Assignment 4 - Final Prototype

Added more accessories for the last shot. I hope that one looks more tech savvy now. Also, retook the third shot so the ascending height is more apparent.

Assignment 6 - Final Prototype

Changed some parts of the poster according to feedback! I hope it looks better now.

Assignment 6 - First Prototype

LAST LAP TO CHIONG!!! :D This last assignment was pretty interesting since the topic is pretty open to a wide range of ideas (other than the fact that the infographic has to be a system). So here's the first prototype below.. kind of incomplete without the scoring part and with a bit of the words sliced off accidentally (oops).

Concept
An instruction poster teaching people how to play the game Dai Di (Big Two). It'll prolly be placed in Cafes with board games and stuff. Idea is to show step-by-step instructions in a quirky manner.

Feedback
Generally alright with the correct fonts and all. Illustration is comprehensible. Some things needed improvements:

1. card ranking should be from lowest to highest
2. card combos should be in sequence
3. rotate five cards combo clockwise to make it more vertical
4. take note of "bleeding"

Will change as according to feedback!:)

Look out for the final prototype yoooooohooooooooooooo!

Assignment 5 - final prototype

Before reading the following, you might wish to refer to the previous entry for the first prototypes!

Concept
Colourful Asia. I was just pondering over the meaning of that and I guess it's a challenge to put all the elements of Asia onto one postcard. Outcome would prolly be messy. So instead, I thought about all things common about Asia. First thing that came to mind: FOOD. And in particular, rice.

I played around with the colours, hoping to suit the taste of Asia. After a few tryouts, Orange really had the best match. It brightened up the postcard, and simultaneously, made the rice look tastier.

Feedback
The concept and graphics were all fine. Thank goodness! I was qualmish about the plain background because I thought it was too simple. But on the other hand, I was afraid of complicating the subjects in the design. I left it plain, and it seems the audience was okay with that. Only thing changed; The fonts for the word "for". Comments were that "f" looked like "l".

So here are the final pieces after changing the letters to caps.




Gotta brainstorm more for the next assignment. yikes.

Assignment 5 - first prototype

Colourful Asia postcard.

Colour Palette

Selected Design

Back of Postcard

details up after thursday's tutorial!

Assignment 4 - First prototype [edited]

finally, blogger is working. damn this web host. There's this throbbing pain in my head. Gotta update more about the feedback and stuff only tomorrow. Rest is what I need right now.

:) :) :) :) :)

Early morning of tuesday, and here I am blogging away. Yikes.

Anyway, some description of my work to finish this off.

Concept
iN2015 poster. If you're quick to catch the theme, you'll know it's a spoof of the famous human evolution photo. Instead of apes, I'm focusing on the evolving technology instead. I was just thinking that the best way to portray futuristic technology was to see the transformation from the past so the impact is felt. But i don't know, the outcome didn't quite blow me away.

The emphasis here is on education. I mean, there are so many aspects that technology has changed me, but I guess I can relate to the education part of it best.

Person 1: The old school boy with only a sling bag.
Person 2: Getting too overloaded with the various textbooks.
Person 3: The overloaded textbooks are replaced with a laptop.
Person 4: School bag and laptop are all replaced with a PDA.
Person 5: Nothing needed. I don't want to restrict the audience in interpreting this because the tagline is "Imagine your world". It's really up to them to decide what this last person is doing. For me, it's installing microchip in the body, and some commands for the virtual screen to appear.

Feedback

1. Make Person 1 look like he was doing something instead of just tying shoes laces
2. Shift the bags of Person 1 and 2 so that the sizes match Person 3's.
3. Bend Person 3 like he's hunching over so the height progression is smooth.
4. Perhaps use different people for the shots. Growing up from a toddler to an adult.
5. Accessorise Person 5 to have the tech feel. E.g. wear headphones, bluetooth device..

Great feedback they've got there. I really like the fifth suggestion because I initially wanted my model (the little brother) to wear headphones, but I thought it would be too distracting. So with some backing opinions, I think I will go ahead with it. The third suggestion might need a bit of planning there before I execute it. It's odd for a person to be bending over with a laptop, though it's definitely going to improve the overalls for the poster.

Ah useful tutorial session yesterday. Now some time dedicated to assignment 5 in my next entry maybe.

Assignment 3 - feedback, Class Acitivity C

Class Activity C
Some CGs drawn up from the class activity yesterday. They speak for themselves.




