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After that 15 min brain storming activity Ms Lisa had us try during class I felt was really useful, not only do i get to look around and have greater inspiration for ideas, i get to move around instead of sitting down!

From that walk, i generated this idea where i can do a fictional event like a Couch Potato Support group! A Couch Potato Party where we congratulating failure and have a very Tongue in Cheek approach to it! 😀

According to Cambridge dictionary, ‘Couch Potato’ describes a person who watches a lot of TV and does not have an active life.

The reason as to why I chose this topic is because I am pretty sure everyone of us has this ‘Couch Potato’ moments once… well… twice… OKAY FINE PERHAPS EVERYDAY OF OUR LIVES. AHEM. Okay and so I thought it’ll be fun to celebrate and encourage this unproductive behavior which is highly discouraged, by ENCOURAGING IT through this fictional event.

Instead of using literal metaphors of a couch and a potato, I thought of illustrating the characters for this project through exaggeration and relatability with the audiences.

Style & User Personas

One of the things that I struggled with this assignment was to convey the tone of voice.

My ‘Couch Potato Support Group’ kit is for lazy people who don’t want to get off the couch to CONTINUE being at their hibernative mode.

And to create a loud and packaging design for it to attract buyers seems to be a little contrasting with the theme… Hopefully it turns out well!

The idea I have is to illustrate 5 characters of varying age groups and gender who are representations of this couch-potato behaviour in everyone.

1st up, we have Bludger Bob

2nd , we have Shortcut Sarah

3rd, we have Loafer Laura

Lastly we have Deadbeat Danny.

The common traits that all of them have are that they are lazy and avoids doing any form of work.

The characters are also the user persona audiences as well.

Methodology

I tried to illustrate my characters using both Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator to compare first. Learning from my previous assignment 2 incident, I made a sudden switch from 3 weeks worth of Adobe Illustrator progress to work in Adobe Photoshop instead just days before the submission, mainly because working on Illustrator was not going very well for me and I was not willing to give up. Hence, I thought it’ll be a good lesson learnt to try out both software to see which would bring about more convenience and which would bring about the best form of illustration I wanted to achieve.

I sketched them out on paper first, and then I brought it to both software. Afterwards, I decreased the opacity of the image and used it as like a tracing paper for me to use my Wacom pen to draw over.

The first character I illustrated was Bludger Bob.

As you can see, the way it was illustrated varies a lot on both software.

Adobe Illustrator

(PROS)

I liked how clean the lines are and that I can transform the paths or toggle each vector points to my liking

I can resize the character without having to worry it will be pixelated or not.

(CONS)

Colouring was not easy as ‘Live Paint’ only worked for closed paths and using a brush tool to colour behind the lines resulted in very clean bulbous shapes that did not fit within the spaces I wanted to.

I did not have very good control over the outlines when I drew it out with a Wacom pen as they ‘round off’ to a certain shape I did not ask for. And the paths are not closed which I have to manually find the paths and close it. Which was much of an inconvenience.

I don’t like how Bludger Bob looks like here, he looks like a melted plastic blob..

Adobe Photoshop

(PROS)

It is easier to colour because there is more control over the paint bucket and brush.

Line work has more character.

Layers made it easier to try different kinds of colours

(CONS)

I cannot change the outline color once I fill in the colors via paint because they are all in 1 layer. Such that if I have to erased and make amendments to the outline after coloring it in, I cannot.

One of the issues I faced was that when I filled the colours in using bucket tool, there are spaces left uncoloured or that the lines has this white outline, which i resolved by painting it over in a separate layer below

Eventually I chose Photoshop to illustrate my characters and these are the 4 i have created.

 

  • These 4 are the main characters that i have illustrated based off the user persona i have created above!
  • Their colors are based off the mood board colors I have chosen as they seem bright and fun on packagings!
  • I varied the tone of each color for each character because it is easier to work on, and it gives the subject matter more character and personality.
  • Each character has a little bit of color from the following one so that each character is not that isolated, but cohesive with the rest as well. For instance, the orange on the Loafer Laura (Pink Girl) brings our attention to Deadbeat Danny (Orange boy) and so on 🙂

Packaging

I did a mock up of the box kit design and a welcome card just to tie the whole Lazibones Kit together.

I came up with 4 different sleeping eye mask designs for Loafer Laura who loves to sleep.

The pieces with names are customizable to the customer’s request! Making it a very personalized gift for the ones who need to catch some shut-eye

Idea for this drink comes from fictional characters in games where they take potions to regain their ‘health’.

