2D II | Que Sera: Final

Final four: 


Hair stylist

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A simple background inspired by the barber’s red-blue-white pole is used to give viewer a clue of the job. The minimalist backdrop allows the salon elements to pop. In order to differentiate between letters and equipment, I changed the scissors into silver so that the alphabets are all in black which appeared more obvious.

 

Private Detective

que-sera-iiia

Private detective/investigator/undercover in my mind has always been someone who is secretive with many hidden devices. Hence, I chose binoculars as the main theme here to symbolize “hiding”. I have also included a few other clues in the backdrop such as fingerprint, lipstick stain, cash as hints of the job scope. Not much of colors involved so as to portray a sense of professionalism.

Painter

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Using subtle earthy hues in this composition to create a calming vibe of an unoccupied space. The white specks in the background shows that the space is in need of a major renovation and there comes the paint roller! I changed a letter’s opacity so as to make it look like it has been painted over.

Barista

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My first attempt on something that is not digital.  Textured paper has been used as the base to create a kind of nostalgic feeling. A darker tone is used  to create depth, leaving the letters in white to show contrast. Watercolors are used for realism such as coffee stain on a table.


Reflection

I never thought that creating a few letters can be this challenging when I was first introduced to this project and yes, this project has definitely shown me the truth.

The main difficulty in this project is to incorporate the visual elements of a job into your typeface, without having them look weird and “forced”. While this project has come to an end, there is still a long way to go. I am glad that I understand a little better on how to create a typeface using objects, without the need to twist and bend a letter. Also, I was able to try something new in this project! (aka the paper cut). Apart from that, I learnt that thumbnail sketches do help A LOT when you are suffering from creative block. Because what you sketch will always lead you to more ideas as long as you don’t stop putting down what you have in mind. Ideas will come eventually! Most importantly, I learnt that introducing visual cues into your composition instead of putting all at once can make your composition looks interesting as well as allowing viewers’ participation.

 – END –

2D II | Que Sera: Process

I started working on my sketches for the final four selected jobs.


Hair stylist

An important question I have to ask myself is – “what are the elements related to a hair stylist?”

The first thing that came up in my mind was scissors and more scissors.. comb maybe?

*Googles*

I love how simple the way it expresses the “cut” action. It’s like with just one look, you are able to understand what the designer is trying to convey.

I’m interested in using scissors to form part of my initials. Hence I decided to play with it with my own illustration.

Tried to incorporate the colors of a barber’s sign pole into the background, it turned out weird. Too much popping colors in one composition.

Therefore, I switched things up a little. Why does it look like a flag. (lol)

Shirley suggested that I should push the background behind by changing into narrow lines instead. Besides, the fallen hair seems unnecessary but distractions.

Finally, I went with this.


Private Detective

Next up, we have detective!

I have always wanted to be one though! I really think it’s such a cool position to be in, working as undercover. 

The common visual cues that I found in the net are pistols, handcuffs, binoculars, detective coat, hat, magnifying glass..

Not a fan of the crime scene version, I decided to use binoculars as my main subject. Since there is a kind of mystery involved in this job, so why not hiding behind the lens?

The first initial “R” was not obvious enough as the white area of the human has distracted the focal point of interest, which results in having the “R” seems broken and unrelated. After much consideration, I decided to play with the idea of using objects to form letters.

The end result definitely looks neater than the previous! Also, I filled up the background to minimize unnecessary distractions.


Painter

And then what was supposed to be cafe-related jobs has turned out to be a painter…

I got this idea from the images below:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is the outcome. Using my own photographs taken recently to form the background of a run-down place.


Barista

Finally, we have the barista!

I  was truly excited to work on this in particular because of how much visual cues that are related to it. I decided to use the cafe setting and equipments to form my letters.

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However, I was told that there are too many supporting imagery that give away the message and the fonts are not easy to read, each of the letter is “forced”. I can’t deny it after looking at it for long.

Thus, I decided to do paper cut instead, with some watercolor.

I feel that “ROCH” is a tad too long to be included in the coffee steam, hence I switched to “SX” instead.

2D II | Que Sera: Research

Project One in this semester gives us the freedom to create letter forms using both literal and abstract images to express our future jobs.

After the project briefing, I started listing down some of the jobs that I am interested in as well as deciding which initials to be used.

Short-listed jobs for consultation:

  • Banker/Wealth manager
  • Wedding planner
  • Real estate agent
  • Data analyst

I did some sketches and found some reference images, only to realise my “jobs” are way too realistic and it’s boringggg! 

Besides, I discovered that I might have misunderstood the concept of this project. For instance, I was thinking to use newspaper as the background and red bold text for my initials to express “real estate agent”. Reference images as below:

 

Out-of-the-world jobs please!!

After consultation, I came up with another list of jobs:

  • Hair stylist
  • Barista
  • Private detective
  • Painter (seriously??)

And of course, I went on to google a ton of different styles and visual elements that are related to my selected jobs.

It amazes me that objects can be contorted to form different characters and they are still visible as alphabets.

 

Loving how the end results are still looking realistic and not forceful! At first glance they look cute, but after spending a few seconds looking at them, we are able to notice the letters too!