Ego – Process

Ego assignment is probably one of the most fun I had drawing. I always knew I couldn’t draw, but having it digitally done in a cartoonish comedic way, everything just feels a little more forgiving – and having this freedom to draw badly really made me enjoy myself.

When I first got the brief I thought about the previous assignments I’ve done and how I can make it full circle. I thought, hey, since I did malay food previously, why not do Japanese food this time?

I took to uncle google to introduce me into the various types of sushi and here I narrowed down to 4 types – Nigiri, Maki, Gunkan and Sashimi. I chose these four because they’re one of the most common types you see in the market so it’s more visually easier for viewers to notice that I’ve represented myself into various forms of sushi.

Using different types of sushi instead of just sticking to one allows me to explore various scenarios that I can put myself into – for example in panel 1, I could draw the toppings of my sushi falling out of my head and not repeat this joke in another panel.

Thus, my ideation started.

ONE

Color and Harmony Choices

Analogous Color Harmony – There was plenty of elements going on in the three frames, thus using analogous harmony allowed me to draw many things without it looking too tiring and cluttering for the eyes.

Red – It evoked a stage-like presence in the panels as there is a strong emphasis on lighting and shadow in this few frames
Gold/Yellow – There was plenty of ‘awards’ being given out in the last two frames, hence I utilized gold as
Orange – Orange seems to evoke an energetic vibes, and thus adds dynamism to the frame as though there’s so much energy going on.

This is me, overworked and sipping on my soya sauce coffee in the dead of the night of my submission day.

I played with lots of visual comedy in this frame – the apple logo is replaced with sushi and a cup of coffee is replaced by a bottle of soya sauce. During consult it was mentioned to exaggerate the comedic elements in this frame so I studied chibi expressions, pusheen the cat on facial expressions.

Of course, I had to consult the resident expert Hui En on drawing the best expressions.

Another one of the challenges I’ve faced was thinking how to include the element of it being late so I remember one of my research where Bruno Mangyoku uses ‘lighting’ to build focus.

I did this by emitting light rays from the macbook to bring focus to my extremely tired face, hence it feels late at night and also brings emphasis to how tired and overworked I am.

This is me, next to my talented friends who produce amazing artwork.

This was a challenge to do – as I had to build focus on something that is not me while also allowing myself to be in the same frame so as to provide a sense of continuity and not to confuse the audience thinking I’ve miraculously became a talented piece of sashimi sushi.

I once again incorporated Bruno Mangyoku’s technique of building focus with a ‘spotlight’ in this frame and emphasize the focus on the talented person’s work by using Gestalt’s theory and creating an imaginary frame with the applauding hands.

The comedic emphasis is pushed further by adding confetti. Because confetti is party.

This is me, still proud of my 8 hours of toiling to produce bad work

I was researching on how I could convey this and I came across this

This is essentially me finishing my assignments a night before and being semi-proud of how much I worked on it and stayed up.

To provide an emphasis of how poorly my drawing is, I also drew a dog to the front of the paper to juxtapose against the previous frame of a dog. The sparkling gold paper just represents how I think my work is still pretty decent to me because of the effort and time I spent on it even though it doesn’t look good.

“Is it a dog or an elephant,” my friend asks.
“That’s the point,” I reply.

Here are some rejected frames

These frames were rejected because they lacked comedic elements, looked weird or did not convey the message clearly.

TWO

Color and Harmony Choices

Complementary Color Harmony – The world is a sad place but I’d like to keep myself happy. So what better way to juxtapose this than contrasting colors?

Blue – The color of sad.
Yellow – The color of (naive) joy. ’nuff said.

This is me, a unicorn sushi.

When I was drawing this, I thought about Malika Favre’s work again and how she built emphasis not only with lighting but also contrasting colors.

So I built focus on myself by not only making it bigger but also using contrasting colors. Despite the busy background, I kept it simple by using clean geometric shapes, lines and textures.

When my friends pointed out this design choice reminded them of crossy road, I thought – heck, why not use that as the second frame! So I took reference from Crossy Roads…

… and mixed in the aerial perspective, diagonal lines and monochromatic colors of Tom Haugomat

I once again created photos by contrasting the colors of the main character against the background.

