by ·0 Comments

Time really flies, the end of the semester is here and so are all the final submission deadlines! For this final project, we were  really “free” in the sense that we got to explore any area of our interest, a physical product/publication etc. produced as an expansion of one of our past few projects – 2A: Vernacular Type / 2B: Organic Type/ 3A: Type As Image / 3B: Type As Pattern / 3C: Type As Emotion

I eventually went ahead with an expansion of Project 3A out of subject interest – A zine titled: Playground of Our Yesteryears and here’s my journey at arriving at my final idea:

Ideation

This final project being an expansion of Project 3A, the subject matter I based my compositions on were the iconic mosaic playgrounds in Singapore – the Dragon Playground and Dove Playground respectively. For reference:

3A: Type as Image

As mentioned in that process documentation, I was naturally drawn to these playgrounds and always had this “something” for nostalgic stuff. I wanted to explore this theme of nostalgia again for this final project. Thus I was considering to create a zine that’s a collection of typographic compositions of several popular childhood snacks or stick with the same mosaic playgrounds.

After much thinking, the playgrounds it was! I initially wanted to have the zine include a little of Project 2A (Vernacular Type) as well, coming up with quotes related or said about the playgrounds and formed with Vernacular Type as observed from the form of the playground structures to strengthen/solidify the concept further. Even with the title of the zine as well on the cover page, I wanted to incorporate the techniques of Project 2A. However after much consideration, it was not practical at all given the tight deadline that we were given for this final project – 3 weeks.

How unfortunate! But I’ll definitely keep this idea in mind if I were to ever expand further on this project 🙂

Choice of Typeface

I stuck through with the previous typeface used for Project 3A, Cochin reason being that it evoked a nostalgic vibe and I liked how it had various weights and its Italic font had a unique anatomy to it. Unlike Project 3A where our reasoning for choosing the typeface could be just as simple as this, for this final project the rationale had to be deeper. It must be related/be of significance to the subject matter that the compositions are based on. In this case, the typeface Cochin had to be related to these mosaic playgrounds – The feedback I received during the first consultation for the project.

Thus I had to do further research to see if I could find similarities. If not, I have to change my typeface. Thankfully there were some connections! This was what I found:

In 1977, Cochin was later adapted an expanded for Linotype that is used as a system font that can be found in our MacBooks. This 70’s period that it was adapted is the same period when these mosaic playgrounds were created around the various HDB estates in Singapore

Therefore that similarity, and additionally the typeface has an old text feel that evokes a feel of nostalgia to which I feel is an apt tone to convey with these iconic mosaic playgrounds of the past as they were part of most people’s childhood.

Reference: https://www.fonts.com/font/linotype/cochin/story 

The Zine Format
I wanted to opt for the normal staple bind zine, working with page spreads and all but I was thinking further on how I could make it less “dull”. After much digging around online I found out that there’s really a wide variety of zine formats and actually it’s really up to one’s preference, how they want their zine to look like.

Then I chanced upon the one-page mini zine template! Pretty decent and quite an interesting layout to work with. There’s a slit in the middle though.


Looking further, I came across this typography publication that was one-paged as well just not 8-page and mini. It had a poster on the flip-side (back-side) of it’s front which sparked the idea of packaging it to come with a freebie of sorts in poster form (folded). The contents of the zine and the poster would be further elaborated later on.

Cr: https://www.behance.net/gallery/33539703/Typographic-Zine 

The Compositions

THE BIGGEST STRUGGLE OF THIS PROJECT. Going ahead with the project as an expansion of Project 3A, I could foresee it was going to be quite a struggle as I already was that time during the project. This was the first version of compositions I came up with:

Went in to consultations and sure enough, I struggled. Sure the compositions came out, the respective playgrounds can be identified. However, feedback was that similar to the two that were created in Project 3A, the compositions looked quite flat and way too simplified. The reader would not be able to identify the letters used/see the typeface and the compositions could easily pass off as being drawn using the pen tool.

Shirley suggested to search online for examples of Type as Image  to get a better sense of how the compositions when formed should look like – Definitely the anatomy of the letters could still more or less be identified and that should be the way to go!

