*feature image should be 02
The heading reads: William Morries is not Chinese?
Many of his wallpaper designs are nature-centred, with
distinctive elements such as vines, flowers, birds and
whirling decorative patterns.
I find it very oriental, and surprisingly homogenous
with Chinese wedding practiced in Singapore today.
The Chinese believe that gold + red = prosperity, birds
in a pair = inseparable, and vines emphasise craftsman-
ship.
It goes well with Chinese wedding invitations too!
So, is he really not Chinese? :D
Photo montage and collage was prevalent during the time
of Dada.
My first encounter with photo montage was those i saw
on teenage magazine. (you feel me?)
Maybe i can produce a fashion montage with no sense of
'faSin' at all since that is what we do as Singaporeans
99% of the time. Yay to shorts and slippers!
Plus sign is pronounced as ‘jia’ in Chinese. My name ‘Nan‘ is a prominent dish in Indian cuisine (sometimes Naan), which I personally really like.
Hence, I combined the two into a pun and incorporate it into a design which resembles an advertisement banner. (mostly because I refuse to deal with equations. :’] )
In-class exercise
Looks like a grumpy bird caged in a confined space. That is depressingly accurate for a long-term hall resident.
I think this is for ‘JN’. Yeah, pretty sure that is what they do with unpopular alphabets. 12 toilet plungers arranged in an undisciplined yet solemn manner, beautiful.
To convey 4 ideal jobs via typography. Initially, I wanted to use flower as the central theme but I did not manage to carry it throughout because the bouquets were too distracting for the type to be visible. Hence I split the 4 compositions into 2 styles x 2 styles, 2 of which portrayed a darker message while the other 2 portrayed the light-hearted jobs.
My ideal jobs:
1.Rich Taitai
2.Embalmer
3.Dog patter
4.Cake eater
Process
I first brainstormed on the type of flower used to represent each job. ‘Cake eater’ will be edible flower decorations for cakes. ‘Embalmer’ will be white flowers used during funerals. Carnation best represents motherhood. ‘Rich Taitai’ will be fake flowers folded out of money, since this job is pretty unrealistic.
Then I search for suitable images to manipulate; which includes selecting to png, layering, re-sizing and adding drop shadows to create the 3 dimensional, round bouquet look.
Add in square frames strengthened the emphasis on bouquet. Had fun picking the colours. The frames needed a shadow layer, also, need to erase some parts of the frame so the flowers can show and the 2 layers will appear to be more integrated.
Add typographic elements into the compositions.
Tutorial which has helped me in creating the initial compositions with flowers.
Embalmer
Initial compositionEmbalmer
White flowers, frame, and monochrome colour scheme was kept consistent. Other elements i included in the position were make-up items since this job is ultimately making the dead pretty. General feeling is eerie and solemn.
J – J has a straight stem and a steep curve at the end. I thought the shape is really similar to our arm, where the hands bent at the wrist to create this curve. The arm is slightly tilted to the left to give a directional guide to the eyes.
I – small letter i was represented by a lipstick. The break between the dot and the stem was highlighted by the hint of red instead of having a physical break.
A – A was form using stalks of white flowers. The positioning of stalks also provided a directional guide to the eyes.
N – N was form utilising the shape of a dusting makeup brush and the frame, since both items are straight, angular and with sharp edges.
G – small letter g is form by the round face and the gentle curves of the smoke. Face with red lip to depict the process of putting makeup. Smoke again provided a directional guide to the eyes.
Rich Taitai
Initial compositionRich Taitai
Money flowers and frame were kept consistent. Rich taitai is usually dependent on man, hence the intertwined ribbons. Nudity, money and and luxury goods were common words associated with rich tai tai. General feeling is ‘expensive’ and elegant.
J – J is formed by the nude body. Leg is straight like the stem, and the upper body is curvy to depict the curve of J.
I – I is presented by the long money note.
A – A was formed by money flowers and intersection of the long I as the middle strike.
N – small letter was form utilising the shape of carrier bags and the soft curve of the string handle.
G – G was formed using the logo of the luxury brand ‘GUCCI’.
Dog petter
Dog patter
Tutorial that has helped me in creating ‘Dog patter’.
This composition is formed by a fur background because fur is the first thing that comes into contact when I pet a dog. Types were manipulated like demonstrated in the video as hideout for dogs because i would love to have a place filled with dogs.
Cake eater
Initial compositionCake eater
Background is lace tablecloth. Type was formed by multiple items cropped into png. Items are all related to cake, such as tools, decorations, and actual cakes.
Final outcome
Glad that the directional guide worked well when I place the compositions diagonally.
I like the black compositions more than the white ones. Kinda regret my decision to separate the jobs into 2 very distinct styles :'( but it’s a lesson for me to learn that unifying the style throughout makes the final outcome much more comprehensive. Still, I manage to try out really distinct styles so it is a good learning experience for myself.
One thing that I want to improve on is to include more aspects of typography, such as size, position, and transformation of types instead of just the form.
Image making through type.
This is a project on typography. To convey 4 ideal jobs using type's shape and characteristics, specifically, type related to name only.
