Creative Industry Report: Katherine Lam

Katherine Lam is an Asian American illustrator who currently lives in New York and works on editorial illustration with big clients such as New Yorker, NY Times, Telegraph. I found her work on Behance, and it has intrigued and drawn me into her dark atmospheres filled with suspense and solitude.

I am inspired by her motivation to work towards her goal. Katherine initially wanted to be an animator. After attending college, she discovered editorial illustration, which deviates from her course. She began experimenting with visual metaphors to communicate a story.  Her parents did not support the idea of an art career and her peers discouraged her unconventional direction as a freelance editorial illustrator. However, she still pursued her passion and started small, working with independing publishers, developing her illustration style, and e-mailing around 200 art directors. Gradually, bigger clients were attracted to the way she could deliver real-life stories with her impactful visuals. This inspires me as she discovered what she really liked to do, and set her mind onto it even though it was a path that deviated away from her curriculum, and she did not let people around her influence her career options.

From Katherine Lam’s Behance 

I also admire her own work, the way she implements visual storytelling. She places subtle visual cues and hints that give a deeper meaning to the artwork, and provoke our thoughts on the social issues she illustrates. She plans the compositions and positions of  figures very well, along with light and shadow, that we feel distant from the subjects in her illustrations, yet relate to these characters.  There is a sense of stillness and calm yet stirs unsettling emotions and suspense.

Overall, I admire these skills, not just an illustrator but as a person who is willing to try an unconventional route.

 

 

References

Katherine Lam Illustration. Katherine Lam. (2020). Retrieved 8 October 2020, from http://www.katherinelam.com/.

Katherine Lam illustrates environments and atmospheres | Collater.al. Collateral. (2020). Retrieved 8 October 2020, from https://www.collater.al/en/katherine-lam-illustration-art/.

Katherine Lam. GirlsclubAsia. (2020). Retrieved 8 October 2020, from https://girlsclub.asia/meet-the-artist/katherine-lam/.

Katherine Lam | Communication Arts. Communication Arts. (2020). Retrieved 8 October 2020, from https://www.commarts.com/fresh/katherine-lam.

Classiq. (2020). Retrieved 8 October 2020, from https://classiq.me/creating-a-new-visual-reality-interview-with-illustrator-katherine-lam.

Assignments 1 – 5

01
Overlapping Space: Working with shape, tone and edges to form space

 

02
Animal in Space: Learning mass structures and 2 point perspective – combining them to work on Figures in space

For this piece i tried experimenting with more complex forms and drew mythical creatures instead.

 

03
Design through Collage of color paper: Learning transitional colors + designing with shapes

I wanted to use bolder colours for this.

 

04
Atmospheric Space: Learning tonal design + working with variation of edges

After doing this it doesn’t feel very atmospheric because of the lack of soft edges..

 

05
Surface Textures – Understanding the formation of surface textures:
Still life drawing

Final Project + Studies

Weekly studies:




Studied some painings from the painting masters Vuillard and Bonnard because of the tinted style that prof Woonlam mentioned. I tried to examine the colours used carefully and the colour relations. personally i like the paintings’ mood because of the desaturated tone!

night light study

practice? but lack of greens and yellows that i realised later on
bottom is my mini composition

i wanted to study more compositions!

interior study at school

Copymasters and colour studies

 

abstract painting. more richnesss was needed

 



interior composition study

study

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FINAL ASSIGNMENT

I agree composition determines if the painting is successful. so i studied more paintings and came up with the tonal value and range first.

and then tried to come up with my own compositions.

planning to use the first thumbnail for the my landscape piece!

Atmospheric

the first piece I did. sometimes i like it sometimes i don’t. also i spend a lot of time mixing still XD

studies for tints and atmosphere before painting
in the end i didnt really paint the cave-house painting

studies for interior. values are very different at diffeerent places during day and night.


Landscape

my second piece. i love painting greens, blues and pinks and i dont know why. i think it looks melancholic yet i see it in sci-fi landscapes a lot.
it’s supposed to be at night thats why there is bright light casted near to the right from the lamppost.

Interior

the third piece. the colours look stronger in real life unlike in the digital image. i had a lot of fun with this piece playing around with the colours. i learnt a lot trying to connect colours from different areas of the painting for a cohesive image. i think rich colours adds more content and energy. for this painting’s colours i wanted to try something new so i moved away from blues and greens.

Tinted piece

the last piece. instead of a blue sky i went with pink.

i think all my paintings look desaturated too. of course with constant feedback from prof woonlam that i often used diluted pigment really urged me to change that habit! so for this final assignment i used a lot more pigment than i usually did.  i enjoyed painting and learning many new things about colour in this module and will definitely apply these colour skills!!