Deadbeat Daniel who is addicted to games would regain his ‘health’ through this drink and conveniently pee back into this bottle when he is done because the game he is playing cannot end and the toilet is too far.

Oh and don’t forget to place the sticker on the lid to remind himself that his newly filled bottle is no longer pomegranate juice! 🙂

And for Bludger Bob who sits on his couch the moment he reaches home from work, fret not as he can wear these socks back home from work and to work the next day without changing!

These socks keep feet from sweating in Bob’s work shoes and keeps his feet warm at home while watching TV!

Socks are available in different designs as well in the case if Loafer Laura or Deadbeat Danny wants to wear them as well!

Critique Session + Feedback and Edits

After the feedback, it was suggested that I make amendments to the box design such that the characters’ face don’t get cut off at the edges, and change the colour on the sides of the box.

And also, for the drink and pee bottle for Deadbeat Daniel, it would have been more convincing to change the colour of the liquid to yellow to be more convincing. 😉

The middle drink is still left red to show that Pomegranate juice is still inside unlike the bottle on the right that is newly filled with pee.

I gave out some stickers I printed for fun and I was very touched to see that my classmates like them :’) It is one of the best feelings in the world when they paste it on their laptops and even their phone <3

Click the link below to the final post for this final assignment!

DV2002: Assessment #3 – Applied Illustration (FINAL + My Reflection)

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Lets get on with the process of making the cover editorial illustration!

I drew out my designs on paper first and I tried using transparencies to create individual elements to play around with layers.

And then I scanned my designs in and tried to image trace it, however, because I used pencil, the lines were not very clear which resulted in unjointed lines.

I resulted to vectoring the area, and ‘clipping masked’ the designs I wanted to be in.

I set up the tonal values of the colour schemes to create depth for layering.

This is the progress I had when I vectored the designs, and I used the image on the extreme right for atmospheric perspective reference, and a constant reminder to my absent minded brain that “THE DARKER IT IS THE CLOSER IT IS TO THE FRONT”.

Miss Lisa introduced to me Johnny Duddle’s Gigantausaurus which uses the creation of atmospheric perspective with plants. *Inner voice “THE DARKER IT IS THE CLOSER IT IS TO THE FRONT”.

Johnny Duddle’s Gigantausaurus

UPDATE 23/3/2018

I am about to make a very big risk, and that is to restart this again.

Halfway through the illustration I feel that the progress is very forced and something is amiss.

The vectoring and masking of the patterns did not carry out a raw and crisp feel that I wanted, and using Adobe Illustrator made it harder for me to bring forth the aerial perspective that I wanted to achieve. Layering was very tedious on Adobe Illustrator.

Because looking my composition as a whole and after some analysis and feedback from more people, my illustrations did not make a lot of sense as the huge cathead waterfall was very domineering and evoked a more cat-centraled message than the ‘Empathy- self love’ message that I wanted to evoke.

Hence, I totally discarded my vector progress and outlines that were done in Adobe Illustrator, and restarted an updated design.

I am moving to Photoshop and drawing everything from scratch again. 🙂

This is a more up close view on the new designs I did on Photoshop, the layering done via Photoshop was so much easier than Adobe Illustrator. The art direction as closer to the reference image that I wanted to achieve and I am very pleased with it. 🙂

I replaced the initial cat head with the mountains to create more depth and a more tranquil environment for relaxation in the Terrarium, using the image on the right for reference.

After layering and drawing out the illustrations through my Wacom tablet, i ended up with this!

I decided to have the background to be purple and orange to create a sun-set mood and also to create more contrast against the paler and more earthy colors.

I  then clipping masked the shape of the terrarium onto the illustration.

Trying out different background colours for the varoom magazine for submission!

Magazine mock up look and feel

Magazine mock up look and feel

Magazine mock up look and feel

After presenting the work to the class on submission day, some feed backs were given and i made necessary amendments to the work!

  1. Glass reflection was suggested to be added onto the terrarium to create a more 3D look.
  2. Shadows for the ladder and changing the perspective more will give the ladder more depth
  3. Changing the background color of the magazine to blue will bring about a more relaxed and tranquil feeling.

I found the feedbacks given to be very useful and really aided in bringing out the best in my work! 🙂
Stay tuned for the final post to see the final submission piece for this assignment!

Click the link below to see the FINAL post for Task 2!

https://oss.adm.ntu.edu.sg/yseng001/dv2002-assessment-2-editorial-illustration-final/

 

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Theme: Empathy

I chose the Empathy as the theme.
And Self-love as the topic.
Because many of the times we are so caught up with our hectic daily life schedule, we tend to forget doing what we love. Genuinely caring for ourselves physically and mentally, such that we detach ourselves from the world and retreat to our safe haven to recharge.

