Zine – Neighborhood Explorer 4 (Final)

Final ZINE  

Layout Inspiration

There were many composition that looked really attractive but did not suit the story and mood that I was trying to create for my Zine, thus I had to be exceptionally selective on using a referencing Layout for my spreads. I eventually found it in this sample below.

Despite the language, there is something about its imagery that screams a certain solemn feeling for me which caught my liking and was a direction that I wanted to work towards to.

In addition, the way its imagery interacts between a spread was something that I believe I took reference from to include into my Zine to make 2 pages feel as one rather than leaving them as individual pages which I thought was a really important inclusion.

Mood Board

Working with illustrative portraiture art to try and capture the mood which is often done by photography was a huge difficulty for me but I sure as hell hope I did somewhat obtain the mood of the Zine and evoke a sort of feeling when people browse through it.

My choice of text took reference from this images which all used a somewhat ‘classy’ font which is a little similar to VOGUE’s Didot font. I eventually settled for the font –Bodoni.

Wasted Opportunity

Also, I would like to mention on how wasted it was for me to not being able to realize that I could have created my contents through photography and food styling on a model as I eventually aborted the last minute shoot 3 days before submission (amidst other submissions) as I thought it was a really huge risk.

Here are some of the planning for the shots such as how to droop down the noodles, having fishball stuffed into the mouth of my model, how to cut the prata which look like a facial mask and many other considerations, which sadly, didn’t come to fruition in the end. Perhaps in the future since this concept is really interesting to work on in my opinion.

P.s – the pain of an art student, always spending so much money, I actually purchased some of the items for the shoot :'(

 

Changes from Initial Layout

Development of Pages

(First Spread – Page 1,8)

Imagery : The Questioning (Front) and Realization (Back) Moment 

(Second Spread – Page 2,3)

Imagery : A Medusa with each of her snake as a representation of the seven sins which in this spread context is the 7 food locations at Thomson.

(Third Spread – Page 4,5)

 

Imagery : An obvious setting of an angel vs devil illustration.

(Fourth Spread – Page 6,7)

Imagery : The victimized of the uncanny situation of having human consuming human due to their huge appetite for food.

Reflection

In all honesty, I’m not a good writer nor do I aspire to be one(okay I actually do), thus I went ahead with a little of dark humor and irony and a huge load of imagination and exaggeration. A tongue in cheek approach as brought up by Mimi herself when reviewing my Zine.

Also, I should have chose this typeface and use it consistently, something for me to take note of in the future.

Murphy’s law – Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong. That was the case on the day before submission at the print shop. I had my Zine printed over 5 times due to various reasons such as

  • over sized staples,
  • wrong alignment of paper when placed in printer,
  • having my print being cut off more than supposed to.

I have learnt once again that test printing and setting up your files ready for print isn’t as simple as it sounds as there are a lot of technicalities to take note of especially the settings.

And the most annoying mistake I believe I have made in this submission and perhaps the most amateurish one as well which was having some of my text done in Photoshop for convenience sake which led to the printout not having a crisp and full text but ending up somewhat rasterized/blurred! 

Despite all the errors and regrets, I’m generally proud of the work I have produced as I have persevered and not second doubt myself on the unorthodox concept and worked towards a topic by using a method that was previously mentioned as risky to execute. Based on the general feedback from my peers, I do somewhat feel my illustrations did convey the mood that was achieved by photography and that is something I take really huge satisfaction from.

All in all, it had been a really long stretch of weeks with tedious steps and late nights to finally complete this Neighborhood Explorer Project aka as Zine. It had plenty of learning points for me to bring forward in not just my next few years in school but also further in my designing life.

FOUNDATION YEAR IS FINALLY OVER!!!! WEWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!

Zine – Neighborhood Explorer 3

Exaggeration of the scene in Thomson

Based on my presentation idea of ‘MONSTER’, I have further dissect and improvise on how to capitalize on this unorthodox concept.So I brought Yasmine Mzayek, a friend of mine (whom eventually became the protagonist of my Zine) out for supper at Thomson, and we happened to had a lengthy conversation over her passion for food and how she felt uncomfortable with certain local food but heads over heels for some others.

 

 

The light-heart conversation slowly turned into a darker one, one that led me to realization about how strong the passion for food some of us actually hold that could be somewhat scary if the scenario was slightly exaggerated.

I simply couldn’t stop imagining the possibilities.

Zombies? What if one fine day, we all turn and start eating up each other’s limbs? Would I rely on unscrupulous methods to obtain what I want – food? Would I stab a friend behind his or her back just to get my hands on that Michelin star dish served by Gordon Ramsay?

