Project 1: Image Making Through Type, this is a project about using our names, initials or parts of it, to express four future occupations.

Concept 

The future is uncertain, but one thing I know is that we can always stay true to ourselves. I wanted to express 4 “jobs” that I can see myself being in no matter what sort of situation I am in life down the road, even if there is no future. But the lack of future is grim, so I wish to portray this darkness in a satirical manner. Even if I don’t end up doing anything in the future, I can still be me as a silver lining. Hence for the occupations chosen, they will be glorified acts I can see myself doing just living my life.

Art Direction 

My specialty is like my future, a void.  I messed around with a bunch of mediums and with some consideration I decided to do a illustrative hybrid with photographs. Since the project is about me, I wanted to have the designs be done in a first-person view to not feel estranged with the occupations, and hence have some sort of mark of myself in each photograph. The photographic effect has the slight sense of realism, which I use to capture myself being here, having what is in the photograph be what is seen through my eyes, after all, these are occupations of my future.

These photographs are then illustrated over to create more otherworldly effects (such as the S-shaped noodles, that effect might be a bit hard to do with my feet alone haha). Some effects were made to be more exaggerated by looking a bit odd or emphasised with darker lines, so the attention can be caught. My initials SY are used in all 4 designs, so at the very least I want them to be visible. The usage of pencil to highlight shadows and detail also worked out very nicely, since other than emphasis, it also created a slight sensation of dread, for these “jobs” are generally less-than-ideal, making my ponder what else I could have done in my life.

Occupation 1: The Procrastinator

Not gonna lie, I procrastinate all the time. I actually took almost two weeks to take the photograph after planning out how it should look, and way longer to write this OSS post. Sometimes we just get the “man I don’t wanna do this” feeling. It just happens that I get the feeling pretty often. Sometimes we question why we live, what do we wanna do in our lives, what are we achieving for? Then your phone notifies you that your friend just baked a nice cake. Suddenly there is a desire of cake. Often it takes a lot of effort to begin doing something, we always tell ourselves there’s something more pressing we can be doing now, whether it is important or not. Sometimes it’s completely unimportant, like a new update to a mobile phone game, sometimes big events happen to your family like an anniversary. But even so, time you don’t spend doing what you should do, is not time wasted. You may not have completed your assignment, but you did complete something else, or maybe nothing. It is fine. We are not living to work, it is okay to take a break or two or five. Sometimes, your brain considers things you don’t normally think about. How did that riddle go again? Not doing your work sometimes produces unexpected yields. I procrastinate, and I am not ashamed of it.

In this piece, I use an oil stain left by resting my left hand on the graph to create the S-shape, while I use the increasingly popular fidget spinner, with emphasis on the rotation and movement to create the Y shape. The picture shows that instead of working on the half-finished graph, I begin to procrastinate and do other things. There are doodles on the paper, there is an incomplete list of things to do (ironically), we have a phone showing us dog pictures. With the graph in the middle acting as negative space, I directed objects around my initials to create the sense that I’m opening outwards, instead of looking in and working. In procrastination we can see a greater picture, and is what I can openly admit I do.

Occupation 2: The Comfort Specialist

Okay I already feel fatigued from typing the first occupation. Life is tiring sometimes. We need to take rests now and then. But perhaps too much in life is stressing us out and we couldn’t rest well? No worries, the comfort specialist is here. When I wish to rest, I can, and will, stop thinking about my worries. Take a breather, not everything has to be done to the same standards. I don’t always want to go out to a noodle restaurant, queue for half an hour, be seated at a counter table around with a steaming hot bowl of ramen. Sure it is fancy, but there’s also Cup Noodles. If I don’t necessarily need that atmosphere in the restaurant, I can settle with this. Cut off some effort, sit back on the couch, watch whatever is hot in the season. Take a good rest and soothe the body and soul. Relax, I’m a specialist.

The set is my living room, with several signs of junk food lying around. The S is formed by the twirl of the instant noodles, while the Y is created by the shape of my right foot. I wanted this piece to be slightly comical, just like the name of the job Comfort Specialist. Simplified it really just means a slacker or a couch potato. In attempts to create as much as possible with minimal effort, I substitute a proper meal with instant noodles, and even use my feet over my hands, to maximise how lazy I appear to be. The chopsticks are juxtaposed to hold the noodles, and connect the letters together, presenting the idea how even with the bare minimal effort, I can hold things together, hence I am able to devote my energy in search for relaxation.

Occupation 3: The One who watches paint dry

Now this might seem out of place. Someone who watches paint dry? Who needs that? But you see, there was a person who watched paint dry, for over 30 years! A man named Keith Jackson watches paint dry for a living in Britain. It sounds awfully useless, but it was an important job he never grew bored of. Sometimes the stations for the London Underground needed a new paintjob, but they could not close the area off for extended periods of time, so he watches over it. There are many jobs in the world that are severely underappreciated; sometimes you don’t mind it though, since you know that what you do, will do good in the future.

The design of this is clean and simple. The S-shape is formed by either the interpretation of the 5 in the stopwatch, or the hand shape using the left thumb and left fingers to create the S, meanwhile the Y is formed by combining the finger with the sideways stroke on the paint resembling a hand test to see whether the paint has dried. The pencil stroke effects work really well as it creates rust-like effects, which feels like fatigue from doing a job tested by the strain of time. But even so, the hand gesturing suggests effort is put in despite such woes. Even if others mock what you do, you only need to know what you do serves their purpose; don’t let others hinder you, do what you wish.

Occupation 4: The NEET

The NEET. Short for “Not in Education, Employment, or Training”, an actual term btw. At the end of the road, I decide, why is it that I work for others, why don’t I live for myself instead. Life isn’t ’bout living to work, working to live. At the end of the day, your life belongs to you. Quit your day job, stay at home. Do whatever you wish. Be unemployed, go on a trip, do whatever you wish. At some point of your life you need to learn that all your actions in life should benefit yourself ultimately, not the society, not the government, but live for yourself. It’s not ’bout committing crimes or breaking laws, but rather it is that you don’t be a common cogwheel in the machine that is your company or employment. Live free. Live for yourself.

Here we have the scene of a leisure room, with speakers and other comfort items like snacks and monitors. A popular culture on certain types of social sites are bingo checklists, mostly used satirically on how little one has done in their life. Usually a line or few lines end up created and sometimes visible characters are formed, making the bingo checklist a bit more visually interesting; this forms the S shape here. For the right side, we have a polygonal chart; this is commonly seen in video games to show the statistical ability of a character, such as Strength, Dexterity, etc. Often this creates a notable shape of either a simple hexagon, a partial hexagon with 3-4 adjacent stats having high values with the others having low values, or a Y shape where you have equal numbers of very high and very low stats, usually in alternates since adjacent stats usually do not always synergise; this is what I have here. The idea here is that despite being unemployed, I have a grasp on what is happening on my life. I live for the present, but work towards to future.

That is all for now, cya in the next post in the near future (if there is one for us)