Finally, feeling inspired, i started drafting on how i want the boxes should be.
This was the very first idea i have for ____+____=me.
Japan + birds would be me. What i wanted to do here was having the designs on each of the tangram , which will make up the final me.
Another initial draft
I had problems with expressing myself hence the many empty spaces that I am not sure what to fill in.
I took the ideas from a tangran and combined with one of the designs i saw in one of the books. Instead of it being a tangram, i used the properties of the circle pattern beside it and designed my own bird! (definitely one of the designs i like best in this creation process)
After these drafting on paper, i realised that i am not going to see how it really looks like unless i use the actual medium. I like the clean and neat aspect of their designs hence i choose to use illustrator.
The first design that I started with was the “restriction”. Circle is a pattern that is popular in designs and i thought that when circles linked up, they look like a chain, which would represent the 束縛(restriction) that i want to show. Instead of it being the long rectangular pieces that we usually use for chain, I like the effect circle gave.
and i started with blue colour unknowingly
I had a hard time figuring out which piece of the circle should overlap each other. However, after sorting it out, the clean effect is nice and i have decided straight to go with this design.
The bird I design was what i created next in illustrator! The exact proportions for the bird was a challenge as it would result in unbalance weird looking birds.
Before placing in the birds, i erased part of the circles out, thinking it would create more space for the birds to be in. Surprisingly, the results that came out seem like the bird is trapped inside this bubble instead.
The line for better me was
Straightforwardness- restrictions = freedom (better me)
For straight forward, i was inspired by Tanaka’s lines and the often use of lines in japanese designs.
I experimented alot with this design. What i like was the illusion of depth that is created simply by using lines and values. However, this wasn’t chosen as i felt that it didnt fit the overall feel of the project that i was going for.
Wave!
I knew that i wanted to include “water” within my panels. water has many qualities and its “flexible”, can adapt to any form, which will definitely be part of my ideal me.
This black and white version was what i initially had. After consulting with Prof Ina, she suggested to continue with my colour theme of using blue, i added it into my waves.
looks okay, but not wow enough for me
What i had before i got stucked
The plant that i chose to represent the ideal me was bamboo. Bamboo may look weak, but its actually very strong, It has a resilient spirit and is not afraid of any huge winds that come. They bend, but dont break.
For bamboo, i tried to create it using shapes, however i dont see the vitality that I wanted to show. After thinking, i decided that I should draw them instead. I made sure that my bamboo looks like a brushstroke, which seems to give more life to the plant.
I check the colour wheel and realised golden/yellow colour complimented blue and i added it to all the boards in this row. It made my row feel more complete.
One of the spontaneous row that I created is the future me. Again, i had the idea of using plum blossom but have to idea how to portray it. I saw a reference of a plum drawing on a ceramic plate and i like the feel of it. I recreated the brushstroke feel of the plant. All trunks and flowers are draw by me. Also, i wanted to try out new colour scheme this time.
decided on this colour scheme!
I remembered about the usage of negative space in our previous assignment and i found the perfect opportunity for this.
I merely changed the amount of space each colour occupies, without change any of the original colours.
I had fun with this in playing with the volume and space.
Onward to the final post!
