Inelectricdreams's NM2208 Weblog

Assignment 6: GESTALT PRINCIPLES

inelectricdreams — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 17:18:00 +0000

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

inelectricdreams — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 16:47:00 +0000

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.

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

inelectricdreams — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 16:15:00 +0000

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

inelectricdreams — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 14:43:00 +0000

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?

inelectricdreams — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 13:40:00 +0000

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! (:

Assignment 2.

inelectricdreams — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 17:07:56 +0000

For this week’s assignment, we were required to distill a chosen object through 5 stages of Abstraction. Well, if you ask me, it ain’t hard for me to decide what object to distill since I’m an avid CAR lover…..

Ta-dah! The MINI COOPER!

Can you understand the different degrees of abstraction I was trying to show above? Apparently I wasn’t too clear in conveying some of my ideas here… From a photographic representation it slowly evolves into an icon, i.e. the ”cartoon” sketch of a cooper, then to the Tachnometer, and lastly a parking sign. (a symbolic sign)

I received alot of constructive feedback on my abstraction, and the most common one was that my Abstraction was abit too abrupt, esp. the part where the “Cartoon car (no.3) ” is succeeded by a “Tachometer”. Many recommended that I add something in between so that this “transition would not be too abrupt.

Secondly, many couldn’t understand the meaning of a “Parking Sign” and how it could be related to the mini cooper. I must admit this association was abit far-fetched but initially I intended to use it as a “symbolic sign” i.e. a symbol we understand by convention. To me such road signs like this would be second nature to any driver, but yes, on hindsight, it would be more appropriate only if I were doing on a generic theme like “Cars”, not a Mini Cooper.. which would be too specific.

Other comments:

-end abstraction at the 4th pic, which is the coloured tachometer, cuz the 5th pic actualli could be mistaken for a common clock/stopwatch

-remove the last “Parking sign”.. cuz others may not understand its significance if not for the previous 4 pics.

-be more consistent in the abstraction, don’t jump from one stage to another.

Okayys! With the above comments in mind, I made my final changes to Assignment 2. No more Parking sign, no more “clock-like” Tachometers! Instead, I added a Dashboard in between the “cartoon” icon of the MINI and the tachometer to make the transition more obvious! I’ve chosen no. 4 as the symbol Im gonna develop:

TELL ME WHAT you think!

Production! (Me and Myself)

inelectricdreams — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 19:15:27 +0000

The pics you see below were the final products I presented to the class:

I LOVE the 80s!

As you can see I sort of integrated all my previous design concepts e.g. Michael Jackson, the mix tape, etc. into my final design.The three huge circles at the background were supposed to represent DISCO lights representing the 1980s era. However, one of my classmates pointed out that it was taking away too much attention from my name, and suggested I decreased the opacity. Miss Siti also commented that my name seemed rather small and I was not fully utilising the A5 space. With these comments in mind, I made changes and created another version:

if you ask, I’d definitely prefer my 2nd version now. Thanks to my classmate who pointed out the part about the opacity. By decreasing the opacity (and also rearranging the circles), I think the DISCO lights now have a “softer” feel( instead of the harsh lines in the previous ones It now looks more realistic, sort of merging and “blending” into one another. It also ensured that it did not steal too much attention away from my name, which was very important. The process of finding the right opacity was not easy; I had to play around with different values. Yellow had to be reduced the most (to about 50%) cuz it was so bright at first, overshadowing the other colours.

Lastly, the invidivual letters were resized and enlarged so that they better utilize the full space on the A5 paper.

I LOVE MAKEUP

my final product for “I LOVE MAKEUP”. No one gave any criticisms on this one, so Im sticking to this original version. (which took me so long to do using Illustrator). ENJOY!

Me and Myself:The Creative Phase (Prototyping)

inelectricdreams — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 15:56:36 +0000

Yes, after gathering feedback from my classmates and Miss Siti, I worked on producing full scale roughs again. This time, I LOVE THE 80S, and I LOVE MAKE-UP.

I LOVE THE 80S

This is another variation I produced besides the earlier “Michael Jackson” version. I call it my “Toys of the 80s” version (haha). IT has, from left, the RUBIK cube, a space invader “icon”, Converse Sneakers (so 80s!) and lastly, a mix tape. Basically it’s a mix of whatever concepts I generated in Stage 1.