User Persona

  Mood boards

Art/Style Direction

Thumbnail sketches

  1. Idea of a Bonsai plant, self love is like a growing plant, illustrated by the fusion of the girl as the plant, and the leaves as the hair.
  2. Tree layers as the compartments in a house!
  3. Girl rests in the hollow of a tree, recuperating under the embrace of nature.
  4. Girl waters herself, her hair consisting of plants and cats.
  5. Girl and cat leans back to back each other and looks at the floating plants and motifs they like ( Eg. Tea, cat food).
  6. Girl rests on a giant flying cat in the hectic external life.
  7. Girl rests inside a terrarium with a cat waterfall behind. External patterns act as noise and distractions. She is in her safe haven
  8. ‘Me-Thyme’. Cat throws ingredients into boiling soup pot which acts as a bath tub for the girl.
  9. Girl wanders off into a mystical forest (Alice in wonderland concept) from her city life.

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Welcome to the second assignment posting for Illustration for Designers! 🙂
So stoked to be able to be able to work on an editorial illustration, which I find that would be greatly practical for future use!

The brief states that…

We are commissioned to create an illustration for the front cover of The Associate of Illustrators bi-annual magazine, ‘Varoom’. Each of the edition is themed and we are to choose one of the following 3 themes.

  1. Style
  2. Empathy
  3. Obsession

Before I jump into the task, let me do some research as to know what ‘Varoom’ is all about!

Varoom
Varoom is the globally leading illustration magazine featuring a unique combination of industry insight and critical analysis of the field of illustration.

Varoom probes audiences to  comment and discuss on the contemporary illustrated image in depth. It features: Interviews with illustrators, image-makers and designers as well as critical articles by leading commentators.

This is just some of the cover issues of the magazine.
I realized that every issue varies so much in style and form of illustration. This may be due the fact that the illustrators are not fixed.
The brand seemed very versatile and open to various forms of editorial illustrations.
I think that as long as the illustration fits the theme and probes the audience to think in depth, it sends an indirect message on contemporary articles.

What is editorial illustration?

Every day, print media such as  newspapers and magazines print illustrations alongside their articles to illuminate some element of the concepts for the reader. Essentially, an editorial illustration is based on a theme that may  not be explicitly written out. But the contextual meaning and theme is prominent through the visuals.

Source: http://payload21.cargocollective.com/1/3/97647/2733141/irina_yudina_rencor2.jpg

Sarah McIntyre on David Roberts’ His Royal Tinyness written by Sally Lloyd Jones.

Activating your left and right brain.

 

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For our first assignment, we are tasked to create a stylized A3 self portrait exploring the concept of visual narrative, considering how we can best represent ourselves in order to express our personality and unique character; experimenting with stylization.

LETS BEGIN!

Methodology

I started out by narrowing down my list of words from the mind map on things I like and things I don’t like.

My mindmap, concept and little sketches

Mood Board

Based on my mood board which I made while surfing Pinterest, my initial art direction was to use photo montage background for the things I don’t like and illustrative doodles inside my glasses for things that I do like. And then for the self portrait I would like to do it in a sketchy continuous line technique.
But while testing the fusion of the 3 different styles together: Photo, Doodling, and Sketchy lines; They look like a terrible mess.
I then tried another approach, which to abandon one of the styles and just stick mainly to 2 styles, the photo montage being one of the two.
I tried to do the doodling technique and the sketchy lines and I felt that the latter suits my theme and choice of items better.
 Hence I chose to use Photomontage and Sketchy lines to do my portrait.
Artist References

My artists references are not really fixed, but more of I went looking around and extracted things I liked from each artwork I see and I try to marry them together.

Taken from: https://www.google.com.sg/search?dcr=0&tbm=isch&sa=1&ei=opx6WvOlLcrqvASCiKzgDg&q=picasso+blue&oq=picasso+blue&gs_l=psy-ab.3..0l10.1105.3667.0.3804.5.4.0.1.1.0.81.306.4.4.0….0…1c.1.64.psy-ab..0.5.332…0i67k1.0.6qED0Hacj40#imgrc=tEE2P5jy7Fb32M:&spf=1517984936724

I liked the feelings evoked from Picasso Blue period painting. The hue is already an indication of the somber mood, which reinforces the feelings evoked by the subject matter’s expression.
I liked this photo I saw on Pinterest where the subject figure is framed beautifully in the picture, the items beside her complements it really well. and I would like to emulate that composition by framing myself with the things I don’t.
And all the while, I really enjoyed making funny surrealistic photo montage compositions! @surrealismodipendenza2 being one of the Instagram accounts I drew inspirations from.
Depth
Because one of my art direction was to use photo montage, I studied how I can create depth using flat images.
I realized that for landscapes, the receding mountains are lighter in shade as compared to the one closer to us, which are much darker.

Image taken from : http://www.cqcn88.com/mculture.asp

And in this surrealistic photomontage, I realized that by overlapping the images, depth is also created.

Image taken from : https://coyotegallery.wordpress.com/2014/05/11/pat-hopkins-surreal-photomontage/

Lines
I used varied line thickness to create more texture and emphasis on the portrait. Thinnest lines being the light and contours on my face.
The choice of brush has a little opacity, so when it overlaps, it creates an even brighter line.
Colors
I was quite in a dilemma for the color choices and eventually I made many drafts just to see which stands out the way I want it more, and what works best.
My overall composition I wanted it to be vertically symmetrical and framed with the photo montages of things I liked and disliked. The subject figure acts as a central axis.
That initial intention to use black and white (Number 1 to 3) for the background to represent disdain for the things I like kind of drowned the whole composition, and the focal point in the glasses are really small.
Number 7 was pretty funny to me (Noodle hair and babies as my shirt), and the focus was clearer. But the line work for my self portrait was obscured :(.

Number 4 and 6 were too glaring and drawing attention away from the central figure. (A friend commented that the colors were like the after effects of taking drugs…).

Eventually I chose color composition Number 5 because the blueish hue made the overall artwork comforting to look at, sufficient attention can be placed in the central figure and the items in the glasses.
In the background, I placed images of things that I dislike: Meat, flowers, lizards, ghosts and a huge potato as a nimbus.
And in my glasses, I placed the things I like in it: Dolls, cucumber and noodles!The color pallet I eventually chose is Complementary colors  (Orange, Red and Green) with its saturation increased to create contrast against the bluish hue for the background and stand out against the white lines for the sketchy illustration.
To see the final submission, click on the link below!

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New assignment! Lets go!

BRIEF 3

Brief 3 BLACK & WHITE TYPE: Playing with type language
Summary Typography is a versatile element in the world of visual communication. Not only is it meant for language communication but also as graphic communication. The following experiments will get you to think differently about typography. It aims to equip you with the principles of type and also pushes for discovery of new typeform. Use only black and white, no other colours are allowed.
Assignment objectives: Exercise 3a and 3b will allow students to appreciate type beyond its textual nature but as a graphic element of image creation. Exercise 3c develops the students’ sensitivity to the scale and white spaces of typography and the impact it produces to communicate emotions.
Task 1 3a. Type as image

Select one traditional typeface and create a series of composition explorations from it. You may use the various font within the typeface as your series but you need to stick to your chosen typeface. Explore the various anatomy of the selected letter and see how you can create an image out of it. You may also crop or combine certain anatomy together to create your image !

For example:

Typeface: Baskerville

Font: Bold / Light / Italics

Deliver: 2 best compositions at 14cm by 14cm.

Printed on quality white paper card (more than 150gsm)
Task 2 3b. Type as pattern

Create a series of patterns using a single letterform from any traditional typeface (for eg, an “S”). Copy and repeat the letter in columns or rows to make an overall pattern. Change the spacing of the letters to create variations, create repetitive rows and columns and try overlap them. Change the orientation of elements to find your own grid. Repeat

that grid to see what kind of pattern reveal itself

Deliver: 2 best pattern creations at 14cm by 14cm.

Printed on quality white paper card (more than 150gsm)
Task 3 3c. Type as emotion

What does emotion looks like in black and white? Express the word “HELLO” in the following mood. Choose only 4.

Friendly, Angry, Seductive, Confused, Arrogant,

Depressed, Annoyed, Excited, Bored.

Use only one typeface throughout but feel free to vary the different weights, caps, spacing, sizing etc. Explore negative and positive spaces too! No manipulation of type.

Deliver: 4 different emotional type creation at 14cm by 14cm.
Printed on quality white paper card (more than 150gsm)
What you
must deliver
for this assignment		 A total of 8 square cards

A process documentation link on OSS
Grading criteria
  • Due diligence of experimentation
  • Depth of methodology and craftsmanship
  • Aesthetics of image creations
  • Sensitivity of paper choices
Due date: Week 10

So before that, Miss Angeline allowed us to do some experiments in class to have a gauge of what the assignment for task 1 and 2 is about!

