Recap

So, the event that I chose to do is a stand-up comedy show that is a little dark and/or sarcastic. The concept is lemon-related puns with a lemon as the main character for the design.

The collaterals that I decided on are a poster promoting the show, a bottle label, and six-pack packaging for the bottles. The idea is the audience will be given a bottle for free to drink during the event, but they can choose to purchase packs of the drinks after the event. (Disclaimer: the drink is lemonade. This is a lemon event, after all. But for the sarcastic points, I do admit that they look like alcoholic beverages.)

 

Process & Final

Poster

So I came up with the character (lemon) and the “title”: When Life Gives You Lemons. Here are some of the drafts:

At first I came up with this, but it felt very limiting and way too similar to Yeye Weller’s style.

 

After some trial and error, here is the final poster:

 

For the typefaces, I chose a thick handwritten-style font, paired with an elegant yet friendly cursive for contrast. I think they make a good pair in the theme I’m going for.

The biggest challenge with this poster was adjusting the colors, but I’m satisfied with the end result.

 

Bottle Label

So for the drinks, I used a pun with lemonade and called the drink “lemon-aid”. Since it’s an “aid”, my immediate idea was to draw the lemon sick or injured. Also, since the concept of the event is pretty dark, I figured that drawing a lemon cut in two will be perfect. So that’s what I did.

Here’s how the label looks like:

 

It’s definitely not perfect, but I’m really happy with how it turned out. Again, adjusting the colors is one of the biggest challenges I faced in the design process.

 

Six-Pack Box

Again, same with the other two, my issue was adjusting colors. So pretty much I did a lot of trial and error with different colors.

Another issue that I had was the composition. Unlike the poster and the bottle label, I wasn’t sure what to put at the front and how to arrange them in a way that is still within the theme, interesting, yet not too similar to my previous designs.

This is my first draft:

When I put it on the mockup file, I thought that having different colors for the side and front would be fun. Also, the side was too empty and it was too much of a “drop” compared to the front, so I added more stuff to the side. Here is the final:

 

 

Others

Besides the collaterals, I also made a label for the neck of the bottle.

I came up with two designs for the neck label:

I decided to go with the first one after trying both out on the mockup file since it looks less packed.

 

Final (Bottle & Box)

Putting everything together on the mockup file, here’s how they look like (minus the poster):

 

I think it turns out fun and cute while being a little sarcastic, just the way I wanted it.

 

Reflection

I find out that I really like doing this style. Also, that designing with this style is not as easy as it looks. I’ve always been drawn to flat illustrations and softer colors, but doing things with a fixed set of strong colors is actually good for me since I’m weak in color composition.

While doing this project, I asked for my friends’ opinions a lot (since we study together a lot) and I find that I can be quite stubborn with my ideas. When they give me feedback, I keep trying to justify why I did it that way. Now I’m a little worried about having to deal with clients in the future.

Adjusting colors has always been a big weakness for me, and I think there’s no other way rather than trial and error to come up with the best color composition. The thing is sometimes I’m not patient enough; when I see something that’s “pretty good”, I tend not to continue trying and settle with that. Which is also why feedbacks from my friends helped a lot in pushing me out of that comfort zone.

In addition, since the style for the design direction is more playful and “packed”, I had to be smart with the arrangement and styling of the words. Even just adjusting which component comes in front can make a huge difference in creating the overall look.

Also, designing things for 2D and 3D objects are similar, yet different. I had to adjust the label for the bottle several times to make it fit better with the face of the bottle, considering the way the bottle curved and everything.

All in all, I had a really good time working on this assignment. I think it’s become one of my favorite works. I might just use the concept and the character for something else in the future.

Here’s the link to my Google Drive folder for the final PDFs. Cheers!

For this project, we’re supposed to make a poster for Singapore Design Week. I took out some keywords from the event description like design, innovation, engaging, etc and brainstormed them, finding phrases or words that are short and simple to be made into a slogan.

As for the art style, I am more inclined towards the flat illustration styles instead of something realistic.