What if secretly, we’re all monsters?

Creepy Portraits of a Chef Wearing His Menu Ingredients

Spices, radish and carrots, Octopus Ink and seafood

MENU is a new photo series by photographer Robert Harrison and chef Robbie Postma, a duo who decided to combine food and portrait photography in a strange and creepy new way. The photos show Postma wearing his menu ingredients on his face.

Postma is the chef for the cafeteria at the Dutch advertising agency J. Walter Thompson Amsterdam.

After breaking down menu items into their base ingredients, the duo carefully arranged the raw, unprocessed food onto Postma’s face. Everything was carefully planned and prepared, and the full project took a full year to complete — a single shot sometimes took 9 hours to prep and shoot.

“MENU is what happens when food meets photography on the dark side,” the duo says. “Served on the closest place you can get to a chef’s mind: on his face. The results are startling.”

“Every grain of rice was added by hand, without the aid of digital manipulation,” the image and culinary artists write. “MENU is hand crafted. Just like the best food.”

Ice Cream and fruits

“Creepy Portraits of a Chef Wearing His Menu Ingredients.” PetaPixel. Accessed April 9, 2017. https://petapixel.com/2017/03/23/creepy-portraits-chef-wearing-menu-ingredients/.

Note to self from Tutor : Photoshop it better with a 3 dimensional depth OR go all out on photography + Stylize + Makeup

I was told after consultation with Mimi, that the imagery contents of my Zine are very much trying to portray a distinct style that is achieved from Photography + Lighting + Stylizing and Makeup on a real-life model.

So one of the option was to do a photo shoot and I would first need to source for a willing party to aid me with this ambitious but surely rewarding attempt especially since I’ve never done it before.

I asked my sister-in-laws(had to ask for girls because of the narrative content beginning with my exchange friend) and they were all reluctant to and I also come to realize that such photography could be deemed as degrading for those that don’t come from the arts field.

A friend of mine mentioned that she charge $60/hour for such a shoot. Oh boy, how am I to afford such high cost for a project. Until I successfully source for a willing party, I guess I will have to bank on improving my photo-shopping skill, and it needs to improve tremendously. Also, I will have to illustrate with a more distinctive style to make the Zine content flow.

Churning out the contents for each spread


Zine – Neighborhood Explorer 1

 

So I was the first one to take part in the drawing of lots and with the possibilities of all the zones in Singapore, I was allocated with Thomson! My initial reaction was of course with great elation considering that I reside in Ang Mo Kio which really isn’t very far off from Thomson. It’s nearest MRT Station at the very start of Thomson Road happens to be Novena, a place that I frequent way too much as I make trips down to the Hospital almost once every week (no I’m not a doctor haha).

So I did up a little research on why it was named Thomson Road, I mean it could have been Benjamin Road right? (just kidding)

And of course, it was because of this guy!

John Turnbull Thomson (b. 10 August 1821, Glororum, England–d. 16 October 1884, Invercargill, New Zealand) was the Government Surveyor of the Straits Settlements from 1841 to 1853. He made a number of important contributions during his 12 years in Singapore, including the creation of maps of early Singapore, as well as the design and construction of several buildings and other public infrastructure on the island.1His greatest achievement was probably the design and construction of the Horsburgh Lighthouse on Pedra Branca.2 A self-taught artist and prolific writer, Thomson’s collection of paintings, books and articles now serve as invaluable records of the architecture and life of early Singapore.3

Source from Singapore Infopedia
http://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/infopedia/articles/SIP_230_2005-01-25.html

AHA – MOMENT

In an instant, I knew I had to do Architecture considering that it was Sir John Turnbull Thomson’s effort and results which contributed to a certain extent in some way albeit probably not as huge of an impact as the late Mr Lee Kuan Yew but hell, having a road named after you probably means your contribution meant something yeah?

With that, I found my first focus for my first trip of this Neigborhood Explorer project.

Private Apartments along Thomson Road

One of the many Condominiums by Thomson Road

Majority of the materials used in the architecture around this area of Thomson consisted of the above materials which are Blue tinted Mirror Glass, Timber and Concrete finish with different color of paint finish as their facade. This selection of materials spots a very modern look for an architecture in contrast with the other older buildings which was spotted a couple of streets down the long stretch of Thomson Road.

