Oh look! It’s already the final lesson of the semester, and probably the last time I would have to do Foundation 2D ( unless I were to become a 2D professor in ADM ).
Time sure flies when you are having fun, or when you are simply drowning in a pool of assignments. Either ways, as much as I have been looking forward to the arrival of this day, a tiny part of me is secretly crying, knowing that I have to bid farewell to it for good. There were so much fond memories during the entire journey amidst all the terrible experiences and sleepless night that made my freshmen year a blast. Every new project had certainly taught me something new and gave me a fresh perspective on the definition of art. In the end, it was all worthwhile.
In this final project, zine, I wanted to create a visual journal that captures all the highlights of my first year, the adventures I had in self-discovery as a newbie and a collection of works that I am proud of.
For my front and back cover, I have chosen a photo of the ADM’s entrance that I took during the first week of school. I felt like this photo depicts the beginning of journey in ADM as it is the first thing I see whenever I go to school and it reminds me of the decision of choosing ADM (even though it wasn’t much of a choice). The sun beam signifies a hopeful start to this new chapter of my life.
As for the design for the covers, as well as the rest of my zine, I followed a 3 column grid layout for a clean and organized look. Time capsule is the title of my zine as I wanted to seal the best of my 2D lessons all into this booklet and whenever I were to look back at it in future, I can relive all those moments again. I placed a large title on the upper half of the page inside a white translucent text box, followed by a medium sized text for ” A visual journal” within a grey box and then directing the viewer’s eyes to the right of the page with a smaller text of my name. This is to shift their attention to the edge of the page where they can flip to the next page.
All in all, I was going for a clean look and an achromatic color scheme that reflects my personality and style before entering ADM.
“IT’S ABOUT BEING BETTER THAN YOU WERE YESTERDAY …”
My first spread is dedicated to the first project we had, a line is a dot that went for a walk. As mentioned earlier, my layout revolves around the 3 column margins to give it a neat and structured aesthetic. The treatment I gave to my artworks from the project is to rotate it 90 degrees such that it is vertical and then mirror the image to enhance the overall design of the spread. I sized the two main drawings and the text in a hierarchical form from left to direction to transition the viewers through the pages. I also added the 3rd artwork that had cursive and continuous lines stretching from one and to another at the bottom. This generates a movement that directs the viewers’attention as well.
I came up with this title because I felt that there is nothing more important in art than seeking self-betterment. Sure there are times when you would feel envious or even jealous at your friends’ works and doubting the qualities of your own work. But that shouldn’t be the case because you are never going to be them. We are all creative individuals with our own styles and I feel that we should be focusing on how to improve upon on our own styles rather than to be concerned with others. And as long as you see yourself improving day by day, regardless of how small or big the improvements are, you will eventually get there. Believe it.
Following the same theme of self improvement, my next spread is to showcase my improvements in the use of Photoshop. Never had I used Photoshop prior to this project and it is the first time I learnt about the principles of designs. I chose to include 4 main artworks on this spread to showcase my development with Photoshop. I stretched my favorite piece of work to fit two-thirds of the spreadsheet to have it enlarged so that people can appreciate the details of it. Then, I organized the remaining 3 artworks to fit the grids and they are of different sizes to show hierarchy as well as a natural flow from the 1st design to the last design.
As all of the artworks for this project were done in black and white, I have decided to add colors to spice things up a little or it will be very boring to look at. Then again, the layout is rather tight on this spread for me to experiment with fancy designs and colors and so I decided that I would color in the background of the larger artwork instead. I picked the color green because i felt that it gives a creepy vibe when multiplied with the textured background. After doing so, I then got the inspiration from one of the album covers of the band, GREEN DAY because of how similar it looked, which i later added two pink colored crosses on one of the babies’ eyes. Surprisingly, i feel that the outcome turned out pretty well because of the complimentary color scheme.
”STAY TRUE TO YOURSELF AND EMBRACE YOUR OWN STYLE…”
For the third spread of this zine, the theme revolves around being your self and learning to appreciate your own works. You will never know how different your works are from your peers in terms of the styling and approach until critique sessions. What surprises me the most was that everyone had a unique perspective to the project even though we were all working on the same exact project with the same exact brief. Furthermore each and everyone of us portrayed our own perspectives in completely different style and the results were all stunning in their own ways. That was what inspired me for this spread. I believe that we should all embrace our uniqueness and let our works be an extension of ourselves. Furthermore, when you get to do the things you enjoy, even assignments can turn out to be less of a chore. This was exactly the feeling I had when i did a portrait of myself for my last project in semester 1, something that I felt comfortable doing. And it turned out to be my favorite assignment so far.
For this spread, I have juxtapose half of the original art work with the other half of my face as a way of adding a personal touch, and bringing out the meaning of staying true to yourself. The right column is where the text is and i picked orange color for the title as it represents hope and optimism. To finish things of, i added some polka-dot texture to break the monotonous aesthetic.
” BE BOLD AND STEP OUT OF YOUR COMFORT ZONE…”
One of the things I’ve learnt in ADM is to be adventurous and dare to take risks in our designs. I have always been a reserved and playing-it-safe kind of person and it shows in my art style as well. Before school, my works were all done in achromatic color scheme and they were mostly done in the same style. But, coming to ADM gave me the opportunity to explore the various possibilities and I am proud of myself for attempting something new for each project, even though they lacked coherence. Hence, I would encourage everyone else to give it a shot at doing something drastically different from the norm. As seen from my above spread, my submissions for the typography portraits project revolves around playing with various textures and materials. It certainly created a different kind of look to final outcome and I am generally pleased with the results. So, be daring in trying out new things and who knows, you might stumble upon something that fits you.
Anyways, I chose to have a purple background, couples with a vibrant yellow header as the complimentary colors do pop a lot and it represents a bold characteristic. To further enhance the image of a bold design, I layered tessellations of triangles to it. For the main image, i stacked the three different artworks form the project side by side such that it forms the word ‘ONG’. With this approach I am able to showcase the various works plus adding a fresh new perspective of the project.
” MOST OF ALL, LEARN TO ENJOY EVERY SECOND OF THE PROCESS…”
Lastly, my favorite spread in the entire zine, is the one where i talked about learning to have fun while working. As I am typing this very last post for my foundation 2D OSS journal, I am reminiscing all the great times I had throughout the year. I truly enjoyed learning all the new stuffs that i am not taught before, creating new works to push my abilities to new limits and to be working with my peers and professors. I included this last spread to remind us all the importance of enjoying while working and to make the best out of every opportunity given to us.
To express the kind of joyous emotion, I picked a bright yellow color for the background and compliment it with a blue text. The yellow gives of a positive cheerful vibe. As i chose the finger printed Mona Lisa that i created for the last project to be the main image, I have decided to add fingerprints on top of the background as well to create a sense of coherence. I repeated the fingerprints to resemble footprints, creating movement from the left page to the right. Each fingerprint is like a particular phase in the foundation year, as it slowly makes its way to the end.
Time flies really quickly in ADM because we are constantly fighting against deadlines and therefore, we should learn to cherish all these precious moments. At the end of the day, it has been a fruitful journey and I will miss the awesome time i had doing this project. Before I end this, i would like to sincerely thank our tutor, Shirley for all the teachings and guidance for the past one year. I have truly benefited a lot from the lessons and consultations and i hope to apply all these knowledge in the remaining 3 years I have in ADM. Also, huge shout out to the awesome classmates of mine for all the fun and laughter. Wishing you guys nothing but the best in your future endeavors.
Alright, shall end this post here. Signing out for the last time, cheers 🙂