I ended the panel with how most crossy road games end – a game over screen. To symbolize how an innocent create like me gets destroyed by a world of dangers.

Here are some rejected panels (done mostly midway)

I was quite bummed because I really liked the left panel but it did not fit the whole isometric and blocky look of the 3 panels so I had to drop it.

THREE

Color and Harmony Choices

Complementary Color Harmony – I stick out like a sore thumb during Hari Raya cause I don’t exactly speak Malay, so I decided to show this ‘out of place’-ness by contrasting colors.

Green – It is the color of Hari Raya. Green also relates back to the color of Harmony, peace and restoration which are words commonly associated to family.
Pink – the color of Sashimi. Research has shown pink symbolizes emotional claustrophobia – kind of what I feel in awkward social settings.

This is me, a very apparent Japanese. Visually and characteristically.

I looked at Japanese drawings and icons that symbolize Japan and decided that common features of Japan included sushi (which appears already), Mt Fuji and a simple circle to represent the moon.

I originally wanted to do a simple illustration of the Hokusai’s Great Wave of Kanagawa, but I got worried it will be too much detail and inconsistent with the other 2 frames of the panel. SO i went for a more simpler approach.

This is me, palms sweaty, knees weak, arms are heavy.

I found a drawing of a sushi bar online and when I looked at the cap the sushi chef was wearing I thought, hey – that looks like a songkok of Malay culture and decided to change the whole sushi bar look into a hari raya space.

Interestingly enough, it did work – in the distance it looked a little like a sushi bar complete with a chef and a platter of sushi in front of him but on closer inspection it hints of Hari Raya with ketupats dangling on the side, the chef dons a baju kurong and the kampung silhouette behind him.

this is me, drowning into a ketpuat.

I had a long discussion with my professor on how to convey this as simply as I could. We talked about semiotics and what food conveys Hari Raya. Strangely there is a difference between malay food and hari raya food, which challenged me quite a bit because hari raya food included kuehs and satay which looked bland in terms of shape and satay when i doodle it looked… just wrong. My friend suggested I try Mee Soto or Laksa but that didn’t seem Hari Raya-esque enough.

I settled for a ketupat as it was more aesthetically pleasing and could fit me drowning in it easily.

Four

COLOR AND HARMONY CHOICES

Triadic Color Harmony – I chose this to allow myself more room to explore more colors as the previous panels were less realistic as they used lesser colors. This allowed me to add a sense of realism to the images and also as there are many elements in the frame, the variety of colors helped emphasize it.

Yellow – Represents happiness and confidence. I enjoy being busy and spending my time productively, sometimes it just takes a toll. In my research it shows too much yellow can symbolize anxiety and fear, two very apt emotions when being overwhelmed.
Purple – Represents truth. Despite being happy and on the surface looking like I’m coping fine, there is a subtle hint of truth that I can’t cope.
Green – Represents balance. You can almost see the green slowly being utilized less in the 3 frames thus symbolic of me losing my balance.

This is me, an ambitious Maki.

I have this bad habit of taking part in everything because I am interested in many things. Right now, I am already involved in many camps just because I’d thought it’d be fun to be in it, silly me.

I characterized myself as a maki chef trying to cook maki – but being ambitious to cook a complex maki, I handled too many ingredients into the maki.

The struggling facial expression emphasizes the struggle I am going through. Using semiotics I added a chef hat to convey the idea of cooking. Creating a circular frame of ingredients around myself, the focus is brought to the center of the frame – which is me.

This is me, attempting to roll a good Maki and failing

When I handle too much responsibilities, I tend to note manage them very well – sometimes I even overstuff myself with responsibilities. Ownself do to ownself, I guess.

I found this image quite apt as it really showcases my management in various commitments – at the end of the day it becomes a huge mess with things everywhere. I juxtapose this messiness with a clean background to build emphasis and the rolling mat and seaweed creates a sort of frame to a messy center.

This is me, burning everything and still not achieving a maki.

When poor management kicks in and everything falls apart, it just gets worse when I lose track of time, my academic work gets pushed behind and I spend too much time sorting things out. Hence, not only do I NOT manage my commitments well, I also mess everything else in my life. Oh no.

