Introduction

The four occupations that I aspire to be are a cat lady, an octopus teacher, a ramen chef and a baker. They revolve around the two things that I’m very passionate about – animals and food! All the designs are illustrated by me. I explored different styles of illustrations too, such as vector and digital painting.

This post is a compilation of the final works and the rationale behind them. Enjoy reading!

 

Type #1: Cat Lady

Process and development can be found here.

Despite their aloof nature and seemingly evil facade, cats still remain as one of my favourite animals because they’re just too silly and adorable for me to resist. Therefore when I grow old, I want to be a crazy cat lady and adopt many cats so that they can have a cosy home to live in.

Cat trees are one of the most iconic items associated with cats because cats love to be on high places. Hence I decided to make use of cat trees to form my name. I chose to do it in an isometric style to give the illustration depth and dimension. Since the illustration style is so simplistic, I went with vector illustration so that I can achieve clean and precise lines.

As for the colour scheme, I stuck with an analogous colour scheme that comprises of blue and green, along with brown tones that cat trees often have. The overall mood is chill yet cheerful at the same time. The paw prints in the background indicates the energetic nature of cats because sometimes they go crazy and run around non-stop. (I know this fact because I watch too many cat videos.)

This design also features playful cats doing what they do best – relaxing, playing and grooming. Toys are littered around the floor because cats just don’t care about neatness. All the cats are in white and grey because I didn’t want their colours or patterns to distract viewers from the main type itself.

 

Type #2 – Octopus Teacher

Process and development can be found here.

Even though scuba diver and marine biologist were the original occupations for this design, the rationale still remains the same! If I am given the choice to be a bird or fish, I would rather be a fish because I think that the oceans is a very fascinating place. Many people are terrified of the oceans because it is so deep, dark and filled with unknowns. But that’s precisely where all the interesting and alien-looking creatures lie! If I were a fish (or any sea creature), I would love to meet these different creatures and have a chat with them, hopefully they won’t eat me up!

In this case, I’m an octopus teacher who is bringing her students on a field trip to learn more about their habitat, very much like how the ray teacher brings his students around in ‘Finding Nemo’! Together, we form ‘FRAN’. This type is based on a script font because script fonts are fluid, which reflects the fluidity that waves and currents possess. To drive this point further, a huge wave forms the top of the alphabet ‘F’, indicating that the octopus teacher and her students are  riding on the currents as they head to their destination. The octopus is given spectacles and a clipboard to indicate that she’s a teacher, since that’s what most teachers carry during field trips. The students are wearing little hats as their uniform.

Contrary to the popular belief that the ocean is only dark and scary, the ocean is actually very bright and vibrant if you don’t dive too deep! This is exactly what I want to reflect in this design, hence I used bright complementary colours such as orange and blue to bring out the liveliness in the ocean. I decided to limit the colour palette to these few selected colours so that the overall design will look cohesive. If I were to use the sea creatures’ actual colours, the design would be too messy and overwhelming. Light waves and speckles fill the background to give the sense of movement and drift that oceans have.

 

Type #3 – Ramen Chef

Process and development can be found here.

Ramen is one of my ultimate comfort food. It doesn’t matter whether it’s instant or the authentic one, I love them all! After eating all the delicious during my trip to Japan last year, my soul still longs to taste them everyday (sounds dramatic but I just love them so much). Therefore, I would like to be a ramen chef so that I can cook and eat ramen every day- I mean, so that I can share the joy of ramen with everyone else.

As customers, we often don’t get to witness what goes on behind the scenes in the kitchen. After watching MasterChef and hearing Gordan Ramsay’s endless yelling, I concluded that the kitchen is a very energetic place. Not only is it hot in there, the chefs have to move fast in order to churn the orders out for the hungry customers. Hence, my composition consists of ramen ingredients flying above the tilted bowl to express the dynamism and energy that the chefs possess. Together, the ingredients form my name, ‘fran’. Utensils such as chopsticks and spoon help to complete the entire ramen set, hence the ramen order is now ready to be served!

The colour scheme is highly inspired by traditional Japanese illustrations, which mainly consists of brown tones with other muted colours such as green and red. I overlayed a Japanese paper texture over it to give this illustration an aged and historical look.

Type #4 – Baker

Process and development can be found here.

Even though I don’t bake, I love watching baking videos because it’s so therapeutic to watch bakers kneed the dough and it’s also fascinating how many ingredients can come together to form such a yummy end product. Hence, I would love to learn how to bake one day and perhaps even use it as a method of stress-relief.

This design is partly inspired by flatlay style of photography, hence all the items are viewed from the top and I arranged them to form my name. This style of illustration is very simplistic and that’s where the charm lies in.

The colour palette is very limited and simple too, comprising of only brown, pastel blue and pastel pink. Brown is often associated with baking because chocolate is a key ingredient in baking, that’s why we have chocolate chip cookies and chocolate brownies. I wanted to include pastel colours because baking is a fun activity and frostings are often in fun colours too. I wanted the pastel colours to bring out the joy of baking.

To ensure that my type stands out, I made them significantly bigger than the other design elements and gave them a brown outline too. The other design elements such as eggs, chocolate, sprinkles, etc are in the same shade of pastel blue and pink. I kept the background white intentionally so that the entire composition will have a comfortable breathing space.

Together, my type and the other design elements form a circle. This once again reiterate how different ingredients come together to form a delicious end product.

 

Reflections

I found this project very challenging and kept having to jump back and forth with different ideas. Selecting a job is only the beginning of the battle, the rest comes with having to form a type that is related to that job Often times, I have a plausible idea in my head, but it just didn’t translate onto paper. Despite all the setbacks and discouragement along the way, I’m still happy with the final outcomes and they’re definitely worth all the hard work!