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.