I was very inspired by this comic that summarizes this.

and this…

I adapted it a little to showcase better my state of life once I fumble with my commitments. The mess on the sushi on the table seems minor as compared to the blazing fire in the surrounding. Yet there is me, smiling weakly with a thumbs up showing that I’m okay. Or am I? 

Perhaps the most amusing story about this was when my friend asked me “do you even use the stove to make maki?” and I replied “no”.

Reflection

I’ve never really done illustration quite intensively like this before. When I received the assignment brief I was thinking to myself how I would do it using photo manipulation and collaging but I decided to challenge myself to take on illustration as it provided me with freedom to do the impossible, exaggerate comical elements and facial expressions, work more intimately with colors and probably be one of the rare few times I get to work so much on digital drawings. But I think this was a worthwhile risk!

It is here I really come to appreciate color harmony and various properties of colors better – I learnt how tones, tint and shade allowed me to achieve a monochromatic look that adds details while still allowing it to look collectively one setting.

It is also here that I learnt what comedy is, strangely. It is through exaggeration, funny situations, metaphor and unexpected outcomes that we get comedy – I tried to look into what could be the most exaggerated and dramatic way to represent myself and the outcome which resulted in me pushing the boundaries of what I would conventionally doodle into something more comedic.

There are so many things I would have drawn if I had more panels but I think these four really made me happy with the outcome for a novice illustrator like myself.

What a wonderful way to conclude 2D!

Ego – Bruno Mangyoku

Bruno Mangyoku is a french illustrator and animator. Bruno’s graphic style is complimented by strong textured colour palettes and simplicity.

Play – Europa City’s Magazine – Bruno Mangyoku

Using complementary harmony, he builds interest in the dynamic characters on stage. I was intrigued by how he varied the tones in the blue to allow the orange to stand out. There is no contest on what is the focal point of the image and what supports the story.

Sometimes he uses warm and cold tones to build a distinction between an interior and exterior of a space, and juxtaposing contrasting tones to allow characters or elements to stand out.

Sometimes he uses juxtaposing colors to create a separation from the image collectively – perhaps to bring focus to and imply an ‘out of the world’ character or a ‘different’ character.

Apart from contrasting tones, he builds focus on his subjects through the use of shapes such as in the image above, he draws the eyes to the space of spotlight, then further emphasizes his subjects by coloring them differently.

Conclusion

I decided to explore this artist in his usage of colors to build focus through minimal usage – I learnt that I can vary the tones and chroma of a single color (eg. dark blue and light blue, desat blue and sat blue) to add details to an image, as well as use lighting, shapes and leading lines to build focus.

LEARNING !!! 

okay bye

 

Ego – Tom Haugomat Research

Hello World!

Another illustrator I looked at is Tom Haugomat, an illustrator and director based in Paris, France. His style echoes his talent in animation as they are more cinematic and feature design that are eye-level or from a bird-eye, isometric view.

It is interesting to note that his designs include textures as well – be it a subtle grain, a scratch in the metal, or upon closer inspection you may notice a texture paper of sorts in the detail. Perhaps this subtle detail creates a sort of vintage element to his designs or just allows his prints to look that much more stylistic.

Compared to Malika Favre, Tom Haugomat creates more in his images in the background to create a sense of space – such as a simple geometric poster, silhouettes of bottles, trees and bushes, or little details like a man cut off frame midway. These elements are details that allows us an insight of the space better – is it crowded or quiet, is it warm or cool, or even what are the people around the main characters doing?

Perhaps what I am most amazed by is how Tom Haugomat sometimes does not have one dominant color, yet the space is balanced out in terms of colors that there is no ‘fights’ between the colors for attention and it feels as though the image is whole.

He achieves this by either using analogous harmony thus the images are generally either much cooler or warmer in tones, or perhaps giving each part of the image it’s own dominant color – such that an interior has one whilst the exterior has another.

hmm, but something to consider.

okay bye. 

Ego – Malika Favre Research

Hello world! Meet Malika Favre, the illustrator.

 Malika Favre is a french artist based in London. Her style is describes as Pop Art meets OPart, effectively utilizing colors, positive and negative space to create minimalist yet vibrant and minimalist.

Her inspiration is derived from the movement in the lines – the simplicity of art and not capturing details. She describes her work as bold, minimalistic, narrative and at times – sexy.