So with the basic ideas and style somehow “settled”, I started out with a few concepts:

 

1. Design as innovation

So my first idea is something along the line that conveys the idea that design is something innovative, and that design is something everybody can think of or produce.

When I think of innovation, I think of new ideas, so I thought of a light bulb to represent the innovative part. As for the slogan, I thought of something simple like “Think Design” since it captures attention immediately and encourages people to consciously think of design.

However, I think it turned out very ordinary; there’s nothing special or exciting about it. It doesn’t really convey the idea of being innovative, and it doesn’t have personality.

2. Design as a bridge through time

I was thinking of something that could get through the gap of generations, so I wanted to use something that represented the past, combined with something that represented the future. I chose Peranakan patterns to represent the past and something technology-like for the future. (I wanted to make it look like there are branches of lights coming out of the screen.)

I had a lot of troubles coming up with the slogan; I was thinking something like “The Past and The Future”, or “Design Through Time”, but nothing really catches my attention. Besides, I wasn’t sure about the layout and color as well. I think this draft looks awful.

 

3. Design as connection

For this last one, I was looking for inspiration from the past SDW poster slogan. Their slogan is “A March of Design” (which, I think, is really smart since SDW is held in March). I wanted “connection” to be the concept; so I want it to be something that everybody knows and can relate to, something that everybody shares. Then I thought of the word “anthem” (by accident) and I liked it, hence the slogan: “An Anthem of Design”.

Since it’s about anthem, I wanted to create something shaped like a tone at first, but using geometric shapes (like Bauhaus). But it turned out very stiff and didn’t convey the excitement and energy of an anthem.

 

In the end, I decided to work on the third idea: An Anthem of Design.

The theme for my project is the spring that comes after winter – the starting of hope, an early spring.

Winter is something that is associated with death, with coldness. On the contrary, spring symbolizes the birth of life and warmth. I want to symbolize hope as something that you can find even in the hardest moments.

My initial idea was to create a snowflake design made of flowers, but after the first presentation, I got the idea of putting the “spring” using the negative space in the snowflakes instead.

The very first design that I did was all connected because I was still thinking of the shape as something that needs to be able to be cut out from a paper. Moreover, the shapes are all either vague or too obvious. So after consultation, I tried to break free from the cut out form, combining the idea of winter and spring. The things that I chose to symbolize spring is sun, fire, water, and plants.

I made two snowflake designs. The first one is made of the shapes of leaf, sun, and fire. I chose yellow and red as the colors, as I want it to be triadic with the blue snowflake color.

The second one is made of the shapes of flower, water, and gingko biloba (a type of tree that grows in Japan and blooms in spring). For the colors, I chose orange and two tones of blue, playing on the complementary colors.

I gave a pale blue color to define the snowflake shapes, but they got lost after printing. The slight difference between the red and orange was also lost, making them look like the same color. The yellow was definitely too bright as well. (This taught me not to print last-minute.)

I arranged them randomly, with three foam circles on top to represent a cloud. I used nylon strings because I want it to be invisible, so it looks more like snowing, but it turned out really messy. I couldn’t really tie them properly. My craftsmanship is… bad. The paper cuts are pretty messy (I didn’t know something like x-acto knife exists before, or even if I spelled that right) and I only glued them with glue stick. I did leave them for hours under heavy books, but I forgot to attach the string so I had to rip them open again.

“I can cut all of these in 30 minutes”

 

*1 hour later* “…well I’m halfway there”

 

My bad.

Craftsmanship aside, I actually like my end design. It’s something I’ve never thought of before, and I felt like I understand more about forms after doing this. Positive-negative space is not as easy as it seems, no matter how cool they seem. I do think that I’m not pushing myself out of my comfort zone enough, that I still could do better – but overall, I’m satisfied. I did kind of lost my purpose halfway and realized that the mobile did not really represent hope; the blue color gave some cold feeling to it. Moreover, some of the edges for the snowflakes are quite harsh. I agree that at first glance it doesn’t convey hope, but I think that if you look at it closer, you can see the hope in it, and that goes with my initial idea.

