2D II // ZINE_final

zine

www.GIFCreator.me_FBOPso

cover

Before I worked on the cover, I searched to see various designs of magazine covers like Harper’s Bazaar, Cosmopolitan, and Vogue, to spot its common technique (layout, font, cover girl’s cropping proportion etc)
coverThen I tried my own, but during consultations, group mates were saying that it is really too plain, then I thought……why not incorporate the cover with Hattie Stewart inspired artwork?
COVERdoodles
I tried it out by doodling on the test print (in the visual journal) to see if I can capture the essence of Hattie Stewart’s art work.
hattie

I picked up on the strokes, the bizarre patterns, as well as introducing a “character” into the doodle – snapchat ghost icon peeping over my arm.
snapchat

I am a really heavy snapchat user, and my pose on the cover was just so nice tilted to 1 side of the page, therefore, adding the snapchat ghost icon is actually pretty apt to me!

Then, it still doesn’t really look like a magazine if there weren’t any text, it can just pass off as a normal poster or artwork? So I took the magazine reference I showed above, and inserted some texts and added barcode on the cover to look more like a mag!

COVER

me

Typically, the following page after a cover would be advertisements, and it will slowly lead to the editor’s note or foreword. I thought adding advertisements of fragrances or watches or items may be a little weird, hence, I adapted the layout of an advert, having a huge image with a small description on the products on myself, and then created a column on the left for foreword. I wanted it to look a little like the credits page on a magazine, thus, I created the layout of the text in that manner!

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fashion

fashionspread ref

In a fashion spread, it is quite a norm to see the layout being very free-formed. It usually includes models on a runway, and then clothing or cosmetic usually in .png format, and then some text to support the F/W collection or S/S collections, or maybe even covering NEw York Fashion Week or something!

So I adapted its format, and created a fashion spread like below.

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I pointed out the details on my outfits, and gave quick short tips on how I usually dress-up or prepare before I head out!

shine

interview

As usual, I googled the the keywords to search for references, and I typed “magazine interview layout”. Above, I felt that the structure is pretty clear and comfortable for readers to absorb information, hence, my creation below!

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I asked my friends to imagine that I am a celebrity (as of now), and what sort of questions will they want me to answer, then I constructed them, and interviewed myself HAHA.

final

Some designers insert advertisements on the back page of a magazine, some creates a connection from the front cover to the back, so that front-back looks in-sync.

I felt that placing an advertisement may be a little strange as I’ve mentioned above. So since this zine is really about myself, and if I still want to adapt the concept of an advertisement, I put a logo that represents me (so I am like advertising myself?! Haha), accompanied with my social media name! I chose it to be so simple because the front cover is already pretty loud and heavy, so I thought the back should be a little more simple and minimal. I love to play with the positive and negative space, so you can see my personal logo and social media name combined as one “Z”.

BACK

printing

I’m not familiar with InDesign, so I didn’t know how to use it to let the pages switch sequence and be printed like a normal book. Hence, I made use of Photoshop and Illustrator to design and layout the pages manually before sending it to print.

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paper

The selection of paper has always been a challenge for me because I am not familiar with the different effect it will create based on the gsm and texture of each paper. I wanted this zine to resemble a magazine, but not too cheap, so I thought I should use a slightly thicker paper instead of the very thin recycled paper on a typical magazine!

I then used saddle stitch to complete the magazine. However, it didn’t occur to me that the gutter space has to be so significant, because I thought that there was only 2 papers, and I’m not sure how much space to leave blank for, hence, the position of the staple is quite weird, just so I don’t block the wordings on the interview page!

reflections

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In the beginning, I wasn’t very sure on what to do. Like a portfolio of my entire 2D? Select one 1 past project and expand on it? Create an event brochure like how Singapore Night Festival always does?

