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Assignment 6: GESTALT PRINCIPLES April 6, 2008

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Alfie movie poster, starring Jude Law.

This week’s task was relatively simple. (Yay! finally a respite from the many weekends of rushing visual comms assignments… haha) We were supposed to critique a good/bad design from a poster/ advertisement; anything. My partner for this task was Jaime, and she was in charge of the “bad” design while I was in charge of the good.

GOOD DESIGN
The poster in general was organised and simplified, and easily understood the by reader.

Proximity

Words “Alfie”, “what’s it all about”, “Jude Law” and “October” are positioned close and near to each other, therefore creating visual unity.

Sameness

Similar fonts used for entire poster. Black colour used in the words “Alfie” as well as Jude Law’s shirt.

Continuity

Elongated letter “L” guides the reader’s eyes vertically downwards.

Closure
Able to see complete picture of Jude Law even if part of the information is missing.

Visual Economy
Using only minimal elements and what is absolutely necessary to get intended results. The design is simple, clear-cut, and non-frivolous.


Assignment 5 Part 2 April 6, 2008

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From the previous 2 designs we made, we were supposed to choose 1 design and further fine-tune and develop it. Well, despite having slightly more of the class liking the “pink” card better, I chose to stick to my blue design cuz I find the colours more visually balanced and united.

 

I used some of the small inspirational cards my friends used to give me as a reference. From there, I got the idea of adding the tagline “Pass it On© Inspirational Cards”. I also further designed the back of the card, adding the “Cupid” logo plus a barcode.

 

Some of the feedback given:

  • The cupid logo and text “Cupid Greetings” could be shrunk more so that it does not become the centre of attraction.
  • Bcos there was some problems with my printing.. my text “Glimpse of Heaven..” got slightly cut off at the side. I was told to go check and modify it.
  • Lastly, the barcode should also be shrunk.

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Therefore, with all these in mind, I made my final version (to the back of my card):

 

does it look better now? give me your comments! (:

 

PS: As usual, the colour blue shown here is NOT true to the colour of my original piece. The original is a gradient of blue which is more to baby/sky blue.

Assignment 5 ( Part 1) Theme: LOVE April 6, 2008

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 This week, we were supposed to design 2 greeting cards bearing in mind the principles of colours. With that in mind, I produced 2 greeting card samples:

 

 

I picked up this quote “Love is like receiving a glimpse of Heaven” after spending literally 1 hour searching for suitable quote. I wanted something that wasn’t too cheesy or lovey-dovey, because the target audience I had in mind for my card was “Friends“. I wanted my card to be sorta a Inspirational card, you know the kinds you wld buy from a bookstore to drop a note to a friend you love n are concerned for. So even the colour theme I chose was a deliberate avoidance of the “Over-the-top” pinkishhh tones with hearts and all.

 

The first design was supposed to be my interpretation of “Heaven”, an edenic place. Therefore, blue is being used because it’s really calming and soothing to look at. It’s also supposed to represent “Heaven” and “divinity”. The other colours chosen e.g. orange is supposed to complement the blue, and when placed together their intensity is heightened. Miss Siti was also sharp enough to point out that the green I used for the text was to represent the “grass” we would see in a sort of Eden-like place. This is coupled with the pictures of the 2 Doves plus the “clouds” i made in the background. Yupz…

 

The second design was actually a slipshod and rather last-minute piece I rushed out. However, ironically, the class seemed to like this design more than the 1st (sighs..) As you can see, their was no conscious attempt to match the colours, I just haphazardly chose a shade of pink as the background and slapped on the text using a darker reddish brown tone.

Some comments from the class:

1) The first one is good because their is more balance in the design and the colours used. However, at first sight, they would not associate this card as a “love” card due to the lack of obvious colours like pink/purple to represent love.

 

2) The second card will be more likely to capture someone’s attention as a “love” card due to its more striking theme.
I also asked the class if they thought the pink in the 2nd one was too glaring. They agreed, and many advised me to lower the opacity.

 Since the class’ opinion was rather balanced among both designs(only slightly more than half chose the pink design), Miss Siti told me it’s up to me to decide which design I preferred to work on.. hmm… I will reveal it in the next post then! (:

 

PS: I dun know what’s wrong with WordPress, but the colour (blue) u see here of the first design is slightly darker than the original.

 

 

 

Assignment 4: SAVE THIS / SAVE THAT April 6, 2008

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For this week’s assignment, we were supposed to design a poster based on the given theme, and design it such that it conveys meaning through layout e.g. placement of visual elements and their interaction.

 

Okie, I shall be honest. I chose the theme of “Stop Violence Against Women” solely for the fact that it was easier to do compared to other “complicated” themes. Haha! Being the Monday tutorial class always means that we’re being shortchanged in terms of time **whines** and I realli had to be smart and just select a theme that would be do-able within my means n time constraints!

