“Kin”

Log-line: A mother who misses the company of her police officer son commits a crime to spend more time with him.

Style: Comedic drama

 

Project 3 – The Library (Research)

During my initial research, I talked to some of the people in the ADM library to get their thoughts on what the library is used for. Among the people that use it just for studying or research, one particular person said that, “it was a sanctuary for her to rest and recharge.”

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Using the idea of the library as a place of safety and refuge was an interesting school of thought, and I knew I wanted an installation that would be fun and give the space within the library a new purpose.

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My initial idea was to hang A2 sized portraits at a particularly black and hidden spot at the library, but in the end, I went with something more accessible and easy to spot. I also changed the name as “chasing clouds” implies something completely different.

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Project 2 Singapore Diary

(I forgot to take pictures of the final product, and I gave them away to them as a gift)

For this project, I approached some of the people in the Harajuku Fashion community and did a photoshoot with them; one set of photos in their “normal” clothes (normal is relative),  and another set of photos in their elaborate outfits. I also took the time to talk with them about their inspirations and such. 

The final artwork is an A2 board with 2 foldable pages. The front cover showcases the people in their normal clothes, and when the viewer flips the pages, he/she is introduced to their more creative outfits.

Celester

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Celester’s style is influenced by movies, one example being “western spaghetti” movies that inspired the above outfit. He sees fashion as an way to showcase in identity and individuality. In his free time, he pursues his interest in music, being the lead singer in a punk band. To him, Singaporeans blindly follow fashion trends, and can afford to see fashion more creatively. (He cites the T-shirt, shorts and slippers look as Singapore’s uniform)

Joyce

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Joyce identifies with the “sweet” style of the lolita fashion culture. She has a masters degree in marine biology, and in her free time, she goes diving. She says that people here have the general impression that lolitas are shallow and only talk about clothes or Japanese anime/manga, and she hopes that this project shows people that lolitas are more than just a pretty face.

Sabrina

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Sabrina has a degree in biomedical sciences, and identifies with the more traditional gothic lolita style. In a free time, she helps relocate stray animals into shelters to help them find a new home. This process is called TNRM (Trap-Neuter-Return-Manage). She likes the lolita community in Singapore, and likes how the lolita culture isn’t just for young people, having noticed that some lolitas are fully working adults and even mothers.

2D: Streets

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As soon as I heard that we would be doing a magazine about anything, I immediately sprung at this opportunity to showcase some of my street photography works, hence the title: streets (I know lah, super original). I’ve always wanted to do something like this ever since I started dabbling in street photography.

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Project 3 – The Library (A visualization of clouds)

 

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Clouds are expressions of the atmosphere’s moods, and can be read like those of a person’s countenance. Life would be dull if we had to look at cloudless monotony every day.

4 A4 framed pictures of clouds will be spread across the table, Participants are encouraged to express their interpretation of the clouds by drawing on the photo frame with the provided whiteboard markers. There will be a dedicated area for them to write their own artist statement as well.

It’s all about perspective.

For this project, I decided to stray out of my comfort zone and try out some digitally-formed compositions.

1. A headphone in the perspective of a shoe, is  a perfect shoelace

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Don’t you hate it when your earphones tangle up in your bag? I’ve always felt that earphones would make the perfect shoelaces due to the fact that they’re very hard to untangle, and so I decided to depict this literally. I had a tough time lacing the earphones through the small holes of the shoe, but the end result was worth it.

 

2. Headphones in the perspective of a musician, are his eyes to the world

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I decided to put my newly learnt watercolour-painting skills to use my applying them to this composition. I got the idea for this piece when I was looking at sunset photos on Instagram; I thought that some of the silhouettes of trees kind of resembled sound waves, and I wanted to show that comparison.

 

3. A headphone in the perspective of an introvert, is an invisibility cloak

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When an introvert puts on their headphones to listen to music, he/she shuts off the world and effectively becomes invisible. This is the one that I am most proud of, because I had to use Photoshop to manipulate 2 images together to form the illusion of a floating pair of headphones.

I took photos of the headphones inside the train, and cut them using the pen tool.

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It is the combination of these 2 “headphones” that formed the believable image, and because I took the photos of the headphones in the train, the lighting matches that of the train. I literally jumped for joy when I was done with this.

 

4. A headphone in the perspective of a kid, is a mutant weapon

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As a kid, I found that if I wore my headphones in a certain way, I could pretend to be the character “Cyclops” from the X-men comic book series, and I decided to depict this as a comic book cover featuring myself. I used the “posterise” effect to make the image of myself blend together better with the cartoon background.

5. Headphones in the perspective of a DJ, are his tools 

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A DJ would not be able to do his work without headphones, and he would most definitely have a few more pairs as backups. I placed the headphones in a toolbox that would normally be filled with hammers, screws etc. I thought that the juxtaposition of the 2 elements would be cool.