I was very fascinated by her work. Through simple images, bold lines and narrow color palette she speaks of stories in an image. No little  detail goes to waste when it’s done minimally. Unfortunately, there is little online about what are her distinct styles so here are some visual tricks I find fascinating.

Shadows

Favre created a series of posters for the 2015 BAFTAs,
representing nominated films. 

The first little detail I saw (though much more apparent in the pieces above) was her usage of shadows. Her shadows are simple and practical; they tell a story, create depth, or create a sense of space and lighting. She would occasionally choose a darker shade of the color or utilize black as the shadow.

Lines and Patterns

A selection of Favre’s magazine covers. 

Through simple patters as the background, she creates depth and sometimes when the lines or pattern is disrupted, it creates emphasis. For example on the piece on the left, through the use of contrasting colors and patterns, the vertical straight lines are juxtaposed against the circles, horizontal and diagonal lines. If the pattern is complex, it is juxtaposed with simple patterns or just solids.

Contrasting Colors

After researching on color harmony, I realized she effectively strikes a balance in complementary harmony by having a dominant and using contrasting colors to add dynamism to the image. For example the blue is contrasted with bits of red that adds visual interest to the frame, together with the diagonal lines disrupted with a paper creating another diagonal line  and the solid colors of the character in the middle building a point of interest and a focal point.

Overall, I am inspired by Malika Favre for her effective use of minimalist illustrations to create dynamic, visually interesting and simple images that speaks a powerful story.

Okay bye.

Ego – Color Harmony Research

Hello world

Welcome to the world of color, cries a voice in the distance as Fendi steps into the unknown world.

Can Fendi draw? No.
But does this mean Fendi struggles with art? … Well yeah.
BUT, will Fendi breeze through this assignment? … uhm … no.

BUT !!!
There is hope, WITH RESEARCH.

 

Behold the almighty color wheel. 

In the innermost layers, we have our primary colors.

In the second layer, we have our secondary colors, which is achieved by mixing two primary colors: Orange through mixing red and yellow, purple through mixing red and blue, and green through mixing yellow and blue.

In the outermost layers, we have our our tertiary colors. Where we include the element of value to achieve a lighter green, or a darker green (though one might argue “it’s not just light green, it’s artichoke’

Why is it so important to understand the color wheel?

The color wheel helps us understand colors in respect to it’s relationship with each other. It also helps us define the half between cool and warm colors. When we put the colors on the same image it creates different results, for example two colors across each other put together evokes a certain mood, colors next to each other, put together evokes another mood. This is known as Color Harmony and this is just one of many of an artist’s tools in creation.

What are the types of Color Harmony? 

First, we have Complementary Colors. They are colors opposite each other on the color wheen, for example green-red or blue-yellow. This creates a strong contrast resulting in vibrant, high impacting images especially at full saturation.

Though it is important to practice control in using complementary colors as too much of contrasting colors might result in a eye sore as the colors will appear to ‘fight’ against each other for attention, tiring our eyes. It is also not recommended in large doses or for text.

However with control, you can create contrast and bring emphasis to and make elements stand out! For example in interior decoration where we use complementary colors…

… we first start to see the blanket popping out and slowly we notice various other orange items stand out – the curtain, the lining on the pillow and even the wooden photo frame. This appears more ‘dynamic’ in nature as it utilizes different cones in the eyes.

 Next, we have Analogous Colors. They use colors next to each other in the wheel. For example, Green-Light Blue-Light Green or Red-Purple-Orange. It tends to be one primary, one secondary and one tertiary. These create ‘comfortable and soothing’ designs.

It is important to note that one should consider each color purposefully – one should dominant, the other to support and the last as an accent (oooh 3D’s dominant, subdominant and subordinate echoes in the distance) This creates a rich monochromatic look and is normally used to create a warm or cool tone.

Next we have Triadic  Colors, which uses colors that are evenly spaced out through the color scheme, normally creating an equilateral triangle if connected. Some examples of Triadic color schemes includes purple-orange-green or red-blue-yellow. This results in usually 3 primary colors, 3 secondary colors or 3 tertiary colors.

When triadic colors are used, it is usually vibrant and contrasting. But like complementary colors, one must note to create a balance between the colors – one to dominant and the other as accents. It is important to see triadic colors as both contrasting and supporting – one as a dominant color and the other two as a complmentary.