I was so worried the day before submission because I felt like I haven’t done enough. Well, true, I could have done more, but I’m content with what I have made. Hopefully from now on I can make better and better works.

UPDATE: I took off all the fishing lines and replaced them with strings. Initially I poked the strings through the foam circles using a needle, and it was fine but it started falling apart the day I planned to submit it. I fixed them hastily with masking tape. It doesn’t look as neat, but it actually looks better than the fishing line.

Here’s my final design!

 

The theme for this project is hope. I started out by searching for keywords that symbolize hope; stars, candle, fire, dove, flower, butterfly, sun, rainbow, fish…

In the end, there are a lot of keywords that can be used to describe hope. Hope is different for everyone, after all.

I started by looking for some themes. I came up with two major ideas.

 

Yin and Yang

I want to represent that life is always balanced; in goodness, there is always something bad – but conversely, in badness, there is always something good as well.

My plan is to make koi fish and arrange them differently; one school of fish will be “swimming” upwards, but one fish in that school of fish would be going against the flow (going downwards). Another school of fish will be doing the reverse, “swimming” downwards with one fish going upwards. Their colors can work inversely, or maybe complementary colors. But with that idea, I actually hadn’t really though about the positive-negative form (which is the whole idea of the project), so I thought I should scrap the idea off.

(Unfortunately, I lost my sketch for this one.)

 

Early Spring

This idea came from when I was looking at snowflakes cut-out tutorials from Pinterest.

I was thinking that the shapes of snowflakes are really interesting and unique, since they are all different from one another. At first I was thinking of making the snowflakes flower-shaped, but then after the first presentation I realized that I could make use of the negative space instead of just leaving them meaningless.

In the end I chose to work with the “early spring” idea. At first I wasn’t sure if I should go with the idea since my others smaller ideas, which I haven’t really thought through, were said to have some potentials as well. Like the birds and propeller idea, or the tortoise idea, which could be developed following the story of the hare and the tortoise.

I was debating between the tortoise and the snowflake in the end, but I couldn’t really think of an original, exciting story for the hare and the tortoise, as well as the positive-negative space.

I didn’t think that it would be so difficult to play and make use of a form. Whenever someone makes use of positive-negative space – for example, when I see posters or advertisements that use those, I would notice them, but never think much about it. In the end, when I tried making it myself, I spent myself stressing about it. How do I make a form that is subtle, but noticeable, yet interesting and can convey my idea as well?

I finally chose the snowflake idea – “early spring”, simply because its form is the one that I can picture the clearest (and also because it’s the one I like the most). See my final post for the end result of my idea!

Sometimes, I feel like people living in Singapore lead a very structured, scheduled life. Compared to the people of Indonesia (I was born and raised in Indonesia), everything in Singapore feels very organized, to the point of rigidity. When I first came to Singapore, I was surprised by the stark difference between Singapore and Indonesia.

At first, I thought Singapore would be a “follow-the-rules” country, which hinders creativity. However as I spent more time in Singapore, I realize while there may be a lot of rules, as long as you can justify yourself, creativity is not being frowned upon.

I represent that discovery of mine with this Bauhaus piece; the blue circles are all in the box, seemingly following a set pattern; but actually inside every single blue circle there is a little yellow triangle that can go out of the box and explore more possibilities (represented by different shapes and sizes of the triangles).

 

Bauhaus piece

The theme that I’m trying to convey is ignorance towards preservation, especially poaching activities, in Labrador Park. Labrador Park is the only rocky seashore left in mainland Singapore, with abundance of marine life. Due to illegal poaching and other reasons such as safety, the beach area has recently been closed to public.

I feel that not enough people know about those aforementioned facts (or maybe they know, but choose not to be concerned about it) and that is why I want to take the theme up. However that proved to be a big challenge for me because my intention is to show the ignorance or lack of knowledge, but the zine just came out very vague (i.e. people can’t tell at all what my place is). I want to say that it proves my point that people are unaware, but I still feel a little concerned since it wouldn’t go with the zine brief.

In the end I went with something I’m more comfortable with, that is, by focusing on the narrative and flow instead of the actual layout. I’m also concerned since it looks more storybook-ish rather than a zine, and although it’s very reflective of my personality, it may not be very suited for the project.

