Final Zine: East to West

Jurong. It is just so far. The extreme west end of Singapore and the place everyone calls “Pulau NTU” because that is just how far we are away from everyone. But it is also where my uni life began.

In my opinion, this was a rather challenging project just to come out and develop a concept that I thought would capture the essence of Jurong, show my exploration and at the same time not be a commercialised zine.

I struggled quite a bit because I was not alway certain with what I wanted to do with my concepts. I kept changing and switching back and forth with the concepts because I was not very satisfied with one. However, I really did enjoy looking at artist Kate Rabbit’s work especially her collage series which incorporated everything I wanted for my zine. 

It had the flora aspect which I could incorporate from my research in Jurong, the illustrations which I could include my architecture concept (Mimi’s advice after I showed her my inspirations as she said I needed something that is representative of Jurong) and the photography which was my personal aspect.  


FINAL

Cover page

My first attempt at the cover page is seen as the featured image for this page at the top.  I quite liked it but I felt that the words was not as visible as my second attempt which is the one that I used in the end and is pictured here. I arranged the flowers in the shape of the whole Jurong as I felt it best captured the essence of my zine along with the title (I mainly featured the opposite ends of Jurong for this zine).

Introduction

This acted as a brief summary of my zine and what to look forward to. I added the scotch tape to create a scrapbook vibe, including the black highlighted “journey” part. The black highlighted part reminded me of childhood whereby my mum to have this small handheld manual name printer. It was not like the digital kind from Brothers where you can simply key in the the words you wanted to print. The one from my childhood had the alphabets and symbols in a circle and you had to rotate it till you reached the alphabet you want before pressing down the handle to emboss it. Then the whole steps repeats for the next letter and so on. It also had a typewriter font on it thus I chose a similar font for it too.

Page 3

This served as my “trail” as the places that I will talk about in chronological order. I started with the East which is the Ng Teng Fong Hospital and Chevrons then proceeded to the West which is ADM and Safti. I illustrated all the structures using the pen tool on Adobe Illustrator.

Page 4

1st entry and the flowers do have symbolism to it which I specifically chose. The Frangipanis represents death which I thought was apt for my finger as I couldn’t use it for months and till now it does not bend properly. The rest of my pages follows the same structure which is the word entry, location then flora and personal pictures. I tried adding more illustrations similar to Kate Rabbit’s style but it would look quite cluttered.

Page 5

Again, the flowers has symbolism. The orchids represents love and happiness while the hibiscus mean joy, seeing beauty and finding a reason to celebrate the simplest of joys. The reason why I did not include the flower symbolism is because it was more of a personal thing and I felt that it was not necessary for the zine. Also, the flowers here are vibrant and colourful to allude to my emotions of happiness and nervousness during the event. For the personal picture here, it was trimmed in a very messily way as based on Kate Rabbit’s work not all of her pictures were trimmed properly. It also adds to a more scrapbook vibe.

Page 6 

This personal picture was roughly cut out too for the same reason as I explained above and it created a more casual and playful mood which added to this theme of the page. Here I did explain the flower symbolism because it had a connection to my friends’ personalities.

Page 7

Similarly, I did explained the symbolism of the flowers as I wanted to clear any misunderstandings for Chrysanthemums. In some cultures, Chrysanthemums are used during funerals to represent death and purity but they also symbolise happiness as explained.

Page 8

This page was covered in grass to connect to the cover page.

Zine: Jurong Themes/ Concepts

JURONG

My perspective of Jurong mostly comes from my daily routine of travelling to school and back home. I do not stay in hall and it can be quite draining at time to travel an hour or so everyday. Because I’m not the kind to travel places that are far away from where I live, this was how I was introduced to Jurong.


Concepts/ Themes

ARCHITECTURE

Jurong is quite an old estate with quite a few historical architecture remaining. I made a list of all the architecture that were from the 1960s – 1990s and they had a vintage or sci-fi vibe to the buildings. I thought it was an interesting idea of doing time travel or taking picture of the interesting angles of the structures. My main inspiration for these were the posters and magazines from the 60s with psychedelic style, contrasting use of colours and vibrancy. 

BOTANICAL

I realised from my daily travel that Jurong does have a lot of flora and fauna and these photographs are some that I took at the Jurong parks. Even just outside of NTU at CleanTech Park, there is an eco-garden with even more flora and fauna. I found the interaction of the branches created a rather interesting geometric pattern and the caterpillar-eaten holes on the leaves quite adorable too. I did further research on the flora and discovered that these plants have a function other than decorative purpose such as medicinally or substantially. The inspiration I had for my zine were skincare brochures with the properties of plant extract and what they could be used for so it was more informative and educational.

PERSONAL

I asked my classmates (those who lived in hall and those who did live in Jurong) where they would go to in Jurong or what they liked to do. At the same time, I did explore Jurong with my boyfriend because at that time he was still in OCS so we would meet up and find places to eat and relax or if he had any OCS events, they mostly held it in Jurong. I did start familiarising myself with Jurong mostly because of ADM and I would probably have never explored Jurong that thoroughly if I was not in NTU. I wanted to do a diary events of my life because even though I’ve been studying here for less than a year, there has been many eventful things that happened to me over here. The style of it would in a scrapbook style and a small diary entry of the occasion.