 

Thank you
ᶘ ᵒᴥᵒᶅ

[2] Infographic Poster

The Process & Finalised Infographic Poster representing survey findings

Objectives of the infographic is to summarize:

  • the issues surrounding mental health stigmas
  • how people understand mental illness
  • methods to reduce the stigma, as a community effort with awareness / support

Categorizing information:

It was hard to do this at first without grouping my analysis and findings and knowing the objectives.

– Causes of concerns
– Negative attitudes towards mental health
– Main issue: labelling & discrimination
– Methods to reduce stigma
– Conclusion of survey results

Sketches

I made it look like brain-looking heart unlocking itself to represent the issues that need to be expressed surrounding the stigma.

Feedback:
1. group my info according to categories with objectives in mind
2. hierarchy of info
3. since it is about making mental illness a more common topic, maybe show an exaggerated explosion

Digital Process

Exploration of layouts 

Final Outcome

In the end, there is a glowing brain and shadows casted. This is to create the atmospheric and calm yet serious effect to show that the mental illness stigma and taboo is an important, ongoing issue that needs to be reflected upon.

I did not want the graphics to appear flat, hence I intended to make all the icons and representations of the statistics related to the mental health issue. I think this enables people to understand the small groups of information quicker with icons representing the whole group of info. For example, the icon of a person made of flimsy paper, crushed under the weight of the icon to depict weakness.

This was a really fun poster to do actually because i had to think of the visual representations of information and also playing with the colours. It was a challenging attempt to sort out the different types of information for easy reading flow.

THANKS FOR READING!!

ヾ(@°▽°@)ノ

[1B] Exploratory Research | Survey Findings

Crafted the survey to obtain 3 key information:
The attitude of the Singaporean community towards mental illness
Singaporeans’ understanding of mental illness
Singaporeans’ awareness of the mental illness stigma

from my target audience:
Below 12 — Above 32

I managed to gather 38 responses in the survey. These are the survey finding and analysis on the mental health stigma in Singapore.
From here, most survey participants are aware that part of our mental health is influenced by the society we live in / surrounding people.

In this section, I wanted to test out the participants’ knowledge on mental illness.


5 / 38 participants agreed that mental illness is a sign of a weakness.
According to research, this is a misconception in Singapore/Asian cultures as mental illness is associated with the person as “weak”,  who gives up easily or does not work hard enough. This group of people are strong-oriented and expect that having a mental illness is something you can easily get over with.

2 / 38 participants agreed that people with mental illness (in general) bring harm. This is also a misconception. People with mental issues are often portrayed in media as serial killers, as opposed to real life. This negatively influences the viewers’ perspectives on mental illness.

9 / 38 participants do not know where to seek help for mental health issues.
I was quite taken aback by this significant number considering it is about 25% of the survey participants.

1 / 38 participants think that such labels are harmless.
5 / 38 participants do not seem to be sure?
According to research and observation, psychiatric name-calling contributes to the mental illness stigma.

From here I was able to gather my insights on the misconceptions of mental illness among Singaporeans.

In this section, I wanted to know how much people are aware of the stigma in Singapore. 

Most suggested that the main issue surrounding this matter is the stigma — about how mental illness is looked at in a negative light and discriminated. Survey participants are aware of the fear of being discriminated if they have a mental illness. It is associated with many misbeliefs and misunderstandings like psychotic tendencies, shame, weakness, laziness, lack of self-discipline.

Hence these are the first things that people visualise and come to mind with the word ‘mental illness’.

From this survey question, most survey participants indicated there should more awareness created. Most suggested talks by the government and schools, education on mental illnesses, making mental illness a widespread topic. Some have stated that maybe people should be treat each other in nicer ways, and be more empathetic.

In other words, survey participants indicate that knowledge and understanding about mental health is vital to lead a change in people’s attitude.

In summary:

The survey definitely has given me some insight to approach the matter from different points of view.
Through analysis from the survey, the causes of concerns are:

1. Lack of knowledge of mental illness & negative media influence  lack of compassion and understanding towards suffering of individuals →  discrimination and taboo of subject, unfair treatment

2. Not knowing where to find help if experiencing mental health issue–

Different ways to approach mental health issue:

Mental Health ⇄  People

5 + 1 TYPES OF AUDIENCE

1. People suffering from mental illnesses [intervention]
Relieve the stress and pressure they face / Educate about self-esteem

2. General public’s perception towards mental illness [prevention / intervention]
Educate / raise awareness about mental illness to develop understanding and empathy

3. Family / friends / caregivers of people who suffer from mental illnesses [intervention]
Relieve the stress and pressure they face taking care of the person / Educate about mental illness

4. Older generation / parents / youth / teenagers / children in general [prevention / intervention]
Educate / raise awareness about mental illness to develop understanding and empathy

5. Social service employees (social workers / therapists / psychologists) [prevention / intervention]

6. Combinations of the above

INVASION FEST. – Applied Illustration (Process and Final)


Main references



By Tatsuro Kiuchi

Kiuchi’s illustrations are very atmospheric with the careful use of light and shadow and colours. An atmospheric, alien-like dystopia setting would fit the alien invasion/end of the world theme.

