February 2019

There were 5 posts published in February 2019 (this is page 1 of 1).

18\19 S2 Project 1-Font Design-Creative Process

Inspirations

 

Before starting my project, I did some research on font design. The idea of this project is to connect the job that I want to do with my name. I need to have four pieces of work. Since all these jobs are quite imaginary and unusual, I want to get some inspirations about the colour scheme and how to incorporate elements from these artists’ work.

 

For the first one, complementary colours were used which made a good contrast, and the background is pale pink which soften the whole image, making the C stand out. The choice of colours was very well done.

Speaking of the elements in the characters, since the theme of this work is about travelling, the designer used some local icons of the city and the transportation icon, which deliver the message effectively.

The gradient colour was also used and worked out very well, and I think it now has become a popular trend, so I think I will incorporate this technique in my design later.

I also like the right one because it also shows a very nice isometric view, it creates a cute and clear three-dimensional view for the audience, which I think is quite important and effective.

(From left to right- https://www.behance.net/gallery/41712999/Wanderlust-Alphabet-A-E, https://www.behance.net/gallery/22415553/Boundless-Space)

These two pieces of work all used analogous colours, which not only creates harmony but also crates depths(especially the right-side one). I think these kinds of colours are suitable for animation and illustration style. It is worth to try it out, see if it can work with my ideas.

(From left to right- http://unagrafica.tumblr.com/post/83535661806/visualgraphc-up-fly-and-float-nico-lopez, https://owengildersleeve.com/)

 

This is a series of work created by the designer, these are all Gif images, but these images themselves are quite good too. The isometric view created a good sense of space, which is suitable for her setting of restaurants, clubs and stores, as they are all actual spaces. In a way, she illustrated the space and put on key elements of these spaces, which conveys her idea successfully and efficiently. In other words, the choice of colour is also deliberate. For example, the background colour of the letter U is dark purple, which indicates the night setting, because clubs normally open till quite late.

(https://www.behance.net/gallery/37688847/SHOUUT-Illustrated-Type)

 

The retro style typos are quite nice, too. I found that the key element of this kind of design is that both of the designers emphasised the shadow in a very clear way. They normally use analogous colour schemes too, and also the texture was elaborated illustrated, the “G” on the right side conveys this idea very well. Something also needs to take note is that the top view of the G, which is quite interesting. It creates a position for the audience, making them feel like they are in the air. This is interesting and worthwhile to explore.

(https://www.behance.net/gallery/37688847/SHOUUT-Illustrated-Type,  http://www.pristina.org/ilustracao/andrew-fairclough-is-kindred/#.XHOBuFMzZAY)

 

These two also convey the characteristics that I mentioned in the retro typo paragraph.

(https://inspirationhut.net/inspiration/great-little-place-tobias-hall/)

These are the colour schemes that I want to play with. Also, as I mentioned the dominant use of gradient colours and the idea of 3D space, the shadowing and highlights help to build up space, too.

Ideation

Some possible jobs that interest me.

  • -architect
  • -engineer
  • -lawyer
  • -interstellar spy
  • -NASA
  • -procuress
  • -pilot
  • -food inventor
  • -Rococo dressmaker
  • -treasure animals linguistic
  • -lighting designer
  • -holiday hedonist
  • -Fengshui master
  • -Wedding planner
  • -Demons killer
  • -Spy
  • -Emoji baker
  • -Antisocial babysitter\ADMer babysitter
Four chosen jobs
  • Wedding Planner– This is something that I always wanted to do. I really want to be invited to others’ weddings, but since I was always overseas I could not make most of them. I do want to see people’s happy moments and plan surprises for them.
  • Spy-then changed to Space Traveller– Because I really like the Marvel movies and especially the Thor one, the sci-fi world always attract me so much and I think it would be really cool to see the world outside the earth.
  • ADMer Babysitter-I think it would be really fun playing with this idea and I do feel that we need babysitting.
  • Beach holiday Expert-At this point of time I do really wish to have a holiday, and it would be great if I can make it to a job, so this idea just came to me very naturally.

