Health Communication Posters – Process

After researching for health communication poster examples and coming up with some slogans, it’s time to start experimenting with some compositions and layouts of the poster, as well as deciding what content to put in. Some key points to note from the assignment brief include:

  • Graphic-driven
  • Slogan with the word “Zika”
  • Preventive measures

I decided to go for a clean and simple look for the poster, as I feel that it will look more professional that way, and is easy to understand, not complicated and also clear and concise. Here are some of the compositions that I played with.

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Concept 1-1
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Concept 1-2
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Concept 1-3
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Concept 1-4

Among these for concept 1, my favourite will still be 1-1 with everything centralised. This has a symmetrical overall composition and goes well with what I want – very clean and simple. The mosquito is the biggest, catching the attention of viewers, followed by the word “ZIKA” in red and big which gives the context of the poster, followed by the rest of the caption “THE THREAT IS REAL”, then a small paragraph talking about the worsening situation of Zika as well as the preventive measures as required on the assignment brief.

 

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Concept 2-1
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Concept 2-2
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Concept 2-3

Concept 2 uses the photo of a baby with microcephaly as that is the main concern regarding Zika, since most victims actually recover with no other concerns, except that expectant mothers who are infected have a chance of their baby having microcephaly – a disorder with abnormally small head of the baby. Hence, I decided to address this issue more than anything else. The picture shows the baby crying (to tug on the heartstrings and conscience of viewers) and a pair of hands cupping the baby’s head to emphasize the small size. It is then coupled with smaller text that describes the danger and possibility of microcephaly, followed by preventive measures.

Some feedback I got from the sharing session included:

  • Concept 1 did not even look like any threat
  • Try having the mosquito facing the viewers to make them feel the threat
  • Reflecting the audience into the eyes of the mosquito?
  • Concept 2 what’s the point of cupping the head, why not the hands do something like overturning pails to prevent the danger?

Along the way of doing this project there were also random ideas that came to my head:

  • newspaper collage of Zika-related news as a background for the poster
  • warning strips / cordon
  • smashed mosquito
  • dented object to represent deformed head
  • price tag on hospital bed (ikea kind of signboard?)

 

Then, I moved on to coming up with other designs and compositions.

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Concept 3

For this concept, I only came up with one design to find out the feedback of the idea before focusing on how it can be arranged. This is a very concept from everything else that I had. I wanted to come up with something different from everything that I have seen, to make a poster that looks cheerful on the first look and feels more contradicting to the original intended message. I decided to go abstract and using illustrations style, to use balloons to represent children, with a smaller, dented one to represent a child with microcephaly. The colors are all pastel to give a comfortable and cheerful tone to it, with the balloons all flying up high in the sky to show how kids have a bright future ahead of them, everything is very high spirited etc. The dented balloon is then lower, making it obvious that this “child” is less fortunate and might even have a shorter life than other children. I then use the came color for the slogan and the dented balloon to put in the context and also lead the eye.

Nonetheless, this was not well understood, and some feedback included that the color palette made everything hard to see, the overall mood feels too much like a party and not suitable for this case.

 

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Concept 4-1
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Concept 4-2
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Concept 4-3
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Concept 4-4
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Concept 4-5

For concept 4, it is spun off concept 1, where I decided to follow the feedback by using the image of a mosquito facing the viewer to heighten the threat. It is also the concept that I am likely to stick to. 4-1 is the original one that was created, followed by the rest to experiment and play with various compositions. Initially, I couldn’t find a high res photo that was clear and scary enough to be appropriate for use, and thought of doing an illustration manually. Nonetheless, what makes a mosquito actually look scary is the amount of details on it. An illustration would make it look cartoon-like and the effect of threat would definitely not be there. After searching for a long time, I came across an image that seemed suitable. I decided to make it black and white to give the feeling that it is very solemn and serious, further enhancing the idea of threat. Although it is not an Aedes mosquito, it cannot be told as after close examining, an Aedes mosquito’s striped legs only has the stripes across the joints and lower parts of the legs, which cannot be seen in the poster. I decided to put the eyes near the middle of the poster to catch the attention of viewers, and also the slogan in red to make it pop. The content of the paragraph is the same as concept 1, just playing with the alignment and arrangement. I was also told that the text should be on the left, where the mouth of the mosquito acts as a line that directs the vision downwards. 4-3 to 4-5 are mainly playing around with the captions to see what kind of effects I can get from different effects and fonts, sizes, etc. Ultimately, I am still most pleased with 4-2. It is almost the same as 4-1, but paying more attention to the text and the alignment of the captions. It fits into what I wanted all along, something that is clean, simple, clear and concise and has an impact, rather than throwing in all kinds of ideas and experiments which to me makes it look very messy and unpolished, be it the visual outcome or the thoughts thrown into it. Somehow, I feel that having a simple and clean design emphasizes the clarity and effort of thoughts behind organising the entire layout, rather than the lack of it by choosing the easier way out. One other additional touch that I am considering to do is to make the eyes reflective to allow the viewers to see themselves as the next targets.

Lastly, there seems to be some unofficial changes to the assignment brief just for the record to remind myself, that there is no longer a need for the word “Zika”and preventive measures to be included in the poster. Nonetheless, I would most likely stick to the original requirements of the assignment as a challenge to myself, and also because I believe that is the “correct” way of working in this field, to try my best to adhere to the requirements and needs of my client! šŸ˜€

Health Communication Posters – Research

This is the second assignment on Visual Communications, and this time on Health Communication Posters, particularly targeting the issue of Zika.

As a start, I started to look for various health communication posters which appealed to me more than the rest of them out there, and here they are:

eg1
Something provocative to catch attention of viewers
eg2
Literal, graphic content to arouse interest
eg3
A creative use of props to bring across a clear message
eg4
Clean and eye-catching with a rough finish
eg5
Informative, kept it here as a way to organise information
eg6
In-your-face kind of message
eg7
Another informative example

The next step would be come out with slogans, which I have come up with the following:

  • “Zika – Everyone’s at risk.”
  • “Zika – The threat is real.”
  • “Zika – To be safe than sorry.”
  • “Protect your loved ones from Zika.”
  • “Fighting Zika together.”
  • “Zika 101”

Nonetheless, these slogans seem a little cliche, and might not arouse enough interest or catch the attention of viewers. I will be looking out for more inspirations and maybe tweak them along the way.

Therapeutic Graphics – Final

Moving on from last week, I have decided to focus on the sapling design as I was more keen towards it as compared to the one with water droplets. Nonetheless, there were many feedback and considerations taken in, allowing me to tweak my design further before finalising it.

Based on the previous design, I have maintained the concept of transparent and opaque composition, but decided to change some of the elements shown inside.

FInal Design
FInal Design – To be done on translucent decal.

The main subject, the sapling, has been changed to sunflowers. The sapling image was not as clear to audiences, and the roots did not seem to be well received. As such, I decided to replace it with sunflowers. Initially I used one sunflower, but it seemed kind of lonely and did not bring out the message of happiness and warmth as a sunflower should. Two sunflowers were then used to counter this issue, rotated and overlapped slightly to give more dimension despite being a silhouette.

The silhouette of the butterflies were also changed as the previous ones did not look like butterflies to most people. This brought up the issue of clarity, even though my initial idea was to make use of different profiles of butterflies to give movements. This time round, I have made use simple butterfly shapes in different sizes and orientation to help bring some movement into the design, and remain clear as well. This combination of flowers and butterflies would then give a positive vibe of nature.

After these two elements were settled, I felt that the design was still kind of flat and lacked interest and a focal point. I then added in the strips of curved lines which had different thickness, converging towards the right “behind” the sunflowers. This silhouette of the lines seemed to help guide the eyes towards the sunflowers and provided movement as they move from a broad layout to a converging point.

Last but not least, the background was chosen to be a lush green spread of small leaves. This is also inspired by how InnisfreeĀ typically has a wall of leaves behind their counter, which gives a relaxing feel of nature and soothing to the eyes.Ā First of all, this background is in one general color, making it plain and simple enough to be contrasted against the transparent elements which will reflect the bustling city colors. Second, this wide background of greenery fitted the nature theme well, and provides a soothing and relaxing resting spot for the eyes, yet not steal the limelight from the main cutouts.

Overall, this finalised design aims to bring about a feeling of warmth, happiness, calm, yet along with a bit of energy brought about by the movement and bold lines. A blend between simplicity and details also aims to bring a clear image to the eyes, simple enough for fast understanding, detailed enough to make out the elements. If it was to be translated into a series, the bold lines could make the connection between different panels, providing a flow while keeping the background consistent. The overall effect would then have a very broad and lush greenery which could be seen as an entire wall of leaves or a garden. Keeping the simplicity and style of the cutouts constant, other panels could display more variations of flora and fauna.

 

Therapeutic Graphics – Research 2

After sharingĀ the three concepts that I had come up with last week, I have received various feedback from the class and our tutor Michael. The feedback has helped me see pointers that I could not, and also help me focus on what can be done or should be done to improve my designs.

Among the three designs, I have decided to continue exploring the first two that I came up with, namely the one with a sapling, and the one with water droplets. I have decided to drop the idea of the farm as it did not seem as good an idea as the other two, thus deciding to focus more time on improving these two. The farm design seemed more suitable for kids, and might not work as well to other age groups, even though the concept of cuteness is applicable, audiences might not receive the same message as I have intended.

So, this is the next stage where I start to think more about the composition and color choices.

Sap1
Design 1 – Sapling

This is based on my first concept, the one with a sapling. As planned, I decided to go with the contrast of opacity, playing with transparent and opaque parts. I have shifted the sapling towards the right one third of the composition, following the rule of thirds which the eye focuses. Different postures of the two butterflies also serve to add more motion to the design, giving it more life despite the simple design and colors. I have chosen to use a gradient of green and blue as these colors largely symbolises nature, such as the sky and grass. The colors also come in a more pastel shade for it to feel more comfortable and soft. These plain background would also serve to work well against the background, which would be a myriad of colors as the bridge is surrounded by buildings, roads, trees and so on.