Next, we have Split-complementary Colors. It is a variation of complementary colors as it in a way combines the concept of complementary colors and Analogous colors, creating a sort of isosceles triangle.

It retains the strong visual contrast of complementary colors but appears less harsh/tense as it is not directly opposite to each other on the color wheel. Some consider is a less harsher alternative to complementary colors.

Through understanding color harmony, we start to see how colors affect, contrast, complement or support each other – it is important to consider what mood, tone and vibe we want to convey, before picking the harmony we would like to work with.

When picking the colors – it is also important to identify what color is dominant and what colors are supporting to avoid creating too much contrast and confusion.

Okay bye.

Forrest Gump – Final Pieces and Tote Bag

This composition is inspired by vintage instruction manuals. The idea came to me whilst I was in the public bus one day and a young boy next to me was reading his biology textbook.

I first considered the elements that I needed to include, the image of virus, the image of an idea, and the various elements that supported this idea and how they can be composed together to look like ONE complete image than a flurry and collage of various elements. The quote is abstract, but making it look whole and united was a tricky challenge.

I looked into instruction manuals that evoked a vintage vibes and looked for similar elements in the design, as this is an unconventional choice of inspiration – there is little research available that explores what are the elements that are consistent.

I realized some common elements in vintage anatomy illustrations.

  • very simple visuals.
  • labelled with dotted lines.
  • simply textured.
  • labelled with numericals or alphabets

I also kept it true to the original inspiration and looked into biology textbooks of today, and studied how they portrayed the complexity of biology.

I utilized simple visuals and images, a ‘zoom in’ from the brain to showcase the biological-textbook inspiration (and also to convey the ‘sickness in the mind’ and kept the treatment of the images consistent, which is a sort of striped look on the images to give it texture. The overall is a simple, consistent treatment of the image that looks like an extract from a modern biology textbook designed in an antique way.

* * *

This composition’s inspiration is clear – Egyptian paintings. It is undeniably vintage and adding a creative spin of it and varying it with modern gifts. Although it was the easiest thing to do composition wise to keep it landscape, the project required the images to be portrait.

I looked into how Egpytian paintings composed their story and how they use simple images and icons as their language.

Through research, I found that Egyptian art is static, formal, abstract and blocky. They are very much flat, lacked depth, two-dimentional and are read from left to right. I decided to forgo the usage of hieroglyphics in my final composite as the text would be difficult to understand, added complexity to an otherwise simple art and looked a little to cluttered on a whole.

I asked a classmate about what are some superficial things a girl might want and she mentioned – handbags, diamonds, money, flowers, nice car, clothes, and perhaps jewelry as well. Interesting. But after designing it, I decided to add the local element of the 5 Cs of the Singaporean Dream – Cash, Condo, Country Club, Car, and Credit Card. Ironically, it has it’s own wikipage about it

Some design concepts I utilized was the usage of leading lines – where all characters are facing the same direction, except for one, which is the princess. This difference creates a focus on who is the primary character in this story. She is also different because as compared to the others, she is sitting down, which is a commonly used method in Egyptian paintings.

I did some clean up on the lines that looked a little grungy and bumpy and kept them a cleaner white and cleaner black. I left the gifts a little different in treatment firstly because it provided emphasis on the gifts as they are visually different and secondly to portray the idea that these are unconventional gifts of an egyptian princess – cause you know – what good can a condo do when you have a whole pyramid of your own, right?

* * *

This was one of my favorite experimentation pieces, as someone who has done surreal and conceptual photography. I was inspired by two pieces when I did this design.

Sleep by Nicolas Bruno

Untitled by Kyle Thompson

I liked the way the arms crept out of the various boxes they are put in and how the tension in the arms or how limp the limbs (ooh what a tongue twister) evoked certain … emotions or intention. I kept the design simple and reminiscent of these two surreal photographers, and I think that was the beauty of it.

 

* * *

I wasn’t sure if I was watching too much animated movies or just surrounded by animated friends when I did this – but this was inspired by Japanese anime (must be because Fendi is half Japanese! someone cries in the distance). I normally am not one of anime, but somehow when I did this design, I felt like an anime would be comical and evoked the message well.

