based off… Essentially, the Japanese equivalent of the Chinese bopomofo.

This directly uses Japanese katakana as is, just with a few rotations or flips as per necessary.

It seems to be a rather common idea to edit Japanese strokes into English words… I’m unsure if it’s considered too similar due to that, but I’m inclined to believe it’s alright, simply because most typefaces seem to be attempting to convince viewers that they are legitimate characters, while I’m merely dissecting and reassembling without attempting to make it convincing.

3. Terrarium Retailer

Since then, I attempted to make the actual picture, but while watercolour translucency is effective for the terrarium, its severe dilution makes the colours somewhat dull. Also, I’m out of practice.

Terrarium shaped as letters, the plants growing on it.

Trees in the terrarium curving to form letters.

Plants forming the letters within their “terrarium”.

At some point we must all remember that if we were clever enough to come up with something entirely unique, we wouldn’t need to be in school. Mine is really rather similar to the 2nd one, apart from the direction (plants grow upwards than sideways), font (bubbly than straight cut) and colours (mix of other colours than just green).

4. Sushi Blogger

After the consultation, I decided to try making a sushi art brush in Illustrator, of which this is the prototype (lacking details or whatsoever). In the middle left is the tileset for the brush, while the middle features my attempts to use the brush together with different fonts. In the top left corner is the rice texture brush I attempted to make, which does not seem particularly effective.

To be more precise, it’s maki. Curves are defined by sliced maki, straight lines by makis lined up, and diagonals by chopsticks.

Rice grains form the letters, with some topping for the added effect.

The typeface takes after traditional Japanese calligraphy styles.

Words curve to form contours, while being confined in their area.

I have tried Googling “sushi illustrator brush” to no result, so…? Seeing the 2nd composition reminded me that I hadn’t thought of a suitable background, though, so I considered a sushi plate.

In Illustrator I might envision this as a top-down perspective, with the plate implied through its patterns and textures. However, this made me realise the fatal problem of perspective: the sushi would be lying sideways on the plate if the rice were visible… Also, if it were straight on like the 2nd reference, it would be somewhat lacking in dynamism.

Consultation 3

I raised the following questions:

The composition of the Photographer
- I felt it was not focused enough due to the background

In response to the concern, Shirley suggested trying another layout which would similarly suggest a camera.

For example, rather than the lens, using the camera display screen.

The composition of the Blogger, in terms of the perspective
- A top down perspective would mean that the sushi is technically lying on its side, an improper placement…

Shirley mentioned the possibility of making swatches for the rice and salmon texture than a brush, and adding perspective to the plate instead

The composition of the Retailer, which was somewhat too rigid
- The initial idea involved boxes and boxes in straight lines to match the online shop format, which was somewhat boring

She suggested putting the terrariums together in a bundle, than separating them. It’s amazing how such obvious things don’t always come to mind!

The medium of the Retailer, of which I couldn’t quite decide what would work well

In accordance with the terrarium texture, I attempted painting directly on the plastic as an alternative. Between the dull watercolour on paper and the simplistic acrylic on plastic, she showed a preference for the plastic, and gave crucial suggestions on the gluing process.

The technicalities of Illustrator, where the different custom brush options was really confusing me and Google was not helpful enough
The technicalities of printing, regarding bleed area

The ideation and drafts seems alright, so the conclusion from here on out is to actually get to making the final pieces, and any necessary edits, since it’s very possible that it may not actually look good in the end even if it ought to as per the drafts.

W1-2 Process: Choosing Jobs and Names

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One of the things I enjoy about these projects is that we are given multiple compositions: this means there is room to create patterns and links between the compositions. Four is also always a good number to work with, simply because many ideas are associated with four elements (Mendel’s law, temperaments, classical elements, etc.) Additionally, this means it’s easy to associate certain elements with one composition, then create contrast with the other.

Below are certain ways I’ve tried to approach the project, especially where I tend to get very easily confused by myself. Even if I’ve come up with something I like to re-evaluate it repeatedly and try to think of better alternatives.

(EVENTUALLY SELF-REJECTED) IDEA 1: CHOOSING JOBS BEFORE NAMES

Image result for punnett square — Example of Punnett Square model. In this case, we change “Mother” and “Father” to 2 binary opposites, or 2 qualities, anythign to provide enough variety.