Here is my final zine!

cover page

page 1 and 2

page 3 and 4

page 5 and 6

back cover page

 

So the narrative revolves around a little shell who gets poached for aquarium decoration. Since the zine is intended more for children, I want to evoke the feeling more that “sea creatures too don’t want to be separated from their home”.

About the cover page

The cover page took me way too long to make, since at first I made one row of waves and just copy-pasted everything, but my friend said it’s too repetitive so I went through the trouble to make the rows one by one so they all look more varied. To be honest I really love the colors that I used. For the pages I used different blues for the backgrounds and the blues get darker at different pages because I want the feelings to slowly become “darker”.

About the narrative

The first and last page inside kind of envelope the whole experience with narrative; I received a comment saying they wish the narrative is a bit longer. I feel that that may reduce the impact since if the narrative is too long people will get bored faster, especially children.

By the way, I tried so hard to make a rhyming poem, and I actually think they’re okay. Maybe I should’ve chosen a different font, but I actually feel like this font is enough since it fits the storybook feeling. I also received comments saying that I should have capitalized the first letter. I did that at first, but then the letter stands out (of course) and I don’t really like the overall look, so I stuck with the all-small letters.

About the pattern

As for the background pattern on the first and last page, at first I only made the sea waves pattern but after consulting, I realized that it lacks representation of the place so I added the buildings that you can view there. Some people say it adds more characters, some people say it’s kind of out of place, but I like it.

About the character

I choose orange as the shell color because I want a contrast to the blue, since I already know from the beginning I will use a lot of blue. I tried red, but I think it comes out too jarring. Orange provides a warmer, friendlier feeling while staying bright.

I choose a shell because it’s simple to make, and also I want it to blend with the sea waves at first.

About page 2

In the wave, I added different sea creatures to tell audience about the diversity. The yellow scales on the fish provides a line that people can follow to see the orange shell at the end. For the other creatures, I outlined them blue and use mainly red-dark orange-pink so they won’t draw too much attention. I want the shell to be the star of the page.

About page 3 and 4

At first I only put one sign there, and it looks very empty. So I put an excessive number of signs there instead to show that there are efforts in preserving the sea, it’s just that people choose to ignore them. In some ways, it’s a sarcastic remark to point out people’s ignorance. I put rocks right by the waves to illustrate Labrador Park’s rocky shorelines. The characteristics are also shown by the sign, which is considered pretty unique of Labrador Park, and the buildings which can be viewed from Labrador Nature Reserve. I do regret not putting in more characteristics (like the Dragon’s Tooth Gate or some of the war relics?), maybe I could have put them floating between the sea waves pattern on other pages or something.

At the right side of the page, you can see a hand dropping a shell into a bucket. The hand gesture may be a little unclear, it looks like someone is picking up something instead.

About page 5

This is the page I had the least trouble with, because I had envisioned this ending right from the start. I just now think that maybe the aquarium shouldn’t be placed right in the center of the page, but a little bit lower so the shell looks like they’re “falling” from its positioning in other pages. For this page, I made the shell’s color darker so as to say that it’s losing its vibrancy after being separated from home, and subconsciously saying that even if you take a beautiful shell for yourself to decorate your aquarium with, it won’t look as beautiful there compared to when it’s in the sea.

Overall

I’m actually really happy about how my zine turns out! Looking back, I never thought I would have made this. I like the flow of the story, however again, it feels more storybook-ish than a zine. I was worried it’s not graphic design-ish enough, but then I decided to go with something more reflective of my personality and focus on the narrative instead. I realize I wasn’t pushing myself out of my comfort zone enough and decided to play with something I know I can do better at; I definitely should have explored more.

I tried to portray the characteristics of the places more by adding the buildings, but still maybe the characteristics aren’t portrayed enough since people can’t tell about the place at all. (Which proves my point of lack of knowledge, but goes against the brief.)

