fiNaLe~

The past 2 weeks have been hectic. So many projects due all in this last week of sch, its madness. Well, at least it made me realise how strong i m, being able to go for 2 days w/o sleep (though losing my temper ever so often isn't really a good thing). Without exception, our storybook project was due last friday and we had some slight delay in our schedule.

Firstly, we were undecided on which story we are using for our story book. Then, we could not decide on the finalised version of the story choosen. Lastly, I think we over-estimated our strengths.

Anyway, being restricted by technical capabilities, there is only limited colouring of images that i could do. So, lucky the rest took on more work on their shoulders and alas, we were able to send it for printing just in time! haha..

The book turned out to be great, but surely if we had more time, it would be better. I have learnt that time management is a very important factor in projects. It can determine how well a project is done. Not that i am not satisfied with the story book (well, I'm hardly satisfied with anything since im quite a perfectionist, trying to be perfect in every aspect), but i guess we have done the best we could given the time and skill constraints.

So I want to thank Wei Man, Serena and Jian Da! It's been a joy being in the same group. The drawings were fantastic, the colouring were nice, the ideas were great, the time discussing were fun!

With the presentation of our storybook last friday, we reached the end of this module (sans the submission of the porfolio!). Hmm..before i move on, i would just like to comment on the presentation last friday.

I think it was quite bad in a sense that practically no one was listening. Almost everyone else were so noisy and were rather inconsiderate to the groups presenting. Not that i didn't talk or chat, i too, am guilty of talking. I think its a natural occurance when people get together and when people get restless. But i feel at least i bothered to keep my voice down and whisper. Others were outrightly noisy and defiant even thought Julian made several pleas to us to keep quiet. That is what that bothers me.

Maybe when other groups were presenting, I was not very interested in listening, but when people from our own tutorial groups were presenting, I am always very keen to listen, maybe because I feel closer to them ba.. for example, at the ending part of the presentation, Shuhui and Ying were presenting their "Bobby Bear" story, but i couldn't really hear a thing. Quite a pity. Though I can still borrow their book and read it, i doubt i will see them around often.

So, what i am suggesting (I don't know if its good), is to hold the presentations in tutorials where its a smaller group and much easier to control. Then, people will listen and give comments, and probably have the ability to make a decent vote for the story book they think is best. Because if they don't listen, the vote they cast is not accurate. Then again. the drawback is that people from the other groups would not be able to see works of students from other groups. So, probably, from 4 tut groups, each grp would vote for one best, so there are total 4 best. Then from these 4, the lecturers would pick the best one! Well, there's the best suggestion i can come up with. But this will bring up the problem of scheduling the tut. Either students compromise on time and present it by the last tues of the term, or they are willing to come to sch one day during the break week. There are various trade-offs, but i think the best solution would only come when students are able to give their fellow students some respect.

Ok, i think i side-tracked too much! Yep, the module has practically come to an end. And im proud to say that i've learnt many things. From theories to practical, I learnt a few things here and there. In the past, I thought design was just acting on common sense and doing what i think is right. But, after taking this course, I realised that how something is designed relied on so many factors. Just mainly looking at Gestalt's principles, there are roughly 6. One still has to be concern with the colour combination and distribution. But I won't fall into the trap of trying to have every factor in one single design because its simple impossible. There would never be a piece of design that perfectly fits in every factor, because for some certain factor to exist, another certain principle would be violated. But in future, while designing, I would certainly strive to include as many principles and adhere to as many factors as I can!

Moreover, I feel that i have learnt to take criticism well. Not that I cant take criticism in the past. What i mean is the ability to decide whether to listen to the criticism or not. Well, not every criticism every one makes is a good one. When i present my work, people are just giving me their opinion. So naturally, I would receive many comments on how my work should be.. it should be this, it should be that.. and so on. But, I have learnt to listen and evaluate the comment. If i think it is useful to my design, I will try and incorporate into it. If i don't think i can link the idea or it doesn't suit the message i wish to portrat, then i wouldn't use it lo.
But most of the time, i will try to listen to the majority, because i feel that is what design is about. A design is such that it appeals to the masses. If majority of the people like it, i have achieved my aim, isn't it?

Anyway, I feel that my works can be improved much further. There are certain ideas i wish to incorporate, there are some drawings i wish to do, some colours i wish to change. However, the lack of time and resource and skill has restricted me in doing so. Definitely, if i had more time, i believe i would do a better job. One regret is also not making more friends in class. I think they are really nice people but being quite shy, I don't make the first move in knowing them better. Just hope i have other chances to talk to them in school!

