Process

Sketches

During the first few weeks of project 1, I have sketched out the visuals and written down some of the execution methods of the different jobs that I had in mind. I have also further research on the different related images to capture the different key essence of the jobs.

In my mind, I have thought of doing something different this time round from what I usually do(which is digital photoshop painting). I planned to do 2 physical and 2 digital art piece.  As for the digital ones I will be using illustrator. It’s my first time creating artwork with illustrator!!! I was a little nervous at first as I was afraid that I couldn’t create pieces that are up to standard and also taking too much time as I was unfamiliar with the interphase 🙁 HOPE IT WILL TURN OUT FINE  :”)

During this first few sketches, you can see there is a lot of ideas that are very literal. In the sense that take for example, the carnival game planner job, there is only the stacking of cans and bottles to make up my initials.

Before this project, I’m really clueless on how to truly integrating the essence with type! LOL, thinking back it was a little embarrassing as stacking things together to form words are rather basic, perhaps even pre-school kids are able to achieve it:( and that was what I did during the first few weeks of idea generation. Fortunately, halfway through I was enlightened by Ms. Shirley, and finally understand the “injecting essence” concept!

After the consultation, I have revamped some of the ideas into more of “injecting essence” instead of taking objects and placing them together. Such as by using typeface as the base and putting in the object’s texture, symbols, and its qualities.

In the end, I have decided on my four jobs that closely relates to me. They are the Matchmaker, Terrarium Artist, Fortune teller and Carnival Game Planner.

THE 4 JOBS

As mentioned, using my name’s initials to create the four panels inspired me to choose jobs that are more relatable to me such as my current or past hobbies and personalities.

For the idea of matchmaker, I’m someone that likes to matchmake my friends up. I’m always very interested in my friend’s relationships and have been giving advice when needed to. Hence, I thought it would be interesting to portray my name in a matchmaker context!

As for the terrarium artist, not long ago I’ve received a terrarium as a gift. Ever since then, I’ve become really interested in terrariums and creating my own terrarium has become a hobby I love to do!

The idea of fortune teller is inspired from myself who used to be really interested in things like astrology and tarot readings.

As for carnival game creator, I’ve picked this job because traditional physical carnival games really bring back a lot of memories I had and it is a place I love and enjoy going too. However, especially in Singapore, such old-school carnival places can hardly be found unless there is Pasar Malam or big events. Which all the rides and booth games can cost quite a lot as compared to the ones in the past. Hence, I wanted to be a “carnival game creator” to bring back the nostalgia. Expressing the appreciation of old-school games. At the same time, I thought that it would be great if I can be a carnival game creator too!

MATCHMAKER

• The first chosen job is the matchmaker. My initial idea for the matchmaker was to make photo collage by slicing my letters in half and by substituting the other half with photos of couple posing together to form the other half of the letter(such as holding hands etc.)
• However, obviously, this didn’t work out because it is not how you inject essence into type!  And I’ve totally misunderstood the concept! 🙁
• So after some discussion with Ms. Shirley, I have decided to go with the idea of red thread(since in Chinese culture it meant the red thread of fate that brings a couple together) coiling around my letters! In addition, I’ve added the knots between the two letters to symbolizes tying/linking a couple’s fate together!

I have bought the cardboard initials from art friend. Puting double sided tape all over the cardboard letter and started coiling the red thread on to the letter.(It may seem easy, this was what I thought at the start too :”) But… I WAS WRONG :”) It takes forever to coil it and it’s no joke when all your thread starts to tangle in a bunch :”) not to mention the base and corners of the letter makes my thread keep coming off :”))

Since the red thread of fate is originated from Chinese culture, I wanted to use a background that has more Chinese essence to it. Hence, I’ve looked up references on paper cutting, Chinese embroidery prints and patterns inspired by the idea of the Chinese wedding. As for the background, I tried my best to look for something gold since my main subject is already in red. Furthermore, red and gold are the auspicious colors in Chinese cultures!

Explored different backgrounds!

TADA! My first version of the matchmaker type, but it looks too flat and boring.

After consultation, I have made the necessary amendments to the perspectives and now it looks more interesting in composition as compared to the original one!

TERRARIUM ARTIST

For the terrarium piece, I have bought real terrarium moss, soil, stones and figurines into creating it. With the same cardboard letters, I have put white glue and pasted the moss accordingly!

