A Locale Illograph

Brief

With part 2 of the Locale project starting, I had a clearer idea of what to do using the critique reviews from part 1. Consultations, as well as brainstorming ideas, reveals a direction towards illography- illustrations and photography of the photos I took from part 1. I would also envision trying out mark making to heighten a stronger sense of location identity.


Zine

 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_jlsO2hpgKt1iiZ9N9w1oqx1M-84QYGh/view?usp=sharing

This zine in summary is a visual representation of the relationship between the people and the location within different time periods, conveniently labelled as the ghosts of the past, present and future. It navigates through this location from public to private spaces, seeking out what makes this place unique and representational of their feelings.

 

The past refers to the students who graduated before,

 

the present refers to the students who are still studying there and

 

the future refers to the students who might study there.

 


A big big BIG  summary

looking at the Big picture, i wanted to show a series of ideas as the audience would look through the zine, looking through the eyes of the narrative I want to tell. Hence, I arranged for the narrative to follow a sequence throughout the front, back and 3 spreads consistently :


  • Colours

The colours starts off with a muted and tamed theme on the first spread, mainly black as background that shows intensity with situation. There is little light and colours to justify how the students of the past are losing their memories and connection to a place they are no longer in connection with.

I also made a note to not overkill or overuse the colours, thus giving rise to my idea of using it in a fluctuating manner, dark-colourful.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The colours become more greyish with a stronger play of colours, indicating that this spread belongs to the students who are currently studying there and experiencing the place, but is met with the inevitable idea of having to leave this place they call home after two years.

The last spread is the most vibrant with the strongest play with colours as the future is deliberately made optimistic with saturated colours. No one wants to know that the future is bleak.

 

Green is also a special colour used especially in the present and future spread as we discussed about the idea of merger of Pioneer Junior College (PJC) with Jurong Junior College (JJC) in the recent years.


  • Glitch

The glitching effect is made by the website https://snorpey.github.io/jpg-glitch/, utilising four different toolbars to create the glitch effect desired be it colourful, pixelated, blockish or grainy.

Using the photographs that I took of PJC, I decided to create glitch effects that tell of three different kind of concept: Forgotten, Configuring and Unknown.

Forgotten

The first spread starts off with a glitched background that is pixelised but retains a strong sense of form. It references to how ones memory will gradually lose its shape as the years go by, hinting that the students who graduated has a slight idea of what life was in PJC, but as years goes by, starts to lose its structure.

Configuring

The second spread has a glitched background that is deconstructed, but still having a strong idea of structure. It gives the idea of one being in the situation, but not appreciating what there is, thus not seeing the true form.

Unknown

The last spread is totally glitched with colours and shape. It refers to how no one knows about the future, thus depicting the future as an amorphous plaster of colours and shapes.


  • Characters

Different characters were also planted within the zine, each representing something that I have gotten from the interviews with the alumnis or students from PJC. However, two main characters would be the lady on the front and back page, as well as the glitch man.

Front-Back

as the front and back page are the first and last thing that the audience see, I wanted the characters on both pages to tell a story.

the front page features a girl with adequate decorations and having two heads staring into two different directions. However, as the character moves through the series, it eventually ends off with a confident posture. This character follows one of my interviewees who experienced an increase in growth of character and confidence as she found her way through PJC. This character pays homage to the students who found comfort in the space of PJC. The posture in the back page, as well as her glitchy backdrop is reminiscent of Francis Bacons paintings, who exudes confidence in his own space of identity.

There is also overlays of the word “ghost of past, present and future” placed all over the front and back page as I didn’t want the zine to be overwhelming with a context, but not enough to not let the audience understand what it is about.

seated figure 1961

glitchman

the glitchman utilises the central spread, which is the only spread that is connected together when printed. Hence, I intentionally made the glitch man printed with disconnecting body bodys, with the paper as the demarcation. This was to intentionally intensify the glitch effect

.


  • Space

Throughout the zine, I incorporated the idea of a navigation through public to private space, which is an idea that was apparent in my Part 1: Locale.