In all, I really enjoyed myself during this module, finding and realising another side of me. Only till now, then i realise that i do indeed have a creative side to this boring ME. haha... I would surely recommend this module to my friends who (1) loves drawing, (2) has creativity (3) or wishes to discover the creative side to themselves or (4) just wanting to have some fun!

With that, i wish to thank mr reddy and julian for their kindness and guidance to me throughout this semester, without which, I don't think i would be able to achieve what I have achieved.

Is there one really bad website?

Assignment 6b requires us to do critic again!
haha.. something that i like.. don't have to go through the trouble of designing, drawing sketches and drawing them nicely...

but i wasn't to know that it's going to be so difficult. When i finished the word document, I chalked up 9 pages criticising the webpages for the exisiting attributes and the lack of them.
These are the 5 websites i was given to comment on...

Florida State University
http://www.fsu.edu/

FordHam University
http://www.fordham.edu/

Forest Institute of Professional Psychology
http://www.forestinstitute.org/

Fort Hays State University
http://www.fhsu.edu/

Fort Lewis College
http://www.fortlewis.edu/

I don't know if im being paranoid or something, but when i see some of my classmates presentation, i think the website is really atrocious whereas mine, i had a hard time deciding which is worst. It seems so easy for them.. = (

Towards the end of class, some of them were asking Julian when should they hand up the word document. I asked Julian about it through email and he mentioned to me that it would be on tuesday during our tutorial. So, i was pretty gutted when he told them they could hand in on friday.

I don't want to sound petty or selfish, but i think i put in the effort to adhere to all the deadlines always, working through the weekend, sacrificing other assignments to make sure i always have something to present in class or meet requirement.. but others can just come to lessons w/o any work, not meeting deadlines but still getting leeway from the teacher.

I know i sound bitter and selfish, but in anycase, I was just feeling unfair for all of us having tuts on tues instead of friday. When i emailed Julian, I already know i will finish the word document before I could do up my presentation so whether the deadline was on friday or tuesday does not affect me.. So whether my classmates submitted late or not, im ok, cuz at the end of the day, we r in a class, we r all friends.. I just wish to have parity throughout the course...

ok.. enough complaining.. must be not enough sleep... gambatte ne!

Feng shui?

This week, we saw a guest lecturer coming in to give a talk on his own company. He talked much about his company or the most website design but i couldn't see how it applied to us since most of the time we were designing posters. How was i to know that this week's assignment was on critcising web designs! Although i liked critics instead of drawing assignments, this week's assignment seems to be quite heavy, as in, there seems to be alot to do.

Anyway, at least i learnt a few things from him was that admist all the design principles and concepts, even feng shui plays an important role in the design of things.. especially in the business related sector. Green, i learnt, stands for money (quite true) and pink for popularity. Hmm.. now then.. should I start wearing pink? =p

Critic!

We learnt Gestalt principles of figure and ground, proximity, similarity, continuity and closure. In all, it just means to have a organised piece of work, not with all the elements lying all over the place.

This week's assignment was to find posters and critic on them ( I like! ) Finally something that i enjoy more. Designing and drawing are my worst ever skills.. I can draw to save my life.. anyway.. I paired up with Chris and we found many many posters and eventually deciding on these two. Surely you can tell which is the good and bad design right?

Finding Nemo

3:10 to Yuma

Both Chris and I agreed that the bad wasn't that bad even before we attended lecture, but the rest that we found just edge slightly in front of this poster.. so.. well.. =)

Notebook design..

In class this lect, we learnt mainly about colours.
The are many categorisation of colours, that most common being primary and secondary colours. Also, Julian introduced the colour wheel which has many interesting components.

From the colour wheel, we can tell the colour scheme, be it cool or warm colours, complementary or split complimentary, triad, anagolus or monchromatic.

Also, I've learnt that colour can be used to balance designs. As learnt in the previous lecture, often a design can be heavier on one side. Not only objects, but colours as well can be used to regain this balance.

Moreover, the issue of colour contrast is extremely impt. Imagine me using a very dark colour word against this black background. It is rather difficult to see isn't it? ( see? ) <--- there is a word here.. highlight to see it! As i have know since young, different colours meant different things, but i was never able to study them more in detail. This lect exposed me to various colours and meanings I never thought would be. Naturally, this week's assignment focused heavily on the use of colours and the previous learnt design of interaction and controlling attention. By applying all these concepts and principles, I was to come up with a design for a notebook. I had two ideas in mind but was unsure of which to use. First was the Racism theme. I so hated racism and how i wished it would stop. It only discriminates and divides people and this idea of superior and lower race issues only reminded me of history lessons of Hitler.
Design 1: cover page


Design 1: inside

Design 2: cover page

Design 2: inside

I choose black and white mainly because it showed biggest contrast in colour and it brings out the effect of dividing. The grey is meant to be a blending of white and black which meant that there is no more such distinct division when racism stops.

