Category: Process

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To Bauhaus and Beyond Reflection

In this week’s lecture, I really enjoy the works of Piet Mondrian. More specifically, I like the art style that he uses. Even though the motifs are simple, straight forward and geometric, the contrast of the lines and primary colours gives it a very vibrant and attractive look. I like the sense of rhythm that the work presents viewers with.

Personally, I really like the use of primary colours because the contrast produces harmony and it is pleasing to the eye. I also really like the products inspired by Piet Mondrian and his works. They give off a cheery yet not tacky look. It also has a modern touch to it. This design can also be incorporated into fashion, permutating each clothing design with change the colour sizes, line placement and no. of lines. The possibilities of this design is endless.

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Reflection – Industrial Reflection and Graphic Reactions

What interests me the most about this lecture is the topic on Ukiyo-e. Also known as “The Floating World”, Ukiyo-e is essentially a style of Japanese woodblock prints and painting from the Edo period. It depicts everyday life in Japan, courtesans, romantic landscape and erotica. 

I enjoy looking at the content because the subject matter in Ukiyo-e are very fascinating. By looking t Ukiyo-e artworks, it is almost as if fantasy tales of geishas, ninjas and samurais come to life. The artworks depict them in action, almost like depicting a scene in a story book. I also really like the sceneries depicted in the artworks. Scenes of a  majestic wave, the Mt Fuji and a Japanese village in winter can be spotted easily. Looking at these light hearted depictions of Japanese life takes one through a journey through ancient Japan. These prints and paintings are like an illustrated documentary of ancient Japanese life. Every new artwork has its own charm and alluring factor. The colour used in Ukiyo-e can also be very calming and pleasant to look at.

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History of Design – Writing To Typography Reflection

What intrigue me the most about this lecture is the Rebus. A Rebus is like a puzzle where illustrations are used to represent words. Rebuses play with the pronunciation of a word to bring across a message.

I remember first learning about Rebuses in Secondary school during a module called Thinking. We not only learn how to decode and interpret rebuses, we also created our own. We learn that the same message could be illustrated differently yet because of the way we see things and our knowledge of the world, differently illustrated images can derive the same message. For example, “one in a million” can be illustrated as “milonelion” or “mil1lion”. Another example is :

As seen above, both rebuses look slightly different, but they point to the same message: “Top Secret”. This is because the word “secret” at the top of the chain are highlighted, only by different methods. But because of the way we associating things, like an arrow means emphasis and a circle means “this is the one”, we can still derive “Top Secret”.

There are so many possible rebuses in the world that it is almost impossible to say that one has seen it all. Rebuses can take the form of pure pictures/numbers/letters, there can even be a mix of everything. Creating a rebus is like create a piece of art, the possibilities of permutations are endless and every rebus is unique. Rebuses can come in any form, and the only limitation is what our mind can come up with.