What a long way Singapore had come from planting trees all over Singapore, and in this age, we have many creative methods to provide a purposeful and aesthetically pleasing structure in this case, a vertical planting module which holds the flora which attract them faunas. This is a stark difference from what we can still find along, or rather will find a lot of along the Upper Thomson Road area where huge plots of land are still undeveloped and probably won’t be as those are protected areas and most probably used for the Army as the training ground purposes.

Vertical Planting Modules found outside Starbucks at United Square along Thomson Road

Did I mention that Thomson is a long stretch?

Old buildings beside United Square

One of the older buildings around the modern building at the start of Thomson Road which stood out really obvious. These buildings consist mostly of concrete with paint finish and certain portion of the facade are painted with really tacky colors such as bright green, yellow and blue. 

SC Global / NEWTON 200 along Thomson Road

Traditional Shop-houses featuring plenty of different cuisines of food

This Traditional Shop-houses were spotted with a lot of different cuisines…

and these varieties of food stretches further down with more delicious food

… which stretches further down Thomson Road all the way to Upper Thomson Road which based on map reference, could possibly be the distance of Novena MRT to Yishun MRT as a gauge of how long a stretch Thomson really is.

The topic food also branches out to possibly a new focus for myself as I’ve asked around so often about what do they think of when Thomson is mentioned – FOOD. 

More old private apartments with the construction of the church of St Alphonsus along Thomson Road

Church of St Alphonus before the reconstruction

image taken from http://www.panoramio.com/photo/67998490

Rather Old Private Apartments right opposite Novena Square and Velocity

This marks the start of my exploration around the residential area which range from terrace houses to really old HDB buildings. It was really quiet around this area around evening time even though people should be coming back from home by then.


The overall feeling this building gives off is really quite depressing and somewhat creepy?

This area feels a bit like Malaysia, but of course it isn’t. There really wasn’t much special stuff that really breathe Thomson, elements that I could instantly relate to Thomson Road/ Area.

As I delved further into the neighborhood of old Architectures which still doesn’t show much. By now, I was really unconvinced about doing things related to Architecture but I couldn’t let it go yet, so I sticked to my plan and explored further.

 

We could tell the huge difference between the older buildings as compared to the modern ones. There’s a stark difference between the two of them, in terms of colors, structure and aesthetics just as mentioned before, but it all aims to serve the same purpose – housing families.

On a side note, that right there (on top left) is really amazing, I wish I could go up there one day and see how it looks like and enjoy that spatial experience from that high up. 

I’ve finally reached Thomson Flyover by this point and I spotted something really interesting that resides underneath this Flyover which happens to be a Futsal Court – a smaller pitch for football. There were families and their children playing a game of football which is always a nice thing to see. However, it was nothing helpful towards my Zine to be honest which was quite a bummer as I had lots of hope looking from the outside.

 

Source - Straits Time

Source – Straits Time

Source - Straits Time

Source – Straits Time

With a slew of old-school restaurants and buzzy new hipster joints, some of which are open round the clock, Thomson Village near Upper Thomson Road is a magnet for diners in the evenings and on weekends.

IN UPPER THOMSON

They don’t just park illegally and block your gate, but shout and disturb the residents late at night.

MR LEE, Thomson Ridge resident

But the area’s popularity has created parking and traffic problems, with multiple instances of illegal parking occurring regularly, and residents in nearby estates complaining about restaurant patrons who park in front of their gates and block their cars.

To prevent the situation from deteriorating, the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) has banned additional eateries from opening in shophouses in sections along Jalan Todak, Soo Chow Walk, Sin Ming Road and Shunfu Road, as well as Upper Thomson Road.

Source from : http://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/ura-bans-new-eateries-in-upper-thomson-little-india-and-bedok-due-to-parking-woes

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Que Sera Sera 3

oss-documents-csi-graf-01 oss-documents-csi-graf-03 oss-documents-latest-09
grafitti-gif

I made use of a brick wall image to ‘spray’ my name over it. I applied a stroke with another color to made it look as though it’s layered with multiple colors. I added some inner shadow and outer glow to give it some depth. It seem pretty plain to me but I received multiple feedback during the ‘work-in-progress’ session from both Mimi and my peers that it had too much going on in the background. Also, there was some issue with the letter ‘E’ as it wasn’t as legible as the other letters. However, to create depth, I had to forgo the functionality in this case the legibility in exchange for the aesthetics of this typography portrait. I eventually came to terms to let this piece go and proceeded on others.

oss-documents-csi-graf-02oss-documents-csi-graf-04oss-documents-latest-09csi-gif

With similar methods applied with the Graffiti piece, I managed to come up with this CSI piece which looked really decent to me as well. Similarly, I received the same feedback for this just like the Graffiti one which led me to work on other pieces which were eventually my final 4. I probably would not have settled for this piece anyway as I would have liked to explore on more methods digitally.

oss-documents-01

oss-documents-latest-04

oss-documents-latest-09

architect-gif

This piece was one of my favorite but due to the ambiguity of it’s identity as I was told that it could represent either Architect or Interior Designer or even a Landscape Architect(which was what it was meant to be) was really worrisome. I finally came to terms with it after a long struggle as I convinced myself that this is a module whereby I learn to communicate to the audience visually… but it was really hard.