Task 1 trial: We were told to try different methods to distort the alphabet on the paper physically and rearranging it to create an image out of it. I cut the letter up with a pair of scissors and arranged it like so. Can you tell what letter and typeface it previously was? 🙂
Task 2 Trial: Afterwards we were to experiment with the repetition of a letter to create a pattern! Can you tell what letter and typeface it previously was? 🙂 It was the letter ‘P’ of the Typeface: Bauhaus 93.

3a. Type as image

Using different letters of the same typeface, I will slice and dice the anatomy of the letter; and then creating the letter using the anatomy of the other letters, to become another typeface.

I chose a few typefaces to narrow down which one I would like to use eventually in the end. In my search, I was looking for type that had more personality. Type where the mere fraction of its anatomy can distinguish itself from the other alphabets. Hence, I chose these 3 to analyse.

And I chose Adobe Caslon in the end as I felt that the Caslon type anatomy has more personality and can aid in distinguishing the letters.

MethodologyI also tried to recreate some other alphabets.

3b. Type as Pattern

I had a lot of fun doing this segment of the assignment as it not only is very interesting to see how each letter of each type can create beautiful patterns, the variety is endless because every angle the letter is inverted or tilted, bolder etc. It gives off a completely different feeling!

I used the typeface: Garamond for this part of the project as I really liked the old style serif. It looks classy and posh, especially the letters with the round descender, such as the lower case ‘y’.

I decided to play with many ways of creating patterns with the lower case Garamond ‘y’.

Garamond Lowercase ‘y’: I was inspired by Bohemian carpets for this pattern, wanted something that resembles the sun.

Garamond Lowercase ‘y’: Inverted the colors for this: White on Black background. I also increased the scale so that the radial composition can be seen more clearly, while also turning the composition in 45 degrees to make it less straight.

Garamond Lowercase ‘y’: Mirroring and reflecting.

I decided to play with optical illusion for upper case ‘Q’, the tail of ‘Q’ is very long and sleek, hence direction can be created subtly with the tail of ‘Q’.

Garamond Uppercase ‘Q’:
Repeating the upper case Q in a radial direction, and reflecting it so it will create a sense of movement with the different directions as indicated by the tail of the Q.

Garamond Uppercase ‘Q’:
Inverted the colors, White on Black.

Garamond Uppercase ‘Q’:
Created outlines and varying the core color to create more movement, as though you are being sucked into the hole on the top left hand corner

I have realized that not only layout and composition is very important as it is not merely just repetition, I wanted to create movement in my compositions. Hence, I chose to do my patterns in radial form, to create some form of optical illusion. In addition, I inverted the colors and played with tonality and outlines to push my designs.

3c. Type as Emotion

For this segment, I chose to use the typeface: Helvetica. My objective was to convey emotions through layout, scale and tonality.

I chose Helvetica because the typeface is very neutral. There is no biasness or any form of personality which was what I wanted as it can help me achieve my goal: Strip off any preconceived notion of typeface to express the emotion. For instance, if I were to use ‘Black Letter’ for this segment, Black Letter is medieval and vintage. Hence, using Black Letter to express the emotion, ‘anger’ it will feel like an angry old man being angry. Well… that is my interpretation. 🙂

Inspired by a weak heartbeat on the heart monitor

Changed the tonality of ‘LO’ and arranged in high and low to emulate boredom

All pushed to the side in a black background Wanting to be alone. All letters are tilted as though leaning on each other for support

Excitement is bursting of out the frame! E is tilted to show slight cheekiness as compared to the straight ‘HLLO’

Pushed all to the corner. Tonal contrast shows that it is slowly being consumed by darkness.

A more Obessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) perspective where everything is aligned properly and there is a titled letter to ruin the formation. Used Greyscale for visibility.

Swirly line formation to create a whimsical mood. Scale changes as though it is approaching you. Letters go out of the frame to express enthusiasm in the greeting.

I have come to the end for this process documentation of my explorations! Stay tuned to my final Assignment 3 post to see my final productions! 🙂

Thank you!

Seng Yi Ling.

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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. 🙂

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Hello all! It has been a while since I have updated this page. So here is my progress so far!smile

I digitalized my motifs which I drew on paper and then used a Wacom tablet to color in my motifs, adding shading and also changed the outlines of the motif.