Assignment 3
Now for the visual story. (REFER TO PHOTOS IN PREVIOUS ENTRY)

I think it's pretty straight forward what my pictures were telling. This girl draws stares from a passerby, who thinks she is smelly. The protagonist can't seem to find the source of the smell. Turns out, she stepped on shit...

I wanted to punch in the rule of thirds in my photographs, but I guess a few were overdone because some unnecessary subjects distracted the audience.

Feedback
The class got the message almost immediately so i guess it fulfilled the assessment criteria. That's good news. Now on the other hand, there were some nitty gritty details they wanted changed.

1. change the colour of the shirt the girl was wearing because it blended in too much with the deodorant she was holding.
2. zoom in to the protagonist for picture 5 because the tote is distracting
3. use another passerby for picture 6 to emphasise that she is really smelly.
4. idea questioned: why did the passerby bother about the smell coming from the protagonist when she is so near the toilet. (??!!!)
5. Why did the passerby conclude she is still smelly when the protagonist is still spraying deodorant.
   

Point number 1 and 2 taken, those are pretty constructive. But point no. 3, 4 and 5... uhm. ever heard of 鸡蛋里挑骨头? How could they tell it was the toilet when no signage is put up? Just because I mentioned it I guess. If the assignment criteria didn't constrain us to any rules that the story we're telling have to make sense in real life, why doesn't it work? Thank goodness I wasn't alone. A fellow course mate finally spoke up about it. Phew. I didn't want to look like I was against their suggestions. It's just that I couldn't digest a few of their comments.

Anyhow, still some good stuff learnt in tutorial.

The finalised photos will be in my portfolio after a bit of cropping. Expensive A3 folder, oh my tian.

Assignment 3 - First Prototype

Do you see what I see?
very chop chop entry on this assignment.
a photo story with a small twist at the end.
more elaboration on my next post.

Sketches

Visual Story

Assignment 2 - Final prototypes

Just realised I didn't really explain much about my design in the previous entry. So here goes.

Concept
NUS isn't a small campus; it's even harder to navigatearound school when you're a freshman. I was thinking what kind of sign was lacking around my faculty and I recalled one encounter where I had dash through the rain towards the shuttle bus stop because I didn't bring along an umbrella. What was worse, I was carrying my laptop with me, and no, the cover was not waterproof. So I concluded it would be good to know where to buy an umbrella when I needed it.

Abstract 1 to 2 is simply my perception of the umbrella machine in 3D and 2D respectively. The transformation from 2 to 3 is more apparent as I represented the words "buy umbrella here" with the silhouette of an umbrella. Stages 3 to 4 had the money slots removed, and replaced by a dollar note. The last abstraction would the simplest stage of all, with the dollar sign on the umbrella itself.

Feedback
Abstraction process is fine, but the last abstraction needed some alteration. Add a tip to make the umbrella look more like itself. Change the dollar note to a coin. Insert a coin slot. Create more curves for the umbrella.

After some thoughts from the class & the tutor, I've just touched up a bit on my work.

Features changed:

1. Added a tip atop the umbrella
2. Removed the dollar note and embedded the $ sign on the umbrella.

Assignment 2 - Abstraction Process

Umbrella dispenser.

I'm thinking of having the last abstraction as the final prototype, but I shall wait to see the class' response on Monday. My POV might not be the same as the others.

Assignment 1 - first & final prototypes [edited]

Hello hello!

The light bulb idea materialised into this:
Feedback
Overall, this piece is simple, and easy to spot the name. But some of them suggested that the name could be enlarged inside the bulb to make it more obvious. And red highlight could start from 'Y' instead of the one above. I guess I would change the red highlight, but to blow up the name.. I think it would look less like a bulb if I did so.

I'm gonna be in school on saturday to shoot some pictures for assignment 2. I hope it'll be one inspirational field trip.

Final Prototype

Assignment 1 - sketches

Just a quick one on the sketches. The first tutorial on Monday was fruitful, and very encouraging. I guess A. Low wants us to warm up with the first assignment, and then expectations rise as the students proceed on into the course.. hmm.

Okay, the first four sketches i rounded up for the first lesson.

Sketch 1
This first one is about online shopping. The drawing is seriously amateurish and pales in comparison to fellow course mates with really nimble fingers. But A. Low liked this idea best among the others.

Concept
Since online shopping has to with both the computer and the shopping items, I combined a mouse and the clothes on top of the mouse wiring. You know, pun, on-line shopping.