In the context of PJC, it is an isolated location that only the alumni or students or even relevant personals have access to, and my job for this project is to highlight its uniqueness.

Hence, from the first page to the last page, it navigates the main character through the spaces of PJC from public to private, or even activities, into the bowels of PJC and what makes it unique.

1st spread
1st spread

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It starts off in public places like the canteen and field where everyone can access it, just in plain sight.

2nd spread

Then we move into a location where students dwell in introspection, like the classrooms or art room (specific to my friends and I). This engages in a semi private space where we get lost in our own thoughts.

 

 

 

The last spread features the most private location where the students remember enjoying the company of their friends, look ing under the stars, sharing a space in the art room or looking at the sunset after vigorous training in school.

Furthermore,

to add on to the idea of a isolated space, I wanted to create a sense of three point depth within the zine. This meant that the glitched background would be one layer of space. The characters in the photograph would be in one layer of space. And the mark making I tried to make would be another layer of space.

The results were as follows.

However, the issue was this visual quality was eventually lost once I scanned it into the computer, since the task at hand required all works to be digitise, I had no choice but to give up on this mark making effort.

These mark making were done by pasting the site’s unique features like water cooler drain with acrylic ink, then overlaying it with a transparency or paper.

toilet window pane

final

Reflections on Illography:

Since there weren’t a lot of time to spare during critique, I couldn’t elaborate more on how the procedure of the illograph was done. Firstly, I took the photos and printed them out on a high quality standard A4, which gave me prominent space to draw my illustrations on. I was worried that the visual quality would be lost once I used a scanner.

Then, I used transparency and overlaid onto the photographs, which I then draw over. Each illograph attempts to accentuate the space within the photograph, and also to highlight the uniqueness of the site, which I will elaborate below.

I used paint markers, which allowed me to get the textural quality that is missing from using Adobe Illustrator on digital files. This was an idea suggested by Joy, using the scanner to render that textural quality I want to retain.

I realised that illography also emphasised a lot on the idea of symmetry, in which balance gives off the strongest composition in illograph as they give a strong structural aesthetics compared to something messy and chaotic. There is also an inherent beauty in the idea of asymmetrical balance, however this would have to be balanced off with a play of colours.

Drawing technique wise I have learnt to use dots and lines to create textural details, each style requiring an acute sense of pressure since the paint marker is very sensitive.

using colours to complement each other
strong contrast between specific colours only
waxy texture that has a gradient

Each individual characters

front page

As mentioned above, the first character you see follows the main protagonist who enters PJC, but has trouble deciding where to go from there on. The illography on this character attempts to highlight the wavy hair and keep the decorations to a bare minimum as the back cover character is the one that is excessively decorated. The colours in the hair follows a transition of PJC logo colours of red, black and white into the colour of JJC, which is just green. I also wanted the art direction of semi-tribal and surrealistic as both themes employ heavy usage of colours.

First Spread

This illograph utilises the abundant space in the background, using only white to accentuate the dark space. It is supposed to be the canteen at which students dwell and enjoy one another’s company. Hence, I decided to portray the presence of people through the usage of leftover bowls and chopsticks piling up. There is also a presence of a puddle motif with sticks poking out to give off a trypophobic atmosphere, alongside actual dark holes all around, giving a creepy sensation when looking at it.

This character has a small tint of red covering it. She is seen in the field, lying down looking at light which represents the hopes and dreams lost as the time goes by. The red checkers is supposed to be reminiscent of the red checkered picnic mats in Alice in Wonderland, giving a feint idea of being trapped down, along with actual chains drawn to tie her down. The circular neck-brace helps to give a sense of three-dimensional space within the photograph.

The last photograph in the first spread features an abandoned glitch face with cockroaches crawling out, while a pair of legs stand behind it. There is light coming out of the glitch, reminiscent of the lights shown in the photograph above. This idea of looking down at the glitch parallels to one of the interviews I had with an alumni, who mention that she sees glitch whenever she visits PJC, but because this idea is so distant, she no longer does- This represents that imagery. Cockroaches are motifs that are related to her experience in the art room ,which is full of cockroaches crawling around.