Que Sera Sera

Idea 1: Makeup Artist
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This was a zoomed in version of the lashes but as you can see the “EM” created from the shadows. During the critique, most commented on the Post Its that the lashes were too thin and should have made the”EM” bolder and then I realised it was because I forgot to push up/fold the lashes and when my classmates saw it, the lashes were flat on the paper as that was how I left it for transportation. Thus, they did not see the shadow (I used my phone to shine the light as it was the harshest light so the shadow could appear more defined) until I showed it to them during the explanation.

Idea 2: Landscape Designer

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Almost everyone in class was fascinated with this concept and idea and I was really really happy about it because sticking on the moss was a very tedious process and it got onto EVERYWHERE. I really liked how it turned out as using the artificial moss, it conveyed the message effectively and it created the visual texture that I felt would have been lost if I did it on Photoshop. Although I had some comments that I should have used a lighter background which I wanted to initially and had the same dilemma at Art Friend but I do think we proper lighting it should have worked out well.

Idea 3: Beekeeper

typo-1The “E” is bigger than the “M” on the bee which most did not see but either way, I felt that the “E” already conveyed the message. Although it was a risk to take to put such a tiny “M” on the bee just because I wanted consistency in the names. I chose bees too as from my Chinese name’s research I found out my name meant cultivated and I do think that bees have a sophisticated way of communicating such as the “8 dance” where they welcome a new queen bee.

Idea 4: Mixologist

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Also from my Chinese name’s research, I discovered that one of the characters meant brilliant or glowing which I felt as though the Flaming Lamborghini conveyed this message because of the flame and the brilliantness of the stunts that the mixologists do. I added in a shaker to make the design more obvious and also took advice from my friend’s and modified the designs. I zoomed onto the upper portion of the glass and drink as I felt it had a more important role than showing the whole glass of drink. Also I changed up the colour of some parts of the flame to make the “E” more obvious.

Overall, this project was mentally and technically challenging but I was glad that I was able to showcase my designs in 4 different mediums. I think the whole journey and process was worth it in the end as I managed to create something unique and also showcased my personality and a bit of my life into it.

Que Sera Sera

Following consultation with Mimi, I presented 2 drafts on my MUA idea.

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I wanted to use makeup products to convey the job but it was a bit too abstract and I had doubts about it + Mimi advised me not to do it so the idea was scrapped.

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This was the draft for my eyeliner idea but Mimi felt that this did not really convey the message because if you do not watch MUA regularly, you would not know about this trend so it was a bit risky. She advised me to do paper cut (I did my previous sem final project with it) on false lashes and incorporate my name in the lashes itself. She sketched it out and then I remembered they looked a little like this (refer to the picture down below). I’ve seen those in Watsons before.

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So after that consult I went to research on shadow typography so that I could create my name with the shadows reflected below.

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I came across some designs on Pinterest and I went to research and came across this artist – Fred Eerdekens. He uses shadows in his works to create an experimental piece and most of his works involves using drop shadow at the bottom. The “cut-out” picture is actually one of his works. I decided to use his technique as while researching, there were many forms of shadow typography which were more complexed and I felt that this technique could be accomplished relatively easily.

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So I experimented with the lashes. I did not want to make my name too obvious but at the same time I wanted the desired effect of the shadow reflection my name. The first paper cut above was not so clear cut while the second one below was too obvious. But after several tries, I finally knew the angle for my “E” for the lashes to look like lashes but created the shadow too. I struggled the most for the “E”.

3rd Idea: Mixologist

Coming from a family who appreciates alcohol, I was inspired by that to create something from that. I chose mixology as it involves a special knowledge to mix drinks whereby the alcohol compliments each other, catering to the customer’s tastes and also the ability to do stunts while mixing the drink and not spilling it.

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This was my first draft of the idea and first time using illustrator which was quite nerve-wrecking for me. The reason I chose a Flaming Lamborghini drink was because everyone becomes fascinated when the mixologist shakes it around and lights up the drink. This drink captures the essence of mixology which to me is in a way like a performance art. I showed this to Ben and Debbie who gave me some feedback about how to improve it. I did not see this before until Debbie mentioned that the flame in the middle looked liked an “M” and Ben told me to not use such a harsh outline for the martini glass. I showed Mimi this and she was glad to see that I finally got the idea of being conceptual and not narrative but she thought that the flame reminded her of an iceberg. I tried tweaking the job scope to fit something icy but just couldn’t so I decided to improve on it.

4th idea: Landscape Designer

My original idea was a gardener because not only is my house situated in a very vegetated area but I love nature. Moreover with the meaning of my name Emma as universal, nature basically explains all of that as it surrounds everyone.

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I came across this on Pinterest and I thought it was well-suited to the idea. But I wanted to improve on it and then I remembered coming across Anna Garforth’s design back in secondary school whereby she uses REAL moss as graffiti that grows on the walls. screen-shot-2017-02-19-at-2-07-05-am

I thought her idea was rather innovative and interesting as it fuses modernity with nature and also reminds us that nature is all around us.