Then I decided that, since I’ve been highlighting the point of “body parts” in various projects on 2D, and I admitted that I am a narcissist (healthy one, no worries hahha) PLUS, I love reading magazines, so I thought it’d be great to have my own magazine about myself! I have always wanted to work on a publication and print it for my close friends as a Christmas present – to sum up our year together and for me to have a platform to try out the layouts and technicality of publishing a magazine! So this final project really came in handy and I really felt like I pushed and learnt a lot, especially digitally drawing like Hattie Stewart, and after group consultations, where friends gave more ideas and suggestions on how I could improve my existing magazine then!

Through the final critique, I learnt that I’ve still got pointers to note and improve on the zine. So I thought MAYBE I can expand on it, add a few pages, and explore more during this vacation break! Then I can try out on the gutter space issue too 😛

All in all, I really had a lot of fun doing 2D this semester and I thank all of you + Joy for these great experience and memories! :’)

– xoxo @ziyuziyuziyu HAHA

2D Project 2 // FINAL

WATERfinal

I wasn’t very confident of illustrating graphic art, but decided to try it anyway, because I really liked the idea of photography combining with illustrations! Overall, I really had fun exploring and trying out various ways of directing a shoot and drawing digitally, and below are some of the process work for my final artwork! 

  1. Water from the point of view of a flame is death.
I first shot an empty bottle with the motion of pouring water to an lighted candle.
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I then illustrated water flowing out of the bottle towards the candle. However, my friends from group consultation suggested that the idea of a dying flame was still not as strong.. Thus, I’ve made the flame extinguish and water overflowing everywhere for my final piece

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2. Water from the point of view of feng shui is flow of money.

suntec fountain 2
I took a picture of the fountain of wealth at Suntec. Concept being, wealth=money, water=flowing, which already depicts my line! In addition, fountain of wealth is also known as the world’s largest fountain in 1998! It also is the representation of fengshui, thus my selection on this!

fengshui

3. Water from the point of view of a Thai citizen is Songkran Festival.

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I directed the scene of Songkran with the help of my friends
Then i started editing the water illustrations in
A tourist spray a boy with his water gun during the Songkran festival at Khao San road, a popular tourist area in Bangkok. Songkran is the traditional Thai New Year festival. The most obvious celebration of Songkran is the throwing of water.
Tried to have a Thailand city Songkran background but it looks a little messy?
A tourist spray a boy with his water gun during the Songkran festival at Khao San road, a popular tourist area in Bangkok. Songkran is the traditional Thai New Year festival. The most obvious celebration of Songkran is the throwing of water.
Tried removing the background but I felt that it seems a little fake and flat
A tourist spray a boy with his water gun during the Songkran festival at Khao San road, a popular tourist area in Bangkok. Songkran is the traditional Thai New Year festival. The most obvious celebration of Songkran is the throwing of water.
Thus, I kept the background but muted the colours a little, and also illustrated the existing water on the stock image to blend both the stock image and my photography together!

4. Water from the point of view of Singapore is contract.

bottle2
We all know NEWater bottle is iconic, and its existence is also significant to Singapore’s water and its contractual terms with organization or regional countries. Thus, I decided to incorporate this element into this line.
toilet
had to use this toilet bowl because I wanted to illustrate and portray the idea of what people perceives – toilet water = NEWater

 

 

 

 

 

 

tap4toilet-partitions

contract
I illustrated the water and incorporated NEWater’s logo into it too!

5. Water from the point of view of instant noodles is completion.

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I tried out with this image but I did not quite like the composition and the background was too messy…
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So I tried to remove the background but it still doesn’t seem to portray the look that I want…Thus, I changed to cup noodles instead!

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6. Water from the point of view of Science is ph7.

pH7 chart
I can’t find the correct tools and apparatus for this science experiment, thus, I used a stock image for this. As we know litmus paper test can determine the pH value of a substance, thus I used this visual to portray my idea!

ph7

All in all, I really had fun exploring and learning while on this project. Can’t wait for the next project already! 🙂

P.S. thanks for all the post-it notes guys! 🙂

2D Project 2 // Research 2

We have presented on our initial ideation and direction of this project – point of view, and I have received many constructive feedbacks from my classmates (THANK YOU ALL!)