 

^ Reference Works

Thus I changed up the compositions a little by cutting up the anatomy less, some retaining it’s full form and the use of the letter’s descenders and ascenders rather than it’s stems. The list of mosaic playgrounds around Singapore is pretty long and people might ask, why feature just these mosaic playgrounds and not all of them? My reason for choosing these playgrounds to be featured is because these seven I personally believe are the more iconic ones around, I see them popping up/being mentioned in most if not all the articles/materials I’ve read about these playgrounds. Furthermore, several of these playgrounds were popular designs till they had replicas of it built about Singapore but these selected ones are the original ones that were created, the first version to exist.

Below, each revised composition labelled as follows in a gallery of its own and the process of getting to the final composition used in the zine with the colouring for some: (click on the images to enlarge as slideshow)

DRAGON PLAYGROUND

 

 

DOVE PLAYGROUND

 

SAMPAN PLAYGROUND

 

ELEPHANT PLAYGROUND

 

CLOCK PLAYGROUND

 

WATERMELON PLAYGROUND

 

PELICAN PLAYGROUND

Content

As I felt that it would be rather boring to just have the typographic image compositions make up the content of the zine, I eventually decided to include several fun facts/information that readers will not likely be aware of about these playgrounds complement the compositions.

I have to say, bulk of my inspiration on what should be included in the zine came from this digital pdf that I chanced upon while researching on the playgrounds (link): Mosaic Memories – Singapore Memory Project

From there I got the inspiration for the main content to complement the compositions:

And the poster: Somewhat like the map as seen in the Mosaic Memories project referenced, but in my own take and style. The map that the designer came up with for that project featured way more playgrounds and it was even more detailed with a  descriptive paragraph beside each playground. As for mine, I decided to have it just feature the playgrounds that I’ve created compositions for on a map silhouette of Singapore. The playgrounds placed roughly at where it’s located across the island (North, South, East, West side) with simple header text above it made up of their addresses’. The poster works as a tiny prompt/suggestion for readers to visit/re-visit their childhood while they still can (the design can be seen later on below)

And after much revising and printing…. here’s the final look of the zine 🙂

To make the background of the zine look less flat, I added texture to create a vintage rustic look that somewhat gives a nostalgic feel and also something spontaneous; a pattern like wallpaper design overlay on the already textured background with lowered opacity 🙂

HERE IT IS!!

(click on images to enlarge as slideshow) 

References:

Overall, I’ve learnt A LOT from this project and module. Not just applying the usual typography concepts that we’ve learnt so far, but in this case to even analyse how the choice of typeface can affect the readers’ interpretation of the work. Also, layout and almost every design aspect needs to be taken into consideration. In fact, all the projects we had throughout this module had its own learning points. But if there’s one biggest learning point/takeaway at the end of the day, I would say is that my observation skills and appreciation for typefaces/fonts have really grown 😀

Looking forward to what Typography II has to offer!!

 

by ·0 Comments

By this part of the project, I’m pretty convinced that it each part gets tougher and this was the one I struggled the most with. Unlike the first two parts – 3A & 3B where there was so much freedom, (for a lack of a better explanation) based more on the aesthetics we were going for rather than having an intended message/concept behind the composition.. This was the total opposite, the composition needed to make sense and translate the emotion with the word.

To begin, I misread the brief entirely thinking that we could come up with our own emotions when actually we could only chose 4 to work on from a list that was given in the project brief. Similarly like the first two parts of the project, using just one typeface we had to come up with four compositions expressing the word ‘HELLO’ in black and white, varying the weights, caps, spacing, sizing etc.of the typeface. Basically exploring techniques that do not involve manipulation of the typeface.

Once again, I’ve decided to use HELVETICA NEUE for my typeface reason simply being: There’s so many fonts that I can use from just this one typeface! But eventually I didn’t use that many, sticking to a few of the same fonts like Bold, Condensed Bold and Condensed Black as the thin weight fonts were really way too thin and I couldn’t figure out how to make use of Italics in this case.