For the software, I used mostly Adobe Illustrator, but I can’t make a whole page and just copy-pasted them to InDesign because I used the chalky brush stroke, and it came out very pixelated in InDesign. (Turns out it’s just my display preference, but I only noticed it later.) Because of that there’s a lot of layers in InDesign and it took forever compressing them into a PostScript file (I spent an hour at the printing place trying to make it right, fortunately the people are so nice to wait for me and even teach me what to do). My laptop is laggy especially bad whenever I use InDesign, so I have to be smart in choosing what to create in Illustrator and what to create in InDesign and I spent more time than I should have (I also took shortcuts), but luckily they turn out as I want them to.

As for the printing, surprisingly I didn’t have a lot of problems with it. I went to RJ Papers and took my time looking at different papers. I didn’t know there are so many different kinds of papers before! I was considering between using a glossy, magazine-style paper or the paper that I used in the end (I forgot the name, I think it’s Maple Bright?). Glossy paper will make my color pop up more, but it feels colder somehow, so I decided to use the maple paper to convey a warmer feeling of “home” to fit in with my narrative. I choose the 170 gsm one because I want it to be thicker, so it feels nicer to flip.

The colors come out exactly how I wanted them, except for the hand on the 4th page–the printed hand is too yellow compared to my digital illustration, but that’s fine. The different shades of blue came out brilliantly and I like them very much. I even printed an extra zine for myself to keep.

My final zine and feedback (thanks for the comments!)

 

Me, my zine, and cupcake

 

All in all, it’s a valuable experience for me. At first I wasn’t sure if I could do it, but I did, and I’m proud of myself (although it actually is something that I am supposed to do so I shouldn’t be too proud of it). I learn a lot more about my style and work attitude. I also learn to ask help from my friends more, be it to comment or to guide me in using software. I was always reluctant to ask for comments because I tend to take things negatively, so I’m glad that my friends are willing to put up with my stubbornness and continued to give me insights.

And thanks to the people who say it’s cute. I think my zine is cute too.

It’s been a really fun journey!

Here are my end results for this project! Featuring: the mouse, the elephant, the banana, and the turtle.

1. The Mouse

Me, facing a problem + Faith = Problem solved!

 

I represent myself as a mouse because (I think) my Chinese zodiac is a rat, so my family at home sometimes refers to me as the “mouse” in the family.

The story is that the mouse wanted to get the cheese but was hindered by the presence of the cat. So the mouse began going to church and gained a pair of wings, which enabled her to overcome the problem.

This is the representation of me when I face a hindrance or problem in doing something. The “faith” here is represented by going to church, but actually it’s not necessarily a religious faith. It can also represent faith in my own abilities, since I tend to think that I can’t do things before I actually try them. By having faith, I can actually overcome my troubles in achieving what I want.

I chose to use colored pencils and markers because I wanted to work with something simple, and I wanted to give a child-like vibe. I used markers for the important objects in the panels as emphasis. As for the colors, I used similar colors (shades of brown) for the first panel except for the mouse and cheese because I wanted to emphasize their significance. The background of the second panel also has brown color to create some connection between the panels. From the second to the third panel, the mouse wore the same habit (apparently the uniform that nuns wear is called a “habit”) to create a connection.

 

2. The Elephant

Me, an introvert + Party = I “disappear”

 

I used an elephant because of the phrase “elephant in the room” – it’s there, but people don’t talk about it.

The story is that the elephant is so introverted that when she went to a party, she blended in right away with the surrounding and became unnoticed. It was as if she became a furniture, a part of the background.

The elephant represents my introverted and awkward side. I’m not good around strangers, and even within my circle of friends, I’m not good at interacting with people in big groups. In a sense, I’m physically there, but it feels like I “disappear”.

I used the color blue for the elephant because blue is my favorite color. The sofa in the first panel is orange to complement the blue elephant. I used yellow for the floor since yellow and orange are analogous colors. The background (the wall) is supposed to be pale blue, but the color came out a little differently than I expected. I used blue background to emphasize the feeling of the blue elephant “blending” into the environment.

 

3. The Banana

I have a dream! + Hard work = Success (?)

 

Banana is one of my favorite fruits. That’s why.