The patterns on the shoes serve to contour the shoes in the dark environment, making audience know that it belongs to a noteworthy character. The yellow cockroaches also help to shape the three-dimensional quality in the picture.

second spread

This spread starts to have more colours at play, depicting the current students who are still in PJC. The glitch character is seen in the central page, disconnected by the central border. It is seen glitching with white and black pixels popping out of the eyes, while colourful pixels are sucked into the mouth. It represents the idea of how this glitch character sucks away all the happiness that the students find in PJC. This was a visual effect mentioned by one of the interviewees I had.

This character is seen opening a door of a toilet in PJC, as if opening itself into a world of mystery given how dark the environment is. Behind her is a bud of an orchid, which are common flowers that can be found in the location. The white pixels link up to the image above.

The same motif of opening a door happens again here but this time with the character going out. There are black pixels that link up to the character above. The character is seen having a transformation where she has a triangular head, one of the more abstract creatures seen throughout the zine so far. It reminds the audience of how short the time in PJC is, which is limited to two or three years per batch. The yellow triangular head helps to highlight the central empty space of the door.

Last spread

the last spread is the most surrealistic one out of all three spreads, with interesting  creatures interacting with the character, as well as colours bursting into the image.

In this scene, the central character is seen in a nest of web staring into a computer that says installation in progress. This location is actually the art room , where many art students have said is the best location they would stay in PJC. I wanted to bring across the idea of comfort and isolated space, thus having webs drawn around it. The tiny details is achieved by acute pressure to draw thin lines. The shadow cast infront of the character is drawn to have two yellow sparkly eyes staring back at the character, implying how isolated this location is, and the possibility of it being haunted. (A rumor) There are three plant like creatures of red, yellow and blue origin, giving off pixels of colours that we see in the previous spread. however, this time round, the creature is less insidious, seen as giving off light rather than taking away light.

In this panel, we have the main character seen sitting under the sunset, which is a common activity to do amongst many of my interviewees. The sunset however, is seen as violent and strong, to represent the intensity and passion that the interviewees had when describing this little hobby of theirs. The mix of yellow and red intensifies this idea of passion and energy, with yellow stars shooting out. There are also blue creatures from the previous photograph seen crawling out from the nearby trees. The idea of a criss cross roots or stem helps to accentuate the space within this photograph, which is mainly the pattern of the gravel on the floor.

This panel is a continuation of two different photographs of the same place but with contrasting emotions. The top image shows the character looking at the stars, which is another private activity the interviewees enjoy after a whole day of school. The stars are seen falling down and drooping from the sky, as if their dreams are fallen down. This is a commentary to the PJC0JJC merger, highlighted by the green logos drawn as tattoos on the characters arms. Many interviewees mention that they believe the merger of the school would kill of identity of the school, effectively killing off the dreams and hope of every students who might come into PJC in the future. This is represented by the upside down image, that supposedly represents the same space. The lights that she is standing on is sucked away into this black hole that is connected to the sunset that is happening in the image above.

The back page features the last illograph of the zine, which is the character drawn to dress more intensely with details. She is seen more confident and decorated as if she is is the queen. As mentioned, the style is inspired by Francis Bacon’s portraits, an idea I wanted to use to elevate the idea of confidence with a surrealistic persona. The details actually falls out into an overlay with the background, giving out a glitchy effect apparent throughout the zine. This was appropriate as it features a private corner in the art room where no one was at, just the character, her computer, her corner and a camera.

 

Reflections

Moving on from this project, it was satisfying doing the locale project on a location that actually means something to me. The idea of playing with dream-scape and a childhood memory heavy location has always been a project that I wanted to embark on.

Feedback from the critique was mainly positive, with a few exceptions on the dark quality of the zine being too intense. I also forgot to mention how the navigation from public to private space is an important factor in this zine.

 

It would be a great way to end off this project by passing a copy of this zine to all the interviewees who provided their story for me to tell.