My second design was Sports for Life. I firmly believe in the benefits of sports. It not only keeps you healthy and fit, it is enjoyable and great for bonding and socialising with people. In the end, i choose this design to present because I went through great pains to draw these figures.. and i was so lucky the class love them! haha..

Design 3: cover page

Design 3: inside

I choose orange because it was a vibrant colour and represents full of life. Isn't that what sports is mean to be? =p

pOstEr

In lecture 6, we learnt much about the principles of interaction and how to control attention.
Principles of interaction include EMPHASIS, u-n-i-t-y, contrast(bad) and harmony. Harmony itself has several aspects like symme-t-rical balance and asymmet-rical balance and the appropriate use of negative space.

To control attention, designers have to be careful not to let audience's eyes slip out of the frame of workpiece. In other words, there must be flow within the workpiece, to keep viewers from losing focus. Some classic examples included using people looking in opp directions of the page, and use of smoke, light or water to create circular flow of attention seeking elements.

In accordance to what we have learn in lect, we were supposed to design a poster that has a "save", "kill" or "prevent" theme.

I went away thinking what i was most passionate about, either to save or to prevent. Over the various assignment, i realised that my work will only be good if i feel strongly for an interest or design. No point trying to do "Save the Trees" theme when i don't feel strongly for it. I doubt my passion will shine through, if the not-so-interesting theme can motivate me to work hard in the first place.

So, after much thought, i settled on the "Stop Drink-Driving" theme. It impacts me the most, first, as i am a driver, i realise how dangerous it is on the road, even if one is not drunk, so I can just imagine how much the danger magnifies when one is drunk. Secondly, I have seen enough reports to see the horror and damage these irresponsible drivers can cause, the worst being people's loved ones losing their lives. So, i feel really strongly for it and aim to do up a poster that sends the message across.

I looked for photos of crash cars through the internet and found a few suitable ones. Because drink driving mainly occurs at night, hence, i set out to find night images of roads as well. When i couldn't really find nice ones, i even went out late at night and stood by the road with my digicam to take some shots. However, in the end, it wasn't very nice and i just settled for a tunnel image.

After much hard wrk in photoshop-ing them.. i realised i did everything wrong.. I misunderstood the instructions. I thought that i was not supposed to used existing posters, but in the end, i couldn't even use pictures that are individually off the internet. How depressing!

Nvm, after receiving much feedback, I decided to change my idea.. thanx to wei mun who gave me some good ideas. She never fails to speak up in class and give some insightful comments. Sometimes when she makes a comment, I would think, "hmm.. yah.. tts a nice idea" but i can never come up with one gd comment of my own. To think she always think she makes silly comments.. haha..

anyway, these were my initial ideas..

Oh yes, forgot to mention that i so absolutely love the puppy that Jiaxiang drew. Although everyone thought it was a cat (awww), it was so so so cute..

Anyway, when i have done my photoshop-ing of the new idea, i will post it in this space so watch this space! haha..

~tHe tWiSt~

Assignment 3 was about coming up with a story in 10pictures. Sounds simple enough but the twist is.. there is a twist!haha.. what i mean is.. it cannot be a straight forward story, there has to be a twist to it.

Initially it seemed rather difficult because i kept coming up with ideas that are slightly far-fetched. I had this idea that came up in the advertisements some years ago. There is this young girl waiting by the roadside for her family to pick her up. Then the scene cuts to a middle-aged man with a body full of tatooes. Passer-bys looked on in fear, but in the end, the man turns out to be the father of the child. I was quite adamant on using this idea but where can i go and find a man full of tatoos, who is willing to be my model for my assignment. haha..

So i had to think of others. But the example in the lecture keeps on popping into my head. I must come up with something different. Hmm.. I kept thinking of examples that appeared in shows and movies. And i felt it was quite common. I had to come up with another way to think of how to do this assignment.

In the end, i had a idea, but i lacked the props, and people. So, i didn't have any work to show on tuesday when my tutorial was on. I really wanted to attend tutorial because i think this assignment is really interesting. I am really curious to see what ideas other people have. Then again.. I didn't have any work to show.. if i go, i think i would be embarrassed. Anyway, since i didn't show anyone my work, I wld post it here.. and hope anyone of u see-ing it can give me some critique and comments. thaNx!!!

On a personal note, I wish to thank all my frens who were so willing to be my models and lending me the baseball bat.. without it i couldn't have done this idea. You know how much is a bat? $300++ lo.. I could only afford the ball.. at least it is cheap at $21 when u compare it to the bat.. haha