Hi, here to update on the final post for ‘Project 1 – Typographic Portraits’, which is officially completed! 🙂
What I observe/find out : Blue collar jobs are often being classified as dead end jobs or underestimated in terms of knowledge and skills. But are they really what they seems to be? (Remember the scenario I shared in my previous post about purchasing fruits?)
Hence, I came up with..
Hmmm, Dirty? Simple? Dull? Messy?- No worries, just jot them all down! Before I carry on, I would like you to jot down some perceptions that was formed in your mind when you saw the above image. And if I were to tell you that each of them represents a certain profession, can you roughly guess them?
Now, scroll down and reveal! 😀
So, basically..
Workkery is a series (of four) of ‘instant lottery scratch card inspired’ postcards designed in hoping to serve as a reminder – ‘to give everything a chance’. This idea was driven by the idea of ‘Skin/surface/packaging’. Sometimes, we are subconsciously influenced by the media or even by our own tendency to make quick judgement towards things based on the very first impression we received, which causes us to instill certain perception towards certain things which might not actually be the truth. So, let’s take time and give everything a chance, including yourself, to learn and seek for the unknown.
Decided to work on a mini game of lottery under the coated layer to identify it with the overall concept. Lottery is like a game of chance, hope, potential and entertainment (in most countries). Jobs on the other hand, are like lottery in a way such that, we don’t know what’s ahead but working towards it might sometimes surprise us. Similarity, I believe everyone is working towards a chance (a chance to buy a house/vehicle, a chance to further study, a chance to provide for their children and family etc.), in this case, for the blue collar workers as well. (Every opportunity is a chance isn’t it?) If i were to associate myself with my work, I would say, as a major in product design/industrial design, people often misinterpret (for instance, some might think that industrial designers design industrial buildings etc.) and categorized my profession under ‘dead end jobs’ too. Hence, let’s not make quick judgement but give everything, including yourself a chance to find out the unknown!
Without further ado, here’s the instruction printed as the back of each card.
In hoping people would take part in making an impact (by giving a chance) to the lives of the blue collar workers as well as making them feel less unwanted, I decided to drew up this concept of donating the winnings in four very different forms. (In this case, medical, Education, Transportation, Household – which are some very common forms every household faced. This four forms also showcase the chances, these workers are working towards.)
Outer : Painted dirty yellow for the top layer. (To be explained in WIP post.)
Using only the outline of an initial F (for Fiona), I tried to construct an architecture for it. I arranged and stacked them in repetitive order to create an outline which resembles the incomplete building at a working construction site, where scaffolding could be seen. It is stacked in orderly manner due to the profession’s systematic nature whereby everything have to be taken seriously as they could not afford any hazards/accidents to happen within their space. Using items they are often associated with, in this case, blueprints, I make use of the nature of blueprint to create this postcard design (Which describes the textured background effect as well).
Outer : Painted dirty green for the top layer. (To be explained in WIP post.)
For this particular piece, I played with types and initials of my name, in this case, Fiona. The types is carefully constructed to ensure that they connects to one another which resembles the function of the water pipes. (Which is to transport water.) However, making sure that water is being transported around a country is what makes it tedious whereby lots and lots of thinking is involved. Thus, I arranged the water pipe looking types in a way such that it eventually forms a shape of Singapore (on the map). This profession is probably one of the reason for us being ‘connected’ in a way. (Thus, I constructed my name among the maze of pipes, to convey the idea of me remaining ‘connected’ thankfully to this profession.
Outer : Painted dirty brown for the top layer. (To be explained in WIP post.)
What does miners do? – They mine! (Something that I thought too.) But in fact, they don’t just mine. They build tracks inside the mine, transport extracted materials within the mine and as well as to the surface too. Thus, using hexagons (which reminded me of honeycomb, whereby the bees goes all over, from flowers to flowers to gather nectar. Similarity, the miners goes around mining/picking to in hoping to extract some useful materials out of it, some rocks mine contains useful extracts while some doesn’t), I constructed a maze-like path way and linked the tracks to form my name. Some hexagon was deliberately illustrated with white outlines to illustrate the visibility at the mining site as well as probability of locating/extracting an useful material which is often uncertain.
Outer : Painted dirty orange for the top layer. (To be explained in WIP post.)
Using items this profession is often associated with, in this case, circuit boards, I make use of the nature of circuit board to create this particular postcard design (Which describes the textured background effect). Thus, colors such as yellow, blue, red, green and black are illustrated in the above design as they are colors commonly found in electrical wires. The colored boxes were grouped in a colored grouping as to emphasis on the job’s systematic nature. I placed a photo of my name pieced together using pvc pipes at the background to emphasis on the importance of this profession to my major, it’s basically what connects me and my major which requires a certain amount of knowledge in physics, yet it’s often not known.
In conclusion, I reallyreallllly enjoyed myself while doing this project even though I got stuck while brainstorming for the designs of my postcard. Despite of this, I am still satisfied with the outcome of it and I am truly happy having to witness people interacting with my postcards. It’s far more exciting than scratching the coating off by myself (Maybe it’s because I already know what’s inside..)
Guess lottery does gives people a moment of excitement till the final results is revealed. Therefore, let us all treat the unknowns in our lives as a game of lottery, take time and effort to slowly find out what it actually contains. Sometimes… you will be surprised! Another thing I would like you to take away from this presentation would be: the amount of effort/time applied = the amount of things you learnt (Similar to the action of scratching off the top layer off the card)!
Last but not least, thank y’all for your kind feed backs and it was really naiseee to see everyone’s work and learn along the way. I’m also glad that Professor Joy reminded us to cut down on 3D elements and only use it to enhance our work later, I feel that this pushes me to think further of how I would like it to be executed. If not, I would have probably end up relying too much on 3D elements to present my work! (PS: for being too wordy, hahaha!) 😀
Will be posting Workkery’s WIP (will be touching on choice of paper/colors/process etc.) after this post later on, do check back later!
(PS: To view the WIP work, simply click here)