A Locale Data

Final Presentation 

Link to powerpoint slides

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1KtQkCMZwTP25aKJG9psOQXnU7KPTzbkc/view?usp=sharing

The presentation focused on showcasing the information that I have absorbed throughout the duration as well as how I internalised it into my theme of relationship through time. I also curated the photographs according to the  exposure to people through time, as well as a journey through a public-private space.


The project starts with my inspiration, and that stemmed from my previous assignment of Image-Making Through Type, linked —

https://oss.adm.ntu.edu.sg/bren0022/category/17s2-dn1009-tut-g01/project-1-image-making-through-type-17s2-dn1009-tut-g01/.  

In my understanding of finding a location special to me, that specificity links deep inside my brain, and often surface as dreams and nightmares (A key point in my previous assignment) Hence, I wanted to investigate my alma maters as a locale research. Granted that my primary school, Dazhong Primary School, was the location that I dreamt of the most, the accessibility to it is no longer viable. This pushed me to my next option- Pioneer Junior College.


Research

Before starting on the project, I knew for sure that there were a few questions I have to answered, and that was:

  1. What are the dreams and nightmares specific to Pioneer Junior College (PJC)?
  2. Why is this a special place?
  3. (Given the recent merging of school information about PJC) Do you have any opinions on PJC’s merger?

To answer the question myself, I believe that dreams and nightmares are subconscious bubbles that we have that links up to our inner psyche. This meant that every bits and pieces of dreams we have about the location means a greater deal than what we make ourselves up to believe. PJC is special to me due to various reasons, and that is my story to tell in the later part of the project. However as of now, the onus lies in telling the story about the place by bringing out the voices of the people.


Survey

I utilised SurveyMonkey as a tool to garner mass opinion and continual survey relay, alongside my role as an alumni of the PJC. My target audience we generally PJC students, with exception of a few Jurong Junior College friends that I have as they play an important role in the PJC_JJ merger as well. The questions were the ones listed above, totally to 53 responses. The highlights are shown below.

Although I only received a 53 respondent crowd, it was a strong variety of people. In attempts to understand my concept better, such as  difference between arts student and science student, or older students and younger students, I tried to categorised the information. Out of the 53 people, 18.8% of the student body are students who graduated before 2014. 35.8% graduated with me during the year 2014-2015. And 45.2% of the surveyee graduated after that said timeline. Zooming out to the big picture, there were a fair contrast of science students and art students, listed above. (Pale ghosts are the science students)


 


 



Out of the surveyed results, I realised that there were not a lot of people who had dreams revolving around PJC, even so that wasn’t academic related. Hence, I decided to abandon the correlation of dreams to locations being special, although holding onto that dream-like quality to my art direction.

I decided to focus more on the results of the favourite locations, and that was a useful find. According to the survey results, most people enjoyed spending time in the canteen or cafe. The second biggest batch preferred stargazing on the field, while the third biggest batch loves the art-room. There would be a possible statistic error as a former art student, my access to art student based information would be very biased.

From my understanding of these results, there seem to be a certain correlation of public space and private space, as well as the recreational activities you can do in that location. Hence, I formatted my presentation slides according to that idea of following through from a public space into a private space. This was relevant with my perspective as an art student who preferred hanging out in the art room.


Forums

With the information at hand, I knew better about what I wanted to know about PJC and follow through with my project. And this led to my discovery of the forums that talked about the PJC and JJ merger, where I found some useful information regarding the topic.

My survey results also indicated a 100% of people thinking that the merger being detrimental to the schools identity, which is topic that would be discussed further later down.


Interviews

If you havent watched the video above, this is the exact video compiled of the interviews I arranged with various students of PJC.

The extra footages are interviews that were too long to be cut into the video. There were some recordings of interviews that weren’t captured on camera as well.


Recorded Interview with Hilman 17A03 (look at 2:51)

Recorded Interview with Michaela 17A03

Recorded Interview with Narisa 17S14 and Jamie 17A07

Recorded Interview with Zoey 18A08, Braden 18A05 and Stella 18A05

A general summary of the recorded interviews:

There was a clear indication that the students do not have dreams or nightmares about PJC in visceral aspect, which would be hard in the direction that I was going forth. Hence, I had the idea of recreating the activities that they enjoyed doing in the location, as well as the emotions that they felt with the location, resulting in my additional questions asked during the interview.