Click HERE to view.
LOCALE l:
This is my infographic design on Clark Quay which includes the research, primary/secondary datas, as well as quantitative / qualitative datas.
Click HERE to view.
LOCALE ll:
This is my 8 page zine on Clarke quay.
Minimalistic, using hand as the central theme; utilising negative spaces and blocks of image to portray clark quay in a different light.
Click HERE to view.
These are the raw images of my hands before manipulation. (For more photos on Clarke Quay,refer to LOCALE I.)
The location for my zine is Clarke Quay.
In this zine I will portray the uniqueness of CQ through the theme of hands, with my interpretations of the activities I experienced there. The entire zine will take on a minimalistic style, utilising negative spaces and photographs in bold squares as the design language. Many features of CQ included squares, such as shophouses, ZOUK, mall front and logos designs. According to my research for LOCALE I, the top 3 activities I should try out at CQ are:
1. Clubbing (nighttime)
2.Food – Lobster Ramen (all-day)
3. Museum (daytime)
First spread:
initial
Final
Concept:
First spread shall be on museum. I painted my hands black and white because monochrome best portray the day vs. night aspect of CQ. Monochrome also depicts the stark distinction between the traditional and the contemporary art installations I observed in CQ. Hence, I wanted the 2 pages to look oddly different.
Outcome:
For the left page I blended the sharp corners of Asian Civilisation Museum with my painted hands and Buddha’s mudra. Orange tint gives a vintage feel to the museum page, while blending the holographic art installations at CQ produce a vibrant page. The overlapping border is not blended to show clashing.
Second spread:
Tutorial on split colour glitch that has helped me in creating this drunk effect with Photoshop.
Tutorial on motion blur that has helped me in creating the false multiple exposure effect.
Final
Concept:
I use neon lights and hand gestures to depict the entertainment aspect of CQ, including clubbing, music and consumer expenditure. Neon lights were in the play because of the vibrant lights I observed in CQ during nighttime, and dynamic colours best portray those kind of activities youngsters and myself enjoyed there.
However, I feel that my previous set of photos cannot fully bring out my own take. After considering the uniqueness of the location from my point of view and suggestions given by the people around me, clubs at CQ are popular because most of their friends “jio” them there. Since youngsters seldom club alone, CQ became the most common place to club as more people join and get to know about this location.
Outcome:
Glitch effect to show drunkness on left page because cheap alcohol is a unique feature of CQ. Motion blur allow me to show the hand movements when I was clubbing. The hand gestures used literally translates to ‘friend’, ‘go’, ‘there’. The 4 negative spaces depicts my experience there with 3 other fiends as each of us were at different levels of ‘high’.
Third spread:
Final
Concept:
Favourite food enjoyed at CQ is Keisuke lobster ramen. It is indeed popular as the queue was long. After trying it with my friends, all of us felt that the taste was overrated. Hence I position my hand with ramen like a puppeteer to depict that the shop owner might have manipulated the consumer to lure in business with the fact that this is the ONLY lobster ramen in Singapore, and as an unique selling point at CQ, it is suppose to be really good?
Outcome:
The ramen on hand was really difficult to extract into png due to the noodle strands but this turn out to be my favourite spread. I blended the lobster ramen with holographic texture as for the background. Then I cropped the image into 3 sections. The font ‘and nowhere else’ shows that this ramen is unique to CQ because this is the only one in Singapore.
Coverpage & backpage
initial
Final coverpage
Final backpage
Concept:
Initially I wanted the covers to be funky and look like jotter book because handbook = guidebook? I really like the title because ‘Handbook‘ is a pun, it’s suppose to be a guide to what to enjoy in CQ but also literally a book of hands. However it does not blend well with the rest of the pages, so I changed the style completely.
I explored CQ with my camera, and the bulk of the contend is photography. Hence I thought it would be interesting to include me actually taking the camera. The photos in camera shows unique features of CQ, one taken during daytime and one taken during nighttime. ‘Clarke Quay‘ font was taken from the site’s mall because I thought neon green and blue colour actually fits into the holographic colour scheme. Showing partial identity of the curator perhaps also arouse reader’s interest to find out more about what I have to say about CQ.
Outcome:
Sophisticated covers will not fit into my minimalistic outlook for this zine. Even though the covers are simple, a lot of thoughts were put into them.
These holographic textures are inspired by the art installation I saw at CQ, on top of the kind of dynamic, lit, vibrant, overall feeling I want to portray.
Equipement
YongNuo YN360
‘Lightsaber‘ that I’ve used to produce the neon lights. Just a single stick, with RGB colour control system to give me any colour I want. (colour theory in practice omg). Sometime I place 2 sticks side by side to give a remix of colours.
Nikon D870
Nikon D870 with tripod to stabilise and DIY white backdrop; a large white board against the wall.
FINAL zine
Video of the printed zine:
The printing and stitching went really well for first try. :’) The colours came out vibrant and almost 1 to 1 as my screen.
Tutorial on basic document set up and techniques for Indesign.
I really like minimalistic designs. Many features in these zine were used in my own zine such as ‘crossing pages’ and blocks of image with minimal words.