For the base, I have laid out the soil first.

Followed by the top layer of pebbles.

And then the bottom layer of pebbles!

Experiment with different versions

The flower ones looked more like a garden theme instead of a terrarium theme and it is too distracting while the plain one is too plain. Hence, in the end, I have decided to go with the one with the figurine 😀

Compositions breakdown

 

FORTUNE TELLER

• At first, I was deciding whether to choose tarot cards or horoscope as the essence of this piece. In the end, I decided to go with tarot card as it’s essence is more strong and prominent as compared to the horoscopes symbols.

For this piece, I have extracted different images in the tarot cards and masking them collaging them all into one canvas. In general, I have used a more “dirty” nostalgic color for both the green background and tarots symbols in this collage to create a more vintage, olden days feel to it. Even the borders around the letter “JX” is made off white on purpose.

Exploring different typeface(serif or sans-serif?)

After which, I’ve looked up for different type phase and manage to find this serif one having the more mysterious olden era feel to it. However, the width of the type is too narrow, hence it couldn’t really portray the symbols and essence of the tarot card.

I further explored with a sans-serif squarish type that is much thicker showing more of the symbols and looking like a card at the same time. However, a peer commented that it looks like a badge instead of a tarot card and suggested that instead of just putting candles at the background, I should put a deck of cards to hint my viewers! It was a good suggestion and it kind of strikes me to further revise my typeface!

So, since tarot is something mystical from the olden days, I decided to go with a serif type that is also thick in width at the same time to achieve a win-win situation!

I’ve finally found the suitable fonts and downloaded it however halfway through, I realized the “J” ‘s serif looks really out of place and not to my liking. Hence, I tried to “create” my own font through illustrator by making changes to the serif. (Black J–the original font to Hotpink J–the one I edited)

Taking the advice of my classmate, I have managed to find a deck of cards and included it in my piece. However, during the consultation, I’ve come to notice that I have the tendency to allow my background of stealing the focus of my main subject which is my type phase. Hence, taking suggestions from Ms. Shirley I further revamped my piece to allow my ‘JX’ to be more in focused.

As for the background, I have chosen purple as the color of the tablecloth to express the mysterious and magical nature of fortune telling.

Compositions breakdown

 

CARNIVAL GAME PLANNER

• As for the carnival game planner, I wanted to bring its essence out by incorporating relatable carnival games such as hooking ring onto bottle neck and darts popping of balloons into my type.
• From the initial stacking design, it has evolved into a glass bottle and balloon texture for each initial. However, I encountered the same issue of my background stealing too much attention from my main focus – “JX”
• At the same time, my piece was a little too dull looking in general.

Hence, after consultation, I have made the background stripes smaller and lighter in color so that it is not as attention seeking and brighten up the bottle’s color to orange to lift up the mood. Using complimentary colors for my main subject, orange and blue allow the piece to be more interesting and harmonious in colors. I have also learned from this piece that sometimes, an object doesn’t have to stay to its color to bring out the essence of it, as long as certain elements are present.

Conclusion/Take away

Before this project, I have always been very fascinated by the different innovative typeface I see around me. I have always wondered how those designers actually integrated words and the essence of what they are advertising so well. Haha, I’m initially not trained as a designer as I was from an animator background. Therefore, I really admire typeface design and at the same time wonder how did the designers create it. However, I was extremely grateful for this project! Especially being enlightened by Miss Shirley HAHA! As I’ve learned so much on how to integrate intangible essence into rigid forms such as into a typeface!

Sometimes, I really think that especially for non-designers we have taken designs for granted. When you see a poster or a type, the first thing that hits u is the basic direct message of the advertisement is trying to convey, but not thinking twice about how incredible it is for designers to extract out the most basic essence of something and integrating them with other elements to make us understand messages immediately with one look.

I’m also grateful that finally, I’m stepping out of my comfort zone exploring and trying many different methods of creating my piece! Like I’ve mentioned, previously I’m trained as an animator thus I’m very used to doing digital painting/illustration with photoshop! However, this time round, I decided to go all out by not touching photoshop digital painting. I’ve mainly integrated a lot of physical craft with photos editing and vector painting in illustrator in this project. Through this project, it had really pushed me to look up for videos and learn the basics of illustrator.