The story is that the banana wanted to become an acrobat. To achieve that dream, the banana worked hard to practice circus acrobat. In the end, the banana became banana split instead. (It’s a pun, because split is kind of a gymnastic movement, and gymnastic is usually related to acrobat.)

To me, it is a good representation of me when I set a goal for myself. Sometimes we dream high and work hard for it, but the end result is not exactly as we want. However that doesn’t mean you’re not successful – you still succeed, although the success might be different from your initial intention. That’s how I feel sometimes when the end result of my work is not exactly like how I want it to be, but I know I worked hard for it, and thus the journey still makes a success in the end.

I used purple background for the first and third panel to complement the yellow banana. As for the second panel, I used the red-and-white background to show that it’s a circus. I used purple juggling pins to make some sort of connection between the panels.

 

4. The Turtle

Me + Anxiety = Overthinking

 

Turtle, in my opinion, is a very chill animal. I like it because I’m a chill person (most of the time), so I feel that I can relate to it.

The story is that the turtle, a very chill animal, was just chilling. But then the turtle ate a mysterious black pill and turned into an ink-spewing sotong. (This story sounds more reasonable in my head, but now that I wrote it down, I understand why my friend – to whom I showed my sketches – looked extremely confused.)

The turtle represents me as a person. Usually I’m very chill and somehow normal, but when I’m anxious (I represent anxiety with the black pill), I tend to overthink trivial things until they muddle my thoughts. I represent the state of overthinking with the black ink muddling the seawater. In a sense too, the sea represents my thoughts. It’s usually very calm and clear before I start getting anxious.

I used mainly cool colors like green and blue for this one since I want to give the calm vibe to represent my thoughts. I used some yellow and orange also for the seabed and the inside of the shell as green-yellow are nice analogous pair and blue-orange are complementary.

 

Reflection

I had trouble deciding what style to go with, so in the end, I told myself, why not just try different styles?

Since I didn’t really do art before studying here, I didn’t have an idea what my style would be like. I’m not even sure what technique I’m good at. So I decided that this project can be a good opportunity to explore my options more, and see what technique or style I’m more comfortable with. It’s really fun, and it’s a really good learning experience for me. I realize that working digitally ensures a “cleaner” result (and there’s undo button as well), but it requires a lot of time (or maybe just because I’m not used to it). I spent a lot of time tracing the outline of the banana split. Also, I learned some illustrator techniques, which I find to be really fun.

Working traditionally is faster, yet since I’m a messy person, there’s bound to be some mess. Moreover, there’s no undo button, so I have to be extra careful. I think the mouse story is really messy since the colored pencils smudged a little. As for the watercolor, I actually had a lot of fun doing it. I’ve always liked watercolor, although I’ve never really worked with them. I just tried putting layers of colors and smudging them with more water. Although they’re very messy (I didn’t expect the pen lines to smudge that much), in fact, I really like how they turn out.

Coming up with ideas isn’t the hardest part – the hardest part is realizing the ideas. I realize that it’s not enough to just have a good idea; I have to consider the feasibility and the aesthetics as well.

I also learn that doing projects is not a show of skills. I’m worried at first because I feel that I’m lacking in skills and experience, and thus my work might turn out “less” compared to other people. I’m scared that my work may be too simple, too child-like – what if I look like I don’t put in enough thought or effort into this?

But then again, why should I compare myself to other people? This is my project, and I’m proud of what I have done. Looking back, I have definitely improved – from someone who never used Photoshop to someone who can create a story using Illustrator. You see, when you’re at the bottom, there’s nowhere else to go but up.

All in all, this project has been a really fun and enlightening ride.

For the group mood box, we decided to use the other recording (the one I didn’t use). For that sound, we used rhythm sticks, triangle, and zig zag board.

Instruments used

This is the sound.

Here is my waveform analysis for the sound.

Mood Box

Here is our final group mood box.

 

We put the model in a circular arrangement to represent repetition, although there is some kind of starting point indicated by the positioning of the wire (wrapped with aluminium foil) and the ball of wire and thread.

