Month: January 2016

Exercise 1 : The Self Inventory

This exercise will help you explore your own life issues and identify your personal themes. These exercises work in tandem with the development of your artistic voice as a story teller/director and can help you focus your sources or inspiration and topics when developing your story ideas.

Memory represents a change in who we are.

Our habits, our ideologies, our hopes and fears are all influenced by what we remember of our past. Below are some of the memories that I had as I grew up.

 

  1. A transfer from Madrasah (Islamic school) to Polytechnic
    I remembered the first day of school when I alighted the bus, I suddenly felt out of place. I was quite lost being surrounded by a pretty different environment. What left a deep impression on me was the group of students shouting vulgarities casually.
  2. Caring for a sick pet
    I used to have a tabby cat who was very active and lively. Even if he was sick, he showed no signs of it. The time when I was told that he had a kidney failure, I thought he could easily pass through it. However, I had to witness his health depleting until he was very skinny. I was quite traumatic when I saw him suddenly gasping for air as we were enjoying the morning breeze by the gate. I felt helpless as I cried for my mom, until he made a loud shriek and stopped moving.
  3. Best friend’s engagement
    My best friend and I had been friends for almost 15 years now. We were always joking on who would be the one to wed first. When she got engaged, I was the only one from the class to attend it as I promised her to keep it a secret from the others. I was proud and happy to be able to be by her side and witness the blessed day.
  4. Moro Island
    My ancestors on my maternal grandmother’s side were from Indonesia, specifically an island called Moro, Riau. Although the island was not like what you would imagine (soft beach sand, clear water, amazing nature view), I was proud to have it as part of me. When someone asked about my childhood memories, that was the place I could relate to.
  5. Adopting my first kittens
    Almost three years ago, I adopted a pair of black kittens from a family friend. Although I was annoyed at them for making so much noise and urinating everywhere, they never failed to brighten me up with their ridiculous antics. They have turned my impression on cats 180° as I used to hate cats.
  6. First stage show
    I was part of a Production Crew during my Polytechnic days. On my first official show for the Polytechnic’s Dance concert, I was in charge of playing the music and screen graphics on cue. It was a big event as people paid to watch. During rehearsals, I was really nervous and confused when the Stage Director was directing. I almost cried when I made a mistake. However, on the day of the real show, everything went smoothly to my relief. I felt a sense of achievement as we celebrated.
  7. Night walk
    I had attended a freshmen orientation camp from Temasek Polytechnic’s School of Design. It was not a surprise if the committee members had organised a scary night walk. However, I was not expecting it to be that scary. As design students, they were really creative at creating the ‘ghosts’, the graphics, the sound, the atmosphere etc. They were very realistic that I shook with fear. Some even cried halfway through the event.
  8. First job interview
    You tend to get really nervous when it comes to your ‘first’. I was called down for an interview during my internship. It was my first official job. The night before, I had prepared myself with all the possible questions the Director might ask. Even when I was climbing the stairs to the office, I was mumbling to myself. To my surprise, the Director was very friendly that I completely forgot about the answers I prepared.
  9. Mother’s major surgery
    A few months ago, my mother had to undergo a surgery involving a wall tumour on her left chest. I thought it would just be normal surgery but when I realised that it was near the lungs and heart, I knew it was going to be major. The night before the surgery, I had spent most of my time with her as she was really scared. She kept saying things as if it would be last day. Those words made me scared as well. I waited patiently at the operating theatre for 10 hours until the surgery was over. Although I was sad to see the tubes attached to her body, I was relieved she was recovering well.
  10. My favourite band’s concert
    I had begged my friend to attend a concert with me. It was my first concert so I did not want to feel lonely. I was completely wrong. Even before the concert started, the atmosphere was really hyped up that I felt so thrilled to be there. As the band members appeared, the stadium was filled with screaming fans. I could not help but laughed. My heart was thumping against my ribs as the loud music boomed into my eardrums. I even forgot that my friend was with me.

From the list I created above, I would have categorized them into the following sections;

Culture Shock

1.   A transfer from Madrasah (Islamic school) to Polytechnic

7.   Night walk

 10. My favourite band’s concert

Preparing For The Worst

2.   Caring for a sick pet

 9.   Mother’s major surgery

A New Beginning

 3.   Best friend’s engagement

5.   Adopting my first kittens

 8.   First job interview

Responsibility

2.   Caring for a sick pet

 5.   Adopting my first kittens

6.   First stage show

 9.   Mother’s major surgery

Different Expectations

2.   A transfer from Madrasah (Islamic school) to polytechnic

4.   Moro Island

Typography Portrait : Research

The art and technique of arranging type.