 

Next Post : The final 4 
Architect
Game Designer
Soldier
Chinese Calligrapher

Que Sera Sera 2

PROJECT BRIEF
So creating typographic portraits by using my whole name, nickname or initials to describe my future job was the task at hand whereby each solution must consider the following factors: choice of typeface, style, size, weight, use of upper and lower case characters as well as space in between the letters.

And so the first job was to brainstorm about the jobs that I would be interested to work on, and there I was doodling on some of the ideas such as

  1. Architect
  2. Dentist
  3. Plastic Surgeon
  4. Chef
  5. Milkman
  6. Photographer
  7. Chinese Calligrapher
  8. F1 Driver
  9. Photographer
  10. Interior Designer
  11. Product Designer
  12. DJ
  13. Crime Scene Investigator
  14. Graffiti Artist
  15. Pastry Chef
  16. Product Designer
  17. Tattoo Artist

Okay wow, that’s actually a lot of jobs now that I listed them all out. Some of them I’ve tried initially by sketching out but did not further pursue the idea which I’ll point out or some that I just totally abort the idea because it was just beyond my current capabilities. Generally the jobs that I’ve listed are all things that I really like or careers I’ve thought of pursuing when I was younger.

Okay, enough of blabbering, let’s check out my processes on my initial ideas before we move on to how I have eventually come up with my final designs.

Architect

img_0179
So this was done on the very first lesson and I thought of working in somewhat similar manners for one of my final board and then I found this,ikea-create-small-27643
So there I was thinking I’m a genius for thinking of such a method to bring out my fonts for my Architect portrait but it had already been done by IKEA. Nevertheless, I proceeded on to work on my first composition.

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These are just some sketching as to how I’m going form up my name with the walls and rooms on a floor plan. Also, it shows my doodles on idea as to how to create other jobs such as the Dentist and Tattoo Artist.

architect-benji-process

Eventually, I proceeded to digitally created a floor plan which depicts my nickname ‘Benji’.

untitled-2

I used a background of a table top with timber finishing and lay over all my past technical drawing works in polytechnic as some sort of hints of the job related to this portrait.

architect-idea-2

I finished it off by using a first person view of drawing up a floor plan by placing a person’s hand drawing on the paper with a ruler and a marker.

architect-benji2

Alternatively, I attempted to create fonts from a 3D software which didn’t turn out the way I envisioned it to be as it would probably take a really long time for me to render it. Nevertheless, as shown below is my poor attempt.

architect-benjiarchitect-benji-1

However, this setback did not refrain me from trying to create something that looks 3D as I sought after different methods to produce something that seem somewhat 3 dimensional.

Chef

sandwich_alphabet

I happened to see this imagery and thought it was a really cool application of using real life items to create fonts. However, I thought since it was a 2D Module, I should use this opportunity to practice on my Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator skills, hence deciding against to create something physically and taking a good photo of it.

chef-benji

This was the final composition of this piece of ‘Chef’ and I was really disappointed as it was a really cheap way of creating one of my typography portrait and thought that I wasn’t really creating a font myself which led me on to the next typography portrait to solely focus on creating my very own type font and then proceeding to working on the aesthetics.

Milkman

benji-farmer-milkman-process

So in ‘Milkman’, I created the Font by using Shapes and then removing certain areas to give hints of my nickname Benji. A white color was used with a tint of grey to create a somewhat milky color. Black was used as background to thoroughly bring out the Milky color.

benji-farmer-milkman-3

This is the final layout as I used milk splashes on some of the fonts to create some sort of innuendo to what my job scope is. Straws coming out from a packet milk in the letter ‘N’ was one of the other one that I thought worked really well. The Bull’s horn didn’t really work for Mimi and I can see why she mentioned that because it is a Bull which i mistakenly took for as a cow.