 

WD1
Design 2 – Water drops

This design is based on my second composition, the water droplets and the ripples effect. This design more be more towards a calm and tranquil mood, thus the choice of white and blue, which are very clean and soothing colors. The main background is actually translucent, which allows the environment to fill up the background, yet the colors and images from the environment would be blurred. This allows the design to be visible, yet not just a plain flat image. The ripples are then made to be transparent, as this seems to be the “focus” of the design. As viewers walk along the bridge or move along the travellator, the background would then change accordingly, making it seem as though the ripples are moving, giving the design more dynamics and visual interest. I have decided to keep the entire composition centralised as opposed to the first design, as I felt the it seem more complete being right in the middle. The ripples would radiate from the middle of the composition, making the design well balanced and give an idea of “wholeness”, along with the spherical shapes of the droplets.

Therapeutic Graphics – Research

On the first day of school, 8th August, we went on a visit to Ng Teng Fong hospital, and were briefed to come out with a two dimensional therapeutic graphic to be placed along a bridge which connects Tower A clinics to Tower B wards.

With the luxury of staying in the west, I went back there for more observations on Saturday, 13th August. I wanted to see if there were any difference in the crowd as well as the environment there between a weekday and a weekend, and also between a morning and an afternoon. The crowd would determine the groups of audiences that my design has to cater to, while the environment would give me a clue of what would work and what might not.

With the observations, I then generated some considerations that I had in mind. This considerations would then bring me forward in coming out with concepts that I deem therapeutic and appropriate for use there.

One key consideration that changed my idea of the designs was the sunlight. Initially, I wanted to have a transparent design where the sunlight can project the image onto the ground. However, I noticed that the sunlight there was not very strong, and did not have a very low angle that can project the image large enough onto the ground, thus I decided to change the idea and work towards another direction. Another would be the viewing time, which is short of about two seconds on the travelator, which means my concepts have to be clear, concise, and visible.

[ Observations > Considerations > Concepts / Themes ]

Mindmap for Project 1
Mindmap for Project 1

 

After coming up with the mindmap, it was simpler to understand what direction I would be heading towards. I went online to search for ideas of therapeutic graphics and pictures with a healing element, and most of them had the idea of “nature” in them.

Vastness
Vastness of the sea and horizon
Water ripple and leaves
A sapling and ripples

 

The following are three main concepts that I came up with after the considerations and references.

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Concept 1 – Sapling

The first one makes use of the light and surrounding elements to play with the contrast of opacity. The top portion would be an opaque background with transparent graphics of a sapling and a butterfly, whereas the bottom portion would be an opaque root against a transparent background. This concept uses the surroundings to fill up the image, giving the design more dynamics. The sapling would symbolise growth and recovery, with the butterfly serving to enhance the experience by sort of providing some movement and “smell”.

 

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Concept 2 – Water droplets

The second is similar in that it uses the idea of opacity. The top portion would feature a translucent background, while the bottom is opaque. The water droplets are opaque as well, leaving ripples transparent only. This would allow the ripples to “move” as the audience move along the bridge as the background surroundings would change along the movement. I wanted to give a feeling of tranquility of a calm water surface, as well as the vibrancy of the ripples. The water droplets also symbolises “wholeness” as water droplets tend to the form of a sphere by itself.

 

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Concept 3 – Cute farm

Lastly, in my third concept, I decided to change a point of view and have a different idea altogether. While coming up with concepts for the first two, I had a random idea that struck me, which is that basically almost anything cute would help to liven up somebody’s mood. I wanted to use the idea of “cuteness” to make people more happy and relaxed, and not forgetting some sort of therapeutic elements in it. I decided to come up with a farm, where a farm is largely related to being a place for retirement, for relaxation. I did it as a sticker / decal style to have some sort of a child-like touch to it, where the lines are black and bold and have a ring of white space around it. Very simple shapes and objects make up this composition to make it simple to view despite having more objects in it.

Subsequent improvements on these concepts would include how to make these compositions interesting despite having a simple design as well as the choice of color use.

Traces – Artist Statement and Reflection

Individual Artist Statement

The artists use videos and physical space to highlight the concerns on the Fukushima nuclear disaster. Employing the appropriation of footages and news reports on the nuclear meltdown, the artists manipulate the materials by clustering similar news reports in chronological order to recap on what happened in 2011. Drawing reference from “Don’t Follow The Wind (2015), the installation portrays a deserted Japanese home left the same as it was before the evacuation, bringing attention to the ongoing situation that the Japanese are facing. In addition, the space was decorated with overgrown plants, contrasting the relationship between mankind and nature over time.

Individual Reflections

Through this project, I enjoyed myself very much, pushing the limits of what I thought I couldn’t achieve. Initially, upon receiving the project brief, I was kind of lost as to what I was supposed to do and what I should do. As usual, Yi Wen, Debbie and I decided to work together, more brains and resources should be able to come up with something better. We all came up with various different ideas, ranging from various different mediums and topics. I wanted to create an immersive space as I felt that it is most representative of 4D, to sort of capture time and space. I felt that immersive space would appeal more to audiences also by providing a richer experience that could appeal to different senses. On the other hand, the issue was how to carry it out.

Through our brainstorming process, we then came across this issue of Fukushima, and that struck us to come up with our installation where we slowly added in the details that we wanted. We took pretty long to settle on one idea, which was quite worrying at the start. However, once we settled down on this, all three of us were quite focused on the topic and progress was pretty good.