 The reason I chose landscape designer instead as my condo hired a landscape designer once to beautify the area and my mum complained about them a lot because she thought she could do a better job. Also, during that time I learnt a lot about plants used and where to place them. I did more research on the job and realised they also help to design mazes in huge gardens and as a kid I love playing with mazes. Thus, I chose this job and the maze concept to incorporate my name.

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As you can see, I sketched out my name and I also wanted to make it into a maze that can work and this design took me 3 hours. I googled actual mazes too to give me inspiration on how to design one. Initially I planned to Photoshop the moss but I felt it might have been to flat + I had leftover fake moss from 3D so I decide to use that as my medium.

5th idea: Palaeontologist

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This was the week before the deadline and I had one last idea to go but I had a creative block. I was discussing with Ben about different concepts and I wanted to do archaeologists but my idea was based more on Palaeontologist and so I started to google for tools and fossils found at the sites.

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I came up with this but Mimi said it looked a bit too cutesy which I understood and also because the dino foot prints were considerable the main focus of my name. So I scrapped the idea and went onto Pinterest again for inspiration and I found my final design.

6th idea: Beekeeper

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I found this 3D typography and that gave me inspiration for my job as a beekeeper. I love bees and some may find that weird but I just adore these cute creatures who are beneficial to us too. Most of the time they are harmless but most of us still get scared by their stings. I got stung by a wasp once so in a way bees were much cuter and friendlier than wasps. Also when I visited UK in 08, it was my first time coming across BUMBLEBEES which are the fluffiest and most adorable insect I’ve ever seen. They were so fat and round and that was when I wanted to become a beekeeper for bumblebees.

My idea involved using Illustrator but it didn’t work out and I deleted the file of my draft so apologies for the lack of drafts. I decided to use Photoshop instead as I was under a tight schedule and so I googled for a honeycomb pic and the photoshopping began. I tweaked the bee into a bumblebee by making it fluffier + tweaked the stripes to create an “M” for my name. The honeycomb was photoshopped with beeswax to create an “E”.

 

Que Sera Sera

From the research about my name, I tried to incorporate the meaning of my name into my works.


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This was my initial idea listed. Some had no linkage to my name and most were food based. As you can see from the red marker scribbles, that was what I struggled the most while executing my ideas.

1st Idea: Sushi chef

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I have always loved sushi and I watched most of the sushi documentaries I could find because that is how much I LOVE sushi. Thus, I tried playing around with the food elements in sushi making and the red characters at the top actually was my english name, Emma, translated to Japanese. I did some sketches during the first/second lessons but Mimi said these were too narrative so I scrapped the idea + the idea was quite overdone too. 

Second idea: Makeup Artist

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I wanted to become a makeup artist because their work itself is refined and takes a certain skill and patience to master it. Nowadays when I’m on Instagram, I spend most of my time on explore page watching makeup gurus putting on their makeup, drawing their eyeliner with a flick that can kill; false lashes that looks so real; eyeshadow that is blended to perfection. And I’m just watching it in awe due to their patience and ability to create a look requires creativity and thought when choosing the colours. In a way makeup artists are like artists but their canvases are faces and I’ve always wanted to put use makeup like how they are creating a character but I kind of always give up after blending. Also, I am quite lazy so I usually don’t put makeup on unless I have the time. 

I wanted to use the eyeliner flick and incorporate my name into it as I am always amazed at how makeup artists always manage to draw a perfect flick on other people’s eye because I always take 2/3 tries before getting it perfect. Moreover, I had inspiration from this idea that I came across on Instagram and later more MUA (makeup artists) started hopping onto the bandwagon and copying it.


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“Que sera, sera—what will be, will be”

EMMA TAN WEI PIN

陈炜彬 (Chen Wei Bin)

The above are my names in English and Chinese respectively that my parents have chosen for me. My mum chose my English name, Emma while my dad chose my Chinese name, Wei Pin or 炜彬. Both my names were chosen for 2 very different reasons that I love to joke about with my friends. 

Emma is derived from the Germanic word ermen meaning whole or universal. Other than it being a pleasant name, my mum apparently named me Emma because she want my two older sisters’ names (Sara and Tina) and mine to only have 2 syllabus and 4 letters each. 

炜彬 had more thought and decision when naming me. My dad told us that he consulted a monk about my sisters and my Chinese names based on fengshui and our future. Also, the 火 part of the 炜 (wei) actually has associations to the Chinese element of fire which was based on my zodiac and birth date. 炜 on its own means brilliant or glowing whereas 彬 (pin) means ornamental, refined or cultivated. I actually just found out about this for this assignment…

My Chinese name has quite a unique story to it and it is a rather pretty name. EXCEPT, the han yu pin yin (what is used to spell Chinese names and words with the Latin alphabet) and in my case, Wei Pin, is actually used for many male names. Which I only discovered in JC when my Chinese teacher and guy friends were pointing it out.

I’m thinking of using my name as the basis for my jobs and I am still figuring out the mediums to use for this project.