Transforming the banner designs to a horizontal composition was pretty fun as well, as all the while we were working on a vertical canvas instead of a horizontal one.

The horizontal design was to be displayed at the media wall at North Spine, and to my surprise, it turned out really nicely as the colors I chose were neon bright. In addition, I increased the saturation and brightness. When it was on the wall, the designs shone extremely bright!! I am very pleased!

After reviewing the very constructive and helpful feedbacks given by my classmates and Miss Ina, I made several changes!smile

I took the advice to play with opacity and I drew extra motifs: Lotus Petals. I imagined falling petals with he floating babies would be really dreamy.

Hence I placed all my bloomed lotuses at the top, and the petals falling from there. This creates visual direction as well from top to bottom, where all the fallen petals gather at the bottom.

And then I added more existing motifs and varied the background to evoke different mood.

After consulting with Miss Ina, she asked me to try another composition where the babies are buried in lotus petals!

And it was indeed a very different feeling as compared to the floating babies composition, and I added other existing motifs to see what else works best!

I can’t help but think of the film American Beauty upon looking at the babies buried in lotus petals haha!

Furthermore, I added an overlay of the babies behind the existing ones as suggested to create greater depth to the background that works best, preparing them for test print with varying brightness, contrast and saturation!

To be honest, the comments given were really helpful because I was really stuck for a long time and the comments really helped to give me a new direction to approach my banner. THANK YOU. 🙂

FINAL PRODUCT

Here is a video of how the ZINE looks like when flipped, and the following are a closer look on how the digital form looked like per page.

Outside Front Cover

Page 1

Page 2

Page 3

Page 4

Page 5

Page 6

Outside Back Cover

To see the previous project on Project 2 Part 1, click:

2D II Assignment 2 PART 1: “Zine: Neighborhood Explorer” FINAL

 


Concept

Guide around Telok Blangah with an elderly.

“Day in Telok Blangah guided by Uncle Tan. Readers get to go on an expedition with Uncle Tan, and he will show you around the places in Telok Blangah he like to visit, where he thinks you might like and what to do there.”

The story will go around the primary information and personal recounts I have gathered from the interviews I conducted, as well as secondary research such as location names.

Art direction

Heading in the direction of more whimsical illustrations that are more kid friendly.
I really like the vibrant colors and how organic the shapes are! I also really liked the path which guided the viewers as to where they should look at! Hence I thought that paths can help me in my Zine. 🙂

Change(s) in idea/execution (if any):
Wanted to use a more calligraphic font, but instead chose a font that has more of a personal handwritten feeling to it since the drawings are very hand drawn. So I chose to use the font: A little Sunshine.

Challenges

  1. Incorporating the feedbacks that I have gotten from my Part 1 infographics on Telok Blangah, one of the key issues was that the illustrations used were not uniquely Singaporean. Hence, I wanted to address that issue by illustrating the locations as they are instead of making it look like any regular place in Singapore.
  2. Throughout the making of the Zine, I was rather concerned with the layouts, how to use the grid format and how to maximize space without the spreads being too empty and lack of information.

Enjoyable moments

  1. I really enjoyed doing up the illustration process! It was rather therapeutic to doodle my fictional characters according to how I picture them to be, as well as filling in the colors! It is like seeing them come to life! 😀
  2. In addition, saddle stitching A4 paper was something nostalgic that I did with a friend in Primary School! We created weekly girly comic books/ magazines for kids our age and wrote stories about how we would have super fairy powers and  banish our enemies in school and get all the good looking boys etc. We were 10…I have no idea what were we thinking ahaha. It was quite a hit as we had over 30 issues and went on to Season 2, and our classmates wanted weekly updates on our magazine. Ah… my youthful days…

Classmates’ Feedbacks and Comments! <3

This critique session was a little more different from the previous ones we had as Joy got us to shift to the left every 2 minutes, and giving a quick anonymous critique towards the Zine.
Oh my goodness… It was arms day that day. I have never felt my arm burn so much since the last time I did ‘A’ levels HAHAHA!!! So we were given an envelope to place all the 18 notes in the respective envelopes and also when we were presenting, some classmates gave their comments on post it notes as well! ^-^

Majority of the comments in the 18 notes I have received is that my font is too thin to be read against a dark background and readability was an issue! 🙁 And that the second spreadsheet was rather bare and empty as compared to the first spread. Really thankful for the feedback because these factors never really came to me since I’ve been looking at my Zine so many times I knew what I was writing and where I wanted to place it. Hence, through this, I have learnt that when a publication is made, it is very important that you see your publication in the eyes of the readers and not purely my own. I ought to see my ZINE like how I would if I were a total new stranger. 😀