Creative Process

 

Font 1-Space Traveller
  1. Researching on Sci-fi movie posters, exploring how the designers incorporate the sci-fi elements with the background and the font. Additionally, I found that most of the posters would use this set of colour scheme, where the blue colour indicates the universe, the purple creates the feeling of mystery and adventure and the red and white indicate the light and technology.
  2.  Collecting some elements and textures based on the colour scheme. i.e, the texture of the spaceship, the data and information board on the digital screen, the view of earth from the universe etc.
  3. Building up my name by software. The software that I used for this font is Sketchup, it has a nice sketch and line view, which can be useful when editing it. Another important key element in the sci-fi setting is the perspective. The two-point perspective creates the sense of space and for the next one, the one-point perspective creates the star-war like disappering feeling.

First attempt-previous design

 

 

Final Outcome

Visual elements- the moon surface which indicates the feeling of being in the universe, control panel on the spaceship, and the sign of target detecting, which helps to build up the environment. There is also a frame outside my name, which indicates that this is something that shows up on a screen of a spaceship. All these elements are used to convey the idea that I am a space traveller driving a spaceship, exploring my adventure in the vast universe.

Font-San Serif. I used the normal Arial, it is actually serif itself, but when it comes to all capital letters it automatically changed to San serif font. I chose this font because I want to have a clean and objective feeling, which is not too emotional.

The difficulty that I had was that initially, I did not convey my idea in a harmonious way, because the colour scheme looks a bit unsuitable.

 

Font 2-Wedding Planner

 

Elements of the wedding- always link to heart, white dress, two people, bright bold colours etc, rings.

Final Outcome

I did not take many references for this one because I drew these up on illustrator. The frame is made by the lace pattern on the bride’s dress to render the setting.

I tried to make everything simple based on the rule- less is more. By drawing the gift, high heels, heart-shaped balloons and flowers to indicate that this is about the wedding.

What wedding planners do is just to create memories and happiness on the wedding, so I used a series of warm, strong, analogous colours to create a happy mood, but with the gradient colour inside the font to create a soft and sweet feeling. The diamond ring is a bit out of the colour scheme, which gives out a hint and also emphasises the setting, it is also quite cute acting like a tiny tail of the U.

The font that I used is Arial Round MT, the curve express a soft and cute idea, which is suitable for the wedding setting.

 

Font 3-ADMer Babysitter

 

Elements about babysitter and ADM people.

I used the Cinema 4D to do the name part and some of the elements of ADMers, because I want to have the isometric view for this one, it is good to build models first then render them.

I drew the key elements using C4D, and the colour scheme is all pastel because I want to convey the dream-like softness for this job. Because babysitters are always gentle and most of their job is to make the baby sleep, and also the baby room is normally decorated with pastel colour wallpapers etc.

 

First attempt

It was not successful due to the colour. After rendering in the software, the 3D font still looks quite greyish, which did not convey the dream feeling at all and the background is also a bit strong. Additionally, the lack of elements is a huge problem because I don’t know how to link the idea of babysitting with ADM students.

 

Final Outcome

Firstly, for a babysitter, I must know what ADM people need. I think that is lockers, food and sleeping time, but also the vending machine is quite important too. Then what is the icon of ADM students? To me it is energy drink, invisible retro dressing code and cigarettes, sometimes with a pen or something. Then I put these elements to each character, and to make it more like ADM, I put the iconic staircase in, but for the harmony of the whole image I changed the colour.

To convey the idea of sleeping and dream, I added a pillow under the characters and also the cloud, but unfortunately, the implied meaning of that is to tell that this is more like a daydream, it is not true.

I’ve also lightened up the whole image to convey the dream feeling.

The font I used is still Arial capital letters because I think the sharp corners indicate the characteristics of each space and structure of the architecture.

Font 4- Beach Holiday Expert

For the beach, the elements are all about the sea, sky and the sand, which are quite easy to convey. But for the holiday, it is a little bit abstract, therefore I used the headphone to indicate the music therefore link back to the idea of the holiday.

There are also elements such as the umbrella, the coconut tree, and the sand castle to indicate the holiday and the idea of the island. It is viewed from above, the bird-eye view creating a feeling of looking down, so it is what people see from the aeroplane. The brown colour underneath each letter is the soil and the white outline illustrated the waves. The water drops around it were to show the movement and the vibes of the holiday.

Similarly, as the wedding planner, the round curvature was used to create a relaxing and enjoyable feeling.

The colour scheme is quite bold and strong, with a strong contrast and colourful elements to convey the enjoyable feeling.