 

I googled a couple of images on “women” and I thought using a silhouette of a women’s back would be a good way to convey the “vulnerability” of women. And with that whole vast expanse of space on her back I could use red brush strokes (Photoshop) to convey the “scars” from the whips of physical abuse.

 

 

Using Livetrace on Adobe Illustrator I outlined the silhouette of a women’s back. Then, I made “red strokes” on her “back” to imitate bloody scars. Also, I made use of some brushes to create the idea of blood dripping down from the top of the poster. The design principles I used were simple:

 

1) Visual economy. I tried to use as little elements as possible to convey my meaning. This was also seen in minimal colours use, and predominantly black and white.

 

2) Contrast: The (big) black silhouette against the vast white background makes everything more visible. Also, the use of BRIGHT RED as the main font colour of the slogan. 

 

3)Flow of text: Notice how the blood drips and the longgg silhouette actualli serves to guide your eyes in a downward fashion, leading to the main copy of the poster

 

Some constructive advice given by the class:

 

1) The placement of the text:
The placement of words “VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN” could be improved. One classmate commented that from far, it looked more like “AGA” and “INST” (chopped up) due to the lack of contrast with the silhouette. They suggested I shift the test such that I utilise the white spaces around the lady. This will increase the visual contrast of the words so that people can clearly “read” the words “VIOLENCE AGAINST women” from afar w/o difficulty.

 

2) Run-off text:
Notice the copy of the poster leads to much towards the right and some suggested I leave a sizeable margin so that it does not lead the eyes towards the “sides” of the poster. Miss Siti also asked me to experiment and play around with a text box and see how the effect would be like.

 

3) Irrelevant details:
The brushes of “fauna” I added at the bottom left of the poster were pretty, as commented by Miss Siti, but she felt it was stealing too much attention away from the main focus. She suggested I either lower its opacity (make it translucent), or do away with it completely.

 

 
Therefore, with these in mind, I made the necessary changes:

 

Basically I STREAMLINED the entire poster, cutting out irrelevant details such as the beautiful fauna at the side. I also tweaked the arrangment of the MAIN slogan (Stop Violence Against Women) and fully utilize the white space behind. Lastly, NO MORE RUN-OFF TEXT!! Haha.. I like how the copy of the poster fits snugly and nicely against the contours of the women’s body now!  Wheee!~

 

 

 

 

Assignment 3: U C WHAT I C? April 6, 2008

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For this week’s assignment we were supposed to tell a story with a TWIST ENDING… in no more than 10 pictures. Haha… being the uncreative person I was … I had to go through a long process of searching for wackyyy sources and inspiration for my project from Youtube! Haha! So in the end… I got inspired by this THAI TOM YUM noodles commercial… which was extremely funnyyyy! DO take a look! I really give it up to the Thai ad producers! SO creative….

 

 SO with that.. I came up with a do-able story line since it was impossible for me to completely copy the ad given the time and budget constraints. (Plus… ethical issues!) Instead of having a “cat” in the ad I did away with it… and just made the story as simple as possible. Here goes:





Haha! Do you see what I see over here? Basically, the guy in the picture( my bro, btw), is hungry. He walks in to the kitchen , scours for food n sees a packet of instant noodles on the table. He cooks it and is ready to devour it… BUT…. the phone rings! HE goes away to answer the call, and in the meantime, a mysterious hand plants a “lizard” into his bowls of noodles. He comes back, discovers the digusting lizard and faints from shock. HAHA! Here comes the twist: The lizard was planted by someone else who wanted to snatch away his bowl of noodles!

 

My pics were heavily edited using Photoshop, thereby explaining the high saturation of the colours. Also, I tried to create “focal” points for every single pic.. e.g. for e first pic… I basically blurred the rest of the background using motion and radial blur so that ur eyes will only focus on the male protagonist. The edges of the main figures were also sharpened to create a crisp and clear effect.Also, the 6th pic was intentionally sliced into half to show 2 things happening simulatenously: my bro answering a call and a mysterious hand planting a lizard.

 

Haha! Anyways.. when I presented this in class..most people could clearly grasp what I was getting at. It was simple enough… however, some commented that the 6th picture (the pic showing 2 scenes happening at the same time), came as too abrupt and they would not understand its significance if not for the later pics. Therefore, after I explained that the male lead had taken his leave to answer a call, a classmate suggested I insert a pic of a “ringing” phone to make the connection clearer. Okie… fair enough! To make things more understandable.

 

So I inserted this pic before the 6th pic, and removed one of the pics of my bro devouring the noodles.

 

 Does it make the plot clearer now? Tell me what you think! (: