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

wHat's neXt?

Had quite a difficult classroom assignment for lecture 5. I went out for more than 30mins and struggled to come up with a decent piece of work. But time i got back to the lecture room, almost everyone was gone except Wei man. Lucky Julian was still around to take a look at my work, else i would have done it in vain? haha..

apparantly, from what Julian said, I drew the same thing as many people. But i think he misunderstood my picture. What i was protraying is someone looking out into the sky, thinking of nothing, with all his troubles gone for the moment. What he would do next, is come back to his senses, and just turn back into the world which is full of troubles.
But he felt it was a picture of someone about to commit suicide. Probably it was the way i draw it ba.. mislead people... haha.. guess im really not very cut out for this module.. argh.. no no no.. cannot have negative thoughts.. MUST CONTINUE TO WORK HARD!!