Moving forward, here are my final 6 phrases that I will be working on for the visuals:

  1. Water from the point of view of a flame is death.
    (Plan: to pour the water on the flame, but the water doesn’t touch the flame OR water touches flame and and it extinguishes)
  2. Water from the point of view of feng shui is flow of money.
    (Plan: Using the idea of Fountain of Wealth at Suntec)
  3. Water from the point of view of a Thai citizen is Songkran Festival.
    (Plan: Direct a scene of songkran with my friends)
  4. Water from the point of view of Singapore is contract.
    (Plan: incorporate newater – still planning!)
  5. Water from the point of view of instant noodles is completion.
    (Plan: Photograph the adding of water into the noodles)
  6. Water from the point of view of Science is ph7.
    (Plan: Show the litmus paper test and that water is ph7 – still planning!)

I will be focusing on illustrating only the WATER, since this is the topic I have chosen for this project. The other objects or setting will all be real, directed and photographed.

In the midst of planning my edits, I found a reference artist with a similar execution style that I am looking at – Hattie Stewart

hs1 hs2 hs3 hs4

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On my previous post, the artist incorporated 2D into a 3D object, and snapped an image to make the 3D object look 2D. But Hattie Stewart’s execution is definitely closer to what I am looking to achieve. Graphic illustrations on top on an image or photography. Hattie’s designs are very elaborated, almost giving the idea of dadaism? For mine, I will only focus on her execution, on how she blend her illustration and photography that it will complement each other!

2D Project 2 // Research 1

Point of View

Potential topics:
1. Dance
2. Camera
3. iPhone
4. Water
5. Fire

Brainstorm process:

  1. Water from the point of view of an athlete is motivation.
  2. Water from the point of view of an African child is hope.
  3. Water from the point of view of sea creatures is home.
  4. Water from the point of view of cleaner is a means to an end.
  5. Water from the point of view of a chef is an ingredient.
  6. Water from the point of view of a plant is sustenance.
  7. Water from the point of view of a swimmer is career.
  8. Water from the point of view of a flame is death.
  9. Water from the point of view of instant noodles is completion.
  10. Water from the point of view of a desert is miracle.
  11. Water from the point of view of feng shui is flow of money.
  12. Water from the point of view of firemen is weapon.
  13. Water from the point of view of hose is ammunition.
  14. Water from the point of view of an eye is heart break.
  15. Water from the point of view of a Thai citizen is new beginning. (Songkran)
  16. Water from the point of view of a pair of lungs  is pneumonia.
  17. Water from the point of view of Singapore is contract.
  18. Water from the point of view of a bottle is purpose.
  19. Water from the point of view of Bruce Lee is battle cry
  20. Water from the point of view of Science is ph7.

 

Inspiration:

I’ve always loved the idea of combining photography and graphic art. It could be executed in digital painting or physical drawing, which could be combined as one. It gives off a typically clean overall look and feel and an illusion of 2D animation instead of the actual 3D object. The artwork could also symbolically represent an alternate reality in which all these objects could be viewed from varying perspectives.

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Refer to the following link for more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2621536/2D-not-2D-That-question-The-amazing-bags-look-just-like-cartoons-actually-real-thing.html

Selected phrases:

  1. Water from the point of view of an athlete is motivation.AhXkCxoA2yQQLoCsbzDm38BItvrTVlE8tLMyTOYDSonB
  2. Water from the point of view of an African child is hope.
    Ajca7XtPT8t8UBEfVURHLmdoLBFzIJSSWZrxAWHUoxrR
  3. Water from the point of view of firemen is weapon.
    AuxvL_82s_nCWB_GXP6KNE1xuMkF-TtFZLfwJBiBDc4V
  4. Water from the point of view of Singapore is contract.
  5. Water from the point of view of Science is ph7.
  6. Water from the point of view of an eye is heart break.