Nonetheless, execution was definitely not a smooth journey. We basically had hiccups wherever there could possibly be a hiccup. For location booking, we went between Candy and Bharat several times, as both kept telling us to check with the other, until we finally confirmed that there are no lessons and we could book the critique room at B1-13. Then, ADM told us that we could not loan any projectors as they have loaned out everything. We tried calling other schools in NTU, but they did not allow loaning to students not taking their courses. We even went to the extreme of wanting to rent for the installation, before we finally contacted a senior who was fortunately able to help us loan from the non-foundation year side of the equipments department. This was a heart attack as without the projector, our project was so much less as the video would play a very important role. We also spent a lot of time on the set decoration, making our own partition so huge it required all three of us to move it at the same time, making a bed frame from scratch and the list goes on.

Nonetheless, the completion was so satisfying it felt sad for us to take it down after the critique. Not just me, but in fact all three of us. Our efforts could be seen through the small little details in the installation, and we had so much feels for it we felt so reluctant to take it all down after we ended. Personally, I felt that this was a really enriching experience. I never thought that we, or maybe just me, could achieve something like that. I never thought we could really come up with a well-done installation like how we see them when professional artists do it. Although far from being perfect, I was really amazed at what the three of us had achieved. This was definitely the fruit of our effort and this team effort truly cannot be expressed through words. I am so glad to be able to work so well with this two other girls, to come up with something that we couldn’t have achieved without the effort of every single one of us.

This project had really pushed the limits of myself, allowing me to come up with the installation that I felt was impossible from the start of the semester when we were first told about installations. Though there were some mishaps along the way, overall i enjoyed this project a lot. I have definitely benefited from this than I thought I would. If I, or we, had more time and resources, I am sure our teamwork and effort can make this installation even more perfect, working on the flaws stated during the critique session.

Zine

In this project, we design a printed document, a zine, that we can showcase almost anything we want to, from past works to photography. For me, I chose to display some of my preferred works, ranging from digital works done in 2D modules, to painting done for Foundation Drawing, and even works done before ADM life started.

Initially, my idea was to come up with something like a catalog for a gallery, something clean and classy and minimalist. I also considered to make the entire zineĀ in monochrome, showcasing only my works done in black and white, to further enhance the idea of minimalist and classy. I went to check out several designs, in particular from Apple and Samsung, two big technological giants well known to have been producing classy and sleek gadgets like the Apple iPhone, iPad, or the Samsung Galaxy series.

The Apple website
The Apple website
The Samsung website
The Samsung website

I found out that both Apple and Samsung made their website very classy in similar ways. First, it was the plain white background with very simplistic font, that makes the entire composition very clean and sharp. Next, the subjects – the gadgets and phones, were very precisely trimmed and placed in place with sufficient empty space, to make the subject stand out and have enough empty space to accentuate their elegance and class. However, this point might not be applicable to my design as my subjects were not 3D objects, and tend to have a background, making such cropping inapplicable. Nonetheless, this was a good start in understanding how to compose my “clean” and “classy” zine.

I also researched on the websites of the National Design Centre, and National Museum of Singapore, since I wanted my zine to look like a catalog for a gallery or exhibition, thus this two might be a good platform that is more relevant to my design.

The National Design Centre website
The National Design Centre website
The National Museum of Singapore website
The National Museum of Singapore website

SImilar to Apple and Samsung, they had very plain and light coloured background, which looks clean and classy. Both website also uses very plain fonts, with very neat and orderly arrangement of their elements. I noticed that the logos of this two websites were slightly more unique, with the logo of the National Design Centre incorporating words into part of the logo, and the asymmetrical arrangement of NMS for the National Museum. I thought through how I could incorporate English into Chinese strokes for my cover page, but ultimately giving up the idea to keep things very minimalist. I also decided to use asymmetrical arrangement in some of my layout, similar to the National Museum logo and also in line with a design principle, which talks about repetition and something out of the norm to draw attention.

While shopping, I chanced upon another idea for my zine, after seeing how MUJI, a japanese shop actually has a very calm and “zen” feeling to it. This was another direction I could go for! With shopping physically there and going online to their website, I found out I like their design quite a lot.

The MUJI shop
The MUJI shop
The MUJI website
The MUJI website

MUJI typically uses 2 colours in their entire theme – a dark red, and a light brown. These colours worked well together to give a warm, cosy and comfortable feeling, yet not compromising on its elegance and class. I also like how they use a single Chinese / Japanese word to classify and label their products. I felt that this could be a possible way to classify my works. Slowly, I decided to move my design towards a “MUJI” feel, a slightly more Japanese, cosy and comfortable design, tied in with the classy and spacious feeling of Apple and Samsung.

With these in mind, I started looking through my past works and sieved out some of the better ones that I would like to showcase in my zine. These included 2D projects since semester one like Lines, Rhymes, Ego, Point of View, and also drawings and paintings in both wet and dry mediums, from my portfolio and Foundation Drawing module.

