Looking at my past works, I realise I tend to construct 3-dimensional projects with interactive elements.
Overview of my portfolio works
My portfolio works
The element of play is evident in my work and I wanted that to be the highlight of my portfolio. Hence, the motives and overall editorial design was chosen on the idea of ‘form + play’
Ideas for my portfolio
In the end, I choose to go with the booklet form but used lively colours to convey the idea of fun and interactivity.
Closeup of the Exhibition Guide Cover
An introduction and simplified map of the exhibition
Artwork #1: Interrupted Road Surveying in Singapore
Children learn about foregound, midground and background with the playing cards.
Artwork #2: Life by the River by Liu Kang Learning about Kampung life
Artwork #3: National Language Class by Chua Mia Tee A penmanship for the key phrase ‘siapa nama kamu’ shown in the painting itself.
Artwork #4: The Net Children weave their own version of net with the ribbon provided.
A close up of the activity sheet
Artwork 5: Horizontals Children create their own abstract work with the stickers provided
Artwork #6: The Chair Sketch the anamorphic chair they see in the gallery
Through the brainstorming exercise, I realise that I would love to design for interactive materials in the context of a museum. To scope my project, I started to look into the different areas where visual communication could be applied in the museum. Some of the areas I had explored:
I decided to delve into 1#1 Information Accessibility in Museums and consider the different possible community groups to work with.
Eventually, I decided to work on designing a children’s exhibition guide for National Gallery’s DBS Singapore Gallery – Siapa Nama Kamu. This is one of the 2 permanent exhibition that covers artworks about Singapore from the 18th century to contemporary times.
Reason #1: I like designing educational materials for kids.
Reason #2: I remember guiding a Korean family with 3 young daughters for this exhibition- while the parents were fully engaged, the children were fidgety as the tour was not age-appropriate for them.
The Gallery does provide children-friendly tours/events for children to learn more about the artworks. However, I realise many of these events require parents make an extra effort to stay updated with the museum schedule and and abide to the tour timings. This is not a luxury all families have especially visitors from abroad.
Hence, I decided to do a museum guide that fits the following criteria:
I had decided on the following 6 artworks as they do not require much contextual knowledge, display a variety of mediums and cover the major period of Singapore’s art development.
These are the ideation and sketches for each artwork.
Sketches for ideas
View the final work here.
And to anyone who was curious to how I created the holes for ‘The Net’ activity page – I used a Making Memories Hole Punch I found in my old stash of scrapbooking materials.
Based on my survey, a mobile application is the most effective means for parents to help children nurture good tooth-brushing habits at home. The mobile application also works as an extension from the book for continuous development of good tooth-brushing habits.
Essential Questions I Want to Know to Better Understand my Target Audience
For parents:
For Preschoolers:
During consultation, I was told to categorise my questions to have a better focus and structure my survey questions more succinctly.
Awareness of Good Dental Habits
Resources available
What appeals to their children
ATTITUE
How important do you think it is to teach preschoolers about good dental habits and why?
Are you willing to supervise your child(ren) tooth brushing habit for 5min and twice daily?
UNDERSTANDING
Do you know that decayed milk tooth can stunt the growth of adult tooth?
Briefly share how do you help your child(ren) develop good brushing habits.
AESTHETIC PREFERENCE
Which platform do you think is the most effective and convenient for you to teach your child(ren) about good dental habits?
The survey questions and results are as follow:
Survey questions and results
My first draft was too lacklustre and I decided to add more information in the next draft.
In order to create a more useful infographics, I’ve adapted from this article which shares about 10 Tips to Keep Cavities At Bay.
Storyline:
I was greatly inspired by Penny the Pirate and wanted to design a solution that could be easily distributed and extend good dental habits beyond dental clinics and in the comfort of their homes. I need my solution to stand out amongst the numerous tooth brushing apps and videos available out there.
I was reading a book which mentioned that imagination was the fundamental of concepts and beliefs. This became the starting point of my project – I needed a convincing story accompanied with impactful imageries to help preschooler visualize, understand and belief that poor tooth brushing habits has its repercussions.
I turned the process of tooth decay into a narrative and added a little playful imagination and bam- the story of ‘Clarke’ was born.
The Character:
Thinking about the story was easy but illustrating a completely imaginative character was tedious.
I spent quite some time developing the character. It had to look like a non-human creature (it’s a bacteria) yet has human-like characteristics (it has a growing family). It had to be child-friendly but not too much as it ultimately becomes the antagonist. As I was creating the character, I had to also be wary of what I was painting in the preschoolers’ mind.