 

 

 

2D PROJECT 1 // FINAL

Just a recap, my previous oss post mentioned about my thematic approach being “The understanding of body parts – making use of different parts of the body to portray the concept, idea, or keyword.”
And notice the flow of my presentation? From a wider angle of me, to a much intimate and close up image of myself, very very concentrated on the whole idea of ME! Hahaha
Also, this whole project actually reveals that, I am a night person, for sure.

MY NAME IS ZIYU AND I AM:

  1. A dance choreographer

    1.1Being a dance choreographer, I told my dancers to just lie down on the floor (they followed my instructions even though they don’t understand why haha). Because this was shot during one of the rehearsal, I wasn’t able to get the number of people I need as most of them are still having practises for other segments. Hence, I got some of them to stay in position while I did the switching, lying in different positions and forming my own name! Previously, I named this header “a dancer” instead of “a dance choreographer”, but after much consideration, I realized that I do not only portray that I am a dancer, I actually choreographed and directed the dance, this image, their poses and positions! I chose this location and setting, a road at night, because I’d like to emphasize on the idea of me being a night person – it’s so late that no cars are even passing by this road!
    To further push this image, I photoshopped my shirt to purple on the I in my ZIYU; as this whole project is really concentrated on myself, thus “I”. I chose purple because my name Ziyu is usually mispronounced as 紫玉 (purple jade) instead of the actual 姿羽. So it’s purple me, and I am a dance choreographer!
    1.2

  2. A Narcissist

    In my previous post, I mentioned that I wanted to make use of Dada art to form my name, playing with black and white, child and current me respectively to portray how much I’ve grown into the current narcissistic me.
    However, an idea suddenly struck as I was having my shower, #showerthoughts haha and I tried out using mosaic tiles to fill up my name, and form an image larger image of myself – so it’s a lot of myself, in my selfie, within my name, for the “my name is” project! Is this Ziyu-ception?! HAHA but yes I got the inspiration from a marilyn monroe mosaic as seen here:
    2.6And upon which, I did one on myself, the choice of my larger image selfie came when I recalled that I won the selfie of the month hosted by cathay. My selfie was printed in large format, pasted on the huge wall beside cineleisure and cathay, published on their website and instagram and I received a $100 flashpay ezlink card! That was a really memorable image of myself, thus I picked that. 😛
    2.1So from this large image and the other pictures I have of myself, I created the mosaic, but was too satisfied because of the random empty spaces here and there, so I compiled even more images of myself!
    2.2
    and formed this full mosaic of myself as seen below!
    2.3Then, I used the Horizontal Type Mask tool on photoshop to form my name and separated out the name and the background. Then I adjusted the background to greyscale, and my name to remain as colourful and vibrant to portray me!

    2.4
    I then added fx like stroke and drop shadow to make my name more outstanding.
    Here’s a close up of the final work
    2.5
    And here it is!
    2.7

  3. Nocturnal
    In my last post, I mentioned that I wanted to try neon lights as it brings out the night life, using the same concept, I tried to execute but it didn’t turn out as expected, thus I changed the idea, which I will elaborate further in awhile, but take a look at my process!
    I was inspired my The Sam Willows’ take heart, with a dark setting and neon paint on their faces.