Here is how my zine looks like, as a finalised printout, in page order (borders are only here to define the area printed due to white background):
Page 1Page 2-3Page 4-5Page 6-7Page 8I made use of the dark red and light brown colour combination as a main theme for my zine, giving a warm and comfortable tone due to their warm nature. I then used the “one chinese word” element from MUJI, which in my case, i chose to find them in Japanese. I translated the words I wanted into Japanese on google translate, and tried to use those that could be in Chinese characters, particularly, traditional Chinese characters. The existence of these words in both Japanese and traditional Chinese seemed like a good match to me, as it ties in well with the Japanese style I wanted, and also understandable in Chinese to most locals. As such, I categorised my pages according to a defining type they belong to, namely “composition”, “sketch” and “colour”, which translates to ē»“(Ꞅ) or (Ꞅ)造, (ē»˜)ē”», and č‰²(彩). I then named the entire zine as č®¾č®”, or Sekkei in Japanese, meaning design.

On the cover page, the title was along one-third of the layout, while the “Lines” strips were started at the two-third in response to the rule of thirds. The word “design” and the strips were also slightly misplaced left / right to eliminate symmetry. I also added my two main colours into the Chinese words which had similar strokes on one side. The shadows of the strips were also in the same colour, and given that order to not have symmetry as well.

On the second page onwards, the dark red was used as the titles to the works, as it was more eye-catching, while the light brown subtly tells of what medium the work was done in. On the right hand side of every spread, there would be a dark red tab to tell of the category of the works, similar to the one-character design of MUJI. The second page shows the “Rhymes” composition being cropped out and taking a large portion of the page, similar to the design idea of Apple and Samsung.

On the third page, the “Ego” composition was arranged in a asymmetrical way similar to the logo of the National Museum, and the shapes were all round. This gives repetition and something out of the norm based on arrangement and size. The arrangement and size different also brings in something of interest to catch the audience’s attention, and provides more movement in the layout.

On page four and five, the two sketches merges to form “one” person, which I felt was an interesting way to display these two different but similarly styled sketches, especially when these two superheroes are going to face-off in an upcoming movie, Captain America – Civil War. There was also an emphasis on white spaces around them, with entirely nothing else apart from the caption, to bring full attention to the work done.

On page six, the hexagons work together with little gaps in between to show a coherent composition like a bee hive. then, one piece is removed from the composition to have an interesting point, and I felt that the area was just nice to insert the captions, giving the whole page a clean and neat arrangement without being too boring.

On page seven, the two paintings are misaligned such that the top painting seems to hang over the bottom one, having a cantilevered position gives it movement to make the composition interesting.

The back cover shows the extension of the strips from the front cover, as well as details about myself, to give more information and context of what the works are about and who the artist is. Social contacts are also provided so that interested audience could view more works and even contact the artist for queries or request for works.

With this, the zine is completed! I personally found it quite interesting to carry out this project, to look through all the works I have done, bringing back all the good (and bad) memories as well as reflecting back to see progress and improvements, and changes in style over time. It was also interesting to try to understand how to make the layout interesting and make everything aesthetically pleasing, to both the audience and myself.

 

 

Point of View

In this project, I explore how an item is portrayed or seen from the point of view of different objects. This is interesting as I start to think of random stuffs and how they view the same thing differently, which is something that not everyone will do normally.

I randomly picked an item, and came up with “shirt”. In this case, “shirt” refers to not just a formal buttoned shirt, but more of tops in general. After coming up with the main subject of focus, I started brainstorming for other objects that could view “shirt”, and what they felt a shirt might be to them. Here’s the list that I generated, and the sixĀ in blue made it to the finals, with a little bit of edits –

  1. A shirt from the point of view of a hanger is a warm embrace.
  2. A shirt from the point of view of a designer is a canvas.
  3. A shirt from the point of view of a fashion mall is money.
  4. A shirt from the point of view of an African kid is hope.
  5. A shirt from the point of view of a bamboo pole is burden.
  6. A shirt from the point of view of a pair of bottoms is frenemy.
  7. A shirt from the point of view of a chair is a jacket.
  8. A shirt from the point of view of the Hulk is a rag.
  9. A shirt from the point of view of a beach-goer is a redundant / wardrobe malfunction.
  10. A shirt from the point of view of a soldier is refreshment.
  11. A shirt from the point of view of a mum is a chore.
  12. A shirt from the point of view of a body is security.
  13. A shirt from the point of view of a model is reputation / fame. / popularity
  14. A shirt from the point of view of a cat is a bed.
  15. A shirt from the point of view of a wallet is depressing.
  16. A shirt from the point of view of a loose thread is farewell.
  17. A shirt from the point of view of a bird is a toilet.
  18. A shirt from the point of view of an interviewer is judgement.

Next, was to think of how to carry it out. Usually for 2D projects, I have been doing them hands-on, using paints, paper, or even exploring a variety of materials to play with texture and space, making the subjects 3D. This time round, we were advised to keep it 2D, and thus I decided to explore and improve on something I have been weak at – Photoshop. I am very bad at photoshop as I only started using it in university, and thus I tend to try to avoid using it for projects but to do something that I am more confident and comfortable with, doodling with pens and pencils, making things hands-on instead of digital. I decided to use mainly photography, but making the entire composition black and white in general, then add vibrant colors to enhance the subject, which is usually the shirt itself. This technique is only widely known as color splash, and here are some examples that I have came across –

3 1 2

This technique helps to bring attention to the colored subject immediately, with the black and white subtle background filling in the rest of the details to complete the picture. I find this technique very interesting, and thus decided to employ it in my project. So here’s my final 6 compositions –

A SHIRT FROM THE POINT OF VIEW OF A POOR AFRICAN KID IS HOPE.

