not gonna lie, this project got me feeling excited to list down some of my personalities since I think I react differently in different situations and I tend to think I am pretty different with different people and contexts
Brief:
- Touch a truth in oneself
- Think deeply about colours
- Deliverables – 12 squares printable on A4
initial thoughts/brainstorming
The first thought that came to my mind when I heard the words, ego and everyone’s personalities, I thought about “How to be a Human Being?”
While growing up, we tend to get slightly more self conscious as we understand and know more things! Because of that, we find ourselves lost and unsure at certain situations, not knowing what is the best kind of reaction or what we should do in order not to screw up.
(we don’t wanna lose an important opportunity, make a weird first impression, unintentionally offend someone, etc)
Because of that I thought of Guides to living life!
Although this concept isn’t supposed to be well planned out to be a cheat sheet for everyone out there, it is instead a personal guide based on my own personalities and settings that I tend to struggle with or find myself having a lot of questions to ask.
CONCEPT
“How to Adult?” – in really simple words, this is exactly what my concept is. Many people around me find themselves in situations where they have no idea whats best to do. Questions like, “should I say hi?” “isn’t small talk bad?” “how do I reply him?” “what if she gets more annoyed after reading this?”. The questions never stop.
Since we are required to create equations, I decided to split my boxes into this standard equation throughout the 4 rows and columns of boxes. 
The first box is “my personality”. I just narrowed down some of my more prominent personalities and fit them into the equations.
The second box is “setting” which I interpreted it to be situations where I’m alone, or is awkward or I have to deal with people or its just a situation where I don’t really know whats the right way to react.
The third box is “instruction manual”. This instruction manual, is a result of combination of my first and second boxes, creating a guide on how to adult. To make it really look like an instruction manual I will be adding arrows between dissected objects that appeared in either of the 2 boxes before so that it seems like its giving instructions on how to put these small parts together to form a proper functioning object which represents my life.
colour theories
For this project, we were required to explore colour theories and use them to represent the different composition in our boxes. We were not limited to any colours at all and were really allowed to just experiment with them.
After forming my standard equation above, I also decided that I want to standardise the use of colour theories throughout my 4 columns and rows.
| Monochromatic | Complementary | Triadic |
I decided on these three harmonies for my equations.
The first column of my personalities will be monochromatic because they are the closest to me and they aren’t anything surprising or new. Monochromatic uses shades and tints of the same colour and so it doesn’t make it too striking yet at the same time it feels simple and easy to take in.
The second column of settings will be complementary as some of them are awkward and tensed situations where I just don’t really know how exactly to react. Complementary colours or opposite colours on the colour wheel and although they go together quite well they also give off some kind of tension and awkward vibe which is what I would like to portray exactly in my compositions.
The third column of instruction manuals will be triadic because its when the problem is solved, like there’s finally a solution. Triadic colours tend to come together quite harmoniously, giving the composition a complete feel. A guide to being a human being, should feel that way as it should be something that one can trust and depend on.
compositions/illustrations
I wanted to keep my illustrations simple with nothing too complicated. However, I would like them to intrigue the viewers and make them question why I chose to put certain objects that way. My illustrations will be slightly abstract but still relatable with the use of daily objects or just common objects that people are familiar with.
In addition, I will like my illustrations to follow the same art direction and thought process esp within each column.
so going back to this,
MY PERSONALITY
I will be using a “guide to life” to represent a certain personality of mine. As such I have narrowed down 4 different “guides” that I feel are essential to survive in today’s world.
GUIDES:
- Food ?
- Books ?
- Smart Phone ?
- Transportation ?
The 4 personalities that I picked are: optimistic, clumsy, sentimental, sensitive. I combined a “guide” and “personality” together almost as if I gave the object a character.
| Optimistic ☺️ | Food ? |
| Clumsy ? | Books ? |
| Sentimental ? | Smart Phone ? |
| Sensitive ? | Transportation ? |
SETTING
I picked 4 settings that involves more than one person. Some of them are slightly awkward, filled with tension or simply just setting that make one unsure of how to react
SITUATIONS:
- Eating with a new group of friends/colleagues
- Doing work alone in public areas
- My own 21st birthday party
- Jon interview
I wanted to make these settings a little less simple by placing “myself” which in this case are my “guides + personality” into the setting itself.