I drew out a few layouts that I can explore placing my composition as I faced serveral,several issues regarding file size on Adobe Illustrator which delayed my process severely. 🙁 These is just ONE of the explorations for the layout compositions.

Banner Draft 1
I simplified the composition based on last week’s suggestion and tried out the initial design I had in mind. Composition is the same for both here, but I changed up the background gradient color to evoke different feelings.

Feedbacks and suggestions given by my lovely classmates and Miss Ina 🙂

  • Banner looks rather flat because there is no depth and motifs are roughly all of the same size.
  • Very constrained by the banner width hence it looks tight and not spacious.
  • Look on Pinterest for some inspiration for layouts and compositions.
  • Can refrain from being constrained by the width by extending motifs out of the margin. Perhaps umbilical cord and fray outside too?
  • Can play around with opacity, perhaps used in background? Flowers in the BG in low opacity.
  • Play around more with scale, to create depth. Baby big head can be of actual size? Cause now got no dominance.
  • Introduce a new motif to encapsulate the babies? Bring in an element that they can reside with.
  • Connect hard drive to laptop and save it in there, can save your computer from going into coma state.
  • Change up the colours. Maybe change the BG to more than 1 colors. Avoid going for the same colors as the motifs, other wise the motifs wont pop.

Will be doing up more draft layouts based on the feedbacks given and update this page again!! 🙂

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NEXT PROJECT, the following is the brief given by Miss Angeline! 🙂

BRIEF 2A: VERNACULAR TYPE

Brief 2a VERNACULAR TYPE: Exploring the spirit of street type
Summary Type found in your everyday surrounding reveals layers of stories about it’s existence. The combination of traditional type vs contemporary type, serif vs san serif, upper caps vs lower caps, type seen during the day and during the night all give hint to the culture and lifestyle of a particular area / street / town and even the city as a whole.
Assignment objectives: This assignment intends to take you away from your computer screen to explore the everyday typefaces around us and it’s application. The coloured version will deliver a flavour of the area that you are working on, while the black and white version will strip all colours away and allow one to appreciate the letterform in it’s barest state.
Task: Head down to a favourite area / neighbourhood or street and create a typographic composition to reflect the spirit of the area.

  1. Think of a phrase, quote, memory or lyric that you associate the area with, ideally between 15 -25 characters long including spaces
  1. Write this down on a piece of paper. Take a pen or pencil with you so that you can cross out the letters as you find them
  1. Find the individual letters that make up your phrase using a high quality camera with zoom lens so that you can isolate each individual letter
  1. Try a daytime and night-time version for the composition
  1. Combine your photos digitally on an A3 sheet to spell out the phrase – printed on quality paper
Places you
can go to		 Chinatown / Little India / Bugis / Joo chiat / Katong / Neighbourhood wet markets etc..  please discuss with instructor
Tips
  • You will need a good camera for zooming into the letters
  • Do a day as well as night version
  • Be prepared to return to the area for a second time as you
    may not capture all the letters that you need the first round
What you
must deliver:
  • An A3 printed poster of 15-25 character collage
  • An 18cm by 18cm printed poster of 1 single letter in black and white after
    digital manipulation
  • A process documentation on OSS
Grading criteria
  • Due diligence of vernacular type exploration
  • Sensitivity in spotting creative type forms
  • Aesthetics of poster layout
  • Sensitivity of paper choices
Due date: Week 7  (together with organic type)

Doing some mind mapping:
Because I couldn’t decide which location works best for me and which location would provide me more interesting typefaces and background, I decided to try two locations:

Ang Mo Kio Central Hawker Centre & Johor Bahru, Jalan Wong Ah Fook.

OUT FIELD

Ang Mo Kio Central Hawker CentreThings I have noticed when choosing to take photographs of Hawker Centre signboards:

  • There are glowing outlines for most of the signboard type, most likely is to attract attention.
  • The graphical forms have the purpose to inform and persuade customers to purchase. Thus the typeface used are friendlier to look at, like casual script typefaces that gives an informal vibe.
  • The most important factor is the legibility of the typeface.
  • The background of the signboard is usually much darker in color, so that the juxtaposition between the text and the background makes the text pop.

Johor Bahru, Jalan Wong Ah Fook
Things I have noticed when choosing to take photographs of signboards at Jalan Wong Ah Fook:

  • There is a mixture of traditional and modern signboards, and the difference is rather large. It feels as though it is not a transition phase, but more of two different time periods co-existing in one area. Like I am between two worlds.
  • Both typefaces in that area are rather whimsical and doesn’t seem to have any rules or restrictions. It is as though a lot of free expression was allowed when the sign typeface was created.
  • Background the typefaces were on were very raw. Especially the more traditional ones as the paints were peeling off or the material the type was on became rather old.
  • The placement of shops were very loosely organized as compared to Singapore, where food and shopping are clearly segregated; The shops here are not. On the left there would be a café, and right beside it would be a tyre shop. I love this ‘no -arrangement’ arrangement of the shops here as the spirit of being free and ‘not a care in the world’ can be seen through this street.