I LOVE MAKEUP:

These two designs are rather similar. For the top one, it’s a mascara wand, an eye, lip gloss oozing out from tube, and an eyeshadow quad with applicator. The bottom one is more complicated. From left: makeup brush, fake lash, a pout, lip gloss stains and an eyeshadow box.

PROTOTYPING

From these roughs, I went on to create a full-colour prototype of what I expect the final product to be like. I drew with pencils of different thicknesses, filled in colour with colour pencils and then outlined the borders.

yipee! look out for my next post on Stage 3: Production!

Me and Myself: The Creative Phase: (Stage 2)

inelectricdreams — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 15:40:09 +0000

After coming out with the rough sketches, we were required to develop 2 into full-scale roughs EACH. Unfortunately, I misunderstood the instructions and only came up with 1 each. Nevertheless, here are my full-scale roughs:

1) I LOVE THE 80S!

Yayy.. I really loved this design. To me, Michael Jackson really personified the 80s and I thought (haha wishful thinking on my part) that by using his portrait on my name it would be sufficient to represent the 80s. By the way, that pose you see is Michael Jackson’s starting pose for the 1982 hit “Billie Jean”. It took me soo long to get it right; trust me, pausing and looking at various Youtube videos to search for the correct angle is not easy. If you look closely, the letters “F”, “N” and “G” are shone on by disco lights (I havent filled in the colours) to represent the disco music and culture of the 80s.

While the class was pretty impressed by my sketch, many commented that the “Michael Jackson” figure was too distracting and it would make it seem like “I love Michael Jackson” (which is true, by the way.. haha). Suggestions included shrinking his picture so that it would not take the focus away. Also, some classmates recommended merging the “Mix Tape” design (refer to post below) with this and the disco balls. Okay, point taken.

2) I HATE CORIANDER

Well, this was a disaster. The result of clinging on to a particular concept and not wanting to search for an alternative. I ended up with a very kiddish-looking sketch. Miss Siti suggested that since I was good at drawing, why not draw something that I like (since I ran out of ideas for coriander). I think the rest of the class kinda agreed too that the concept was too ambiguous (the bugs destroying the coriander represent my hate for the vegetable… not very obvious isn’t it?) and perhaps simple. Okay, I will work on that..look out for my next post!

Me and Myself: The Analytical Phase (Stage 1)

inelectricdreams — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 07:21:05 +0000

Here we are at Stage 1. I did a quick brainstorm of what I loved or hated.

Love:the 80s? Pilates? makeup?

Hate: Coriander! (definitely. urrgh), violence, war…

I decided to work on the 80s(love), and coriander(hate).

These pictures below show the initial stages of my Analytical Phase (Data Collection and problem definition). Besides relying on my trusty 1980’s fansites and my own knowledge, I also watched a couple of music videos (from the 80s! no less) of my favourite 80s bands to get a “feel” of what it’s like to live in the 80s! I really had fun doing this part, being a big fan of 80s music and fashion. From what I gathered, the 80s should be vibrant, HAPPY, full of bright colours, over-the-top hairdos (ala Bon Jovi), lots of disco, fun music, converse sneakers, video games… (I could really go on and on..)

Sadly, I couldnt find much about coriander besides the stock images on GETTY images. Well, it probably isnt good, as mentioned by Julian, to attempt to “understand” the problem before generating solutions. This was very true as I was so fixated and bent on using “Coriander “, i ended up generating a VERY slipshod piece which thankfully, for the criticisms from classmates and Miss Siti, I finally ditched. The part about not “falling in love” and settling down with your very first concept is super true.

If you do not go through the proper “Design process” in a sequential way, it will really reflect in the quality of your work. If you don’t believe me, you can compare how BAD the work for “coriander” was compared to the “80s” sketch. Haha.

1) I love the 80s!

Left: Space Invader’s version (a popular 80s game)

Right: Michael Jackson version. (can u tell that i was trying to imitate the 80s PEPSI logo?)

Compare this to the pics of 1980’s PEPSI logo:

Other sketches of THE 80s:

top: 80s LOGO tee version

bottom: 80s mixed tape version

haha compare it to some pics I found while researching on the 80s:

look! George Michael wore logo tees too 20 years ago when he was part of WHAM!

the nostalgic 80s mix tape! how many of us actualy remember how it was like in the pre-CD and mp3 era?

my very slipshod attempts at “CORIANDER” (hate). sorry for the lack of creativity/originality.

Coming up: Stage 2: The Creative Phase