So… as a result of misreading the project brief, blur me came up with experimentations on emotions that weren’t usable but I figured no harm documenting them. Luckily some could be further revised/explored as the emotions I had in mind were pretty similar to the list.

The emotions that eventually followed up with the initial explorations or settled on doing later on were: CONFUSED | ARROGANT | ANNOYED | DEPRESSED

1. CONFUSED

For Confused,  I already had it under my initial explorations. My idea to express the emotion was to not have all the letters of the word not sitting on the same baseline and tilted in various angles.

Original Version of Emotion: Confused

However after consulting with Shirley, she felt that the emotion could be better conveyed prompting me with questions like What would make you confused? to even popping ideas on how the image of confusion can be conveyed which led to this, a revised from my initial:

Final Version of Emotion: Confused

The new idea was to have the word jumbled up so much until it doesn’t make sense. Not sure if the emotion was thus brought across but I definitely felt that this revised is way less comprehensible and straightforward as compared to my initial one which creates that sense of confusion!

2. ANNOYED

Under initial explorations I somehow tried creating a composition for this emotion too despite having misread the brief as mentioned. Between the one labelled Irritated and Angry/Annoyed  I was leaning more towards the one below that was labelled Irritated:

Original Version of Emotion: Annoyed

With the repeated uppercase ‘HELLO’ stacked above one another with tight leading, I was hoping to create a sense of annoyance, making one Annoyed. However feedback from Shirley was that the composition was very stagnant, it didn’t give such a feel as the leading intervals were really consistent. The words spaced out well. It would’ve probably been better if the leading was tighter? But way more room for improvement on this one! With her feedback in mind, here’s the final revised version:

Final Revised of Emotion: Annoyed

Pretty much stacking the repeated ‘hello’ word over one another after majorly reducing the kerning between the letters first. Some of the ‘hello’ words are inverse as well. I’m not sure if the emotion is better brought across this way as I was concerned that it might come off as the emotion of Confused as well. But this was my take on the emotion and idea of what might seem annoying!

3. ARROGANT

The composition idea for this emotion came after realising that I had misread the brief but looking back at the initial explorations I had, I felt that I was able to develop from the one that I had the initial emotion of Scared (which was unfortunately not in the list that we could choose from) to express it for this emotion:

From initial exploration of Emotion: Scared

With this composition form that I had for another emotion, on adapting it to suit the emotion of Arrogant.. I thought to retain the condensed and bold font of the word, isolating the letter ‘o’ as well. The ideation of this composition form is based of what I think about the emotion reflected on an Arrogant person in the context of thinking that he/she is better than others hence the exclusion from a group or something. Something like the idea of “you cannot be part of this” – leaning more towards a narrative/contextual intention behind it:

Final Revised of Emotion: Arrogant

So you can see how tight knitted the other letters are (expressed through a tight kerning) with the letter ‘o’ seemingly excluded by having it half out of the frame and the letter ‘l’ looking like a ‘kicking’ action.

4. DEPRESSED

For this last emotion, the composition idea was from scratch but I really went simple and literal for this based on my interpretation of the emotion – Everything, the mood is just dull, bleak, and dark hence the black background and the word ‘hello’ inversed to bring across that opposite mood from a happy and cheerful one and in a tonal range that’s almost close to the black background, and small in scale to show like it’s being drowned, engulfed by the surrounding.

Final Version of Emotion: Depressed

For this project I had my parents, friends looking at the compositions; asking them what emotion they could derive from it. Some were successful, they guessed a similar if not exact emotion I was trying to convey but some didn’t. On the idea of interpretation, I feel it’s really subjective. What one person thinks of this may not necessarily be felt the same by another and perhaps the only way to overcome it sometimes in our works is to be quite literal I guess. In terms of expression. (sometimes simple really does work best!)

Overall I felt that this project though challenging, was a really interesting way to push and train us to communicate a message through typography. Something which I haven’t tried before! 🙂

by ·0 Comments

For this project, we had to create a series of patterns just by using a single letter of any traditional typeface and this time round I chose to go with a san-serif typeface for variation. We could play around with spacing of the letters to create variations, repetition of rows/columns or even overlapping of the letters to create the form.