But I developed further, and thought, why not shopping in an actual store? With the clothes rack as the subject, and my name as the clothes, dangling from the rack.


Feedback
Too bad, the class didn't seem to like this. They reckon I should just stick to the original idea of having online shopping. More unique?

Alot of suggestions were thrown in. Add a shopping cart, attach a cursor, use the clothes in an online catalogue. Lots yes and definitely improves the overalls, but... none of the ideas seem impressive. Not that I have any better ones in mind, but the suggestions didn't strike a chord with me. I did try them out though. This is one:

But no!!!!!! It was a hell bunch of very ugly things on my paper.

Sketch 2
This one's my ideal favourite because I really love performing. Rock, pop, folk rock. And I really wish to design something about me. But of course, this idea of tweaking those wires are so yesterday. Using musical notes are out since alot of people would be using that idea. (indeed so)

Concept
okay so instead of that odd alien, I replaced it with me in the rough I developed. I would think it is more meaningful to draw myself since I like performing so much. The sketching wasn't easy because I was literally staring at the laptop screen with my picture to draw me. Look up, look down, draw. Up down draw up down draw. Giddy.


Feedback
A. Low frowned at this picture.

Alright, as for the third and fourth sketches, I'm putting them really just for viewing. I never ever thought of even using them.

Sketch 3

Sketch 4


After pondering over the past two days, I couldn't quite come up with something I feel was good enough. The design I gave away to my friend was better than my own work, which is kind of depressing. Maybe I should have just used it for myself.

Anyhow, I came up with another sketch. I know, tomorrow is the deadline for the final prototype and I am still struggling with a final idea I should use.

Sketch 5

Concept
This was kind of inspired by one the bands I like, The Fray. They liked using light sticks, light bulbs for their album photo shoots. The idea is that I kind of light up people's lives (this is so BHB but that was the only thing I could see why a light bulb could be used). I hope it works.

Okay, that's about it. I have prolly the whole night to work on this bulb and I don't have illustrator nor photoshop on my laptop. To save myself, I shall try Fireworks and Free hand. Tell me it'll be fine.

Dry

I am not ready for tomorrow's tutorial and it's mind-boggling, no kidding. I am still very unsettled about the sketches, and extremely dissatisfied with the skeleton piece I have chosen to work with.

This is not good. It had better teach me to prepare early for future assignments.

Integrating letters into objects is like forcing a badminton player into kicking soccer. You'll need some serious talent to get it going. Come on, brains.

Class exercise A: Design a creative machine [follow-up]

Machine #1
I attempted to improve the creative juice machine. Just a bit of add-on. A cool juicer at the end of the cable so it's more convenient to collect the liquid and some colour to highlight my sketch.


Machine #2
I decided to also try something different. The first thing I thought of was the difficulty of capturing pictures based on the current mood a photographer has. That is tough because camera shots that turn out on photographs are largely based on the environment (lighting, weather, subject etc,.) If there could be a camera that captures exactly how i feel like it should be, that would be perfect.

How it works
1. Sensor pads are used here at either ends of the camera. From the warmth of the fingers, body movements and heartbeat, it can detect how the photographer is feeling.

2. The camera then adjusts its shoot mode fixtures and tunes itself to suit the photographer's needs.

With the rising popularity of huge DSLR's everywhere, I suppose the dream model I sketched shouldn't be too far away huh.

Class exercise A: Design a creative machine

Machine #1
The first lesson in the course already got me pretty excited for the following weeks to come. I know it wouldn't be easy especially for people (ME) without proper training in fine arts but I guess it's a good chance to discover the students' design potentials.

Speaking of potential, I am pretty certain the first lesson was just a... uhm... beginning. Looking at the raw piece of sketch I came up with in about fifteen minutes, it's hard to tell what design potential I possess. : (

How it works
The creative machine that could enhance my creativity by 100 times is somewhat futuristic and touching less on the technicality of it. It's basically a cable (complete with USB head) that churns out creative juices on the go.

The laptop would store a hard disk drive of abundant information.

1. Plug the cable into your laptop.
A pre-installed program pops up and prompts for selection of the "creativity category" you require. E.g. Painting, Writing, Acting, whatever.

2. Select the category you need from the probable indexed list.
A "Generating Information.." message appears

3. Click "JUICE IT". And..

Your cuppa ideas are all in.

I grew less inspirational and started sketching some more random subjects onto the paper. Little did I expect the class exercise to be up on the blog. So just for fun, the really really raw sketch below.


I should try to improve on it sometime this week.