 

Final Four

 

 

 

18\19 S2 Pandora Revisited-Process Book

Starting with rectangular shapes, playing with the concept of contract, stack and reflect. However, it is quite hard to show reflection within one single model, therefore I decided to interpret this idea later, which is when I will put a lot of models together.

But the rectangular shapes feel a bit tedious, therefore I tried with some triangular and uneven shapes, now it seems more interesting.

Based on the previous approach, I developed a more complicated and interesting model, and I quite like the shell-like shape. I decided that this one would be my final model.

After finishing the foam model, the next step is to do a latex model based on the foam one. It takes more than 3 days to finish the latex model because it needs to be done one layer by one layer. One layer must be totally dried before applying the next one.

When the latex model was set, I also needed to build a box based on the latex model, because when I pour the liquid into the latex, the plaster will release heat, the box was to keep the shape of the model and prevent inflation. I used the corrugated board as the material for the box. However, another problem is that some of the latex layers were uneven when it comes to the box, the corrugated board cannot align with the latex precisely.

Due to this problem, I decided to give up the idea of building the box, I will build a case totally around the model itself, therefore the shape can be more precise.

Initially, the first plaster model was not as perfect as I expected, there were quite a lot of bubbles. After testing for several times, I found that using a stick to stir the liquid before pouring it into the latex will make the outcome better.

Trying with different layout ideas. This is where I applied the idea of reflection. 

Final silicon outcome, I need to cast the silicon model twice, otherwise, the silicon cannot be taken out of the box.

Another problem that I encountered is that there is about an overlayed area due because I cast twice, which required me to cut off some parts of the silicon shape by myself.

18\19 S2 Micro-Project 3 – Together Split

https://vimeo.com/316353419

Story: A group of school friends, initiated an insta video call to talk to each other. Each of them started their days as normal, but they all found a piece of paper accidentally. They figured out that this was acutally a maze and they solved it together in the online space.

Location: ADM Basement

Objective: Making audience feels like a magic show, and emphasizing the importance of team work.

Outcome: Four people solved the maze together.

Experience:

  • Rehearsal required. The final effect of the video was hard to perform like what we expected because we need to make sure that we can hear each other, but we also needed to be at different locations in ADM. We needed to know when and who to start and whose turn it was to solve the maze. We thought that the screen recording would also record what we say but it turned out our voices were not included, therefore the rehearsal is not that important.
  • Testing on Instagram. The arrangement of the window on each’s phone was different, which required us to start the video call first, then decided whose arrangement we would follow, then we performed the story one by one. Because we tore the maze into four pieces and we marked each piece with the number, we need to follow the numbers.
  • Camera angles. We also need to align the piece of maze to the edge of the frame, which was to make sure the whole screen look like a whole piece maze.

Before & After adjusting the camera (left to right). The difference was clear, obviously, the right one looks more like a whole piece.

  • The route. Section 2 and 3 have very little route to go, the route should not even cover section 3. However, to make it more interesting and to make each window to interact with each other, we made the route went to the wrong then went back to the previous person, which made the process harder but more interesting and had more fun. That is also why there are more colours in section 2 and 3, because they went to the wrong ways and tried several times.scanned version of the finished maze.

 

Which project did you feel you had the most creative control? Why?

  • Idea-I think it is the first one. Because the first one was self-orientated, I can get to choose where I want to take photos. For project 2 and 3, we were doing the project in a group, which means that we need to negotiate for the theme, idea and place. Sometimes you need to sacrifice a bit for the group which is not quite ideal.
  • Deliverable– Although I had the freedom of picking whatever idea I wanted, but the deliverable was strict to photographs. Using photographs is a less engaging way for the audience because it is 2 dimensional and motionless, it does not have the dynamic feeling.
  • Outcome-In addition, the outcome of the art work was controlled by me for project one, I know what to do and I know what it going to be in the end.

Which project had the most unpredictable outcome? Why? 

  • The Micro project 2 has the most unpredictable outcome because we have given out the freedom to the participants to draw whatever they want. We completely had no idea about what was about to happen.

Which project best illustrates the concepts of DIWO & Open–Source? Why?

  • I think Micro project 3 best illustrated the concepts of DIWO because it was created by my groupmates, we needed to come up with both the idea and the performance, and there were no participants involved in the process. However, I think Micro Project 1 best illustrated the  Open–Source idea because we have a tag on Instagram, which means everyone has access to have a look at what we did.