A SHIRT FROM THE POINT OF VIEW OF A POOR AFRICAN KID IS HOPE.
A SHIRT FROM THE POINT OF VIEW OF A POOR AFRICAN KID IS HOPE.

In this composition, I placed a topless African kid at the bottom right corner, in black and white to show how he seems to be neglected, his life has a lack of colors, seems dull and sad, but not without realizing that hopeful look in his eyes. I then placed a shirt at the top right corner, disguised as a kite as suggested by the frame and string. A kite seems like a source of happiness for kids, and I wanted to portray the shirt as a form of hope and happiness for this shirtless African kid, thus putting it against a sky that is overlayed with vibrant colors of the rainbow, which slowly recedes to black and white towards the kid. This shows a contrast between black and white as compared to colors, as well as the contrast between the two moods.

 

A SHIRT FROM THE POINT OF VIEW OF A BEACH-GOER IS WARDROBE MALFUNCTION.

A SHIRT FROM THE POINT OF VIEW OF A BEACH-GOER IS WARDROBE MALFUNCTION.
A SHIRT FROM THE POINT OF VIEW OF A BEACH-GOER IS WARDROBE MALFUNCTION.

In this composition, I portrayed a man well-dress in a blazer holding a surfboard. To him, the shirt is redundant and does not serve its function a the shirt will get wet if he surfboards in that outfit. As such, it is a wardrobe malfunction. His blazer is overlayed with a warm pink to suggest the warmth of the beach, yet not too red to prevent stealing all the attention towards the blazer alone. He is placed along one third of the picture, with a horizontally placed surfboard to balance out the composition. On the other vertical one third, 2 surfboarders are placed in the background to juxtapose the difference between being topless and wearing the blazer. This composition was fun to make as the initial portrait of the man in blazer at the beach was a narrower portrait, and I had to clone the background out to make it seem natural and show the vastness of the beach as well. His shadows were extended and the surfboard added in, in place of a pair of shoes he was holding initially. His belt was also removed and I made his tee longer, all to remove the initial portrayal where he looked like a model for a beach photoshoot as seen below.

Initial picture of the subject
Initial picture of the subject

 

A SHIRT FROM THE POINT OF VIEW OF A CAT IS A BED.

A SHIRT FROM THE POINT OF VIEW OF A CAT IS A BED.
A SHIRT FROM THE POINT OF VIEW OF A CAT IS A BED.

Cats always like to snuggle in the shirts of its owner, often curling up on these small cosy areas instead of enjoying the large beds. Similarly to the previous composition, the cat and shirt is placed towards one third of the picture, with only the shirt in color. The shirt is blue to signify a sense of serenity and calmness associated with sleeping and resting, and the shirt is placed on another fabric which is typical of bedsheet and blankets. This shows the emphasis of how the cat sleeps on the shirt, instead of on the bed. In the composition, the sourcing of cats to be in a similar angle of shot as the shirt was key, to make the image look more real instead if incoherence because of different angles. Then, shadow was added to the cat, in a similar way to the shirt’s shadow to have consistency. I also experimentedĀ to control the feathering edge of masking the image, to preserve the soft and furry texture of the cat which does not make him look like he is superimposed onto the shirt.

 

A SHIRT FROM THE POINT OF VIEW OF A DESIGNER IS A CANVAS.

A SHIRT FROM THE POINT OF VIEW OF A DESIGNER IS A CANVAS.
A SHIRT FROM THE POINT OF VIEW OF A DESIGNER IS A CANVAS.

This statement works in 2 ways! One, a designer would want to make his/her own shirt, and thus the shirt would be like a canvas to him/her. Two, even when a designer does not make his/her shirt a canvas, very often while painting and drawing, the paints get onto the shirt, making it seem like a canvas after all! In this composition, I put a series of plain white shirts on mannequins and the third shirt is slightly cropped out, suggesting a continuing row of shirts. Then, I put splashes of paint over these shirts, in the basic colors of red, yellow and blue, which overlapped to create areas of purple and orange. The background is a very raw concrete feel to give the “industrial” look which many studios nowadays take after.

 

A SHIRT FROM THE POINT OF VIEW OF A FASHION MALL IS MONEY.

A SHIRT FROM THE POINT OF VIEW OF A FASHION MALL IS MONEY.
A SHIRT FROM THE POINT OF VIEW OF A FASHION MALL IS MONEY.

Who doesn’t know shopping malls make a huge load of money out from your pockets, with the cost of shirts being really low overseas and the prices being ridiculously high here? Yes, to fashion malls, a shirt is money! As such, I used a photograph of a display window with several mannequins, then cropped out their shirts and underlayed with trademark american dollar bills. The dollar bills are then tinted with the 3 basic colors of red, yellow and blue, with green added in between. This is to show like how this shirts are made of money, OUR MONEY.

 

A SHIRT FROM THE POINT OF VIEW OF A MODEL IS FAME.

A SHIRT FROM THE POINT OF VIEW OF A MODEL IS FAME.
A SHIRT FROM THE POINT OF VIEW OF A MODEL IS FAME.