In the end, I have finally decided to do this Vernacular type project based on JB’s Jalan Wong Ah Fook because there is a wide variety of interesting type on various backgrounds! 🙂

Experimentation

I have decided to choose the words ‘Between Two Worlds’ as mentioned above, I find that JB’s Jalan Wong Ah Fook is like an area where two different time period co-exist together and not a transition phase where old becomes new. It is like I am between two worlds!
 I arranged the letters in a way that the word ‘two’ was not in the composition. I spelt the word ‘Worlds’ twice so there is 2 of ‘Worlds’.

In addition, I placed the word ‘Between’ in the middle of the two ‘Worlds’ which emphasizes that it is in between the two worlds. ‘Between’ acts as a barrier. ( I had a hard time explaining this haha)
After consultations, I jot down some of the feedback given by my peers and Miss Angeline.

Afterwards I made more amendments and experimented with more ways of arrangements.

Yin Yang inspiration is just a try out when I asked a friend what she thought of ‘two different world’.

That is it for my process post on Vernacular type! Stay tuned to my next 2 posts: Organic Type and Final Post for Assignment 2 😀

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Hello ADM OSS! I am back here again, but this time as a Year 2 Sem 1 Viscom Typography 1 Student! So lets get started!cool

So first things first, I did some research recorded some information in class as I am still very new to this whole Typography thing…

What is Typography?
Typo(Form)graphy(writing)

Typeface VS Font
Typeface is like an album and Font is like the songs in that album. For instance Typeface is a font family ( Times New Roman , Comic Sans etc.) and font embodied a particular size and weight. For example, italicized Times New Roman at 24 point would be considered a different font than italicized Times New Roman at 28 point.

San-Serif VS Serif
Simply to my understanding, Serif are the fonts that have feet like Courier New and San-Serif typefaces are like Arial.
San (non) serif typefaces are more equidistant, clean looking and easier to read per alphabet in isolation.
Serif typefaces are less equidistant and it looks elegant if used appropriately. Reading serif paragraphs allow us to grasp the shape of the alphabet before reading it ( like in newspapers, their typefaces are usually serif)

The following is the brief provided by Ms Angeline!

BRIEF 1: TYPE HISTORY

Investigating the past of type

Gather in groups of 3-4 and attempt the following brief. You will learn to delegate the work among yourselves in equal measures leveraging on your strength and interest.

Brief 1 TYPE HISTORY: Investigation the past of type
Summary Almost every typeface exist for a reason. How much do you know about how they are created and why?  What are it’s application reasons and significance in both historical and contemporary context?
Assignment objectives: Working in groups, this assignment provides the opportunity to investigate the historical, cultural and social underpinnings of a well known typeface and its application significance in a modern, contemporary society. This will pave the way for future type usage assignments beyond that of aesthetics, but also for functional and contextualized purposes.
Task: In groups of 4/5, decide on one typeface from the list below that you and your team mates would like to explore and investigate. Bring your investigation to life in any appropriate means or format. (an exhibit, a sketch, a presentation, a poster, a video, a game etc…) In your investigation, you should explain:

• Reason of existence and origins

• The context in which it originated

• Who designed it? Why was it designed?

• Examples of application and existence

• How has this typeface influenced us?

(researched + personal views)

However you choose to present, make sure you have means of documenting your process and the final results as part of your
portfolio collection..

Presentation should take no more than 15 minutes with 5 mins of Q&A.
What you
must deliver:		 • Final presentation of your choice in any format (sketch, ppt etc…)

• A group blog link documenting your process
Typefaces to choose from San Serif: Frutiger, Helvetica, Gill Sans, Univers, Akzidenz, Bell Centennial, Avenir, VAG Rounded, Comic Sans

Serif: Times New Roman, Baskerville, Garamond, Bondoni, Bembo, Clarendon, Courier, Trajan
Notes: Whilst you may be able to find information from the internet, there are also plenty of books in the library that writes and reports about the historical significance of each of the above typefaces in much more details. Please look it up.