An interesting pointer would be the interview held with Hilman and Micheala, where they talked about the identity of the school being lost in the process of the merger- This really made me interested in exploring the relationship between the people and the location in time aspect. This trigger point came about when I realised that the same idea wasn’t apparent in the J1 students, who have not experienced the same culture. I derived at the notion of investigating the relationship of people and location from the past, present and possibly the future.


Photography

Site visit

 

 

 

 

 

Joy pointed out that the green motif is a good direction that points towards the PJC and JJ Merger.

 

 

 

 

I do like the idea of a quiet space at night that doesn’t have students in it, highlighting its innate quality of being a location, without function.

Apart from the site visit mandatory photographs, which are shown above, I decided  to bring along my friend to take some concept shots. These concept shots are based off on information I received from the survey results as well as interviews. It was to assist me in reaching an abstract idea of telling the relationship between the people and the location, without physically acting out the activities.


C o n c e p t

Stargazers

 

 

Glitch  (Mentioned in the interview with Hilman)

 

Miscellaneous.

(More explanation/documentation of the photographs to come in part 2/)zine.


As the research element of the zine came to an end, I found a good sense of how I wanted to direct myself towards the eventual zine. I wanted to portray the dream-like connotation of the relationship between the location and the people. This could be done through illustrations- which illography might be a good platform since I have done it previously in Project: Ego, and I already had a set of photographs that I can build the project on.

A friend from another class responded to the set of photographs with an interesting perspective of how the narration of my zine could be, which stems from the idea of how this zine isn’t my story to tell, but as if I am lending the voices and putting it into one booklet.

 

A walter mitty nightmare

In this assignment, we explore the relationship between typography and graphic: creating a typographic portrait using our names. These names consider typeface, style, size, weight, case letter and even elements of art/ principles of design to highlight a specific occupation of our choice.

 

 

 

The story of Walter Mitty tells a fantastical tale of an ordinary man spending his time daydreaming. The moral of the story tells of an ineffectual dreamer who indulge in over-fantastical dreams of personal triumph. He snaps in and out of his dreams, completely oblivious to the scrutiny of strangers. He is a wartime pilot, he is a sniper, he is a surgeon, he is a criminal.

 

He is a     d    r    e    a     m            e                   r             . 

paying homage to Walter Mitty‘s narrative, I wanted to incorporate this theme of sequential dreaming into my typographic project. Hence, instead of sequential daydreaming, it is a sequential nightmare instead- each scene depicting a specified occupation.

N i g h t m a r e

I realised that

                        understanding

                        how a nightmare occurs

will allow a more consistent story-telling

 

                                          on my part,

 

                             in

 

 

                       depicting each scene of typographic occupations.

                         A nightmare occurs when a person (artsy, creative people) have a         thin boundary of mind, thus they are more susceptible to nightmares. This      causes their head to go into a metaphorical cycle, without directions, move                             from one nightmare to another, each with recurring themes from the          previous.

________________________________________________________

Conceptualising the final narrative, I decided that I wanted to tell a story of a person’s mind trapped in a sequential nightmare.

Brendy is a plague doctor who sees dead people everyday because of the nature of his job, therefore dark thoughts build up at the back of his head and nightmare occurs, The desensitisation of death creates an objectification of human flesh, made him wonder what it would be like to be a cannibal. While pushing back his dark thoughts, the glistening of blood reminded him of the stars, thinking of the limitless boundaries of space. He wants to be a milky way milkman, sending happiness to all species in the universe. However, evil ideas still creeps up to him in recurring themes, seeing patches of red everywhere. He wanted to leave this planet, turning into a formless entity that no one can control, bigger than life itself- a Planet Eater.

 

presentation day

 

plague doctor   >   cannibal    >    milky way milkman    >    planet eater

 

Throughout this series, I wanted to connect each typographic portrait according to the narrative, and create a more unified theme, I also strived to link the explanation to principles of design and elements of art.