Last but not least, this is one of my favourite compositions, as it has a very trendy and local feel to it. It is also probablyĀ the most tedious composition in this project. To models, it seems like their #ootd, or “outfit of the day” is very important to them, as it in turns determines the number of “likes” they get, their reputation and fame. Sometimes these #ootd shots are also advertisements or sponsored apparels, making it even more important to ride on their reputation and fame. To begin, I took quite a number of #ootd shots of a local model, and then rearranged and repeated them in tiles in the background to create a messy yet homogeneous backdrop. I took screenshots of these #ootd shots from instagram, then had to crop them out, and arrange them neatly in squares before duplicating, flipping and rearranging them so that they look slightly different. Then, I put over a transparent layer of a facebook’s “like” button, before adding colors of the rainbow to this button to make it stand out from the black and white background. This composition is also tricky in that the size of the tiles mattered, as they had to be small to be subtle as a consistent background, yet big enough to tell the subject in the background, which is a focus of #ootd shots with a shirt. As such, it was fun experimenting with different sizes, overlaying with different colors and trying to see which is the nicest, to me at least.

With that, Point of View project is done, so what’s your point of view of a shirt?

Assignment 2 – Sound and Image

In task 1 that I haven chosen, I will be telling 2 stories using nothing but sound effects. The genres I have chosen are “War” and “Horror”.

The first genre that I chose was “War”. “War” came to mind immediately because it has very distinct sounds that make it sound like war – all sorts of guns firing, explosions, bullets, grenades – all these make up a basic structure for “war”. Nonetheless, with all these typical sounds making up a war scenario, it might sound repetitive and cliche, and even to the extent of boring and a drag if the sounds simply keep repeating. I watched several snippets of war scenes on youtube, including Lone Survivor, and also TaeGukGi : The Brotherhood of War, and listed out the sounds that I wanted for my project.

Above is the Lone Survivor, and below,Ā TaeGukGi : The Brotherhood of War.

Key ideas for "War"
Key ideas for “War”
Sounds used for "War"
Sounds used for “War”

For my scenario, it goes like this:

“A bunch of soldiers were walking through a sandy terrain, when suddenly they heard guns firing. They hastened their steps to find cover, cocked their weapons and returned fire. It was distinct that the enemies and strong fire power, with continuous firing from different weapons. Bullets drift past and ricocheted, until the protagonist gets shot. As he witness he comrades go down, he tosses a grenade over towards the enemies. The firefight continues and he runs out of ammo, when a sudden explosion hitĀ so near he was deafened by the ringing in his ears. With no ammo to fight back, he heard footsteps inching near. The last thing he saw, was a machine gun pointed at his face…”

 

Next genre was “Horror”. To me, I like “horror” as creepy, psychotic, and those that sends chill down your spine, instead of simple jump scares. Jump scares do work, but seem to have little substance to it, and doesn’t give a lingering scare like scary storylines do. As such, I started to imagine a scenario and pulling out bits and pieces of memories of horror films and some creativity instead of referring to existing ones.

Key ideas for "Horror"
Key ideas for “Horror”
Sounds used for "Horror"
Sounds used for “Horror”

Here’s how it goes:

“It was a stormy evening, where she drove past and stopped at a house for shelter, hoping the rain would subside before she continues. She walks fast across the puddles, and knock on the wooden door. There seems to be no response, until the door squeaks open with an eerie crack. She walks in, with her heels hitting the wooden floor. It seems deserted to her, with mice running along the edges of the room. All of a sudden, she feels a knife stabbed into her from behind, she could not make a sound. Warm blood gushed out together with the exit of the blade, as she fell to the ground motionless. In the kitchen, a man with bloodstained hands and shirt sharpens his knife in the gracefulness of that traditional chinese love song, waiting for his next victim… ꈑē­‰ē€ä½ å›žę„…

 

Most of the sound effects for both scenarios are gotten from youtube clips, and because of that, the volumes varied greatly. Quite a substantial portion of time was spent on adjusting the volumes and making use of the volumes to create a more dynamic and 3D space.

One problem faced was during the production of the scenarios, my Premiere Pro crashed and could not launch half of the time. I tried all methods of resolving that I managed to find online, updating video driver, renaming files, but all to no avail. It was on/off and this affected the time taken a lot.

Another challenge is to tell a proper story without the help of visuals. With visuals, silences could help tell what was happening but without, it creates a suspense. As such, I could not leave too much silences or else the sounds would scenarios would sound very vague.

Nonetheless, the making of this project was fun and interesting, and allowed a lot of creativity and freedom in the building up of the scenarios, as well as how individuals can have a slight variation in interpreting the sounds heard.

Typographic Portraits

In this assignment, we were supposed to portray our names using an object or description.

First of all, I started by listing out a list of objects that I could be, things that were representative of me. This list included being a log, a goldfish, a sponge, being chubby, being heavy (whale? whale-son?), being boring (linking back to being a log?), being easy-going (water?), being stubborn (rock?), a radio, and also a vase.

After which I started coming out with random doodles that came to mind from this list of words.

Initial ideas
Initial ideas

After that, I shortlisted 6 of them (log, goldfish, vase, rock, sponge, and water) which was the initial assignment deliverables. After the requirements drop to 4 pieces of deliverables, I decided to drop the idea of goldfish and water.

 

Here are the completed pieces, as well as some of the more interesting processes.