Joy’s Comments and Feedbacks <3

  • Can tell that you are pushing yourself digitally as well, despite using the traditional method of drawing and scanning in. So good job with the mixed medium attempt!
  • Readability issues with the texts. Especially with the middle spread. Texts on dark solid background will always have readability issue, especially when your fonts are already so thin. 🙁 Many of your classmates have readability issues with your Zine as they also squinted and placed their faces really close to the texts to read it. Be mindful about that. Do test print every time to see next time.
  • Guide for young and old came to be more cohesive when the text is added.
  • The path way really helps to guide the viewers. However 2nd spread too much negative space, hence look sparse. Spread 1 is okay as paths provides breathing space as lots of details.
  • Moving forward, you can look for animation boards to draw inspiration as you browse them. You have this style where is different form your other classmates. It is your own distinctive style, don’t be afraid to keep it. Within your own style, branch out and see what other animation styles you can appropriate in your future projects

With that, I conclude the end of Year 1 Semester 2 of FDN 2D II !!

To be honest I am rather sad as much as I am glad that the holidays are approaching 🙂 Really thankful to have such a nice bunch of classmates in this semester’s class who were so willing to help each other out and give kind and constructive feedbacks 🙂 As well as Joy, thank you for being my 2D teacher for the whole of YEAR 1 ! 2 SEMESTERS ! I have learnt a lot from you and it was an ultimate pleasure and JOY to be your student! Hope to see you guys again in my following years here in ADM!! 😀

Cheers,
Seng Yi Ling.
To be updated in Year 2 Sem 1~

FIELDTRIP DAY~

On the 28 Feb 2017, our 4D class went on a field trip to Art Science Museum to take note of the use of space/screens/sounds/experiential storytelling, that can serve as inspirations to the Final Project! 😀

In this fieldtrip, I was floored by how much interactivity is involved in the exhibits. Especially the Future World and Into the Wild exhibits as audiences of all ages are welcomed to participate.

I took a vlog to document my trip as I find that pictures themselves cannot convey the experience as well as a video. So do forgive me if the video seems really informal and non-professional as my objective was to document the experience, and not to shoot it in a cinematic film like project ^^

Along the way, I also made some annotations in the video to document my learning points and what I felt could be incorporated into the final project, ENJOY!

Stay tuned to my second post for the fieldtrips!! 😀

TATA FOR NOW~ 🙂

Final Product!

Since the final product is rather hands on interactive, I made a short video to show how the paper engineering mechanism can be played with in my work. If you hadn’t seen the ‘Process Stage’ post, Click HERE!

Thank you Jia Qi for being my camera man 🙂


 

Feedback given on presentation day!

Classmates’ Feedback and comments:

slide3Joy’s Constructive Feedback 😀:

  • Choice of paper for this project is very important. It is rather flimsy and may break or tear when flipped multiple times. Paper shouldn’t fray at the edges.
  • Works can stand alone without instructions as it is rather distracting. Since the message of my project is ‘Self Discovery’, it may be better for the kids to explore the mechanism and how to play with this book instead of telling them how to.
  • Florist composition need not have ‘Left hand here’ and ‘Right Thumb here’, but instead a thumb and a hand outline is good enough, or even using a ‘flipping the page’ symbol is okay too.
  • Thickness of lines not constant (pots in florist is rather thin as compared to the rest). Suggested to change the setting, so when scaling up or down , can choose to scale proportionally.
  • Egyptianologist Colors were a little more jarring as it has the luminosity of highlighters, whereas everything else has richness.

Thank you lovely classmates and Joy for the comments and constructive feedback! 😀 I really appreciate it!! 😀

YAY~ Assignment 1 is DONE!! 😀

 See you next time for Assignment 2! 🙂

Cheers,

Seng Yi Ling.

For this assignment I have heavily depended on my Visual Journal for note taking and thought processing as compared to last semester where OSS was where I post most of my thought process. Regardless, I will still take you through this journey from the start to end of this ‘Que Sera’ assignment via OSS, so… LETS GO~~


Ideation

Because the name cards require the use of the conceptually driven solutions and letter forms, combined with literal or abstract image to express our future jobs in typographic portraits, I did a mind mapping process in my Visual Journal to help with coming up with the 4 Jobs for each of the name cards: Florist, Egyptianologist, Home maker and Food Science Technologist.

Joy emphasized that we ought to have these 3 factors before consulation in order to give a good framework and direction for our assignment.

Concept

My concept for this project is using the delivery method of my goal now, which is to create a interactive children’s book, to execute the name cards for all 4 jobs.

Message

Individual name cards have their own messages and an overall message as a whole.

Florist – Do not let small thinking cut your life down to size. Dream big! Work hard!

Egyptianologist – Do not let someone else’s opinion define you.

Homemaker – Be as awesome as a Domestic Goddess.

Food Science Technologist – Never stop asking ‘Why?’ until you get you answer.

Overall message – Your job does not define who you are in the future. YOU define who you are in the future.

Tone

The overall tone of the Children’s Book concept is positive and educational. While urging the readers to discover and learn new things.