F1 Racer

benji-f1-racer-process-2

For this piece, I first placed the chosen type font randomly and proceeded using pen tool to map out the roads.

benji-f1-racer-process

Thereafter, I filled the area with a road texture and used multiple effects in Photoshop

  • Bevel & Emboss
  • Stroke
  • Pattern Overlay
  • Drop Shadow

benji-f1-racer

This was the final piece after I added in a background. I really didn’t like how the roads turned out to be and decided to abort this piece as I couldn’t really relate to this job anyway.

Pastry Chef

benji-pastry-pancake-chef-process

After my initial disappointment with my ‘Chef’ piece, I decided to work on another, but this time using a type font and try to create the honey glaze over a pancake instead of using imagery directly found online.

benji-pastry-pancake-chef-jpeg

After multiple try outs with the various blending options in Photoshop such as

  • Pattern Overlay
  • Bevel & Emboss
  • Inner Shadow
  • Inner Glow
  • Drop Shadow

I was able to create the effect of honey over the top of a pancake depicting my nickname once ‘Benji‘.

After consultation with Mimi, she suggested me to make the font a bit more liquefied as it seems like it’s splat onto the pancake which didn’t come across as very natural but artificial. Thereafter I decided to scrap this piece and start working on other pieces.

Product Designer/Interior Designer (?)

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In this piece, I tried to use furniture imagery found online to create my font and added feint background in my attempt for a 3 dimensional piece which I think I kind of failed miserably once again.

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Halfway through this, I thought I was really trying to force it out and something just didn’t feel right. Perhaps it was the distracting background which kind of steals the attention away from the products which are supposed to depict my nickname.

 

Interior Designer

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I came across this interior design of a cupboard/shelf which gave me some sort of inspiration for the upcoming piece.

interior-architect-benji

In this piece, I attempted to use shape and drop shadows to create some kind of a shelf design as referenced from the Instagram image.

Photographerphotographer-benji-process-1

Select a type font that I like in this case is ETH Black.

photographer-benji-process-2

By adjusting the brush setting and select directly onto the font, I was able to create the brush effect around the font. The settings I tweak with were

  • Brush Tip Shape
  • Scattering
  • Smoothing

photographer-benji

The final outcome of the brush wasn’t what I intended as I intended for the brush effect which seem somewhat like bokeh – the visual quality of the out-of-focus areas of a photographic image, especially as rendered by a particular lens.

The intended outcome was to have it in multiple colors with a larger brush tip but I decided to move on to trying other alternatives as I’ve achieved my objective of exploring the different effects Photoshop offers albeit not mastering it altogether.

DJ

dj-benji-process

This effect was created by Stylize > Wind. It created the effect of something like a soundwave which was to represent the music that I’ll be playing as a DJ.

dj-benji-process-2

I added a gradient of multiple colors to further bring out the sound waves.

dj-benji

I created a rounded rectangle and created it as a pattern and applied gradient over it to created the image of the volume on the sound system.

In all honesty, this piece was quite embarrassing as it look really tacky but it was fun trying out.

 

Conclusion
After doing all these exploration, I realized that I have done something that was somewhat similar to what Mimi made us do on the very first lesson, which was to churn out as many ideas as possible on the A3 paper with 30 circles.

Despite not having any final pieces, I managed to explore multiple ways of application on different methods which were detrimental in creating my next few pieces.

Sneak Peek
sneak-peak

Things to note
‘The aim of this project is to use typography as an end in itself, minimizing supporting imagery. Conceptually driven solutions and letter forms are combined with literal or abstract images to express your future job. The outcomes address either materials, the process or a result of using specific media and technique.’

After revising the brief and consultation with Mimi, I realized that my applications were somewhat narrative very much towards process and result and less of using literal or abstract images in my expressions for the fonts which I attempt to rectify. 

Que Sera Sera 1

Dada was an artistic and literary movement that began in Zürich, Switzerland. It arose as a reaction to World War I and the nationalism that many thought had led to the war. Influenced by other avant-garde movements – Cubism, Futurism, Constructivism, and Expressionism – its output was wildly diverse, ranging from performance art to poetry, photography, sculpture, painting, and collage. Dada’s aesthetic, marked by its mockery of materialistic and nationalistic attitudes, proved a powerful influence on artists in many cities, including Berlin, Hanover, Paris, New York, and Cologne, all of which generated their own groups. The movement dissipated with the establishment of Surrealism, but the ideas it gave rise to have become the cornerstones of various categories of modern and contemporary art.

