Research

Location: Joo Chiat

When I was assigned to Joo Chiat, I was quite upset as I did not knew what to expect since I was unfamiliar with the place, however I got a lot of positive comments from my peers about the rich culture and food there. Despite this, I was still skeptical about a town of shophouses. My first impression was that the place look really less developed and not many people would want to come here.

However, as I started to roam around, I realised I was wrong. This place was not only a favourite among tourist but its authentic buildings, culture and food also makes it a popular place among locals. What captured my attention at the start was the beautiful and colourful Peranakan houses and its authentic shophouses. Some of these were said to live through the second world war as well.

Another major attraction of Joo Chiat which makes it such frequently patronised by locals and tourist other than its rich Peranakan culture is its food!

After walking around the neighbourhood taking pictures of the area, I treated myself to delicious bowl of Katong Laksa. This dish is well known in the area and it was even recommended by my mum to try it!

Another authentic delicacy in the area would be the Kim Choo Kueh. The food here is so good that I even took pictures of my process in the shop.

With all these data collected, I set out to think of 3 ideas for my zine.

1st Idea: Restaurant Menu.

As Joo Chiat is known as a food paradise, I thought of doing an informative Zine, where readers will be browsing through different popular food places located all over Joo Chiat. The food could be strictly Peranakan dishes or maybe open to all types of cuisine in Joo Chiat. The opening hours, location and details of the respective restaurants could also be displayed in the menu.

 

 

 

 

The style I would be going for in my zine are shown above: Traditional, Vintage and Vibrant. 

 

2nd Idea: Fat Nyonya.

The story goes like this, because of what a food paradise Joo Chiat is, little Nyonya has grown into Fat Nyonya and she begins on a journey to lose weight to look good in her kebaya. Throughout the journey, she passes by many local famous cuisines and thinks about them, readers will be able to see illustrations of the cosines as well as a short introduction of each cuisine, however in the end, she gives in to the delicious food in Joo Chiat.

The style I would be going for for my characters: Realistic

 

3rd Idea: Restaurant menu with Fat Nyonya as a mascot.

My last idea is a combination of the first 2 ideas. It is a informative restaurant menu style consisting of various famous cuisine locations as well as Fat Nyonya acting as a mascot in the menu.

My Final Idea

After discussing with Mimi and  getting opinions from my peers, I decided to settle on the Idea of a narrative as I find it more appealing and fun to work with and would be the best way to showcase Joo Chiat given that I have so many things to work with in Joo Chiat (colours, culture, food, etc).

At first, I was thinking of narrative about nyonyas, but I didn’t want it to be just a normal narrative, and Mimi was talking about it doesn’t have to have text at all. So I was thinking of reducing the text, then I just feel that rather than an adult Nyonya, it would be more interesting if it’s about a child Nyonya, and coupled with little words, I thought of doing a Children’s illustration Book

Then later on, The idea of making the Nyonya a fairy came along.  

My Zine would be targeting children from age 0-5. I aim to include educational purposes in my zine.

This is how the story goes, A long long time ago, Joo Chiat used to be dull and boring. A Nyonya who is about 8 years old and also a fairy gets bored of how dull Joo Chiat looks like and starts adding life and colours to the town, resulting in the vibrant Joo Chiat we have today.

Educational Purpose

This zine aims to educate and encourage children that they would be able to achieve what they want as long as they put their mind to it. In this story, it is exaggerated in the form that a little fairy adding colours and life to an entire town. By using something that kids admire, look up to and idolised such as a fairy, it would be more effective in educating kids this way.

This Zine also symbolises my experience as I started off being skeptical of how good this place which looks quite undeveloped could be and kept thinking that it looks dull and boring, but slowly, I was surprised by what lies ahead and inside.

The Theme of Zine: Courage (Moral of the story)(lesson)

Text Structures: Problem and solution

Style: Narrative

Tone and Mood: Dull and then lively

Figures of Speech: Contrast

Genre: Fantasy

Problem: Stressful, fast-paced urbanised city, disappearing culture and heritage

As the fairy touches the building, it not only changes colour, but turns into Malay colourful food (Kueh lapis, Kueh Dadar, Kueh Bangkit, etc)

Choosing Font (Fairy tale references)

Choosing the name of Nyonya fairyMy main character: Nyonie (Nyonya + Pixie)

  

I wanted my character to have a bit of Disney inspiration but also some realism. Thus, some TinkerBell references which comes from Disney but also some realistic references.

 

Mockup

Feedback of Mockup 

After the mockup session with Mimi, I decided to illustrate the entire zine instead of using some photos. I also to take away the Malay food buildings concept, as it would make it interesting if it happens, but I feel that it might take away the attention from the story itself. I also decided to switch the magical hands to her magical Kebaya, as I find it more relatable and it would more eye-catching if the magic came from her body instead of just her hands.

Since my sister is about the same age as what I envision my character Nyonie to be, this process has really helped me in visualising planning how my character would look like in my Zine.

Finding My Style  

After consulting Mimi, I realised that my works are too realistic and there isn’t any graphic style in it, thus I began to research on different styles in graphic design.

 

 

 

 

 

Final Draft

I made some changes to the cover page after listening to the feedback given and came up with this final draft which I also emailed Mimi for her second feedback about it.

Second Feedback

• Covers are turning out nicely.
• Nyonie’s typeface/font, the spacing between Y and O could be a bit closer.
• Subhead below NYONIE could be a bit smaller.
• Nyonie’s wings look like a bow, maybe it could be less pointed and bigger.
• Sprinkling and magical lines could extend to her hair as well.

After making changes…

Final Outcome

 

 

 

Feedback I got from Mimi through email about final outcome was to check my grammar and alignment of text and Mimi also shared a video of creating texture using Adobe Illustrator.

I’ve learnt a lot through the video, however I did not used it in my zine, as I felt there was enough depth in the characters, and I wanted to just keep the look of the characters simple and calm for the readers.

One downside I realised is that I could have added birds or small animals as the fairy flies past the shophouses instead of just colours, as this could make it look like the fairy brought life literally to Joo Chiat, giving it a more fairy tale kind of look to it as well.

Presentation

Feedback by peers

I was quite happy with the choice fo paper that I’ve made, as I felt that it suits the theme that I was going for. However, I felt the print could turn out better, it could have been brighter. Another regret would be that I felt that the zine turn out abit too girly, catering to little girls only, however I aim to target boys as well. This is something I could improve on. Another thing is that I could have experimented with more choices of paper and also from the feedback from peers, the zine turn out abit pixelated, which is something I could work on when exporting.

Other than that, the comments were quite nice and positive, saying that the character was cute, simple content, easy to follow and the fact that I used simple sentences, gives more attention to my characters and pictures as well. The colours also represent Joo Chiat well. I also made the effort to include design principles and elements like contrasting colours to emphasise the dull Joo Chiat at the start, however I felt that the dullness could be more emphasised with like crows on the building, fallen leaves on the streets etc.

I also felt that I could have mentioned about the educational purpose behind this zine (moral of the story), which I didn’t mentioned during presentation (see educational purpose above).