    neon
    However, executing it physically and digitally is really different and I felt like my neon looking fonts looks really amateur.
    neon
    So I changed my concept to shadowy, ghostly fonts, and this it why:
    As a dancer, especially this period of time with a lot of competition, I don’t get to sleep much. Dance rehearsals are usually 7pm to 4am, choreographers will then stay back to continue editing music, videos, deciding on costumes, reviewing rehearsals and planning for the following days’ agenda. I’d usually end and get ready to sleep when sun is about to rise, and if there are classes the next day, I’d usually not sleep, go for class, and try my best to survive, then when it ends, I’ll rush back to hall for a good nap. So yes, I am nocturnal. Legit. Hahah. I am totally enjoying this whole process as I am pushing and learning, but I am not so sure if I’d live this nocturnal lifestyle for long, this is really taxing and bad for my body and health, thus, you can see from my final work, it overall feels I tried to portray is dark, gloomy and slightly ghostly. Here’s the original picture i took.
    851322220_7398571347926324742and then i cropped it to just focus on the eye, shift the position to the rules of third so that the composition would be slightly more interesting, edited it, make my eyes more bloodshot, and the surroundings to be darker.
    3.1I used the same colour of my eye bags to droop my name down to show that I am the cause of my own eye bags. But i didn’t really like the contrasting edges at the right side of my name.
    3.2
    I adjusted the opacity, but now I think it doesn’t look blended enough.
    3.3I tried transforming and wrapping the font and it felt a little more ghostly! So I edited the shape, the thinness and thickness of it, and created a shadow of of it. The idea of shadow also portray that it has got to do with lights or night time, and here it is!
    3.4
  4. A Musician

I learnt piano till I was grade 4 and then gave up when I was young… But that being said, I was groomed and am more musically inclined! Also, to dance and to choreograph dance pieces, I must be very sensitive with the different layers of songs and be strong in my musicality. Thus, I am a musician!

I tried various finger positions to form the letter “Z”, but I wasn’t exactly convinced by it initially, so how would my audience be convinced? I wanted to go for the easy way out, place my fingers at a position that the “Z” is obvious, but that would mean that the finger position and techniques of a pianist is wrong! So I abandoned that idea and continued trying different positions.

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And then I thought, why don’t I play some thing in slow motion, and ask my friend to help me snap a tons of picture and then I select from the entire batch? And so, I narrowed down to the picture below and started editing.

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I managed to spot a Z from my thumb to thumb and index finger, so I based my edit on this. I didn’t like that the keyboard has a lot of details, so I cloned it away to make it full black.

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I wanted to blur out the sides of the image and only macro focus the Z, however, it didn’t work out as expected. Then I experimented on lighter and darker shades. Upon reaching this stage, I thought why not expand on the idea of a single spotlight?

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I added rays of the same intensity to show the effect of a follow-spot (light) on stage. So again it’s me, Z, under a single spotlight!
4.6
Through this project, you can see that I am obviously a night person, I love the limelight (on stage) and I love anything linked to music!

As I’ve mentioned during presentation, my whole project revolves around the night setting – dance choreographer, as mentioned above. Narcissist – there’s always a prime time to post photos on instagram and that is at night! Nocturnal – it’s self-explanatory. Musician – theatre shows, performances, recitals are usually held at night. Therefore, I am definitely a night person!

I hope you guys enjoyed my presentation as well as my concepts! Do let me know if you guys have any suggestions for me to improve on my work, thank ya all!!!!! 🙂

 

2D PROJECT 1 // WIP updates

THEMATIC APPROACH
The understanding of body parts – making use of different parts of the body to portray the concept, idea, or keyword.

  1. DANCER
    Typography: Humans
    To relate my whole project as one, I decided to create a night setting and as I shoot “ZIYU”. Due to the lack of manpower, I had to work within my means and edited myself multiple times into the artwork.

    However, I’m not exactly satisfied with the outcome yet, thus I will be trying out variations but still stick to this idea to see if other methods may work out better!

  2. NARCISSIST
    Typography: Dada/collage
    I’ve always believed that everyone is a narcissist to a certain extent. As for me, I think I may be a little bit more narcissist than an average person…… ^.^” but I embrace this fact! So I browsed my photo album and compiled a folder of images to form “ZIYU”. With dada art, I would be collaging 2 different set of images, playing with greyscale and coloured image to show the letters Z-I-Y-U clearly. Some classmates suggested that I should stage some images to contrast the letters even more; for instance, greyscale images on the background to be straight face or blank expression while the colour images that will be forming the letters would be with big smiles and contrasting expressions.