Layouts
I wanted a bigger book dimension to create an immersive reading experience for the child. I have already exaggerated the process of tooth decay into a narrative and amplifying the imageries was to the only logical move to me.
During consultations, Michael has also reminded me to add more context in my illustrations to tie in with the storyline more closely. Eg family portraits hanged around Clarke’s home rather than just a home-sweet-home floor mat.
The transition from the imaginative world of Clarke (aka inside the mouth) to the reality world of Charlie was a struggle at the start. But I soon found the use of negative spaces helpful in the differentiation.
Pop-Up
I have always been fascinated with interactive books and wanted to incorporate ways to help children build their dexterity for tooth brushing. I was really really ambitious at the start and imagined how electronic paper would be really cool as it could change kinesthetic movements into sound when they brush. Or maybe thermochromic paint could be used to print the decayed tooth that changes into white when children brush it with their fingers. But I gave up after checking the price and technical skills need to use those materials. In the end, I decided to go ahead with pop-up page, something I’ve always been interested. It turned out to be waaaay better than I expected.
Designing the pop-up page was easy because it was simply layers of paper stuck upon one another and no fancy tricks. The measurements, however, was time-consuming and required trial and error.
Printing
It was so damn ex.
Probably the most expensive project I had but the quality made it worthwhile.
Binding
I done it in a rush and it was poorly binded.
But I’ve learnt from my mistake.
Lesson 1: Don’t hardbound if I’m left with less than a day to get it done
Lesson 2: It takes 2-3 prototypes to get it right. Test print with the same paper type but print it at cheaper shops first.
Lesson 3: ALIGN the spine. It’s the first and most crucial step. Then, trim the excess external margin.
Lesson 4: Spray mount should be sprayed a distance away. The glue particles should land lightly on the paper. Not create texture like a gravel wall.
In conclusion, this project was a roller coaster ride but with lots of lesson learnt. I did enjoyed this project and would like to improve it over my vacations.
I illustrated a children’s book about the need for daily tooth brushing.
It was unfortunately poorly binded so here’s the digital illustrations for view: 
The last spread is a pop up page that allows children to build their dexterity for toothbrushing and flossing.
After comments from classmates
What are some of the current issues confronting our world today? Amongst them, what is of interest and a cause of concern to you?
Final Selected Case: #1 Increasing Childhood Caries among Singapore Children: Teach Preschooler Good Tooth-Brushing Habits
Firstly, it will help to reduce childhood caries among preschoolers by teaching them the right brushing habits. Secondly, it saves parents from the costly dental services when they are older. Lastly, it reduces the strain on the nation’s dental services and ideally reduce the long waiting list.
It’s finally final project! I wanted to create a set of teaching materials and decided to create a pop-up typography book. There’s so much to talk about typography so I narrowed to the Anatomy of Typography.
This typography poster created by Janie Kliever is a concise yet comprehensive overview of typography terminology. Hence this became my main reference for my project.
Pretty much my work desk everyday
As it is my first time doing a pop-up book, I relied on many books and youtube tutorials. One of it’s my favourite book – ABC3D by Marion Bataille. Also, a special mention to Duncan Birmingham for sharing numerous pop-up tutorials.
Great books!
To start off, I made numerous mock-ups. Firstly, to understand the mechanism. And secondly, to get a sense of how each page would be. Doing mock-ups are time-consuming but they allow me to work more efficiently when I do the final piece.
After consultation with Shirley, I need to add a highlight to the key anatomy of each alphabet to make it more interesting. I decided to try foil. Once again, it’s my first time trying foil but it was definitely way more exciting than the usual cmyk albeit the trouble.
Firstly, I had to figure out the right way to use the foil.
1. Print solid black with laser printer
2. Secure foil over intended area with masking tape
3. Put it through a laminator and the heat will do magic!
In the above image, I experimented with different paper. The one the left was a slightly glossy paper that produce an ideal shiny foil.
Next, I had to decide on the different colours. The top right one is red and has an iridescent finish. Fun fact: Iridescent will look brighter than a mirror foil because it refracts light and turn them into rainbow-like colours.
With the mock-up and material settled, I proceed to creating layout and parts on Illustrator.
While printing, I had to ensure the kind of paper it is going to be printed on. If the part was meant to be red foil, I would have to print with the laser printer. For pages on the left columns, I print them with inkjet printer on 220gsm cartridge paper for nice solid black ink.
Before binding them together