Artist references

I did not limit myself to one specific artist to use as reference because I did not want their style to be seen in my work. Hence I went online and offline to expose myself to interactive books and illustrations for children to serve as inspiration; extracting the pros of each book and learning to avoid the flaws which I did not want to see in my work.

Expression of tonality: I used different shades of the same color on to express tonality in the designs. This creates slight depth and also has an old school children’s book feeling.

slide4


Methodology

For all of the designs, I used hand drawn illustration, scanned the designs and used Adobe Photoshop to fill in colors and cleaned up the edges.

Florist (Age >5)

I used flip book animation to carry out the ‘Flip O’ Rama’ concept from the children’s comic: Captain Underpants. The following video below is how it would have looked like.

I wanted to show the growth of the plants from a boring seedling which looked like it may die any moment , into a blossoming plant. Hence, for the top image, I used the upper half of my initials : ‘SYL’ as the feeble seedlings in pots, and a full grown blossoming plant for the bottom image. So that when the user flips it repeatedly, it will look like the seedling is growing.

Joy also suggested for me to put out instructions on how the interactive-ness can be carried out by children, hence I pasted a ‘left hand here’ and ‘right thumb here’ instruction on the outside like how the Flip O’ Rama book did.

slide5Egyptianologist ( Age 10-15)

I used the pull tab mechanism in this name card as seen in many pop up books.

I used Golden Flint paper on the interior of the Mummy coffin to act as the bones, which forms my name. My idea for this name card is to show that a dull looking exterior of the Mummy gives one the impression of something less of value. However, upon uncovering the truth by pulling the tab, it reveals the bright and golden bones of the Mummy.

In a way it also has many interpretations that can be taught such as:

‘Do not judge a book by its cover ‘ 

‘Its more important to have a heart of gold than a fancy exterior.’

‘Do not let what others think of you define who you really are.’

slide7I also included a ‘Pull Here’ instructions with a red arrow to direct the child’s attention to it.

Homemaker ( Age >10)

For this name card, I used Velcro as the material to work with as I wanted to let the children organize and arrange where each of the item should go in the household chore. I was considering using felt to carry out this idea, but Shi Teng gave me a suggestion to draw out the illustrations and have them printed out instead, so that it is more consistent with the overall image of a sketchy hand drawn illustration. Thanks Shi Teng! 😀

slide8Food Science Technologist ( Age 16- 19)

For this name card, I was highly driven ‘Touch and Feel’ books for young children.

I used Sequins to simulate the texture of fish scales, Bubble wrap to simulate the texture of corn and duct tape to simulate the waxy surface of Chilli.

slide1 slide9


Colors

Joy suggested I use a common color for the 4 compositions to express unity throughout. However, as much as I try to pick a common color, I don’t think it worked out very well to have  Blue in my Egyptianologist illustrations ( It would have looked like an Ice Tomb) and neither Orange/ Yellow for my Food Science Technologist illustrations ( I required Blue to express the sterility of the Science lab).

Hence I split my compositions into 2 sides: Blue and Yellow

Blue (Hex code: #A4DBFF) –  Florist (Complementary) and Food Science Technologist(Monochrome)

Yellow ( Hex Code: #E4C877)– Egyptianologist (Warm) and Homemaker (Analogous)

Instruction typography used

I used ‘Ravie’ Font and spaced out the individual letter because Children’s book has to be highly legible.

Font used I have chosen is Ravie because it has a rather whimsical feeling to it, but yet I chose to bold the fonts because it is still instructions and I didn’t want the children reading it to turn a blind eye to it.

Choice of color for font was something that was bugging me as well. As I felt Black was too strong as compared to the rest of the colorful compositions. But yet if I were to choose a color that suits individual composition, I felt that there was no unity to be seen as a whole in a book; and the instructions just blends in with the background where the children might turn a blind eye to it.

Hence my solution came about when I was researching for the way Children’s books present their instructions:

touch_and_feel_board_bookI really liked how…

  1. A muted dark color was used to give the instructions. There is a mild sense of authority which I felt that one’s eyes would be drawn to read.
  2. The key word ‘WALL‘ is in capital form.
  3. The color used for the key word allows children to draw a relation between the word and the object. There is a sign (the word ‘WALL‘) and the signified (the wall picture)

Thus, I applied this reference to my instructions for the children.

I capitalized and gave a color to the keyword which is seen in the object.

to-print


 

Things I could’ve done if I can turn back in time.

I am really shooting myself in the foot for saying this. But, I think admitting to my mistake and learning from it is better than to bury it under the carpet. So, for my future self, here I go.

  1. Explore different types of paper. I felt the struggle the most when I was carrying out the pull tab mechanism for the ‘I am an Egyptianologist’. I felt that if I explored the different type of GSM for paper before I executed the cutting, I would have achieved a better and smoother pull tab mechanism for this name card.

 The following post would be the FINAL one for Assignment 1 Que Sera!

Cheers,

Seng Yi Ling.