    Another concept of mine would be to put my current self as coloured images forming Z-I-Y-U and as for background, it will be greyscale of my younger self. This concept would portray another meaning behind the selection of images – to show that when we were younger, we weren’t sure of being vain or to dress up more and stuffs, so that would be quite dull, thus B/W at the background. As for now, I love myself and how I look more, so the poses, expressions and the whole look and feel for the letters would be outstanding and vibrant; hence, explaining the growth of myself as well.

    – images are compiled but not collaged

  3. NOCTURNAL LIFESTYLE
    Typography: Neon lights/digital
    Beng a commercial dancer cum student is quite tough on the body as dancing usually happens in the evening or night while studies in the day. During holidays or competition period, it is clear that I turned into nocturnal mammal as I usually start my day at about 4pm, and end dance around 4am, then shower, rest up a little and sleep till late afternoon again. So with studies in the schedule as well, I usually only get 2-3hours of sleep a day, which is really really damaging on my health, but I do enjoy all that trainings and performances, so I named this nocturnal lifestyle instead of lack of sleep!

    So my concept is to snap a picture of my tired eyes after practices end at 4am or 5am, and that would be the background of the picture. Z-I-Y-U would then be included in neon fonts as it gives a more saturday-night-out feel (like bars or theatre or places people usually visit at night).

    I refer this idea to Dan Flavin, an artist whom does a lot of projects on neon lights, I learnt how he places different coloured lights together and made use of colour theory. He also had varying methods like reflections, the abstract placement of lights and so on, white I would experiment on the my eyes – Z-I-Y-U multiplying on the pupil of the eye to portray a look of the contact lenses.
    dan flavin 1 dan flavin 2 dan flavin 3Useful link : https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-10-artists-who-work-with-neon

  4. TRAVELLER
    Typography: digital/positive and negative space
    When I think “traveller”, I’d picture a pair of legs in the motion of walking; a camera; a luggage, a many many smiles! My initial idea was to use dingbats and play with positive and negative space, like Shigeo Fukuda.shigeo
    However, if I make use of this method, it would be off the thematic approach I have in mind for this project. Thus, I will adopt this idea, and make use of my friend’s leg as I direct this photoshoot and still play with positive and negative space, except that it would not be dingbats, but it will be real physical humans and items.

Typography research // hello card

Hi all! I’m Ziyu and below are my research on some ideas to execute typography. I focused mainly on key words and approach  instead of specific artist, hence, designs and pictures are mostly from google images or pinterest:

research2

research3

research4

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research6

research7

Hello card:

Typography –

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I love places with vintage décor and objects, thus, I picked a vintage font to represent myself. I wanted to play with the positive and negative space, however, after trying out with a full solid black background, I felt like it didn’t quite show who I am because I’m usually quite an outgoing and loud person, so I used bright colours with dancing silhouettes to depict my positive personality!

Abstract Solution –

As a dancer, my footwear is really important to me and I wanted find out from the perspective of my shoes and its effect from my foot-work during my routine. The above short-video documents on my usual rehearsal – I attached the card under my heels and danced for awhile with it. The after-effect looks scratched and marred with dust, which also depicts the life of a commercial dancer; it may seem like its a glamorous job and we’d have a lot of fun and enjoyment through dancing but we may also get hurt from falling, trying stunts, having long duration of rehearsals etc, which may not be the healthiest lifestyle you could live.

Conceptual – 

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Many people identify me with my smile, thus I compiled and cut smiles from magazines and did a collage of it on the card. I placed “On Air” within the artwork because I secretly want to be in the media industry, hosting, acting or anything alike (don’t think it’s a secret anymore ^.^”). Not only that, I feel like whatever people say is really impactful whether it’s some thing good or bad, positive or negative, and it’s all up to oneself. Therefore, the mouth is a pretty important representation of me!