I’M INDONESIAN

After having the concept nailed, I immediately start working. At first it was just sketching on paper which I will redo on Photoshop using my tablet. But then I realized it was taking a lot of time for me to sketch. After the third day I was tired of counting the hours I spent with one of the typography. Then my good friend Joyce, who is also in the same class as me, suggested to scan the design and clean it in Photoshop. It was a great advice! This is the scanned design. Imagine how many hours it would take to redraw this again on Photoshop.

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I up the contrast and eliminated the white background. Then I layered a yellowish gold cloth. I use the clipping mask option so that the line work I did would have the same texture as the cloth. After that I added a navy blue clothe as background. I think it contrasts really well with the yellow-ish gold. In the process of it I edited the colors a lot. Tweaking here and there until I got what I was looking for.

Here is the final look!

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I’M DILIGENT

With this one I took up que from the Im Indonesian design. I drew the design first in black and white and scanned it into the computer. Afterwards I added the colors and background in Photoshop.

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I drew a honeycomb with the honey dripping and added a bee to represent me the diligent hard worker.

In Photoshop I colored in the honeycomb one by one. What a pain it was. There we so many.

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In the end I used a blue background, because it complements the orange and yellow hues that my typography has.


I’M A TRANSLATOR

With this one I used Photoshop completely.

First I though of words to create the letter.

I was listening to some English songs such as Taylor Swifts “Bad Blood” and Justin Biebers “Sorry”. So some of the words ended up being use in the letter. (LOL)

After finishing the G, I moved on to the L which contains the Indonesian words. So I just translated some of the words in G and added some in.

Added a notepad background to finish the look.

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However I wasn’t satisfied. It was too straight. So I tilted the words a bit and crop them. The diagonal angle made the composition more interesting.


I’M A NIGHT OWL

I drew the owls on paper first, just like the “I’m Indonesian” and “I’m Diligent” typography. I finally decided to warp my owls into letters to spell out my name. Like the others that I had to design first on paper, this one was a labor of love. Those feathers took a long time!

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After scanning them, I opened Photoshop. The look that I wanted to achieve was it to look like paper cut outs, in fact this my initial idea after finishing the design. It was just that my design was very intricate, I knew it would take a long time to create and a great amount of patience to accomplish it nicely (which unfortunately I do not have)

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In the end I added a colorful background of blue and pink to represent the breaking of dawn. This is because I’m usually awake till 3 in the morning which in my country we can usually see the sun rising. Its different in Singapore. Its still dark even at 6.


So guys, those are the four characters that represents me. Personally my favorite would be the first one, “I’m Indonesian”. I’m very proud of my country and its culture. Being in another country made me more appreciate my homeland even more.

See you in the next post!

With any project, we always start with the ideas! The drafts! This part of the process is always fun and painful. It also a part of self discover too!


I’M INDONESIAN

For this, I immediately want to do something with batik motifs. What is batik you might ask? Batik is both an art and a craft, which is becoming more popular and well known in the West as a wonderfully creative medium. The art of decorating cloth in this way, using wax and dye, has been practised for centuries. In Java, Indonesia, batik is part of an ancient tradition, and some of the finest batik cloth in the world is still made there. The word batik originates from the Javanese tik and means to dot.

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Different Batik form 

To make a batik, selected areas of the cloth are blocked out by brushing or drawing hot wax over them, and the cloth is then dyed. The parts covered in wax resist the dye and remain the original colour. This process of waxing and dyeing can be repeated to create more elaborate and colourful designs. After the final dyeing the wax is removed and the cloth is ready for wearing or showing.

But which region of batik I’ll be using? That’s an interesting question to answer. Since Indonesia is a diverse country, we have different motifs of batik which are unique to each region.

Batik Ciamis

Batik Ciamis

In the end I choose to use the Ciamis Batik. The reason why I used it because the motifs are very compact and will help me make the design that I envision, which I will elaborate in the next part of the Process.

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I’M A TRANSLATOR

The initial though with this is the concept of using Google Translate to represent that I’m a translator. But I was concerned with the fact that may name end up very small in the composition, and Shirley also agreed. So she suggested blowing up my name. The way to do it was quite a challenge. And I ended up scraping my initial sketch and went with a bit of a not so straight forward approach.