Just my type: A book about fonts

Simon Garfield
Grading criteria
  • Creativity of presentation format
  • Audience engagement
  • Ability to answer all research questions as specified under Task.
  • Documentation of process
Due date: Week 4

The typeface that our group ( Debbie, Chia Te, Cai Jing, Benjamin and I ) have decided on is : HELVETICA

Helvetica Movie

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ud7XVkCWi0s

What is Helvetica?
Helvetica is a San – serif, Neo Grotesque typeface which originated in Switzerland. 

Who created Helvetica?
Helvetica was developed in 1957 by Max Miedinger with Eduard Hoffmann at the Haas type foundry of Münchenstein, Switzerland.

Why was Helvetica created?
Haas set out to design a new sans-serif typeface that could compete with Akzidenz-Grotesk in the Swiss market.

Originally called Die Neue Haas Grotesk, it was created based on Schelter-Grotesk. The aim of the new design was to create a neutral and rational typeface that had great clarity, had no intrinsic meaning in its form, and could be used on a wide variety of contemporary information.

Neutralism was what Helvetica carried and artists who used this typeface adored.

When was Helvetica used?

Because Helvetica is neutral and lacks a strong personality of its own you could say, its clean lines go well with many elements such as images, especially images with lots of detail where the text needs to pop out without stealing the show.

More weights were added to the Linotype machine and the family was heavily promoted.

The size of the family — the number of available weights and widths — is also a factor in the choice of a typeface for a corporate identity, because it allows text to speak with many voices without breaking harmony.

Thus, Helvetica has since gone on to become one of the most well-known and widely used typefaces in the world. It is beautiful it its own simplicity.

Common Mistakes

While it is true that Arial was intended to be a competitor to Helvetica – as Helvetica was to Akzidenz Grotesk – and they are often mistaken to be the same typeface because of their similarity.

We played a little quiz game of ‘Fastest Fingers First’ with the audience for this segment, and made flip board panels to incorporate some interactivity! 🙂

How to distinguish Helvetica?

Look out for the dead giveaway lowercase letters such as ‘e’, ‘t’, ‘c’ and ‘f’. Uppercase letters that give away a Helvetica type are ‘G’, ‘R’ and ‘Q’

There is very even distribution of weight throughout Helvetica letters, and the angles at which the letter ends are more horizontal. This is because Helveica was designed based on vertical and horizontal grids.

‘Helvetica is all around!’ Video

Our group did a short video to show how prevalent the presence of Helvetica is around us, even when we are not trying to look for it!

“It (Helvetica) shouldn’t have a meaning itself, as the meaning is in the text content itself, not the typeface.”

– Wim Crouwel in the documentary Helvetica

Helvetica was used to complement the design and meaning of the product, The typeface did not have any intrinsic meaning. In a way, Helvetica helped the content of the product to shine, instead of vying for attention. It really emphasizes on the neutrality of this typeface. 🙂

Miss Angeline’s Comments and Feedback! 🙂

Dear Helvetica group,

Thank you for going as the first presenters of this week’s group assignment submission !  Your “water” analogy has left a very deep impression on a number of your classmates reflections ! The little role play of Arial appearing was also a nice touch to keep us engaged mid-presentation ! Well done on that ! 

The personality of Helvetica as well as the intention of it’s design was well identified too. The analysis of the terminals were well thought out. I especially enjoyed the take on the comparison of the past and present adverts of the same brand.
Comparisons between Helvetica vs Arial was great too as they are so similar yet so different at the same time.  On this note, you might want to check out one of the Tuesday’s groups comparison of Akzidenz Grotesk and Helvetica.
Akzidenz grotesk is known to be the father of Helvetica  (neo grotesque meaning “new” grotesk) while Arial is the contemporary cousin of Helvetica ! https://oss.adm.ntu.edu.sg/a160028/wp-content/uploads/sites/816/2017/09/Akzidenz-Grotesk-Process-Documentation.pdf

Great job on the video demonstrating to us in a context so familiar to all of us – I enjoyed watching the journey from ADM right up to North Spine I believed ?  

Keep up the good work !  

Group Reflection on the presentations!

– We are more sensitive to front now, like how the type anatomy is different from each typeface.
– We are more aware of our surroundings now when we look around to see how various type is used for a specific location or design.
– Understanding the history make appreciated the font even more. As knowing how the relevant typeface come about really allow us to be more appreciative of such revolutionary changes, and how just mere typefaces changed the aspect of advertising then and now.
– Typefaces are not just a setting for how fancy words should be designed, but should be used with careful selection as to which scenario and preference it is best user for.

Thank you!! 🙂