 

From the start to the end, there will be a change from realism into something fantastical. The form changes from 3-dimensionally realistic (photography) into 2D and viscous, struggling to materialise. (graphics)

The colour scheme turns from tamed and muted colours with dots and splashes of red to vibrant and fantastical colour schemes. The gradation of colours parallels to the ascending narrative.

The usage of space increases, from a focused and narrow perspective to a wide perspective that sees the whole environment. It creates a more suspenseful theme.

_________________________________

Plague Doctor

Plague Doctor, final

This composition is the first of the series. It is done through photoshopping and superimposing found images on the Internet.

It is a plague doctor standing in front of a dirtied wall, with little embellishment, focusing on the plague doctor. There is use of little colours, with only black and red, red being the point of focus. There is movement created using the scratching hand, emphasising on the mask of the scarred plague doctor. The scratch lines on the plague doctor’s mask creates a visual rhythm, which brings focus to the largest scratches, which is the typography. The value used in this portrait is dramatic, with contrasting shadows and light used, seemingly shining a bright light over the shoulders of the plague doctor.

The purpose of this graphic is to incite fear and suspense, much like a mystery serial killer movie poster. It should look mysterious and almost a tint of danger.  I would reference to posters like “Friday the 13th”, where there is little embellishment, but only focusing on the main lead, which is the serial killer. It uses strong values to create the suspenseful scene.

The typography of this graphic should therefore be suspenseful and seemingly dangerous. In doing so, I used sharp lines, that are disconnected, creating a staccato effect. It is suppose to reference to the scratch marks made by the hands depicted in the graphics. The usage of different tonal values and colours (red) in the scratch marks shows a difference in pressure of inscribing. It creates the tension necessary in the thriller element aimed for this graphics. The difference in pressure should also tell of the emphasis on different weights of the alphabet. The usage of uppercase letters for the name “Brendy” allows more room for exploration of the pressured inscriptions, it also gives a stronger and sinister appearance due to the enhanced weight.

 

Friday the 13th
Other attempts
1st attempt of scratching

I tried to create alternate perspective of the hands clawing out the scratch marks on the plague doctor’s masks, but I realised that the usage of too many hands can be visually overwhelming, taking the attention away from the typography.

 

attempt of vintage look

I also experimented with a vintage theme as plague doctors are occupations that no longer exist due to extinction of time. However, I couldn’t find a better way to style the typography, losing the meaning of the narrative with it.

 

_______________________________________________________

 

Cannibal

Cannibal, final

This composition is second in the series. From the Plague doctor typographic portrait, it has the recurring theme of using red as emphasis. The usage of texture is on a more dramatic scale. The black humour and surrealistic element used draws reference to the narrative, whereby the main character is desensitised to the idea of eating human flesh.

This graphics is done through flat lay photography with photoshop editing of the muscle fibre of real pork, drizzled with strawberry sauce.

It is a photograph of a bowl of flesh that is supposed to resemble human thigh meat, drizzled with red substance that resembles blood. It is accompanied with a comb and a ruler, in a dining room scenario. The usage of colour, as mentioned, uses red as the main focus. It is accompanied with white and blue to create a fantasy-like scene, but not too overwhelmingly jarring. The surrealistic element is brought out with the usage of a comb and a rusty ruler by the plate, implying that these tools are substitutes of the utensils. The usage of texture also transcends into the background, with a blue, weaving table mat as the background, covered with a white floral cloth, followed by a blue printed ceramics bowl. The usage of texture creates a highly detailed narrative within the photograph. There is balance in this photograph despite the comb being larger than the ruler, this is because of the usage of the blood to draw out the alphabet “Y”, which will be explained below.

The purpose of this typographic portrait is to create a visually stimulating layout, that is on the verge of dangerous cannibal and black humour. There should be a subtle element of danger, but also a humorous backdrop, this “humour” is brought about by the surrealistic element mentioned earlier. I would reference to most movie posters, but specifically “Silence of the Lambs”. It has an element of tamed silence, but it also has a strong implied narrative that audience will expect, as if more action is taking place outside of the camera’s perspective. Surrealism is also emphasised in the graphics.