Funnily for this particular project, when first heard of the brief I thought it was going to be real fun and easy to create the pattern compositions since right away when patterns were mentioned I had the preconceived idea that it would just be tessellations and more tessellations. Which wasn’t exactly wrong but that would be the easier way out to approaching this project I guess. Furthermore, we had so many things which could play around with. But I guess that was the struggle for me, the same with the other two projects – The freedom that came with it. I guess I was so used to having projects that had to be conceptualised beforehand, a message to be brought across and with restrictions but on the contrary all the three projects were rather free and easy with little limitations except maybe for the last one!

Anyway back to the process, prior to getting started on my patterns here were some inspirations I had in mind:

I kind of wanted to veer away from the usual tessellation kind of pattern but I guess it was inevitable at some point as my brain was already adjusted to that as what a pattern would look like. Surprisingly, I managed to get a composition that I really liked. Here are some of the explorations I had before narrowing down to the best two for submission (click on image to enlarge):

I struggled to even come up with one pattern initially but I think for me it was the momentum. Once I got a pattern out, I realised it could go another way to form way more. Just like the explorations I had for two of the letters/number used: ‘R’ and ‘0’. With just one combined form and the application of different techniques, I was able to create 2 entirely different pattern compositions for each respective letterform. I realised with that endless patterns could be churned out and I’m pretty sure even before looking that everyone’s compositions would be VERY different, unique and one-of-a-kind even though we may use the same letterform and typeface. Super amazing.

The typeface that I went with for this project was HELVETICA NEUE – I love its variety of fonts

And these were the two compositions that I eventually went with for submission reason being for the tessellation looking one using the letter ‘r’, it looks simple yet I liked how there’s thick and thin lines involved thanks to the convergence of the letterform in the centre that was created with the radial method and the application of the swatch onto it.

Using the Letter ‘r’

 

As for the second composition (below),  using the letter ‘o’ in varied fonts of the typeface (bold, thin and light) I created a simple motif of sorts and was randomly playing around with scale, overlapping of motifs and angling them differently. Also, I suddenly remembered how we could play with negative spaces and tonal range as well! Played around a bit more and somehow got this!! I liked how it created a 3D kind of effect and dimensionality to the pattern composition thanks to the tonal range. The white motifs would be the foreground and then slowly the others repeated but fading and shrinking in size.

Using the Letter ‘O’

 

Overall this project was slightly on the challenging side but I’m really happy with all the experimentation especially with the pattern using the letter ‘O’ (above). I was pleasantly surprised by its unexpected outcome, achieving a pattern without the default use of tessellation 🙂

by ·0 Comments

For this project, we had to select a traditional typeface and create a series of composition explorations from it using the varied fonts from that one typeface to create variations in thickness for dimension of the image form. Basically we could ‘dismember’ the anatomy of each letter of the font, combine them to form our image composition which I thought sounded pretty fun but at the same time worrisome since the possibilities were endless! The end deliverable was two best compositions and I thought it would be nice if I could have it as a series/themed kind of sorts rather than two compositions that are entirely different 🙂

On to brainstorming the themes for this project, I had way too many in mind of my favourite things – Studio Ghibli animation films, Harry Potter (I liked the minimalistic designs I found online), and of course Singaporean things. Here were those I wanted to explore (click on image to enlarge and view):

I had to narrow the themes down somehow and since I felt like doing something more close to heart and more iconic it was down to the last two ideas and my determining factor was since I’ve been drawn to those iconic heritage playgrounds of Singapore having worked on it for an art project last year… the Singapore heritage playgrounds it is!

I chose both the Dragon playground at Toa Payoh and the Dove playground at Dakota Crescent reason being that these two stood out to me most in terms of their iconic feel and rich heritage of the location they are located at. Also, there’s just something beautiful, nostalgic and iconic about these playgrounds though I haven’t been to any yet and some are soon to be demolished/have been. Just seeing them in images, the rustic mosaic design and brilliance of incorporating playground elements like the slide/see-saw to its form it’s pretty intriguing.

