JOBS CHOSEN
- Pet Groomer
- Marine Biologist
- Fashion Stylist
- Air Stewardess
I actually started with a bunch of different ideas in terms of childhood dream jobs. I brainstormed and scribbled it down on my sketchbook:
But after I’ve tried to attempt at some of the ones I’ve chosen, it didn’t really work out very well and I was left stuck with limited ideas. Refer to previous post for research development: https://oss.adm.ntu.edu.sg/ntham003/2d-ii-research-typography/
One example is that I originally wanted to work around the idea of a barista.
But after brainstorming, I realised I only had one solid idea to work on as the rest was too overdone. Every other barista/coffee typography work out there involves coffee beans or milk foam, which was the basis of most of my idea.
So hence I scraped it and started working towards Pet Groomer instead.
Being a pet groomer was one of my childhood aspirations because I love animals and I have had dogs when I was growing up. The idea of being around furry friends all the time made me really happy.
Brainstorming Ideas:
But after consultation with Mimi, I realised this idea didn’t have a certain quality of pet grooming.
References:
Since a pet groomer’s job is to essentially cut and comb through a pet’s fur, I thought of incorporating the idea of cleaning up a pet. From messy and untamed fur to a cleaner cut.
So I came up with this:
It depicts a mid-way scene of when a pet groomer grooms a pet. Where the original state of the letters are very furry and out of control but gets cut with grooming scissors to reveal the letters in a neater manner.
But during the class discussion, everyone thought it was white hair instead because the scissors threw them off.
So I decided to change the scissors to a pet shaver instead.
Final Design
MARINE BIOLOGIST
I’ve always wanted to become a marine biologist due to my love towards marine mammals, in particular – whales!
They are my favourite animals and I always thought it was really cool to study them for a living.
Brainstorming ideas:
After consultation with Mimi, I realised that I don’t have the element of ‘science’ in being a Biologist in my designs. So I thought of the idea of a petri dish being inspected through a microscope.
I did it in water colour and made the textured background using watercolour and alcohol drops. Then I layered my handwriting over it. I also changed the ‘i’ in my name ‘Naomi’ to a ‘Y’ to make it look like a whale tail.
I chose a whale tail because that’s what I’d want to specialise in studying them if I were to be a marine biologist. And that’s an element to show the idea of ‘Marine’ in the job.
ORIGINAL DESIGN
But after the class critique, we all agreed that it doesn’t look very blended to the background. And the font of my name does not stand on it’s own to show the idea of marine biologist without the background.
Some others I’ve experimented with:
References:
I also chanced upon this typography:
Which led me to experiment with my own name as well. I used my Chinese name ‘Wai Yee’ which has a ‘W’ in it.
But I didn’t really like this concept after I tried it out. And it was difficult to get it right.
So I went back to experiment with different water colour techniques to achieve a typography that blends with the cells background.
References:
Experiments:
But I don’t really feel like they work because water colour is very hard to control and it looks very imperfect for me to use.
So I decided to manipulate it on photoshop, using the ‘cells’ individually.
FINAL DESIGN
I finally chose this design because I liked how the words still looked like cells and hence blends well with the background. The whale tail is also incorporated in a way that looks like it was floating as a passing chunk of some wave/cell in the background.
FASHION STYLIST
Being a fashion stylist was originally my dream job, until I took a gap year to do it for real and it was a really tough period. I still enjoy it but to do it for a living is really difficult because the hours are long and the pay is not substantial.
But I decided to go ahead and use it as one of my designs!
Brainstorming Ideas:
After consult, I realised that my ideas tilt towards Fashion Designer instead of the idea of stylist.
Mimi suggested to think of tools relating to stylist, which was hangers and clothes rack.
So I came up with something like this:
I chose a Serif font to bring about the idea of styling for a magazine as publications typically go for serif fonts. However, the clothes rack is very chunky and the shadows on the words are very distracting.
So I tried something else:
However this design felt forced because the words does not gel well with the hangers – essentially no interaction between the two subjects.
So I worked on it further:
After the class critique however, I received a lot of ideas for improvements. The clothes rack I chose was still too chunky and distracting from the words altogether. The shadows and the vignette was also found to be distracting.
I ‘folded’ the I over onto the hanger but not everyone could tell that was what I was going for.
And overall, it didn’t emulate stylist because it didn’t have the element of colours. Mimi suggested to go towards a colour scheme to make it seem curated specially, essentially styled.
References:
Spring Summer 2017 colour palette.
FINAL DESIGN
I left this to be my final design because it is very minimal. What stands out is the font itself and the colour selection. After adding a white outline it also makes the fold of the font more obvious.
AIR STEWARDESS
I chose to do air stewardess because traveling around the world was one of my aspirations as well. I loved the idea of waking up each day a different city and country. So is it definitely still a career choice I might embark on in the future.
Brain Storming:
After consult with Mimi, I decided to focus on the batik print of the Singapore Airline kebaya uniform.
References:
And eventually I came up with this design:
I bent the words inwards to emulated the idea of a cinched waist that of an Air Stewardess. But due to the design background elements, it looks rather out of place.
After class critique, I found that this idea was obvious but not very aesthetically pleasing and in particular, the words are placed out of context (floating on a plane window?).
So Mimi shared with me about how I could attempt at recreating the iconic Batik print to my name.
FINAL DESIGN
I drew inspiration from the batik print and also the Singapore Airlines logo for the colour palette as well. But after I put in the batik print of my initials I realised that there’s no element of ‘flight’ which I feel that it was important. So I decided to add the flick and the plane silhouette as well to simulated the notion of flying around the world (inspired by the second picture below).
References:
TAKEAWAY
I felt that this assignment really challenged me to think outside the box and it definitely took a long time to get to my final designs, which I definitely loved.
I also am glad I experimented with different mediums such as the physical hands on techniques (hand-draw and water colour) because my previous semester I did everything digitally. And this project helped me expand my range in the things I could do (I can draw batik now!).
Overall, even though this assignment was really tough and it took awhile to get rid of my creative blocks, I did enjoy it. I will no longer see fonts as just fonts but also appreciate the meaning of the typography behind it. I feel that it is also a bit personal to reveal our names as the jobs that we want so that’s something I appreciate learning about everyone as well.