We Are What We Are
Silence of the Lambs

In linking the typography and the purpose of the graphics, I wanted to use the muscle fibre to spell out the name. This uses the context (cannibal) to frame the typography, which tells the audience that the story revolves around a cannibal and flesh. The usage of muscle fibre is also easier in spelling out curvy alphabets like uppercase “B”. However, in shaping the narrative of  surrealism, I went one stage ahead by deconstructing the form of the typography. I took away the middle section of the letter “E” and even used blood to substitute the muscle fibres for the alphabet “Y”. This obvious substitution and subtraction brings focus to the elements of inconsistency that the audience should notice. The usage of blood to spell out Y, that eventually mixes in with the background, tells the audience that there is an implication of surrealism, whereby the typography is dematerialising.

Other attempts
inclusion of foot, scissors and actual utensils

In this attempt, I tried to juxtapose actual utensils that would be used in a dining scenario to enhance the black humour. There is also a foot.

set up

The usage of one light source creates a dramatic vignette.

crazy lights
spelling out with muscle fibres

I also tried to use the contouring of the muscle fibres to outline the name Brendy, but this was not obvious and it did not have the intended dramatic effect compared to the previous composition.

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Milky Way Milkman

Milky Way Milkman, final

This is the third composition in the nightmare series. It has recurring themes like the shining of the stars, compared to the glistening on the red liquid on the meat. The play of texture is also apparent, comparing the movement lines to the muscle fibres of the previous composition. In accordance to the narrative of the series, the main character is denying the evil thoughts, therefore the elements of red are the resurfacing of his subconscious evil thoughts. The stark contrast of surrealism to graphics indicates his thoughts dematerialising into a fantastical genre.

This is created through hand drawn illustrations put through the Illustrator for additional paint and textured effects.

In this composition, the usage of colours becomes more loose. There are galaxy colours used, but mainly complementary colours of green orange and purple violet. This creates a fantastical environment. The usage of red, as mentioned earlier, indicates the implications from the previous composition. The orange and red portions are the main focus of the graphics as they are bright and steals the audiences’ focus. The usage of movement lines brings emphasis to the typography, which is spelt out on the side of the milkman’s van. This composition is also bolder compared to the rest with the variety of shapes and forms used, like organic shapes and geometric shapes in different scenarios. Theres an attempt to shape the udders of a cow. The idea of movement is also apparent as the scenario is in space, and the usage of overflowing milk helps to redirect the audiences’ eyes into the central, which is the typography.

The purpose of this typographic portrait is to follow through with the narrative of subverting your evil thoughts, hence, this scene has to portray a positivity that is befouled by insidious thoughts. The primary characteristics has to be the magical element of a flying van that everyone in the audience will be excited to see, but is slowly poisoned by the blood capturing it.

I am referencing to the movie “Nanny McPhee”s poster, which tells a tale of a magical nanny that travels around and teaches children the right from the wrongs. I find the composition magical and fantastical with the play of colours, using only the darker colours to highlight the main lead. The usage of floral and curvy patterns enhances this element of fantasy as well.

Nanny McPhee
ofo logo

In the typography of this composition, I wanted to reference to the “ofo” logo since they have a brilliant logo that uses the from to highlight the function. The letter “ofo” effectively becomes a bicycle. I wanted to use the letters of the typography as the form instead, creating a van with the name “brendy”. “Brendy” in this composition is spelt with small letter casing for this purpose, it is also to incite positivity, since lower case letters are visually less taunting and bold. The usage of block and thick letters create an effect of harmlessness and friendliness, as there isn’t any sharp edges in the font. The circular forms of the letter “b” and “d” goes really well to highlight the movement lines I wanted to be apparent in this composition. In particular for this graphics, I wanted to incorporate textures in the letterforms to create a linkage between the previous composition and this one, hence, I patterned the letterforms “n”, “d” and “y’ with lines and marks. There is also an emphasis using contrasting sizes, by making the “Y” bigger than the rest, and moving towards the van, it gives emphasis.