The first one would be the vase. I chose to portray myself as a vase because when people call you a vase, they mean that you are a bimbo and have no substance. On the contrary, I believe I have substance and would want to show it, thus making a vase to play with its meaning.

My name is Wil, and I am a Vase.
My name is Wil, and I am a Vase.

This was done by painting ultramarine blue watercolor onto white paper, before cutting them out and sticking them onto black paper. This idea of using chinese ceramic designs came to mind immediately upon thinking about vases, probably because of learning Asian art history in another module.

A Qing dynasty pottery.
A Qing dynasty pottery.

After my painting was done, I added a layer of transparency sheet (those used on OHP in primary schools) over the vases to give a glossy effect, secured by tiny little pieces of double sided tape as it would be visible if attached using glue or bigger pieces of tape. This makes the vase closer to reality, also bringing out the contrast between the white vases and black background, the glossy vases and matte background.

Transparency sheet to add gloss to the vases.
Transparency sheet to add gloss to the vases.

 

My second piece would be the log. I chose a log as for several reasons. First, I sleep like a log, I can easily sleep more than 12 hours a day without getting woken up by anything. Second, I’m a “block of wood” like a piece of log, I don’t get hints easily and am kind of oblivious to things sometimes.

My name is WILSON, and I am a Log.
My name is WILSON, and I am a Log.

This was made mainly by using blu-tac. First, I pressed blu-tac onto a piece of paper outlined with my name. The blu-tac is pressed hard to make it thin so that it will not be too heavy, and then after that pushed along the sides using a ruler to make sure the edges are clean.

Pressing blu-tac onto paper.
Pressing blu-tac onto paper.

The bark of a tree have texture of long and short lines, deep and shallow. I decided to simplify these lines into straighter lines, which is carved onto the blu-tac by pressing the width of a metal ruler on it, and also scratching with the corner of the ruler. My research on recreating tree bark only showed how to do so using wall paint and clay, as well as epoxy, which were either difficult or heavy, thus my choice of blu-tac.

Tree bark texture
Tree bark texture
Recreating the texture
Recreating the texture
Texture on close-up, at an angle
Texture on close-up, at an angle
The colored texture under light
The colored texture under light

After the bulk of it was done, I painted acrylic over them, using a mixture of burnt sienna and black to make it a darker brown which is less red. I also brushed in patches of sap green over some areas to simulate algae, but is not obvious unless viewed very closely. I then cut them out, stick on a piece of transparency which is rolled into a semi-circular cylinder to allow it to stand out like half of a log. The background is painted randomly with watercolor to allow the transparent layers of leaves to overlap. The entire composition revolved around the use of yellow to brown colors to have a more harmonious color scheme.

 

Next up is a rock. I chose to portray myself as a rock because at times I tend to be very stubborn, unwilling to budge just like a rock. Once I set my mind on a decision, it is unlikely for me to change my mind.

My name is Wil, and I am a Rock.
My name is Wil, and I am a Rock.

This too, is done mainly using blu-tac. This only required pressing the blu-tac only a piece of paper, but varying amounts of blu-tac were used across the words to give differing thickness and uneven surface, just like rocks. Some parts were pressed harder onto the paper, while some parts were pinched to give a sharper ridge.

Initial layout of blu-tac
Initial layout of blu-tac

After which, white and black acrylic were jabbed onto the product while the paint was wet, creating varying shades of grey and black. The border of the rocks were initially left out because the brush could not reach them, but turns out to be a good way of bringing out the words to make them clearer, thus left white. The jabbing of the brush with stiff bristles also created more texture on the rocks as the bristles made the blu-tac rough and also caused the paint to be in spots instead of strokes.

Texture of rocks
Texture of rocks
Close-up on my rocks
Close-up on my rocks

 

Last but not least, a sponge. I chose to be a sponge as I tend to learn things quite quickly and enjoy learning, like how a sponge can suck up water very quickly and efficiently. I also wanted the idea of adding blotches of colors to bring in the notion of being an artist and also learning more things, adding colors to my life, or also the notion of getting tainted by bad influences as I grow up.

My name is WH, and I am a Sponge.
My name is WH, and I am a Sponge.

I used my initials, W and H, to show 2 faces of a cube of sponge. I used white sponge on white paper to make it very plain and continuous, so that colors added on it will stand out. The sponge is made by attaching 2 layers of sponges together, then cut into a cube, then cut diagonally to half. Then, the W was carved in, before carving in the H, thus both sides could be seen.

The W
The W
The H
The H

I wanted to drip watercolor onto the sponge and allow it to smudge and blossom by itself to have a soft texture. Unfortunately, the magic sponge was not very porous and did not allow the water to flow freely. The drop of color stayed where it landed and did not move. Thus, I had to manually paint on every part, and added water to blend some of the colors. I used primary colors of Red, Yellow and Blue, as they were the basics of colors. I wanted to show learning from basics and also felt that this 3 colors were very harmonious together, with the ability to form many other colors. I then painted parts of the background like colors splashes to allow the sponge to stand out, adding more dynamic movement to the composition as though the sponge is diving into the paper or emerging from it. The downward flowing “drips” were also painted in to make it look more natural and sort of give a more carefree and unintended feel to something which looks neat and well-planned.

Watercolor onto sponge and paper
Watercolor onto sponge and paper

 

With this, my 4 pieces of typographic portraits are complete!