It was the first conceptual art movement where the focus of the artists was not on crafting aesthetically pleasing objects but on making works that often upended bourgeois sensibilities and that generated difficult questions about society, the role of the artist, and the purpose of art.
Dada. [Internet]. 2017. TheArtStory.org website. Available from:
http://www.theartstory.org/movement-dada.htm [Accessed 01 Feb 2017]

MOST IMPORTANT ART OF THIS ART MOVEMENT

“R. Mutt’, however, was an unusual name, with comic overtones, and this might have given people a clue as to its falseness. Later in life, when asked whether ‘R. Mutt’ was a pun on the German word Armut meaning poverty, Duchamp was quoted as explaining:

Marcel Duchamp, 'Fountain' 1917, replica 1964

Marcel Duchamp, ‘Fountain’ 1917, replica 1964

Mutt comes from Mott Works, the name of a large sanitary equipment manufacturer. But Mott was too close so I altered it to Mutt, after the daily cartoon strip “Mutt and Jeff” which appeared at the time, and with which everyone was familiar. Thus, from the start, there was an interplay of Mutt: a fat little funny man, and Jeff: a tall thin man … I wanted any old name. And I added Richard [French slang for money-bags]. That’s not a bad name for a pissotière. Get it? The opposite of poverty. But not even that much, just R. MUTT.
(Camfield 1989, p.23.)” 
Howarth, Sophie. (April 2000) revised by Mundy, Jennifer. (August 2015) “Fountain.” http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/duchamp-fountain-t07573 (1 February 2017).

“Duchamp was the first artist to use a readymade and his choice of a urinal was guaranteed to challenge and offend even his fellow artists. There is little manipulation of the urinal by the artist other than to turn it upside-down and to sign it with a fictitious name. By removing the urinal from its everyday environment and placing it in an art context, Duchamp was questioning basic definitions of art as well as the role of the artist in creating it. With the title, Fountain, Duchamp made a tongue in cheek reference to both the purpose of the urinal as well to famous fountains designed by Renaissance and Baroque artists. In its path-breaking boldness the work has become iconic of the irreverence of the Dada movement towards both traditional artistic values and production techniques. Its influence on later twentieth century artists such as Jeff Koons, Robert Rauschenberg, Damien Hirst, and others is incalculable.”
Dada. [Internet]. 2017. TheArtStory.org website. Available from:
http://www.theartstory.org/movement-dada.htm [Accessed 01 Feb 2017]

SUMMARY OF FINDINGS

  • Duchamp created a new way of looking at an object at it’s literal value – what we call conceptual art
  • Dada artists are known for their use of readymade objects – everyday objects that could be bought and presented as art with little manipulation by the artist.
  • The introduction of chance was a way for Dadaists to challenge artistic norms and to question the role of the artist in the artistic process. – Many artist were exponent on Hans Arp’s law of chance whereby he incorporate the chance factor into his creation of works of art which went against all norms of traidtional art production in which preparations were meticulously planned and thought for before the execution of completing the artwork.
  • Dada artists are known for their use of readymade objects – everyday objects that could be bought and presented as art with little manipulation by the artist. The use of the readymade forced questions about artistic creativity and the very definition of art and its purpose in society.


HANNAH HOCH

  • The only woman in the absurdist Dada art movement of the 1910s, German artist Hannah Hoch pioneered an edgy style of photomontage that’s showcased in a major new exhibition.
  • One of the originators of Photomontage
Das schöne Mädchen [The Beautiful Girl]
In terms of composition, the artwork by Hannah Hoch (image on the left above) was one that I really like among the others. Somehow the composition shows me a large head of a lady and a small body and with the recurring patterns, it really caught my eye. Well, she is one of the originators of Photomontage, right? I’m sure her composition skills would be second to none considering that she’s such a famous artist during the DADA art movement. 
Personally, I thought the artworks of Hannah Hoch’s were pretty minimal(image on the right above) and not what I usually try to produce. Then again, my works from Semester 1 was previously thought of as ‘too much’  as I tend to fill up way too much of a canvas when there are room to be lesser. So I thought Hannah Hoch’s work would be a good reference for me as to how to keep things minimal.
Image result for stefan sagmeister
However, one artist that Mimi introduced to us in class got me so amazed with his works. He’s none other than the legendary, Stefan Sagmeister.
The thing about Sagmeister’s artworks for me is that it works really well despite looking so minimal and clean.
Image result for stefan sagmeisterImage result for stefan sagmeister typography
Well, I guess the time is now for me to talk less and do more by start working on my A4 canvases for Que Sera Sera. 🙂