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I had the idea of using words and rearrange them in a way that will create the shape of the letters of my name. This was the first sketch of it. Shirley agreed that this was a much better representation and suggested to add a notepad background to tie the typography together.


I’M DILIGENT

My initial approach was using books inside the composition.

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But I had reservations since I don’t really like books (haha).

My type of diligent shows when I’m doing my assignments and homework. Then one day whist struggling with this typography idea, I started staring at ants walking across my desk. They were heading toward the left over bread I had that I had forgotten to close the casing. It hit me. Why don’t use this ants to represent my diligent side? Ants are known being diligent creatures in the animal kingdom. The workers work long days and nights carrying tons of food which way more than their bodies to the ant colony.

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Other than the ants, the other animal that popped up in my mind that represented diligent is the bees. I ended up using the bees and their honeycomb because they appeal more to me. And with suggestions from Shirley, my final design included one bee to represent myself doing a lot of work load.


I’M A NIGHT OWL

With the Night Owl, I went with a very straightforward concept. Along the way I came up with a couple designs:

One with my name engraved on the owls bellies

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One with people sleeping and blowing nose with my name inside the balloon-ish snot. This was somewhat disgusting.

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Another one I went back similar to the first design. I drew the surrounding tress and combined it with some owls.

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However Shirley, our class instructor felt that just writing my name on the drawings would not be creative enough. She said to combine the things that represent the “Night Owl” and put them inside the letters itself. I can’t thank Shirley enough. The final result was amazing.

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Next will be the Final post: Final Process and Outcome. Stay tuned!

Well, this project speaks for itself! In the first project of 2D Foundation II we are required to use typography to express our 4 chosen identities. And Identity can be a profession or a characteristic. Without further ado, let me introduce you to my four identities.


I’M INDONESIAN

It’s an open secret that I’m not a Singaporean. I was born in Surabaya which the second largest city in Indonesia. I’m very proud being Indonesian. I love the things that make me Indonesian. I love the people, the food, the history and the culture.

Indonesia is country that consists of thousands of islands, more than fourteen thousand in fact! In different regions we have different languages, ethnicity and culture. But we have one common language which is Bahasa Indonesia.

I believe many foreigners have a hard time to categorize our culture and traditions. Because they’re so different!


I’M A TRANSLATOR

Studying in an English speaking country, I had to learn the English language. Even though it was not my initial intention to study abroad, my father made it clear to me that it is important to learn the language because English is considered an international language.

My English learning journey was initially hard. I still remember the days where I was frustrated and wanted to give up. I hated learning all the vocabularies, grammars and tenses. It took me many years to understand the usage of tenses. Till today I still have problem using tenses.

However, during my middle and high school days I was considered very well at English by my peers. They would always ask me to teach them. And I was happy too. They would often ask me to translate some words. Even my parents would also ask me to translate things, such as documents. This became such a regular thing for me to do, to a point someone started calling me the “walking dictionary”. I can’t tell whether it’s a compliment or a curse.


I’M DILIGENT

This is the first thing that came into the minds of my friends when I ask friends what characteristic that is best describes me. I won’t deny that I’m a diligent. I enjoy working hard on what I’m doing. I’m very determined person. I believe that we sow what we reap. I don’t think there is such a thing as the “easy route. I suppose you can say I learned this from my mother. She’s a hard working person. She works in my family’s shop by day and still has time to cook for us in the evening. Did I mention she’s a good cook?

But I will admit that I still struggle in balancing my life. Most of the time I plan out and set my goals for the week. This helps me a lot if I have a lot of projects and assignments due, which I always have ever since entering university.


I’M A NIGHT OWL

Being a “night owl” is something that I have been accustomed to since last semester. But, I didn’t necessarily develop it last semester. More precisely I developed it when I was in high school, especially during my senior year.

It was my final year and I was cramming my day with studying for both my A levels and school materials. Not only that, but I was also trying to squeeze in doing my ADM portfolio and other school assignments. By the end of my third year it was not uncommon for me to sleep at 2 or 3 in the morning. My parents was very concerned, but they I told them it was for my future. And it paid off!

But it became a habit. I got insomnia and have hard time sleeping on off days. Now I’m more productive at night than during the day. It affected my health: I get sleepy during the day and I get sick very easily. As of now, I’m trying my best to change my sleeping hours and sleep at least 7 hours a day.