I decided to go all out with this (but I think I could’ve pushed it further), and added anime-esque sunrays popping out from the huns and snowflakes that looked like stars. After designing it, the snow the huns popped out from looked like rocks or a volcano – so I figured the snowflake was a semiotic to emphasize the idea of snow better.

The daisy on his head was a little comical element I thought of because I was binge-watching Miyazaki movies and I thought why not just make him look like Totoro.

* * *

Overall, this was a fun project – it was quite exciting to be have freedom to visually represent my quote in a satirical, non serious way and some in a much more serious way, too. I explored two serious quotes and two comical quotes.

It was fun to look into various design elements such as gestalt theory, implied lines, visual treatment and compositing. I learnt that inspiration for design can be taken anywhere – not just necessarily vintage dingbats and vintage posters but also in photography, animation and looking back into the past such as egyptian drawings, too!

It may or may not be a good thing that all the visual elements are sourced from the internet and that removes the element of handrawing some things you want, but allowing myself to utilize limited resources kept me creative in problem solving – such as when the snow didn’t look like snow – how I utilized semiotics, or when I couldn’t find egyptian looking Gucci bags online and realized – I didn’t need it.

Please excuse my unflattering face.
But thank you Fran for the photo and trash panda tee!

Overall this was a fun experience to me! And TOTE BAG MAKING WAS FUN. Next stop – EGO!

To see my struggle to Tote Bag, click here.
To see my previous/rejected design, click here.

Forrest Gump – Silk Screening Process

SILK SCREENING PROCESS

Silk screening has always intrigued me, there is something exciting about having total control on how your design is going to be like – how it looks, where it’s placed and doing it manually – it is so refreshing.

I started with picking one design I wanted to silk-screen and I picked my inception piece – as it was interesting, clear and looked most antique visually.

I started with printing a transparency and then using light to create my silk screen. I then manually used a sponge to scrub out the gel and cleaning it up with the jet spray. I learnt to save the detail by observing the silk screen through red light and finding the details.

I experimented with test pieces onto newsprint – but I cannot use a screen too much as it was commented that it might ‘clog’ the silk screen. Occasionally it appeared too light, smudgey with too much black, or just generally faded in certain gaps. I also realized that the consecutive prints will never be as clean as the first print so after two tests, I did a thorough clean of my silk screen and went for my final silk screen print.

Woohuu.

Overall it was fun to get my hands dirty and have it printed out, it allowed me to learn to adapt my design to fit the situation and method of printing and having a personal design created onto my bag by hand, really gives me a sense of attachment to my product and my design. This was so refreshingly fun.

To see previous/rejected designs, click here.
To see an in-depth analysis and research samples, click here.

Okay, bye

Forrest Gump – Design Process

ONE

An idea is like a virus.” – Cobb, Inception

Idea – Light Bulb, Brain, Marker,
Virus – Bacteria, Parasite, Doctor, Disease, Sickness, Sneezing

Idea One

This was the very first design I thought up for this assignment. The plague mask represents virus and the flowers was the flow of creativity and inspiration (or the idea). I realized there was many flaws with it – it did not show the context of the film, the masked looked almost penguin-like and the flowers did not clearly show the idea of idea. I looked into being more literal, but I was very fond of the vintage/engraving-like look the plague mask had an kept it in my design.

Idea Two

I kind of liked this composite at first – it spoke of a story of a decreased man by the idea plague ‘passes’ his disease onto someone else who is protected from the plague with his mask. But after consultation it was feedbacked that the image did not portray the idea of ‘idea’ or ‘virus’ clearly and was too abstract. So I had to re look the concept again.

Idea Three

This idea came to me when I was in the bus and the boy next to me was reading his biology textbook. It showed a figure anatomy of a man and it was pointing to various parts of his body – heart, large intestine, kidney, and the sorts. I thought what if I explained this idea virus like a biology textbook warning the dangers of it. And thus, this image was birthed. However after consultation, it was mentioned that the virus looked like a Spider than a virus. So I had to consider how do I make it more virus-like.

Idea Four

Idea four is a more literal design of the quote using more clearer semiotics such as a virus and mask to represent sickness and virus, brain and lightbulb to represent ideas.

TWO

We all have baggage
Yeah, well, my baggage doesn’t try to kill me every five minutes
– Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World, 2010.