I initially considered using a Punnett Square model to define two pairs of binary opposites, forming 4 resulting jobs.This would allow me to work with a variety of styles, as well as provide clear visual differences between the compositions. For example, this list:

Optimism vs pessimism
Tangible jobs (revenue provision) versus intangible jobs (human duty)
High vs low income
Skilled vs unskilled work
Outdoor vs indoor
Real vs fantastical
Physically demanding vs mentally demanding
Nature-related vs technological-related
Male-oriented vs female-oriented
Bizarre versus ordinary
Stable versus unstable

As such, it might end up with something which looks like this:

	NATURE	TECHNOLOGY
HIGH INCOME	Biologist	Programmer
LOW INCOME	Farmer	Plumber

However, I had difficulty trying to come up with 2 pairs that could work with each other, especially where some of these pairs did not have very clear visual differences. Also, it doesn’t really provide any kind of overarching idea except for that of that diversity of jobs.

IDEA 2: CHOOSING NAMES BEFORE JOBS

Choosing jobs wasn’t going too well, so I opted to try to choose names first instead. Here’s a list of the initial thoughts:

Full name as per NRIC (official, business-y)
NRIC number (disparaging remark on society, rigidity and capitalism)
Nicknames (until I realised I don’t really have any)
Online names (game character names, forum handles)
Titles (“ma’am” by my cadets, “xiao mei” by stall vendors)

The notion of online names stood out simply because Shirley suggested to have more quirky jobs, and it seemed like there’d be more “associated images” which I could use to make it easier for others to understand. (Also, it’s easier to change the names if I want, because online names can be anything!)

IDEA 2.1: ONLINE HANDLES

Here’s some online handles I’ve used before in different situations, to relate to the ideas of 1. the rise of jobs pertaining to the internet, and 2.the ability of a single person to take on various different personas through the net.

Seichi: Name I used when I was doing webcomic translations
Threar: Name I used for a healer class game character
Ense: Name I used when I wrote stories, fanfictions, etc

Idea 2.2 involves the usage of ONLY game online handles, possibly to reinforce the idea of an alternate irreality? Which may reduce the difficulty in that many games, like MMORPGS, tend to have a job/class system which I could reference.

http://www.flyffworld.com/w/images/9/93/Class_Tree2.gif — From Flyff. A job tree showing typical job archetypes, with subset jobs. Some MMORPGS have classes more closely associated with reality, and some, more fantastical ones.

It would certainly reduce my ability to showcase ACTUAL jobs which are online, though, and visually it might be a little challenging.

IDEA 3: JUST DESIGN FIRST AND SEE HOW IT GOES

As the name suggests. I draft typefaces or compositions in my free time (or when I’m bored), and try to fit it to a concept which works.

Floral patterns, somewhat based off William Morris’s wallpaper sets (but with less intricacy).

Prototypes for previous: it looked too much like social media icons, so I widened and made it rounder.

Attempts to contextualise the letters by placing it on a table.

Photoshop layout for typesetting translations.

The main idea was to try and make use of textures.

Offshoot of previous, with attempts to spice up the blanket pattern more.

CONCLUSION

To mix Idea 2.1 and Idea 3. While I WILL use names I’ve used before, I WON’T use the names in conjunction with the function they ACTUALLY served. I try to fit the typefaces I sketched to jobs which could work online.

The theme is that of the online world, namely that of the inconsequentiality of online identity, alongside the versatility of the digital.

Names are interchangeable, unworldly and simultaneous: I could change the names easily with no consequence simply because it is a fake name, I can name myself whatever I so wish because it’s not real anyway. I can even have multiple names, all associated with different things, all at once because I am allowed to have multiple existences.

And yet at the same time this is a rising platform on which one finds employment, one which provides many opportunities, as presented by the various implied jobs: they are all jobs which can exist both in analog and digital form, and which would easily be mistaken as analog if not for the bizarre names, the subtle hints pointing to its online nature.

Here’s a general finalised list. May be subject to changes.

Photographer
- Implied: Photographer of cats
- Associated images: Cats, cameras
Retailer
- Implied: Retailer of those glass terrarium things which are a surprisingly popular homemade handicraft to sell
- Associated images: Terrariums, shop displays
Translator
- Implied: Translator between English and Japanese
- Associated images: Alphabets, books/editing softwares
Blogger
- Implied: Blogger about food
- Associated images: Food, reports