6. A headphone in the perspective of a balloon, is pop music

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Puns! Everyone loves puns! I used photoshop for this too!

Portraits of the Typographic variety

I actually came up with 6 designs before they changed the final submission to 4 designs. I will start with my final designs first and then show off the two other unused designs.

“I am short-sighted”

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Anyone who wears glasses will find this eyesight chart familiar. I actually find that I look really weird without my glasses now, so in a way my short sightedness has become my identity.

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Instead of random letters, I used my full name (Leon Tai Cheng Hao), repeating it over and over. I also used a grey background instead of white to not make the text pop out too much.

“I love coffee”

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Coffee is every design student’s saving grace, myself include. Many nights have been kept awake by this beverage. My initial idea was to physically create the coffee stains on paper using a cup, but that did not turn out so well. The colours were solid, blocky, and had no character to them. I then decided to search the internet to find coffee stains to manipulate.

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I then used and manipulated the many different coffee stains to make up my name. I also decided to add some random stains at the corners to fill up the negative space.

“I love soup”

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I love drinking soups. Be it cream of mushroom, bah kut teh, minestrone, I’ll drink any soup. For this, I cooked up some alphabet soup and took out the letters of my name. Fun fact: the “N” is actually a sideways “Z” as I could not find the letter “N”.

“I love cardistry”

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Cardistry – the art of shuffling playing cards, is a cool little hobby that I partake in. My first thought was to spell out my name by laying out many different playing cards, but I eventually found that idea to be really bland. So, I decided to think out of the box and uses the indices of the playing cards to spell out my name.

One problem I faced was the letter “N”. There’s no number from 1-10, or any alphabet in the deck of cards that can pass off as an “N”. I decided to use the “K” to form a lower case “n”. If I were to do this again, I’d probably photoshop in the “N”.

Now, here are my two other designs.

“I love streetwear”

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I wanted to imitate the “Supreme” brand, but instead of just the logo, I decided to imitate their “Harajuku box logo” design.

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To give some variety, I decided to surround the logo with a denim material. However, in retrospect, the two materials sort of make everything look very cluttered. I think I would have gone with a plain white background instead.

“I love music”

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This was done using my personal music collection. Okay lah, this was pretty uninspired, and I’m glad I didn’t use this for my final designs.

Project 2 Singapore Diary – Research (A conversation about personal style)

From:

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To:

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Benjamin Ho is a friend that I’ve made during my years as a polytechnic student. Initially, I did not see him as a particularly fashionable person, but over a few years, I’ve seen his fashion style evolve from something average and without thought to something much more elaborate and aesthetically pleasing. His drastic change in fashion sense intrigued me, which resulted in the following exchange:

Q: How has your fashion sense changed over the years?

A: I started off trying to fit into trends and just trying out whatever that was popular at the time. I progressed from clothes from shops that are easily available with many franchises to exploring Japanese fashion blogs and magazines as Japan was assumed to be the “leader” in the fashion world. Soon after, I found myself exploring more into indie fashion scene; finding individual fashion design labels to coordinate a style to represent my identity, as these individual design labels have really unique pieces not found in major brand outlets. The main point of these clothes from said labels is that it creates a very different silhouette when worn as compared to basic tees and pants.

Q: How did you come across the Harajuku Fashion Walk SG?

A: I came across the HARAJUKU FASHION WALK SG when I made some friends in the cosplay scene. Then it was purely coincidental as I saw some of my cosplay friends on Facebook attending the event on the group’s Facebook event page. And that’s how I knew about and joined the HARAJUKU FASHION WALK SG.

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Q: What do you like about the Harajuku Fashion Walk?

A: I like the vibes and the inspiration that emanates from the event. Saying “vibes” might feel a little corny, but it’s somewhat true. The atmosphere of the whole event where like minded people come together, exchanging styling and makeup tips and also indie bands that we never knew about, is really fun. Also, getting inspiration by “adapting” a style that someone is wearing in the walk, which may pique out interest and kickstart a particular fashion style.

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Q: How do you decide what to wear?

A: I decide on what to wear based on my mood or by what is available in my wardrobe on the day itself. Instead of thinking of a specific outfit, it’s more of a lifestyle that has ingrained in me over time. Nowadays, wearing differently is not for a specific purpose, but rather on instinct and mood.

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Q: In what ways do you think the average Singapore could diversify their wardrobe?

A: For a start. Maybe have more variety of outer wears and don’t be afraid of a little heat. I mean most fashionable pieces are usually coordinated by layering pieces. Also, accessories despite looking small actually plays a really big part in the whole coordination of the outfit as it really shows out the taste and effort of the individual.

Q: Where do you see yourself and the Harajuku Fashion Walk in the future? (5-10 years down the road?)

A: Harajuku fashion walk would probably still be around but it definitely wont be the same as fashion trends changes constantly every half a year. In 5 years time, half the crowd would probably look really different while the other half will still stick to their traditional “subculture” costumes.