Typography is always surprising us with its various type of treatment and styles. Firstly, I wanted to know the different styles of typography that people had done so I can explore more and be experimental.

I divided them into 3 kinds; 2D typography, 3D typography and handmade typography.

 

  1. 2D Typography
    Starting from the basic 2D are clean and flat typography where there are several methods and mediums we can use to explore. The mediums used are more traditional such as pen, pencil and ink.Below is an example of hand-lettering done by Ged Palmer, a British designer who specialises in custom lettering.
    Typo - 2DBrush-lettering can also be used to experiment the different colours, flow and translucent effect it gives. Depending on the type of brush you use, you can get different results as shown in the example below by Drew Europeo.Typo - Brush LetteringA more intricate and tedious method is block-printing, something like linocut, where you need to carve the design out onto material like wood or linoleum, spread ink on it and press it onto paper. The example below is created by Derrick Castle, where he quoted;

    “The hand-crafted nature of block printing, with all its imperfections, gives each print so much character”

    Typo - Block PrintingAnother method is by using digital softwares like Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator. These ‘Text in Shapes’ is a technique where you arrange the type to form images or shapes. It depends on the treatment you applied such as colour, distortion, size and rotation.

    Typo - Text in Shapes

  2. 3D Typography
    This is something that we see a lot recently and it does not seem to die down either. 3D typography can be created using 3D editing software like Maya and Cinema 4D to create rendered shapes and make them look like real-life objects.Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator can also be used where it has a softer and artistic/illustrated look. Below are some examples done by Chris Labrooy and Peter Tarka.Typo - 3DTypo - 3DActually, perspective typography can be considered as 2D as it is drawn flat on paper. However, it appears 3D because of the perspective aspect that the artist has applied.Typo - Perspective
  3. Handmade Typography
    Food typography is one of the most common handmade typography where the artist used food objects to emphasise more on that type. They effectively draw people’s attention due to their vibrant colours and interesting character. People tend to have a closer look on these works to inspect more on every details.Typo - FoodEveryday objects can also be used to creatively apply on the types such as the work below done by Morfina Studio where yellow, red and orange-tipped pencils were used.Typo - ObjectLastly is a larger scale of typography which involves space and environment. These are usually seen as signages.Typo - EnviI was mentioning in class how the ‘Grow’ and Number signages might take time to grow out as they used plants to create the type and Joy highlighted to me that ‘Time’ can be an interesting subject to work on.I was intrigued by the ‘Time’ topic and chose to make more research on that. It would be interesting and meaningful if I can create something to show that we can speed up and slow down time to fit our needs (as if time is an illusion).

Hello, my name is..

A new semester, a new class and totally new classmates.

I was quite nervous when I was entering the class. Since I was just allocated to the course, I did not attend the first 2D class so I thought everyone should have known each other by then except me. However, everyone were surprisingly friendly and cheerful that I felt welcomed.

I managed to catch up and introduced myself using the ‘Hello my name is’ card activity.

 

Hello - Typography

  1. Typography
    Grey background – I get really uncomfortable when wearing bright colours as I dislike being the center of attention. Therefore, I am always seen in neutral, dark or dull colours.

    Partly hidden ‘DINA’ – I can be a little shy and quiet when I am in an unfamiliar place or amongst people I do not know well. So I tend to ‘hide’ behind people and just observe my surroundings.

    Colours and Partly visible ‘DINA’ – However, as I grow older, I knew I had to change that to go beyond my limits. Being in the design industry also made me aware of the network and social interaction between different parties. Hence, I would like to improve myself by opening up more even if it takes time.

    Hello - Abstract

  2. Abstract
    Marbling Effect– Marbling has been one of my favourite patterns as it is very fluid and spontaneous. While doing this technique, I realised that life can be as spontaneous as well. Similar to marbling, there is no concrete set of rules to insure success in life. Something might work out for one person but it might not work for the other.

    However, be experimental and learn from mistakes. Even after all those hard work, you might end up with a beautiful and mesmerizing result.

    Hello - Conceptual

  3. Conceptual
    Black Cat– I used to hate cats. I just thought that they were really annoying creatures. However, that impression made a 180° turn when my family adopted two black kittens. Now with five cats at home, I am known as a typical neighbourhood cat lady.

    Cat and Me – I tried to show the close relationship I have with my cats by portraying us by nuzzling our faces against each other.

    Stars and Moon – The white speckles and moon represent night time. As they are active during the day and disappear somewhere in the house, they will tire out by night and start to climb on my bed to cuddle.