prior to this, i had a few different ideas on my job scope. some examples such as florist, photographer, barista, etc.

i did some research on some examples i could find on the internet and had some ideas.

florist –

photographer –

i had an idea of using the edges of signboards to form my name using photos i recently shot of during my trip to Hong Kong during the Chinese New Year.

i wasnt really clear on how to proceed, but it was just an idea. i asked my friends about it and they mentioned that its gonna be tough because of the angles of my signboards, and also it doesnt really protray me as a photographer, but more of a neon light artist.

after a few days of conceptual thinking, i had an idea to focus on one type of job then branch it out. finally, i decided to focus on a being a chef, but branching it out to 4 other different types.

i did some visual research on pinterest –

there were a few chefs i had in mind:

sushi chef, steak chef, sous chef, pastry chef, executive chef (the one who plates the food), pasta chef, vegetable chef.

i settled on pastry, pasta, executive chef, grill chef.

i felt that my knowledge on the types of chef werent strong, so i decided to do a research on the different types of chef. these are some examples of what i found.

from this, i decided to focus on Grill Chef, Pasta Chef, Pastry Chef, and Executive Chef.

i did some studies on pinterest hopefully to get some inspiration from existing works.

i appreciate the cleverness in the play of words with the visuals. unfortunately this project is based on our names, so creating a clever play on the words is out of scope.

i did some initial tryouts –

1. Pasta Chef

this is an initial idea of a pasta chef. i had an idea of having pasta in a pot of boiling water as the concept, but Mimi advised me to have it more complex and not too direct. she also advised to use different types of pasta because spaghetti is a difficult medium to control.

my classmates gave me some advice that i could experiment with other types of noodles like ramen or penne. they also said that i could use tomato sauce as a background to make the image pop (yellow on red).

i had an idea on playing with the alphabets found in alphabet soup. 

i could try and elevate this simple concept into something more visually appealing.

2. Pastry Chef

this is my initial version of a pastry chef. i really liked how it came out but Mimi said that it only looks pretty; there is no deeper concept behind it. she also pointed out that tearing up a croissant to form my name doesnt prove my role as a pastry chef because (which pastry chef tears up their work?), which i agreed with her.

3. Grill Chef

similar to the previous 3, Mimi said that my outcomes didnt really have any conceptual depth to them. she suggested that i use the grill marks to create my name because all im doing now is approaching the execution too directly, and thats too simple.

generally, Mimi told me to think of my concept in a depeer context, and create that ‘ah-hah’ moment.