As for the choice of typeface, advice given was to use a serif font as it allows for strokes that go from thick to thin, basically variations in thickness of lines which actually helps to create dimension for the image composition. The typeface I chose was Cochin and I particularly liked the Italic font of the typeface because of its unique curvature at the ears and tails for some of the letters.

This was the first version I had for both playground compositions and for the subsequent consultation it was said that the Dragon playground composition pale in comparison to the Dove one in the sense that the Dragon playground’s looked flat unlike the Dove one whereby there were variations in the thickness of the playground structure using the Bold Italic/Italic fonts of the typeface and breaking up of the individual letters.

Following the feedback from Shirley and after further refining, I managed to achieve the variation in thickness for the Dragon playground composition playing with the idea of depth as the three different parts forming the Dragon’s body fall under foreground, mid-ground and background – I thought it’d be cool to bring out my observation that way and at the same time to create dimension within the composition. The final revised look of the Dragon playground below:

And these were the final two compositions I had for Project 3A:

 

Overall the project was really fun and the process of bits and pieces of the various letters from the typeface to form the composition was rather therapeutic, almost like putting together a puzzle I feel! For some unexplainable reason I love this theme so much that I’m already considering to expand on it for the next and final project for Typography! We shall see 🙂

by ·0 Comments

Project 2B on the other hand had us exploring freeform type. Sounds fun but at the same time a little daunting… Similarly, we had to think of a phrase/quote/memory/lyric and create our very own organic typeface in relation to the quote and we could only use traditional medium. After creating the type, we have to apply it onto something tangible.

PROCESS
WEEK 2: In-Class Experimentation

The following week after getting our assignment brief we did some in-class typeface exploration with a wide range of materials we brought from home and found in class to create our typeface. Ideally, we had to come to class with a quote in mind so that we could start exploring and creating a typeface that suited our chosen quote. However I was still undecided (just like Project 2A, my ideas just refused to come easily…) so it was really just freestyle exploration for me that week. I experimented with ink, creating thick and thin strokes with a brush/felt marker, blocking letters, writing in cursive etc. and below were some of the outcomes:

While exploring, a quote ‘Take Heart, Be Kind’ suddenly came to mind. It is more of a catchphrase that was used by the host of a YouTube series that I’ve been following. As I wanted to go for a “spread positive vibes” kind of feel I was thinking that this could be a possible quote to use.

However after exploring with various original typefaces for the quote I realised that it was hard to create one that exudes a “positive vibes” feel. Possibly by playing with colours, but I felt that the shape of letters of the typeface had to play a part the sense that for instance: If the type had to be created in black and white, the vibe of the quote should still be visible too. Also, I did not help that the typefaces from the experimenting was all leaning towards the now commonly seen calligraphy look. It did not come off unique:

WEEK 3&4: Slowly Getting There…

Thus I gave up on that quote and went online to search for more. Another challenge faced was that we had to limit our quote/phrase between 15 to 25 characters. I was still leaning towards to the idea of creating an organic typeface for inspiring quotes and I kind of wanted to play with the idea of incorporating flowers since it was my kind of ‘thing’/aesthetic.

By chance, the quote ‘No Rain, No Flowers’ came up and I felt it was a really simple yet powerful quote that I think everyone would resonate well with, even myself. I feel it speaks of how everything is cause and effect and life’s not all rainbows and butterflies, just like the flowers, we will definitely experience the “rain” – the bad days in order to grow as a person. And they key to overcoming these ups and downs is to embrace it. It felt meaningful. Additionally, I realised that I could incorporate flowers in the organic typeface too 🙂 Here were some of the works I found online and got inspired by / referenced a little:

I then proceeded to experiment on the typeface for this quote at home and came up with a few ideas:

Then came the problem, I could not seem to execute my idea of having the flowers line the sides of the letter while retaining the visibility of the letters (as seen in the image below). The flowers seem to overpower the letter instead of my intention of having it complement the typeface in the sense that it subtly depicts the meaning of the quote as well of how without rain there would be no flowers, the flowers will not bloom. I wanted the letters in the organic dripping-looking form to stand out more than the flowers reason being that it is the rain is the cause of the flowers. It allowed the flowers to grow.