Vintage comic books and novels illustrating space and sci-fi worlds have this unique colour scheme. The illustrations of the space pods, ruins and aliens are iconic.

By Shiaaan

My favorite illustrator from Singapore! I was always inspired by the intricate details of such illustrations. I decided to apply this style. I wanted to give more detail to sci-fi structure. Since it is also aliens/monsters, i thought the black lineart and details are suitable to make it more “real”.

DIGITAL PROCESS

BROCHURE  /POSTER MAP

Base sketch of the map, activites taking place.


Refined sketch


Colour exploration – reddish sky/moon/sun as a sign of new era/apocalpyse

FINAL POSTER DESIGN IN A3

Lowered the saturation of the colour palette for a more “dystopian” theme

Closeups

Watchtower with buffet and popcorn guy

 

Applaud for the arrival of the Supreme Leader

 

Mini arcade of Human Invaders

 

Showcase of human specimens collected from the Alien vs Humans war

 

Showcase of battleships

 

TICKET DRAFT


TICKETS (FINALISED)
Two variations

 

LOGO

Yes the supreme leader and its immense army of aliens is the main focus since it is the end of the human race.

COLLATERAL OUTCOMES

Tickets
Website homepage mockup
Popcorn packaging
Poster map

I had a lot of fun doing this project even though there were a lot of mockups. It was worth the effort in the end! I always thought illustrations in some form of branding was interesting and i’m happy i tried out for the first time! This is like the previous assignment which also got me interested in something new –editorial illustration.

As i like to incorporate illustration in most of the projects I am glad I took this module because I learnt new things and brainstorming/design methods that I did not know about and could be applied. Things such as 5×3 rule, dynamic compositions. I think during classes when other works are shown I get a lot of inspiration from there. I was also able to explore different painting styles digitally on Photoshop and Procreate. It was also very fun to think of concepts before the actual work, which makes each work unique by itself!

< Research

—-

ILLUSTRATION FOR DESIGNERS 
Academic Blog Links

1. Stylised Self-Portrait

2. Varoom Editorial Illustration
Research
Process & Final

3. Applied Illustration – INVASION FEST.
Research
Process & Final

INVASION FEST. – Applied Illustration (Research)

Oh man it’s the final project from this module. ;( For this assignment, we had to pick an event and based on it design a set of illustrations that can be applied! I was looking forward to this project and had many ideas in mind.

I wanted to avoid working on a realistic event and the idea of fictional events made me excited to start working..

– terrarium workshop
– miniature craft workshop
– halloween carnival
– slumber party
– demon’s victory day (end of the human race :’))

At first, I worked on the Halloween Carnival idea. But still i want to keep my options open because I wasn’t really interested in this idea either.

Ideation #1 – Halloween Carnival 

Every composition illustrates an activity or ride at the Halloween Carnival. I think this would help to make the illustration applied onto different items have some consistency. There were many possible items i was interested to add my illustrations to but i narrowed them down.

However, I discussed further with Lisa about other possible events I was interested, especially the Demon’s Victory Day event. It’s a day whereby demons celebrate their victory over humans. But thats only a rough idea and I decided to explore more on this event before making a choice. Also thought that maybe instead of demons/mythological creatures I could have aliens instead! Explored more of the context of this event and this is what I came up with.

Ideation #2 – Alien’s Victory Day 



Event name: Invasion Day

Human race has been banished!!

Attendants: Aliens
Celebrating the day aliens take over earth! (15 April 2090)

Activities taking place at the event:
1. Buffet
2. Watchtower
3. Welcoming the arrival of our Supreme Leader
4. Collection of human specimens on display
5. Showcase of space combat ships
6. Arcade <Human Invaders>
7. Theater with free popcorn

This is when humanity has fallen and aliens inhabited Earth. To celebrate this day, the alien populace welcomes the arrival of the Supreme Alien in its spaceship on a landing area during the carnival.

COLLATERALS:
1. Map of the event (brochure)
2. Ticket stubs
3. Website landing page
4. Popcorn packaging

My idea of the map includes the illustration of the whole event. Parts of the illustration will then be used for the other collaterals. Thus i think it would be important to plan out the composition for each mini applied illustration as well.

Base sketch of carnival map: 

> Process and Final

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ILLUSTRATION FOR DESIGNERS 
Academic Blog Links

1. Stylised Self-Portrait

2. Varoom Editorial Illustration
Research
Process & Final

3. Applied Illustration – INVASION FEST.
Research
Process & Final