Research
Usual first order of business: Get inspiration on Pinterest
Jobs
How I came about doing this project was first starting to brainstorm on the jobs or design styles that I thought could be interesting to manipulate, of which I thought of these:
- Specialist in Harry Potter
- Paper Maker/Origami
- Comic Person
- Balloon Maker
- Retro Thing
- City Builder
- Igloo Builder
- Something w Netflix
- Theme Park Designer
- Character Builder (Soft Toy)
- Makisan Box Designer/Product Box Designer
- Bubble Tea Maker
- Skeleton Decorator
Design Styles
Visually and technically, I wanted to push myself more by trying different techniques and making them more ‘3D’. These were my inspirations:
Process Pt. 1
To the works that almost made it
Compared to my work in 2D last sem which was more flat graphics, I wanted to try something more that had more depth and texture. I quite liked the idea of portraying certain ideas just by texture and one of the styles that caught my eye was the Balloon effect.
t r i a l # 1
Balloon Killer– Outcome
I was quite pleased with the outcome and was playing with terms to see what I could work out with the look and symbolism of balloons that would be absurd.
Visual Elements:
Balloons are associated to parties (the confetti) and I thought a good concept would be a Balloon Killer and tried to incorporate elements of a crime scene in the design (caution tape, white dead body outline, needle)
Balloon Killer – Tutorial
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t r i a l # 2
Chinese New Year Elf – Outcome
My inspirations from this came firstly from wanting to try paper cut effects + doing it during the period of CNY. I thought it might be interesting to do a festive take on the design of ang paos.
Visual Elements:
For CNY, I thought of its colours (red and gold), and used the communicative indicator of texture to symbolise the ang pao. Coins were used for the material under the angpao to further accentuate what it represented. I also thought for another job/role that would be a fun contrast to the Lunar Festival and got elves – a popular icon for Christmas. For elf, visual elements that came to mind were: its belt and shoes. I tried to incorporate my visual aesthetics for form
Process Pt. 2
To the works that did make it
a r t w o r k # 1
Space DJ – Outcome
I’ve always had a liking for space-themed designs, thus sparked the idea to lean towards a space related job. Therefore, the idea of a space DJ came about.
Space DJ – Inspiration
Techniques:
To get my isometric view, I first had to insert a grid into my photoshop file for reference and I started by adjusting my letters and graphics accordingly to build the shape. I did this with Photoshop features called ‘Distort’ and ‘Perspective’
Font:
Since the idea in my head was for it to look a little space station like, I thought a clean-cut, sharp-edge Sans Serif font would do the trick. In this case, I used the font Poppins.
Visual Elements:
Visually, I thought that important things to portray outer space would include firstly a strong space background setting. I used gradients, outer glow to create stars, and overlayed clouds to achieve that effect. The tougher part was to portray the space station idea in my head which I tried to bring out through the seemingly floating letters, the neon strips lined across to show the advance in technology as well as a vertical road strip. For the DJ part, I thought of the spinning disc and neon-lighted controls and buttons that they usually have at their station and added those elements to each of the top surfaces.
Colours:
Colours were first chosen for the space background, a strong radial gradient of dark blue that fades into a pinkish red and pale yellow. The colours of the letters followed suit, with the letter ‘V’ that was closest to the light source a coral pink. As the letters drifted away from the light source, its colours started blending with the background to a purplish tint and finally dark blue.
a r t w o r k # 2
Human Maker – Outcome
I was thinking of the next job when I took a look at my favourite earrings and had an idea. Then I remembered similar photos that I have seen before that carried a similar message of objectifying humans in the form of ‘minions’.
Human Maker – Inspiration
Techniques:
Using the techniques I learnt from the ‘Balloon Killer’ effect, I applied it onto this project to create a glass container and photoshopped the actual miniature human in my earrings in.
Font:
Font wise, I knew I needed to use a clean, rounded sans serif font in order to achieve a better pill like container effect that I was doing for. The font used was Proxima Nova Soft, Bold.
Visual Elements:
When I think human maker / (machine), I think of a high tech digital screen with buttons and a final tube for the product to appear. Also added in an unknown yellow liquid to signify the similar formula used to create all the miniature humans. The yellow substance is filled with human body parts, telling people that the machine would place the parts together to form the human. The overall composition of the machine also very subtly follows the structure of a pill.
Colours:
I always felt that machine like items should be a dark, cool colour so I selected greying-blue for the main body and the liquid used was yellow to give a good contrast to the blue.
a r t w o r k # 3
MerMAID – Outcome
I’ve been wanting to try a paper cut effect for the longest time and therefore decided to do it with the job that was easiest to portray using flat graphics, and from there it would be easier for me to add textures and shadows.
MerMAID – Inspiration
Techniques:
Using just a simple drop shadow effect, varying in intensity and depth for each ‘level’ and applying an overlay of a grainy texture on the graphics create the overall look I was going for
Font:
I chose a distinct Serif font, Garamond (one of my favourites :D), as I thought that the obvious glyphs would make a good base for the end of a mermaid tail and the tip of the nozzle
Visual Elements:
When I think mermaid, the biggest visual symbol would be its tail. As for maid, I searched for quite a few photos of cleaning tools and finally decide that the spray bottle had the most distinctive features (its nozzle). And instead of fins at the top of a mermaid’s tail, I replaced it with bubbles as a connecting feature of both cleaning and breathing underwater.
Colours:
Blue and green are obvious colours to be used for the background to illustrate the idea of water. To contrast, the main colours used for the spray are orange and yellow.
a r t w o r k # 4
Snow White – Outcome
A concept I have been wanting to work on since the start was a play on a fairytale character. At this point, the bulk of my designs were in blue and I wanted my final artwork to be in a similar colour theme. I narrowed my choices in characters with distinct icons as well like Cinderella (glass slippers, mouse, pumpkin, time), Snow White (poisoned apple, mirror, bow). In the end I decided on Snow White as I thought her symbols and colours would be more fun to work with.
Snow White – Inspiration
Techniques:
I had most fun with this graphic as I enjoy photo manipulation and editing it into another graphic style, in this case it was a more sketchy look. For example, the pattern of the mirror in my artwork was edited and transformed from these images
Items like the apple and the hands were redrawn and reedited to fit into the specific shapes of the glyphs. I ended off by overlaying another layer of grain.
Fonts:
I thought that since I was going for a more regal-ish storybook design, the font would have to look like the title of those books, in this case, I found a font called ‘Storybook’ and thought it was quite suitable.
Visual Elements:
Thinking of Snow White, the images of a poisoned appleand mirror come to mind most clearly. Using the witch’s hand to extend out with the healthy-looking apple from the tub of poison with a bad apple in it hopefully reflects how in the story, she was presented with a poisoned apple that looked seemingly fine.
Colours:
Snow White’s main colours are red, yellow and blue which I tried to work more closely with and incorporate into the final artwork.
My original colour treatment was way too dull, so I had to saturate the colours to bring out the colours in Snow White’s character. The witch’s hand also looked too normal because it was a healthy beige colour, so I edited it to a more sinister shade of green to represent the idea of evil
Check out final artworks here: https://oss.adm.ntu.edu.sg/slow022/image-making-through-type-final/
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