Brought my experimentations to class for the following week of consultation to see how I could tackle this problem and the suggestions given by my peers were really helpful!! They suggested that I could perhaps melt wax crayons / use the glue gun to create give the letters more dimension so that it stands out from the flowers. As for the flowers, I could perhaps do paper folding or another technique I thought of – paper quilling.

WEEK 5: It’s Finally a Work-In-Progress!!

Now that my final execution direction was clearer, I went into creating the typeface based on the suggestions received that week. For the letters, I tried out the Glue Gun method eventually as I already had the materials at home but unfortunately it failed to create the depth and I did not like the uneven texture it created as I had to layer the glue over and over again because of its little output each time.

Managed to resolve the problem by using some leftover styrofoam I had at home from past projects (perks of being a hoarder after each art project haha)

And it worked!!! YESSS. As for the flowers to surround the typeface… due to the little time I had left to work on the typeface, realistically it was not possible to continue with my initial technique of folding /paper quilling the flowers as both techniques required quite a bit of time and cost of course.

Hence I went with the idea of using of fake flowers instead. It was a much cheaper and faster alternative too!! I got them from Daiso and boy their selection of flowers was huge! I was initially at a loss to which kinds of flowers I should choose, which would actually complement the typeface. I eventually went with a vibrant mix of flowers since anything colourful doesn’t hurt right!! Especially since the letters were white in colour.

Here’s how the typeface turned out:

Look of the typeface before digitalising

Thanks to the styrofoam that created the dimension for the letters, the flowers were able to be placed around its sides without overpowering it as initially if both letter and flowers were on the same level, the flowers would definitely have stood out (as seen earlier).

As another requirement of the project was to have the typeface applied onto something tangible, I had to have the typeface digitalised in order for that to happen. Scanning was not an option for me as the typeface had dimension. It was not fully flat and some details of the typeface would have been lost. I did try to scan though! But as anticipated, some details were lost. Thus, I had to take pictures of the letters individually against a black sheet of paper/background and then manually photoshop erase the background of each letter and rearrange them on a blank canvas thereafter. Individual letters reason being that I had to create large letters of the typeface in order for the flowers to surround each letter nicely without looking too crammed or sparse.

The editing process after shooting the letters individually:
It was a rather strenuous process of zooming in, removing the black areas bit by bit and arranging them thereafter on a blank black canvas to achieve a clean finished typeface. And voilà!

APPLICATION TIME!

As mentioned, part two of the assignment was to have this typeface be applied onto something tangible and I came up with a few ideas! It being kind of like an inspiration quote, the options were endless. Here were some ideas but I eventually went with the poster 🙂

Tote Bag Design

 

Notebook Design

 

Poster (Final Selected)

 

So glad the ideas finally came through! Being a person who really enjoys doing craftwork, creating the typeface was an extremely fun process and I would love to try my hands at such a project again in the future!!

by ·0 Comments

For Project 2A we’re tasked to head down to a favourite area of ours and create a typographic composition that reflects the spirit of the chosen area. The typographic composition should be a phrase, quote, memory or lyric that we would associate with the area. When I first heard about it and when examples were shown to us in class, it looked like a lot of fun! Especially if we took up the challenge to identify letters of our selected quote through the structures, objects, almost about anything and everything that can be found at the place to capture it’s essence instead of just looking out for found letters on signs.

RESEARCH & IDEATION

The following week after getting the assignment brief, we dived into our first week of consultations for the assignment together with Project 2B which I will share more about in a separate post so as not to confuse.

Back to Project 2A here, I went in still unsure about my choice of place and the quote to resonate/capture the essence of it for the assignment on the day of consultations but somehow after the consult with Shirley, I managed to lock down my idea!  I was deciding between two places and it was funny how they suddenly came to mind – Botanic Gardens and Haw Par Villa.