Baggage – Travel, Suitcase, Briefcase, Luggage Bag
Kill – Knife, Gun, Sword, Blood, Death, Tombstone, Skull, Crossbones
(Five) Minutes –  Clock, Watch, Hourglass

In the film, Scott chases after his literal and figurative dream girl only to discover her past 7 evil exes are all out to get her next boyfriend. When he confronts his dream girl about it, she explained that everyone has baggage, baggage refering to exes that weigh them down at their current point of life. So to show this, I packed all her evil exes into a suitcase.

A relatively straightforward idea – and it shows what baggage is and what it was in the context of the film, I decided this lacked visual interest and sought the line after this one was said, and it was a humorous “Yeah, well, my baggage doesn’t try to kill me every five minutes”

Idea Two

I added the element of killing in this concept, and having it face the front as it was a more simple and symmetrical image as compared to an angled suitcase.

THREE

“Anything for my Princess” – Johnny, The Room, 2003

Anything – Diamonds, Money, Handbags, Dress, Gold, Food, Cars, HDB, Condo, Credit Card, Car
Princess – Crown, Princess, Sceptre, Throne

The Room is one of the most painfully wrong and narrow minded film interpreting  the wants and desires of a woman. In the film, Lisa is given a dozen roses, expensive gifts, and a sexy (according to Johnny) red dress. Her mother also pressurizes Lisa to marry Johnny because he is rich and can afford to pay for many things in Lisa’s future.

YOU’RE TEARING ME APART, LISA.


Idea One

Initially, I was considering one of adding a local twist to it, and inserting a princess into our notes. I realized this ideas was too simple and it did not exactly convey the idea of ‘anything’, even if money can buy anything. After looking at it,  I decided to include more elements into the design as this felt a little lonely and simple.

Idea Two

So to convey this, I considered about what were some other ‘typical’ things people associated to what girls wants, and if she’s a princess – the gifts had to be HUGE. I added the crown to convey the idea of a princess and wealth. I liked how the idea becomes more emphasized of ‘anything’: gifts, money and a new crown. However it lacked humour, and it gave the vibe of a deceased person showered with gifts at her funeral. So I thought – hey… deceased person … rich … reminds me of an Egyptian princess.

Idea Three

I really liked how this one turned out, it contained elements of Egyptian paintings and the gifts are replaced in a satirical way. I liked how this composition was different from the others as it was longer instead of squarish or tall and added a little variation to the design. Dozen red roses? Gucci bag? A huge diamond? ANYTHING FOR MY PRINCESS! However I felt this lacked the local flavour that I thought about it and started thinking about what would a Singaporean princess want?

After cleaning up the lines, I included the 5Cs of Singaporean’s desires – Credit Card, Condo, Car, Cash and Country Club. I still kept the diamonds, flowers and Handbags as they stay true to the film’s context of superficial wants of women. As compared to the previous image, I cleaned up the areas where the texture is ‘dirty’, such as the three characters on top – they are a much cleaner white and a much cleaner black as compared to a grainy texture.

FOUR“Did you see the Huns? They popped out of the snow, like daisies!”
– Mushu, Mulan 1998

Daisies/Flowers – Soil, Watering Can, Sun
Snow – Snowflake, Snowman, Cold, Igloo, North Pole, Winter.
Huns – Soldier, Weapons, Sword, Bows, Horses, Chinese, Flags, War, Fighting

Idea One

At first, I used a visual from the actual scene and thought about how I can incorporate the idea of daisies in a comical way (the quote itself is comical cause it compares them to Daisies). So I included a fist emerging from the grave of snow holding daisies. However I felt that lacked humour as it looks more vengeful than comical. So I figured, why not use the whole huns instead.

Idea Two

For this design, it is much more comical and there is a strong juxtaposition between the fearsome Hans and the delicate daisy. However it was feedbacked by a few people that the snow looked like soil and it could be more comical potentially, thus…

 

Idea Three

A much more comical approach was attempted. The comedic element comes from the humour in exaggeration. I added an anime-esque explosion at the back and make the snow less soil-like. However it was mentioned it looked a little too volcanic than snow-like, so i added snowflakes as a semiotics to  convey the idea of snow.

To see me tote design one, click here.
To see an in-depth analysis and research samples, click here.