INSTRUCTION MANUAL
The instruction manuals will be a combination of the first and second boxes to create something that will eventually become an abstract manual on “How to Adult?” or rather “How Does Dinis Adult?”
| Optimistic | Eating with a new group of friends/colleagues | A better start to new friendships/work life |
| Clumsy | Doing work alone in public | New discoveries by my clumsiness and art projects |
| Sentimental | My 21st birthday party | More memories created and captured forever |
| Sensitive | Job Interview | Well-prepared and ready for the interview |
The bolded words in the table are the ideas behind the compositions of the instruction manuals.
EQN 1:
I arranged the books so that it will look like its falling off, mimic-ing clumsiness. The books now represent me and are seated on the chair alone and just doing its own stuff. Unlike the people around it, the book isn’t using a laptop or a notebook but is using paint, this represents me when I’m out alone because I’m an art student. The instruction manual shows paint getting onto the pages of a book and this is a result of my clumsiness that led to a new and accidental discovery.
eqn 2:
It is very hard for me to let go of moments and I tend to always reminisce past memories. The phone seems like its leaking substance together with multiple screens melting with it. This represents me overflowing with sentiments and feeling hard for me to close to chapter and start a new one. The phone now represents me and is laid on the dessert table of my 21st birthday party. The dessert table is where everyone takes pictures of the birthday girl and will probably be the fondest memory of the birthday party. The instruction manual shows a dissected phone and an additional layer of Polaroid photos on the top showing that memories have been captured and I have nothing to feel sad about.
EQN 3:
I chose an egg to represent optimism because I like eggs. The sunny side up has layers to it because to me optimism is growing and climbing higher. I placed the egg on a stool where it seems like people around it are having scrumptious meals while the egg is awkwardly having some salt and pepper. Some of the pepper even got on the floor! This represents me feeling awkward with a new group of people and unsure of how to break the ice over a meal. The final box shows a dissected burger but instead of the burger seen in the second box, this burger now has an egg. This shows me slotting myself in into a new group of people and having a good start to new friendships.
EQN 4:
I used a recognisable bus handle to represent transportation that is essential for anyone to get anywhere. The bus handles seem like they are multiplying and have many layers. This represents my sensitivity as when a person is sensitive he/she tends to over think and uncover unnecessary layers. I placed myself on a chair like one would for a job interview. The table is almost empty just with a few pieces of paper to portray the formalness of an interview. The final box shows a dissected bus handle with the bottom part of the handle now replaced with many smaller bus handles which represents how sensitive I am. In the middle, there are also batteries which show how prepared I am for an interview because I’m so sensitive to details and making sure I’m well equipped before it.
FINAL WORK
“GUIDE TO BEING A HUMAN BEING”
Overall, I really enjoyed myself throughout the process of this project. I learnt so much more about colour theories that I never understood before and got to explore creating illustrations which is a style I have always wanted to experiment with. After this project, I think I’ve become a lot more sensitive to colour and understanding what colours go together better than others. It has been really fun finding out more about my own personalities through the equations.
Though this process was enjoyable, I also encountered several setbacks, one of which was production and printing. Even though my test prints came out fine, my final prints were not showing up as well as they were supposed to 🙁 I was a little disappointed because I had to re-print some of the prints and they still didn’t come out the way I wanted it to. However, I decided not to re-print them anymore as they were costly. Part of me wished that I had printed all my compositions out during my test print so that I could have presented those instead.
This taught me to be more sensitive to be colour and never be complacent even if the first time was good. Printing is very unpredictable and I hope that in my future printing assignments to come, I’ll have better luck! Besides my production, I received positive feedback during my critique and it has given me the motivation to work harder and do better next time 🙂
READ MORE ABOUT MY RESEARCH FOR EGO HERE!