Botanic Gardens reason being how I really like the flora and fauna there, the quiet yet scenic view I get every time I am there; healing. On the other hand Haw Par Villa, a place that I have never been to but heard so much about as it is known for featuring giant dioramas of the Chinese folklore, mythology, history and more. The theme park used to be bustling with visitors in the past but have now resided to a quiet place of visit in Singapore. It’s most famous attraction would probably be the 10 Courts of Hell which features gruesome depictions of Hell in Chinese mythology and Buddhism for various kinds of sins committed by people, how they would get punished for it.  I guess the colourful dioramas and mystical vibe of the place overall was what eventually led me to deciding on this place for my project.

The quote I had for the typographic composition of this place was largely inspired by it’s famous attraction (stated earlier) and also because growing up, my parents and grandparents would occasionally share with me stories of these mythologies so I already had vague ideas of it prior to visiting and researching. Especially when we were much younger, they would scare us off us with these tales – telling us not to lie and all if not we would end up like what is depicted in the 10 Courts of Hell.

Hence the quote: “Do Not Commit Sin”

PROCESS


Off to shoot the typographic composition that same weekend on a Saturday morning. First thing that caught my eye about the place or rather the first impression I got of the place was: Colourful, majestic, yet scary. The sculptures and architecture were really vibrantly coloured and intricately crafted!!

These were the few images that I took eventually to use for cropping to form the letters of the composition (click on image to enlarge and view):

The biggest challenge while shooting at Haw Par Villa was to avoid continously shooting and using the organic wavy looking forms there for the composition as they were just everywhere since most of these forms were used as decorative elements to complement the sculptures and structures or used as platforms to raise them up. But I went ahead using some anyway as the wavy organic design it had helped with wavy letters like ‘S’ in my quote. Otherwise, it was really fun trying to spot letters for the quote through observing the form, structures and sculptures at Haw Par Villa 🙂

Now that the shoot’s done, time to get started on the typographic composition and put the quote together! As I was doing, I realised that some of the objects that I shot did not exactly show the intended letter of the quote and I had to fall back on other images taken. Luckily, apart from only shooting forms for the letters for my quote I was shooting everything and almost anything I could spot at Haw Par Villa from various angles – That meant I had other pictures to fall back on. Phew!!

Here’s the first version of my typographic composition:

The problem about some of the letters not being that visible in the composition as mentioned above was addressed during the second week of consultations as well by Shirley when we showed her our progress for the composition. She shared about the Gestalt principle, how when seeing things we tend to group them together by colours to for easier and quicker viewing. Hence if there are too many things going on in that cropped frame, it will be hard for the viewer to identify the letter as compared to a frame with only probably two colours involved (less details/a contrast in the background and foreground).

She pointed out that these two Letter ‘O’s in the composition were cropped well and good examples of that because of the clear contrast/distinction between the letter and its background in terms of colours and little details:

Bulk of the advice given for the first version was either to crop the image of each letter tighter,  make the background/foreground of the letter’s cropped frame lighter/darker to help better distinguish the letter form. Also, it was mentioned that the image used for the Letter ‘T’s were unable to stand out based on the same principle. There was just too many things going on so it would be good to use other images for those letters. Probably just working with images that are made up of subjects/objects that uses just one to two main colours. These were the changes made:

And here’s the the revised version done based on the previous week of consultation (a week before submission):

Shirley and my peers’ feedback helped! I do get the feeling that the letters of the typographic composition looked way clearer than it was before now! Just some slight amendments, a bit more cropping to be made for some of the letters and I was good to go 🙂

FINAL

Here’s the final look of the typographic composition for submission:

I was a little reluctant to repeat the image used for letter ‘m’ but eventually I guess I did not have a choice as some letters were really hard to picture. Some letters that did not make the cut as seen below:

Overall I enjoyed working on the project and it really trained my observation skills, to constantly be aware of my surroundings while at Haw Par Villa in order to identify my letters for the typographic composition. Also, thanks to that trip, I now have a better insight of the place too!