Zoomed in

 

The wooden sticks represent the dominant, constant sound of rhythm sticks. They sound very stable and straightforward, hence we placed wooden sticks in the straight directions. The up-and-down positioning suggests that the sound is all over the place.

The wires wrapped with aluminium foil represent the subordinate, which is the zig zag board. The texture of crumpled foil suggested the rough, edgy sound of the friction. The sharp cuts of the sound is represented by the sharp edge of the wires.

The subdominant sound, which is the triangle, is represented by the ball made of wire and thread. The thread tangled all over the place since the sound of the triangle kind of “melted” into the entire recording and enveloped the other sounds.

Top view

 

We also tried to make the frame “invisible” by using transparent acrylic and tubes to frame.

We put black as the base and thread color to give a darker, more mysterious mood; but it is the calming kind of darkness.

 

Reflection

The challenges when creating this model:

One, the positioning of the up-and-down wooden sticks. We couldn’t get the positions right although we tried using several different methods; they always ended up a bit off.

Two, using the right amount of glue. If we used too much (especially on the transparent acrylic), it would look very messy. If we used too little, they wouldn’t stick very stably.

In the end, we required more time than we actually predicted due to those challenges. However I think our end result is good as our intention is clearly expressed in the model.

Bottle Sculpture

 

How is smell related to memories?

Our memory is triggered by a lot of things; what we see, what we touch, what we feel. What we smell can also trigger memories. In fact, scent is one of the greatest trigger of memory. The concept of recollecting memories with the use of scent is also called olfactory memory.

Image result for scent memory
My pleasant smell is the smell of Chinese tea…
 

 

…while my unpleasant smell is the smell of carrot juice.

 

 

Here is my bottle sculpture.

Front view

Top view

The base (dominant part) is supposed to represent a cup. The rest of the sculpture has the idea of going “up” because I want to portray a “steaming cup”, which represents my pleasant smell. At the top there is just a whole chunk of wrinkled bottle, which shows something very “cringy” and unpleasant for me, and even almost nauseating.

At first I wanted to make the wrinkly part by cutting some holes in the bottle and then heating it, but it didn’t turn out as expected.

 

Planar Model

 

A plane is an element with surface direction without mass.

There are two types of plane, 2D and 3D. The difference is, if you look from above, 2D planes fit in a rectilinear shape, whereas 3D planes don’t.

Types of planes

Here are my planar models.

 

2D analysis of my models

Model 1

I used a grouped plane for the dominant, broken plane for the subdominant, and bent plane for the subordinate. I tried to make the curves for the dominant at two-thirds and one-third of the total height respectively. I filled the void above the shorter curve using the subdominant. I put the subordinate at the same area as the subdominant to leave the bigger curve area empty, to contrast with the “crowd” at the other side. In a sense, it is also a form of counter-balancing.

From top view, I made the subdominant point away to kind of fill in the empty area at the top corner.

 

Model 2

For this one, I used twisted plane for the dominant, grouped plane for the subdominant, and a straight plane for the subordinate. I just realized that actually both of my models are similar in a sense that I made the subdominant go up and leave the rest of the area above empty.

From top view, the corners are generally empty while the center part is fully covered by the dominant and even the subdominant.

To me, this model looks like a snake in a playground for some reason. That was my initial idea for that, but I don’t think I convey it well enough.

 

I feel like I should have explored more with the ideas I want to convey, because although I did use different types of planes and different arrangements, they have similar vibes.

I tried to find the keywords from the quotes and find elements to represent them.

Quote 1

“Happiness can be found even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light.” -Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004)

 

Keywords:

Light, happiness = light bulb, a little girl (represents hope), intricate background

Dark times = dark surroundings

 

At first I wanted to use daffodils to represent happiness, because in the flower language, daffodil means happiness. However my first draft turned out awful; there are just too many things going on, but they are not interacting with each other.

In the end, things are kept simple. The light bulb acts as a source of light or “hope”. Hope is also represented by the face of a little girl. As for the part “happiness can be found”, it implies that happiness is actually there, but we just can’t see it because it’s obscured by the darkness. Hence happiness can be represented by the intricate background that is slowly revealed by the light. In further distance, it looks all black and dark due to the absence of light.