 

Other attempts
Vector attempt

I attempted to create the composition using vector illustration. However, I found that it did not have the desired appearance, and it was too time-consuming.

Found image attempt

I also attempted to use photoshop and found images to create a graphics, but this was difficult in terms of including the typography, although I did like the appearance of the graphics.

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Planet Eater

Planet Eater, final

This is the final composition in the series, and it is the most fantastical and vibrant one out of the four, in accordance to the narrative. With the recurring themes of space, it follows the main characters thoughts of being free after being a Milky Way Milkman, thus looking into the distance of space. The colours used are the same, but in an exaggerated hue and saturation. Compared to the previous graphics, which is solid and outlined by lines, this one is flowy and viscous, enhancing the dream-like effect.

This is created through hand- drawn illustrations, thereafter painted in Illustrator and added additional effects through Photoshop and Lightroom.

In this composition, the colours are as mentioned before, much more vibrant and saturated. This gives a stronger dream-like effect. This is because as the narrative progresses, the main character is deeper into his nightmare and thus the colours are more vibrant as it is supposed to provide a positive message of freedom. There is emphasis placed on the colour green as most of the composition is predominantly purple and pink, bringing focus to the typography. There is harmony as the  entire composition is superimposed with a translucent layer of textured stars and clouds. There is also balance as the texture of the milky way is placed at opposite ends to create visual balance. The tonal values are also dramatic in this composition, with darker values to depict the deeper end of space while lighter values used to highlight the foreground and typography.

The purpose of this graphics is to incite a sense of freedom, telling the audience that the series has gone full-blown surreal. There is a strong element of dropping reality down (following the narrative), the audience is travelling into space as a formless entity. The colours used in this composition is rarely found in reality, hence the effect of otherworldliness is more apparent. However, the convergence of space, whereby the typography is trapped within a thick vignette, implies a slight sense of danger, which is one of the key point in this story.

Guardians of the Galaxy poster

In the reference of otherworldliness, I chose the Guardians of the Galaxy poster. Specifically referring to the colour scheme used, with predominantly saturated blue and purple with tints of yellow. I find the colour scheme appropriate and paid extra attention to my composition in terms of bringing out the fantastical quality.

In the typography of this composition, I wanted to emphasis on the fantasy-like otherworldly quality as mentioned above. Hence, the typography is flow and viscous, in the form of clouds to spell out the name “brendy”, in lower case alphabets. The kerning in this typography is different compared to the other three, especially the alphabets “b”, “e” and “n”, where “b” has a big space to the other alphabets, and “e” and “n” are coiling around each other. “e” is represented with the shadow of the planet while “n” is the coiling smoke. This inconsistent kerning creates a life-like quality to the alphabets, as if they are moving on their own.  This non-human touch enhances the narrative of finding freedom in space. The flowy and viscous quality I sought to represent here can only be produced by the curved parts of the lower case letters of “brendy”, hence the selection of lower case letters. The space in between “b”, “e” and “d” are also juxtaposed with stars and galaxy patterns, to enhance the theme of space aesthetics.


watercolour attempt

I really wanted to do something hands on and I gave a try on water colour, since watercolour provided a quality of chalky and blended colours that other mediums cannot provide. However, it seemed off represented when placed together with the rest of my compositions as the tonal values are a stark contrast. It wasn’t as vibrant as I would like as well, hence, I decided to stick with a digital medium instead.

 

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Learning Point
It was difficult in linking up the narrative intended and the main purpose of the project, telling a story through typography. However, it was interesting in seeking out solutions, such as understanding how the wording are placed in a particular way or done so in a specific manner, ultimately creating the typography seen on screen. It was a whole new ball game trying to tell a story not only through graphics but typography as well.
I also learn to play with proportions as my initial drafts barely focus on the typography, instead represent a large proportion of space on the graphics, which later Joy advised me on cropping out- essentially giving a stronger focus on the typography.
Joy also pointed out that there could be more room to play with the interaction between the muscle fibre in the second piece with the comb, enhancing the element of surrealism.