I put the light bulb off the center so it won’t be symmetrical. Also, the face of the girl inside the light bulb is facing to the right side, to lead our eyes into the dark void all around the canvas.

 

Final

 

 

 

Quote 2

“A paper girl for a paper town.” -Paper Towns (2015)

 

Keywords:

Paper = fake, mask, mirror

 

I used a lot of masks to represent a lot of “fake” people, which represent a “paper town”. As for the girl, I used a broken mirror as a face. It represents the idea of fakeness as a broken mirror can’t show exactly what’s reflected there.

At first I wanted to use the mirror as a background and use human figures looming at the girl to show a “paper town” but it didn’t turn out very nicely. Actually I even wanted to use the figure of Cara Delevigne (the main actress in the movie Paper Towns) as the girl but I couldn’t find a perfect picture of her. To save time tracing path, I purposely searched for pictures of girls with straight hair.

The whole canvas actually looked pretty symmetrical if not for the broken mirror. At first I considered adding something else, but I liked the idea of using the broken mirror to “break” the symmetry. I also didn’t want to make the canvas more jam-packed since there were a lot of masks as the background.

The symmetry also represented uniformity, which can be caused by herd mentality. Usually people tend to follow popular beliefs although that go against their own convictions. For me, that is the idea of “fakeness”.

 

Final

 

Quote 3

“Even miracles take a little time.” -Cinderella (1950)

 

Keywords:

Miracle = butterfly

Time = hourglass, clocks

 

I represented miracles with a butterfly, since just like Cinderella who turned from rags to riches, beautiful butterflies were once ugly caterpillars too. The change or the rebirth is representative of the “miracle”.

As for the time, I used two things; hourglass and clocks. Hourglass indicates more about a time that is running out. In a way, it is implying that in the end, if you wait long enough, something (in this case, a miracle) will happen.

The clocks leading to the butterfly were supposed to represent time passing and to lead us to the result of a miracle, which is the butterfly.

I wanted to put magical elements in it at first such as a magical wand or glittery effect, but it looked very childish, so I scrapped it off.

To make the picture looks more dynamic, I tilted the hourglass and put it slightly off the canvas. The clocks were also placed in a curve and were getting smaller to lead our eyes to the butterfly.

 

Final

 

 

Quote 4

“It’s not like there isn’t air inside.” -Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe (2005)

 

Keywords:

Inside = a confined space

Air = atmosphere, wind, sky

 

I used a jar to represent “inside”. I made it look transparent to make it the overall look more cohesive. Moreover, the transparency also suggests that there is actually a very thin line between “inside” and “outside” – it’s only the confines of walls. To emphasize the idea of “inside”, which is contrasting with “outside”, I put a scenery as a background.

The jar is slightly open and clouds are coming out from it. For me, the quote is saying that things that usually can be found outside can be found inside as well. Talking about air, I connect it with the sky, and hence the clouds.

Actually I did a pretty positive interpretation of this quote although it was meant to be mocking. Edmund, the character who said that quote, was arguing with his siblings. They told him to go play outside with them to get some air and he countered with that quote sarcastically.

I made the jar disproportionately bigger to make the comparison between the inside and the outside easier. I also put more things at the lower half (the jar and the scenery) to balance out the void at the top. I filled around two-thirds of the top part with clouds, leaving a completely empty void above the jar area, which should be roughly one-ninth of the canvas.

 

Final

 

 

 

 

Reflection

Somehow my gifs are not moving and I don’t know why.

I have no experience using Photoshop before, so it was a challenge (especially the tracing part – I am not patient enough sometimes). Moreover I had troubles interpreting the quotes and turning them into a cohesive picture. My interpretations are bits and pieces that did not speak to each other at all, resulting in a very disconnected picture. I have to admit, I really have a lot of problems with this project.

Even with these finalized pictures, although I am happy with them, I realize they’re far from perfect.

I hope I can use this as a stepping stone and for me to learn so I don’t repeat the same mistakes again.